The Big One: Northern Fury #34 - The Longest Battle

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I intend to embark on what I believe is the longest scenario ever built for Command, and furthermore I intend to play it the entire way through. I don't think anyone has ever done this before, perhaps Gunner98 did in testing? Regardless, to attempt to encourage me through it, I am posting a DAR/AAR on these forums.

Prelude:

Good grief, that’s a lot of forces. I read Andrew’s AAR a while back and recall him talking about issues with replenishment ships carrying the wrong kind of replenishment, so I’m going to go through and work out what sort of forces I have and what sort of replenishment I can give them.

General strategy:
My plan here is to organise a series of assembly points, where ships are brought in by convoy and then split and recombined by destination to continue onwards. The most important of these assembly points will be the Azores, where ships from Europe and the Med will combine to go to the US and ships from the US will split. Other such areas will be Puerto Rico, Miami, Cape Verde and Bermuda. Each of these areas will be protected by a ‘bastion’ of dedicated guard ships and MPAs, three of them will be patrolled by SURTASS ships. Other MPAs will clear corridors between the assembly points and the major ports. This strategy will slow convoys down, but will make things easier to manage for me and will hopefully cut losses, making the overall cargo throughput higher even with slower transits. It’s interesting that the evolution of technology from WW2 to WW3 means that you now want to run in the tracks of previous convoys because those areas are better swept and you can keep them clear with MPAs.

As a note, in such a long scenario the inability of non-American ships to replenish at sea is absolutely murderous. It's a huge job to make the relevant database updates and I really should do what I can to help the team.

Now, in detail. Lets go… clockwise from the South:

Africa:
SAS Isaac Dyobha (Can’t refuel, short range, no sonar)
DD-978 Stump (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
FF-1092 Thomas C. Hart (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FFG-60 Rodney M. Davis (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
T-AGOS-19 Victorious (Can’t refuel, TASS)
SAS Outeniqua (replen no refuel)
8x Europe-bound merchants
1x NY-bound merchant
Cape Town Airport
3x Canberra
4x Bucc
2x Turbodak MPA
1x Turbodak ELINT
2x 707 Tanker
2x 707 ELINT

Lots of forces here, but very spread out. The SURTASS ship is an excellent vessel that’s probably useless down here unless there’s a wolfpack to deal with. The South African corvette feels like it can’t do anything, and with no refuelling capability I can’t drag it across the South Atlantic to help out elsewhere. Neither the AFS or Cape Town (Simonstown, surely?) carry any rearms for the Skoerpion missiles, which makes it a bit of a one shot weapon wherever I take it. The aircraft are a weird bunch and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be using them for. They’re also one-shot weapons, there are no rearms at Cape Town for them either, although I could fly them out to the Falklands and use RAF bombs there. Heck, this scenario is so long I could probably ferry the Buccs up to Key West and use the Mk.82s there.

My plan is to concentrate all of the merchants, Outeniqua, TG Stump and the SURTASS ship at St. Helena and convoy them north from there. Outeniqua is going to try and act as an improvised AE in the North Atlantic. For now, the other South Africans will sit tight, I’ll fly a few of the patrol aircraft just to see if there’s something sneaky hanging around the Cape, then blast it with Isaac Dyobha and the bombers. Nigeria is also marked as unfriendly, but despite being in this area of operations they’re still 1400nmi away from anything. I’m not that worried about them.

South Atlantic Islands:
HMS Jupiter (Can’t refuel, 1x heli)
HMS Endurance (Can’t refuel, 2x heli, no sonar)
FFG-23 Lewis B. Puller (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
HMS Opossum (Diesel)
HMS Tireless (Nuclear)
HMS Sovereign (Nuclear)
SSN-694 Groton (Nuclear, LA)
SSN-615 Gato (Nuclear, Permit)
SSN-669 Seahorse (Nuclear, Sturgeon)
RFA Green Rover (Diesel, Oil refuel)
T-AO-198 Big Horn (All refuel)
RAF Mount Pleasant
- 3x Tornado F.3
- 3x Sea King HC.4
- 2x Tornado GR.1
RAF Wideawake
- 4x Nimrod MR.2P
- 1x Nimrod R.1P
- 9x Tornado F.3
- 8x Tornado GR.1
- 2x Tristar KC.1
- 3x VC.10 K.3
- 3x 747

Nightmare. My forces down here are very thin, the briefing implies that I need to be careful about Argentina and I have two oilers down here, including a very capable one. Lots of subs, but they’re no use as escorts. The forces defending the Falklands are individually pretty powerful, but there are very few of them and I’m worried by the absence of Rapier on the islands. Further aircraft are available on Ascension, the 747s will presumably lift troops in and my position will improve across the next few days. If I get any more ships spawning at the cape, I really don’t know what I’m going to do with them.
The plan here is for Endurance and Green Rover to run away to St. Helena. Endurance is a good ship actually, she herself isn’t fitted with anything useful but she has loads of hangar space and could act almost as a small CVH in a convoy if I can scrape up some extra small helicopters for her. Big Horn is going to think in three dimensions and reverse course past friendly Chile and Peru to come through the Panama Canal. The rest of the forces will attempt to guard the Falklands, I’ll keep one of the subs off each of the major Argentinian fleet bases for early warning.

Brazilian Coast:
SPS Principe De Asturias (Can’t refuel)
- 8x AV-8B Matador
- 1x Sea King AEW
- 4x Sea King ASW
- 3x AB.212 ASW
HMS Liverpool (Can’t refuel, 1x heli)
SPS Asturias (Can’t refuel, TASS, 1x heli)
SPS Reina Sofia (Oil)
SPS Patino (All refuel, 2x heli)
BRS Defensora (Can’t refuel, 1x heli)
11x Med-bound merchants
8x US-bound merchants
12x Europe-bound merchants

The merchants here are a good illustration of why I’m planning around convoy assembly areas - I simply can’t form three convoys with the forces available here, so either I convoy everything to an intermediate location or I leave them in port. The PdA task group is the second most powerful task group I have, not that it’s brilliantly strong, so its disposition will have to be considered carefully. It’s worth noting that with only two AEW helicopters and with one of them in maintenance, I can’t come close to having continuous AEW coverage, which I’m not used to for a carrier group.

Here I intend for everything to turn around and go back to Rio. The Brazilian frigate can cover the ships that are lying off Rio while I wait for the PdA to arrive, and then depending on the situation with Argentina I can either send everything north or detach one of PdA’s escorts for the convoy (to be replaced by one of the Falklands guard ships) and rerun Harriers versus Mirages over the Falklands.

Southern Caribbean:
FFG-11 Clark (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
SPS Diana (Can’t refuel, poor sonar)
MN Ventose (Can’t refuel, no sonar, 1x heli)
HNLMS Banckert (Can’t refuel, TASS, 1x heli)
CGN-37 South Carolina (Nuclear)
DDG-19 Tattnall (Oil)
FFG-25 Copeland (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
FF-1077 Ouellet (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
SSN-614 Greenling (Nuclear, Permit)
9x NY-bound merchants
34x Europe-bound merchants
19x Med-bound merchants
Howard AFB
- 4x F-16A ADF
- 4x OV-10D
- 2x OV-10D (SLAR)
- 3x SH-60B
- 3x AC-130H
- 2x HU-25C (Small radar/IR)
Munoz AFB
- 12x F-16A ADF
NAS Roosevelt Roads
- 2x HH-65A
- 3x P-3C
- 4x A-4M
- 3x SH-3H

Lots of merchants here and not a lot of escorts. The CGN group feels somewhat tied up in the protection of the Canal Zone against further attacks by unfriendly Central American states, with only four F-16s I want South Carolina to play goalkeeper for me. The Banckert group looks useful but appearances are deceiving, against submarine attack only the Banckert herself has anything to say. Howard has plenty of AIM-7s and AIM-9s, so it’s possible that the right thing to do will be to forward base most or even all of the F-16s from Puerto Rico to Panama to fend off the Central Americans. Something will have to be kept in the area at all times to defend against Venezuela, probably a task group centered around the South Carolina. Ventose, the South American frigate preservation society and Isaac Dyobha will probably be of most use here, although I still can’t work out how I’d actually get Isaac Dyobha up here.

In the short term, Greenling will go and troll around Venezuela to see what they’re doing, the Banckert group and Clark will head for Panama and the South Carolina group will clear the local area and stand ready to respond to Central American attack. I’ll also send out an OV-10 and a HU-25 to check out the surroundings early. The ASW forces on Puerto Rico will clear the channels and begin to build a bastion for the assembly area.

Gulf and Florida:
CV-67 JFK (Oil)
- 8x F-14D
- 6x F/A-18C
- 11x S-3B
- 3x E-2C
- 3x EA-6B
- 8x SH-3H
- 2x SH-60F
- 2x HH-60H
CG-48 Yorktown (Gas, 2x heli)
DD-979 Conolly (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
DDG-993 Kidd (Gas, 1x heli)
FFG-57 Reuben James (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
CG-19 Dale (Oil)
HMS Westminster (Can’t refuel, TASS, 1x heli)
CGN-9 Long Beach (Nuclear)
FFG-47 Nicholas (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
DD-968 Arthur W. Radford (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
FF-1089 Jesse L. Brown (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FF-1095 Truett (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
T-AGOS-3 Vindicator (Can’t refuel, TASS)
SSN-637 Trepang (Nuclear, Sturgeon)
SSN-668 Spadefish (Nuclear, Sturgeon)
4x USCG PBs
45x Europe-bound merchants
23x Med-bound merchants
NAS Guantanamo Bay
- 6x TA-4K
- 2x EC-130H
- 3x AH-1W
- 3x RQ-2A
- 1x UH-1N
- 1x CH-46E
- 2x A-4M
NAS Key West
- 6x TF-16N
- 2x HH-65A
- 4x A-4M
- 3x Kfir C.2
- 5x F-5F
- 6x F/A-18A
- 3x HH-60J
- 2x HH-60G
- 2x HU-25B (Blind)
Homestead AFB
- 16x F-16C
Tyndall AFB
- 2x E-3B
- 4x KC-135
- 2x E-8A
NAS Jacksonville
- 4x P-3C
- 4x P-3C (Reserve)
- 3x F-4N
- 3x F-4S
- 8x F-16A ADF
- 1x EP-3E

Lots and lots of forces concentrated here. We have significant air striking power that can be concentrated against Cuba, and also the JFK which is my single most powerful unit. The large number of unarmed helicopters warns me that the SAR script is in play and I need to keep helicopters around anywhere that I might be losing aircraft. I’ve got a lot of merchants in the Gulf to move and I’ve got to get them pretty close to Cuba, which is a worry. Two of those bloody HU-25B VP pinatas, I think I’m just going to ferry them out to Tyndall where they won’t get bombed.

It looks to me like the best thing to do is smash Cuba while the JFK is here, then send her south to deal in turn with Central America, Venezuela, Nigeria and Argentina (skipping anyone who’s not actually fighting me). The sooner we can smash Cuba, the sooner I can move the Puerto Rico assembly area to Gitmo, which cuts transit times from Panama to the US down a lot. The Radford and Dale groups are going to pick up the ships in the Gulf and transit them to Miami, with Dale blazing away cheerily with her SM-2s while she goes through the Florida Straits. If I’m feeling really humorous I might shell Havana. Long Beach will continue north to form the core of an escort group, I’m sure there are SSGNs lurking out there. The SURTASS ship will go out to Bermuda as part of the bastion there. Not sure what to do with the cutters, they’re going to lose a fight against pretty much anything.

Eastern Seaboard:
DDG-44 William V. Pratt (Oil)
FF-1094 Pharris (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FF-1096 Valdez (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FFG-12 George Philip (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
DDG-43 Dahlgren (Oil)
FF-1091 Miller (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FF-1056 Connole (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
DDG-42 Mahan (Oil)
FF-1062 Whipple (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FF-1068 Vreeland (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FFG-14 Sides (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
HMCS Huron (Gas, 2x heli)
HMCS Nipigon (Can’t refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
HMCS Ottawa (Can't refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
HMCS Protecteur (Refuel all, 2x heli)
HDMS Vaedderen (Can’t refuel)
SSN-664 Sea Devil (Nuclear, Sturgeon)
T-AGOS-8 Prevail (Can’t refuel, TASS)
AS-36 L.Y. Spear (Oil, can refuel but low quantity, ammo)
Loads of merchants
NAS Oceana
- 6x P-3C
NAS Brunswick
- 4x P-3C
- 4x P-3C (Reserve)
CFB Greenwood
- 3x CP-140
CFB Gander
- 3x CP-140
NAS Willow Grove
- 8x P-3C (Reserve)
NAS Glenview
- 4x P-3C (Reserve)
- 4x P-3B (Reserve)
L.F. Wade Airport
- 4x P-3C

Charleston, New York and Halifax all have ready-made escort groups for their convoys, which is nice. There’s a fourth escort group and a few other useful ships too. The giant piles of MPA here are great, although 20 of them are a week away from service. The AS looked useless to me for a while, but she’s actually carrying 500 lightweight torpedoes, half of which are the excellent Barracuda and the other half of which are the widely used NEARTIP. Ships that run out of air-launched torpedoes can join up with the L. Y. Spear and get some more, which might be very handy in the long run.

The three pre-formed convoys will set off for Bermuda, as will the force at Norfolk, which can transit faster, refuel and pick up a convoy to go onwards. Sea Devil is going to the mid-Atlantic gap, the area midway between the Azores and Bermuda that’s most difficult to get an MPA to. The final SURTASS ship continues to the Azores and the bastion there. In a remarkable departure from standard Atlantic Convoy doctrine I’m going to empty Gander, sending the Auroras there to Bermuda and the P-3s at Brunswick to Charleston. The P-3s at Oceana are the nearest to New York (It’s a shame I can’t base out of NAS Lakehurst or Gabreski ANGB) so they’ll have to cover that corridor at a distance.

Biscay:
MN Jeanne d’Arc (Oil refuel both ways, Sonar)
- 4x Alouette III (MAD only)
- 3x Super Frelon
MN Duguay-Trouin (Can’t refuel, TASS, 1x heli)
MN Lamotte-Picquet (Can’t refuel, TASS, 2x heli)
FFG-42 Klakring (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
HMS Broadsword (Can’t refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
FFG-6 Julius A. Furrer (Oil)
MN Tourville (Can’t refuel, TASS, 1x heli)
MN Primaguet (Can’t refuel, TASS, 2x heli)
FF-1061 Patterson (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
MN Latouche-Treville (Can’t refuel, TASS, 2x heli)
HMS Newcastle (Can’t refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
HMS Arethusa (Can’t refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
HMS Hermione (Can’t refuel, 1x heli)
BNS Westdiep (Can’t refuel)
HNoMS Narvik (Can’t refuel)
HNLMS Zuiderkruis (Diesel, Gas refuel, ammo, supply heli)
WHEC 721 Gallatin (Can’t refuel, no sonar, rescue heli)
SSN-637 Sturgeon (Nuclear, Sturgeon)
5x Algol Fast Ro-Ros
- 1x SH-3D, unarmed
6x US-bound military cargo ships
T-AOT-1121 Gus W. Darnell (Diesel, Oil refuel)
55 US-bound merchants
Lanveoc-Poulmic AB
- 3x Atlantic 1
- 4x Atlantique 2
RAF St. Mawgan
- 3x Nimrod MR.2P
- 4x Bucc (Reserve)
- 4x Jag (Reserve)
- 2x Tristar (Reserve)

Lots of ships here, it’s annoying that almost no European ships have UNREP capability. I probably have enough forces here to escort the convoys I have onward and form the ships in Brest into a second convoy, which will speed matters up. Jeanne d’Arc is an odd duck, not a brilliant ASW ship, with only three dipping helis, but she has her own sonar, UNREP and even some Exocet for some reason. I want to try forming the Ro-Ros into a fast convoy that follows the same routes as my slow convoys but stays as quick as possible and uses helicopters to sweep ahead. The aircraft at St. Mawgan are interesting, I assume I’ll be told to do something with them later but it looks like they’re Falklands-bound as well.

Jeanne d’Arc, Broadsword, Newcastle, Arethusa and Lamotte-Picquet will form the fast convoy, selecting for ships with good helicopter capability and mostly poor sonars. We’ll be going too fast to use them. Furrer and Klakring will go forward to the Azores. The slow ships at sea will form into a single convoy, MSC and civilian, and be escorted by Patterson, Tourville, Primaguet and Duguay-Trouin. Hermione, Westdiep, Latouche-Treville, Zuiderkruis and possibly Narvik if she hurries will escort the convoy forming in Brest. The Atlantique squadron will go out to Lajes and the Nimrods and Atlantics will patrol the convoy corridor. No idea what to do with the Gallatin, follow the fast convoy and try to pick up survivors if it all goes wrong?

Med Approaches:
FFG-10 Duncan (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
FF-1057 Rathburn (Oil, TASS, 1x heli)
FFG-39 Doyle (Gas, TASS, 2x heli)
NRP Vasco Da Gama (Can’t refuel, 2x heli)
NRP Afonso Cerqueira (Can’t refuel, poor sonar)
SPS Descubierta (Can’t refuel, poor sonar)
SPS Baleares (Can’t refuel, TASS)
RM Orsa (Can’t refuel, poor sonar, 1x heli)
RM Espero (Can’t refuel, 2x heli)
RM Stromboli (Diesel, Oil refuel, slow, weapons)
34x US-bound merchants
Beja AB
- 4x P-3P
Moron AB
- 3x P-3B
NAS Rota
- 3x P-3C
- 2x EP-3E
- 2x EA-3B
Lajes AB
- 4x P-3C

Lots of ELINT for what I expect to be a fairly quiet area on the air and surface, should I consider ferrying these out to the trouble spots or will they be useful in submarine hunting somehow? I’ve also been landed with some more completely duff ships, getting some use out of them will be a challenge. Perhaps use them to escort SURTASS ships and try to provide a quick-reaction charge to sneaky SSKs?

Not much to do here, form up the convoy and the escorts and push it to the Azores. Duncan can start to sanitise Cape Verde, eventually I’ll probably pull one of the P-3 squadrons from this area down to there, but not yet. Generally I think I’m going to want to keep the European ships on the short transits between the Azores and Europe while letting the US ships with UNREP take on the actual transatlantic work.

This took two days and 3000 words, and I haven’t issued an order yet.

[Gunner98]

Well I am looking forward to this one. It has been years (literally) since I have opened it up to take a look so am very interested in how it runs. This scenario was built in the early days of Lua and more importantly, my ability to use it was pretty rudimentary (not that it's much better now!). Also, cargo was not a thing back then. I am surprised by the refueling issue, I'll need to check that out.

Best of luck - if there is a need for a quick repair I may be able to do something with your save file. Just DM me.

B

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Actual Setup
So, the first thing I’ve done is to switch overall doctrine to have Active Radar/OECM all the time. I’m way more worried about Oscars than I am about snorkelling SSKs getting a cut on me. Merchants and other unarmed ships sailing independently get their radars turned back off, but that’s it.

Africa:
Nothing much different from the setup. The two merchants nearer Ascension go there, TG Stump can pick them up as they go past. Isaac Dyobha gets to be the only permanently stationed warship in the entire theatre. The TurboDaks and 707 ELINTs get orders to barge around off the coast and see what’s about. The ready Nimrod at Ascension gets chopped to this theatre to have a prod about Nigeria, it only takes 30 minutes to rearm with the Ferry loadout (4 hours for the identical Maritime Patrol loadout, mind) so I’m not losing much time.

South Atlantic:
More or less as planned. Opossum gets orders to patrol the inshore areas of the Falklands, where I don’t doubt an Argentinian SSK is already lurking if they’re planning something. Seahorse will join her shortly, while Tireless heads for Puerto Deseado (the only marked Argentinian port) and Sovereign hovers off the Plate estuary, watching for ships coming out of the shallows. Gato and Groton will reinforce as appropriate.

Brazil:
Oh, turns out I do have two AEW helis on PdA. The ASW firepower of this task group is impressive, I would hate to have to send her down to the Falklands when she could be taking names in the North Atlantic, but that might just be how it works out. I’d rather ‘waste’ them down here than get my arse kicked by the Argentinians because I tried to cheap out on this secondary theatre.

South Caribbean:
Slight change of plans, Clark joins the Puerto Rico bastion, at least until it’s set up. The Banckert group heads south and the South Carolina group sails in circles, daring anyone to have a go. Their aircraft join an offshore patrol for Panama, a sort of semi-bastion. On the land side, the OV-1 SLAR carriers and the AC-130s begin a routine of what I hope are unexciting patrols around the Canal Zone.

Gulf of Mexico:
Lots of excitement to be had here. The air group at Gitmo stays on the ground until I can get something over there to ensure they aren’t about to eat an SA-8 on take-off. I’m going to have a punt at the bombardment with Westminster, who will have to head up to Bermuda or Europe to be near her reloads at some point. As a result, Trepang is going in close to Havana to clear ahead of the bombardment, backed up by Spadefish. JFK is turning to deal with Cuba, with her ridiculous ASW wing taking flight. Honestly, I actually think I’m going to disembark a number of the S-3s before I send her south, there’s no point in having that much ASW firepower down there when that’s not where the convoys are. That’s easy enough to do in passing though, and I’m going to feel really stupid if I disembark all of the S-3s and then run the carrier into a Cuban Kilo in the first six hours. TG Radford is going to group up a superconvoy at New Orleans. The Coasties run for Key West to try and combine firepower and build distance from Cuba, if they’re not visibly threatened then I can disperse them back into the straits to pick up downed aircrew.

I’ve just noticed that the Banckert group can hit Antonio Maceo Airport in Cuba with their guns, so I’m redirecting them to Cuba as well. This will slow them down a bit, but I’d rather have the Windward Passage and Gitmo as an assembly area than Puerto Rico.

In terms of air operations, I’m not really sure what I want to do yet. I’d sell the JSTARS for two dozen Shrikes, I’ll tell you that. The ‘Iranian’ Tiger aggressors are very realistic DACT aircraft, apparently I can load them up with Aphids or PL-7s. At the moment my aircraft are loaded for air combat, so I’m going to play things cautiously, use the surveillance aircraft from Tyndall and JFK to work out what’s happening, then either fend off a last ditch Cuban attack or rearm for strike operations. Interesting note: The main limiting factor on JFK’s reloads is actually a shortage of AIM-9Ms, I’m going to use the HH-60Gs at Key West to sling some more 9Ms (and maybe some other stuff) onto her. I don’t want to have her in brutal fighting over the Falklands and be forced to muck about with unloading half my fighters to get enough Sidewinders to launch the other half.

Eastern Seaboard:
The Bermuda bastion is set up and the pre-formed convoys head towards it. The ships at Norfolk are put into a single group and sent towards Bermuda as well, I can’t afford to leave the L. Y. Spear unescorted. None of the escort groups is set up in a formation yet, I need to get them moving in the right direction and away from the shore before I can put the escorts in the correct places. It’s a bit worrying that I have to do this, an SSK sneaking close to a port could do a lot of work, and I don’t have enough assets to keep every port clear as well. The independently sailing ships also head for Bermuda, apart from Vaedderen which heads for Halifax, waiting for the next convoy. She has a useful sonar, but her anti-submarine weapons are very poor so if she runs into something in the open ocean she’ll be wasted.

Narrow lanes are set up to connect Bermuda to the convoy ports at Charleston, New York and Halifax, with the P-3s at Jacksonville covering the Charleston route for now. I think I might actually bring the P-3s from Brunswick down to Tyndall and use them to help cover the Gulf, although I’ll have to work something out to get them some reserve torpedoes. With limited quantities of Mk50s at Bermuda, the CP-140s are a good fit until I can get the L.Y. Spear across.

Biscay:
The Azores bastion is prepared and the Sturgeon sent for an initial prod around the area to help out the P-3s. I quickly realise that my well thought out plan for the ships to be split into the fast ro-ros and the slow merchants will result in so much sailing escorts back and forth that I should just sail everything to the Azores and have done with it. Broadsword, in her role as an escort command ship, takes control of Furrer and Klakring and sweeps towards the Azores. A, uh, minor error caused by the use of formation commands while playing in the editor results in the main body of the convoy teleporting into formation, but honestly I’d have been hacked off if the Sovs sank my ships while I was trying to adjust my starting formation into something I liked better, so I’m just going to play through. Call me a cheat if you like! The rest of the ships in the area head for Brest.

My staff embark on a series of increasingly irate phone calls to regional airports and air bases in Galicia and Northern Spain, but in the absence of basing options around there I have to make do with what I have for patrol work. The Nimrods and Atlantiques set out for Lajes in the Azores, with the Nimrods intended to work the Mid-Atlantic gap and the Atlantiques intended to work from the Azores towards Brest while the Atlantics work outwards on the same path.

Med Approaches:
The American and Spanish P-3s are set to patrol the transit lane from the Pillars of Hercules to the Azores. The Portuguese ones, meanwhile, will ferry down to Cape Verde and sanitise the area down there. I’m also going to send the EA-3 down there, to have a prod at Nigeria (Do I have overflight rights for most of West Africa? The better question is, are you willing to join the Third World War to prove I don’t?). After that, Cape Verde is a fairly central location, which allows me to ferry them across to Puerto Rico, down to the Falklands or back up to Europe as required.

Duncan heads for Cape Verde for similar reasons, an extra FFG in the South Atlantic would be no bad thing, while the rest of the ships in the area head for Gibraltar and the convoy forming there.

Finally, I save the setup so that I never have to do all of this again, and unpause.

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Kicking Off

A mistake with the opportunity targets setting results in all American ships immediately beginning a TLAM barrage against the nearest targets. I intercept them and stuff the TLAMs back into their tubes. I don’t appear to have incurred a scoring penalty for this, but it’s the spirit of the thing.

First blood goes to NATO, as a flight of F/A-18s from the JFK excitedly chase withdrawing Fishbeds into Cuban airspace. They down four, and Cuban response appears muted. Perhaps the Caribbean Fury scenarios have dealt enough damage to them that I don’t need to worry too much about my strikes? At the same time, a number of small boat contacts are showing up off the Cuban coast and Westminster identifies one of a group of similar contacts off Andros as an armed speedboat similar to a Boghammar before sledgehammering its eggshell with the 4.5” gun. I’m beginning to get an idea of what the Coasties are supposed to do. I also start loading all of my spare or ineffective aircraft at Key West and Homestead for strike missions, going heavy on the Mavericks to help pick off AA before my dumb bombers have to risk downtown Havana. A civilian yacht in Gitmo harbour is identified as ‘Cuban’. I’m not entirely sure why, but half of the base is looking at her and they’re all confirming that she’s a hostile target, so I send a Super Cobra out. The Super Cobra confirms weapons onboard, or at least she has a range ring, so that’s good enough for me. Fourteen Hydras smash her into dust.

This emboldens me and I order an RQ-2 for a look around the local area. As it trundles down the taxiway, air contacts show up from Antonia Maceo Airport, confirming that it’s being used as a Cuban base. I don’t really want to play with the MiGs unless Gitmo is threatened, so the RQ-2 is called back to its hangar and I wait for my strikes to be ready. I’m in no rush here, that’s the key thing to remember.

Down in the Falklands, an Argentinian Learjet is prodding around, I’m harassing it with a Tornado just for kicks. The best defence down here is deterrence, so we’ll give them something to look at. I’m going through the Argentinian air order of battle in my head, as I know it, and I’m increasingly confident down here. Even if they go for me, three ADVs and two IDS will do a terrible execution on their air force before they can start hitting me. Assuming, of course, that the Soviets haven’t dropped off a cheeky MiG-23 Regiment or something.

My first new merchant checks in, a large tanker off Brest, bound for Charleston. I guess ships will continue to arrive in dribs and drabs like this. I’m worried about the safety of my assembly areas, but I already feel like I’m strapped for good escorts and I don’t want to use my bad escorts independently in this sort of way.

The Action Begins

The Nimrod from Ascension has spotted some odd surface contacts, running a generic navigation radar and also a surface search set. Unfortunately, the Nimrods don’t carry a visual sensor, so I’m going to have to drop down to 2000ft and go right up to them to read the name off the side. The mission crew peer out of the windows in the side of the aircraft, holding binoculars and cameras where available, and identify the ship as a normal merchantman. Then the contact icon flashes red and range rings appear, the air-to-air range ring encompassing the Nimrod! Luckily, the mariners on this commerce raider seem to be as surprised as the Nimrod crew and I take no fire as I power-climb out of range, but this is a serious development. Armed and presumably hostile ships are off Ascension, and perhaps everywhere in the Atlantic. I’m going to have to make a significant effort with surface searches. Frustratingly, there are no weapons on Ascension with which to strike at these ships. Isaac Dyobha begins to make her way up to St. Helena and I launch a Buccaneer to use its surface search radar to clear the area around Cape Town. The ELINT 707 that is airborne heads for St. Helena as well.

The P-3Ps transiting down to Cape Verde detect a surface contact along the lawless coast of the Western Sahara. I leave two aircraft to continue to Cape Verde and send another to check this contact out, perhaps another raider. However, my attention is immediately ripped away…

Five ‘multirole’ contacts are detected rising up from San Antoni de los Banos Airbase in Cuba, all emitting like MiG-29s. That’s good enough for me to launch some F-14s, I have limited assets here and MiG-29s are likely to be the most dangerous aircraft I face in this scenario. I’d rather blow some Phoenixes here than lose a bunch of F-16s trying to knife fight against R-73s. In case it does come to a knife fight, I launch the TF-16Ns as well. I had been trying not to waste tanker time, so I have no Sparrow fighters airborne and I’m quite worried about the R-27s as well. More fighters flood into the air, MiG-23s this time, and I notice that about half of the enemy force is going south. Are they worried about an attack from that angle? Ferrying out to Honduras? I don’t much care, if I can take them one half at a time, that suits me,

A swirling dogfight off Havana ensues, and I lose two F-16Cs and two TF-16Ns before the Phoenixes start raining. In total I kill five MiG-29s and six MiG-23s, which I’m not keen on as a rate of exchange, but does probably mean that I’ve drawn the teeth of the DAA/FAR. I set up a tanker track off Key West to try and ensure that I’m not caught out like this again. I should say, I’m astonished by how well this scenario is running.

My attention is again ripped away from the Portuguese P-3 to the Jeanne d’Arc group, which detects a Goblin at -131ft with a passive buoy from the corridor-clearing Atlantic. There are lots of fish in these waters and they like to hang out at -131ft, so I’m not unduly worried, but the sonar on Duguay-Trouin gets a cross-cut and detects the contact slowing down from a very un-piscene 7 knots. They confirm it as an SS and I declare it hostile. The Third Battle of the Atlantic has begun.

Starting Fights

Duguay-Trouin swings into action, loosing a Malafon at the target. The SS in turn swings around towards my destroyer, perhaps having heard the launch of the missile, but is unable to do anything before the beautiful shot from Duguay-Trouin drops a torpedo right on her. At five knots and shallow, she has nowhere to go and the Romeo class submarine S-41 is my first victim.

I can finally turn my attention back to the Portuguese P-3, which closes on the contact and determines that it is not a raider but in fact a Soviet AO, evidently hanging around to resupply diesel subs in the Atlantic. That’s very much worth knowing, even if I can’t do much about it right now, but as the P-3 turns for Cape Verde I receive a FLASH message from NATO HQ, castigating me for violating Nigerian neutrality. I still don’t have a unit within 1200 nautical miles of Nigeria, but the message log reveals a -250 point penalty for violating the neutrality of Western Sahara. I rather question the value of such neutrality if the ‘neutral’ nation is hosting an enemy warship, but I merely respond to the NATO commander that we do not recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic so I can’t be expected to recognise its neutrality. Checking the briefing again, I was not given any instructions to stay away from the Western Sahara, Nigeria or any other nation except Venezuela. Oh well, I’ll take the lump. Sturgeon abandons her lazy wander around the Azores to head over to the African coast and, shall we say, actively enforce the neutrality of Sahrawi. They can’t complain if they never see me, right?

[Gunner98]

Glad to hear that the scenario is running well and that some of the little tidbits are working.

I'll add a note to self to put a caution against violating neutrality in the orders. The thrust behind that is to limit expansion of the conflict.

A story note is that in the Northern Fury plotline the JFK heads to the N-Atlantic as a reconfigured ASW flagship to free up fighters for other carriers and add some strength and bomber defence to the the Sea LOCs. PdA also heads north. How you use them is your call but that is why she has that weird air wing.

Great reading, thanks

B

[FrangibleCover]

A story note is that in the Northern Fury plotline the JFK heads to the N-Atlantic as a reconfigured ASW flagship to free up fighters for other carriers and add some strength and bomber defence to the the Sea LOCs. PdA also heads north. How you use them is your call but that is why she has that weird air wing.

Oh yes, 'ridiculous' is a positive assessment of her capabilities in this scenario. Even loaded to the gills with S-3s and SH-3s though, the carrier groups are easily my most powerful surface combat task forces, especially with the TLAM ban. I especially want to have the Cubans sorted out early so that I can run convoys through the Florida Strait and Windward Passage safely. I'm currently thinking that PdA is going to turn north after she gets to Rio, she's not going to make it to Argentina before the RAF does, but depending on how the commerce raider situation is she might stay in the South Atlantic to do sea control work. Actually, genius idea, she could drop off some Mk.82s on Ascension and then I could get the South African Buccs to pick them up. I really wish I had a few Hercules!

I also wish I knew how moving munitions in the cargo function worked, but that's a problem for later.

[FrangibleCover]

Session 2:

Some time goes by and I begin to worry about my long buoy lines. My MPAs are displaying a series of orange lines to nearby buoys, are they only able to listen to buoys within line of sight now? Are Soviets subs slipping through my convoy lanes undetected? Perhaps, but I am again interrupted by that fearful sound: BONG BONG BONG - New Contact: Vampire.

Julius Furrer is reporting the contact, out in front of the sweep force. She’s unsupported by Broadsword and Klakring, who are spread out for maximum submarine detection. I’m very worried for her after detecting two missiles, but I split the group, launch my helicopters and prepare to lose frigates. Oddly, there are only two missiles in the air but they appear to be Shipwrecks from their emissions. It’s an Oscar, but I guess it’s not wasting too many missiles on one frigate. Furrer fails to make a single hit with her SM-1s and evaporates, with the second Shipwreck actually continuing on its bearing. Klakring and Broadsword turn aside and attempt to escape the seeker cone. It misses Broadsword but turns towards Klakring at the last possible moment, just after I dropped the contact to stop her from firing at an obvious miss! I lose about seven seconds to the OODA loop, and Klakring vanishes as well. A costly error. Broadsword is now on her own with rubbish sonar, so she turns back for the safety of the Jeanne d’Arc convoy group. Luckily, both of Klakring’s SH-60Bs were able to launch before she was hit, so they will hunt the Oscar and then rebase to Lajes, where they can be picked up by any aviation-capable ships with free space.

I know roughly where the Oscar has to be from the direction of the launch: Right between Furrer’s position and the Azores. A P-3 and the helicopters from the task group set out to hunt her down before the JdA arrives, as well as a Nimrod and an Atlantique that were ferrying to Lajes. The P-3 almost immediately runs out of buoys, but it stays on station to monitor the helicopter buoys. Arguably, this task group has done its job, I’m not at all confident that the JdA group could survive a full SSGN attack if she had been the first ship to blunder into the Oscar.

A few hours later, the Doyle also gets an interesting detection off the coast of Portugal. Unfortunately, the detection is a torpedo. A Goblin is also detected, which I immediately declare as hostile, presuming that I’ve heard the launch transient. If it’s fish, those fish are getting smoked. Doyle chucks a couple of Mk46s down the bearing, although I’m not in range, and starts to run while her Seahawks lift off. Doyle has her back broken, but continues to sail until the third torpedo in the salvo finishes her, but the Seahawks are already airborne and localising the sub. The Kilo class B-401 sinks next to her victim and the Seahawks head for Beja. Another dangerous submarine sunk, but I really cannot afford to trade capable ASW ships for subs like this.

Cuba
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, the assorted forces around Cuba identify a couple of the presumed Boghammars as Osas instead. The cutter Kodiak Island performs an immediate volte face and slips out of Styx range, and I mentally assign a few of the Maverick armed aircraft to anti-shipping duty. Knight Island is off Andros, but can’t actually get close enough inshore to hit the Boghammars.

A number of Fishbeds also lift off and head out to sea. I’m honestly not sure what their plan is here, but somehow we are caught short again, with the Florida ANG off station and only a pair of F-16s between the Fishbeds and my high value assets, although the Dale will probably be able to hit them too. They fly towards the Kodiak Island, but they’re still climbing so I’m not too worried. Then bombs rain into the sea next to her, as they dive from high altitude to hit the cutter. They miss, but I really should have been watching more closely, my first indication of what they were doing is the bomb impacts. A low altitude chase by the Vipers manages to pick off a pair of the Fishbeds, but Kodiak Island decides to run, as does Key Biscayne which was very bravely attempting to slip into visual range of Havana harbour.

Kodiak Island then immediately explodes. Submarine? I assign a couple of the JFK’s ASW aircraft to hunt the area and push my fighters forward to protect them. While the fighters are up I launch a couple of the Kfirs with Maverick Bs, the ideal weapon for Osa-hunting. I get one, but the other suffers double-malfunctions. A third sortie finishes the job.

My E-8 begins to spot enemy aircraft inside their HAS with the radar, just after the Fishbeds that missed Kodiak Island land. I assume the doors are open, but that’s astonishing performance from ground radars in Command, which are usually marginal against anything that’s not a ship.

In the Eastern Atlantic, the Atlantique picks up a Goblin in the Oscar search area. I’m not screwing about and I immediately dive to drop a torpedo on it. A pass over the target pings the MAD and I’m happy to declare this an Oscar. The first torpedo hits and the submarine slows and begins to ascend, which confirms that it’s Soviet. With the French having done all of the hard work, the Nimrod swoops in and smashes the crippled Oscar with a rare, expensive Stingray. Nice one, lads. I mark K-525 Arkhangelsk off my list and again ponder what sensor on my torpedoes is reading the hull number just before impact.

Wrangling the convoys into formation is now so difficult that I’m just teleporting ships where I want them, over short distances. I think this is fair, when the coastal navigation AI keeps sailing them to places I don’t want them to be.

Some description of warship is spotted off Tierra del Fuego, no doubt another Argentinian come to take my lunch money. Luckily, Jupiter is the correct sort of Leander to deal with this and nobody told me I couldn’t use as many Exocets as I like. Although checking the briefing I do find that I’m not supposed to be using air PGMs like Maverick. Oh well, I’ve loaded them now, but I’ll conduct all further strikes with nothing but iron.

[Gunner98]

... I really wish I had a few Hercules!

I also wish I knew how moving munitions in the cargo function worked, but that's a problem for later.

I was probably scrimping on Hurcs and transport in general for this scenario. The Brits are committed, every Hurc they own is dropping para's in various places, they might be able to scrape together a half dozen others but not likely for this task. The USN has 24 - yes that is all - C-130T spread around the world; I suppose a couple working out of New Orleans (VR-54 Revelers) and a couple more from Oceana (VR-56 Globemasters) or VR-62 from Jacksonville (Nomads). I'd limit it to 4 or maximum 6. One or two C-9 Skytrain might also be put to the task. I think that it is far more likely that contracted cargo airlift would be put to the task, the sky is the limit there but to be reasonable considering the airlift to Europe, 1 or 2 contracted 747 or DC-10 would be a decent slice.

I have Lua code for loading bases with ammo and at one point (cannot seem to find it) had a spreadsheet with loads - but its fairly simple to build. I added 10% to the DB weights for packaging and shipped everything in twos, didn't worry about bulk, just weight. You're better off simply loading the magazines manually in the editor. So a 9 ton load on a Hurc would work out to about 32 Mk.82.

I can help with this if needed.

B

[FrangibleCover]

I was probably scrimping on Hurcs and transport in general for this scenario. The Brits are committed, every Hurc they own is dropping para's in various places, they might be able to scrape together a half dozen others but not likely for this task. The USN has 24 - yes that is all - C-130T spread around the world; I suppose a couple working out of New Orleans (VR-54 Revelers) and a couple more from Oceana (VR-56 Globemasters) or VR-62 from Jacksonville (Nomads). I'd limit it to 4 or maximum 6. One or two C-9 Skytrain might also be put to the task. I think that it is far more likely that contracted cargo airlift would be put to the task, the sky is the limit there but to be reasonable considering the airlift to Europe, 1 or 2 contracted 747 or DC-10 would be a decent slice.

I actually think this would be a helpful thing the international coalition could do. Everyone and their mother has a handful of C-130s or equivalents, and having to find them, ferry them halfway across the globe to where they're needed and then back to deliver the munitions could be fun.

[Gunner98]

I actually think this would be a helpful thing the international coalition could do. Everyone and their mother has a handful of C-130s or equivalents, and having to find them, ferry them halfway across the globe to where they're needed and then back to deliver the munitions could be fun.

That is a real thing for static theaters (ITAS) Intra-Theater Airlift Support which is a bit of a bundle of joy to manage in real life.

B

[fitzpatv]

I'm finding this quite an absorbing AAR and a looking forward to further instalments.

Have to say that co-ordinating everything that's happening over such a vast area must be a nightmare. Hopefully, there isn't too much happening at once!. Not sure if my computer could run something this big, either.

The scenario seems to duplicate or repeat elements of Caribbean Fury (presumably designed later) and even Northern Fury (Eisenhower Heads North). I would find it frustrating fighting the Cubans again after defeating them in the first two Caribbean scenarios. I also note that the Jeanne d'Arc is in the Atlantic when she's in the Indian Ocean in Mozambique Madness.

[Gunner98]

Yes this AAR is great, really enjoying it.

The scenario starts (23 Feb) about a week after Caribbean fury #2 where Cuba is pretty much neutered but literally hours after CF #4 (show of force). Cuba is, in classic Monty Python fashion - Not quite dead yet... but it cannot do much. Cuba only really has the capacity to mess things up but Venezuela is a real unknown and we are still 6-7 week from CF#5 where they finally act. NF#34 runs for 30 days so will be over before CF#5

With regard to Northern Fury it is much trickier to deconflict. Ike moves North and Changing of the Guard happen about 4 days before this scenario starts but more complicated is Command at Sea which is in the Azores - so right in the middle of the area of operations for this scenario. Longest Battle starts about the time the two carriers (Vinson & Ike) start working over Iceland. So I had to make a few decisions on what would be in each storyline. This scenario is very much the secondary but critical front, where the others are where the heavy combat power is.

It is going back a bit but when Dimitris asked the community to build a monster scenario or two in order to test the capacity of some new changes he made, I decided that I would try. I originally had no intention of depicting the Battle of the Atlantic, I thought it would be too big & cumbersome, same reason I haven't tackled the central front over Europe. But there is a lot of story to tell and this seemed like a good opportunity. As mentioned earlier, this was before Cargo was a thing and in the early days of lua, so some of the mechanisms may be a bit clunky, but I think it works.

[FrangibleCover]

Session 3

Surface Action

I realise that my strike against Cuba would go in at night if I waited for it to ready. I’m not actually unable to do this, but I’m hardly time pressured here, so in the interests of fairness I’ll just launch what I have with full night capability and wait for dawn with the older stuff. The first strike will therefore be pure SEAD, trying to knock over the SA-2 outside Havana and the SA-3 and assorted Mystery Ground Contacts at SAdlB airbase. As my Prowler arrives I confirm that the Cubans aren’t radiating, out of a sensible sense of self preservation I suppose. This creates an interesting dilemma, do I shoot at the SA-2 site or just attempt to bypass it, since it can’t see me. If I bypass it, there’s a serious risk of it turning on behind me, but if I shoot it then I will certainly alert the Cubans to my presence. I decide that I have enough firepower here to smash through the SA-2 and SA-3 head-on. Four Mavericks smash into the SA-2, but the Cubans remain silent as I pass over it. Guess I got the radar on the first pass? I smack the SA-3 in the same way and everything remains eerily quiet. The F/A-18s with IIR Mavericks aboard drop down to medium level in an attempt to identify the SHORAD sites spotted around the air base. Instead I spot some MiG-21s on the runway access points, obviously moving to take off. My aircraft skedaddle out of the immediate airspace before loitering, ready to put AIM-7s into the interceptors, but nothing lifts off… My aircraft run back in and shoot the rest of their Mavericks at the SHORAD installations, which prompts the SA-3 to turn on, with everything stacked above it. I still have some Mavericks on the rails and I desperately counter-fire as a missile flashes past one of my Hornets. In a confused and swirling engagement, I manage to cripple the SA-3 site and the SHORAD without loss, although the SA-3 continued to fire with only three units left. I can’t really call the job done, but certainly the environment is now much more conducive to low level bomb attacks tomorrow.

As the strike withdraws, the Kilo that sank the Kodiak Island is identified by buoys from an S-3. It seems to be accelerating rapidly, probably heading towards the Dale and Westminster, which are now closing on Cuba. However, it is not accelerating rapidly enough to dodge a Mk50 from the S-3, which renders it dead in the water. Westminster’s Lynx is rushing to the scene, but the S-3 finishes the job with a second torpedo. This is probably a Cuban Kilo, and its loss significantly diminishes Cuban offensive power, with intel alleging their only remaining submarine to be a Foxtrot in the Yucatan Channel, which is an area I don’t intend to go to and a type that I’m confident in beating if it comes for me. Of course, this doesn’t preclude Soviet boats in the area, but if they’re mucking around off Cuba they’re not in my core convoy lanes.

As a capability test, I send an AC-130 up to fight the Nicaraguan radar on San Andres island. I’ve heard they’re difficult to use, so I want to try one out while also dealing damage and providing a minor provocation to the Nicaraguans, who have been quiet as church mice so far. After messing about with the ground strafing settings and manually setting the appropriate altitude the aircraft goes offensive, but doesn’t actually line itself up. Instead it makes repeated passes at a couple of nautical miles, outside of its gun range. Eventually I manage to finagle it into attack position, and it blasts the radar site into rubble. That’s worth noting: They work, but you have to micro them. The AC-130 turns for home, as do the pair of F-16s which were intended to respond to any Nicaraguan response.

I spend a while messing about with the cargo operations screen, then just send a HH-60 out to the JFK, add a hundred AIM-9Ms to her magazines and remove a hundred from Key West. Good enough. Entertainingly, the Boghammars down the Cuban coast are showing no interest in coming out to fight the carrier battle group. Nevertheless, the Reuben James nips over and sinks them. The ones off Andros are still in water too shallow for me to even get a cutter near them, so I load some S-3s with bombs to do the job. Ten Mk.82s per target is more than I wanted them to use, but they get the job done and my convoys are safe.

A pop-up informs me that the Ecuadorian frigate Presidente Eloy Alfaro is entering the Panama Canal to join up with my forces. It then proceeds to be very rude about her capabilities. I check the DB entry: They’re not wrong. I suppose with the Sea Cat, if I group her up with the Knox I have down here I have one full FFG? As bad as she is though, she’s half the Ecuadorean Navy and I’m going to make the best possible effort to ensure she does something useful and survives it.

I probe a couple of F-14s towards Antonio Maceo, checking for a reaction. I want to get the E-8 down here to sweep for mobile units and get an idea of targeting requirements for the Banckert group and possibly the forces at Gitmo. Nothing shows up, and the E-8 reveals the same pattern of 4x4 mobile contacts I saw at SAdlB. Probably also ZSU-57-2s, I think, but then the E-8 discovers another contact outside Gitmo itself. I launch an RQ-2 again and it determines the contact to be an artillery battery, in range of my units. I don’t fancy that, so another AH-1W takes off to sort it out. A quartet of MiG-23s launch to intercept and the Tomcats slap them down, although with an embarrassing number of Phoenix misses. The Super Cobra sweeps up the artillery and everyone goes home, with the RQ-2 confirming that the surface contacts are ZSU-57-2s on the way.

Back to the real job

A routine patrol between Charleston and Bermuda detects an SSN right in the path of the convoy. Good guess, Ivan, but bad timing. The P-3 almost right above it swoops down and the boat has just enough time to accelerate enough for me to identify it as a Victor I before the Barracuda hits it. It goes dead in the water as well, and begins to crash dive. Somehow, this results in it escaping my DLZ, I suppose because the DLZ assumes that the Victor is still capable of 30 odd knots. I pop a bearing-only launch onto it and it breaks up, well below survival depth.

The SURTASS ship Vindicator also gets a hit on something in her wake, but can’t hold the contact. The nearby Long Beach group contributes a helicopter to the search, but it can’t find anything. I’m sure this is a submarine, fish don’t fade in and out, but it’s gone now. An SSK snorting for a moment? Half an hour later, just as I’m about to give up, Vindicator picks the contact back up and classifies it as a Victor III. The helicopter localises her, identifies her as the K-527 and sinks her with a pair of torpedoes.

Speaking of snorting SSKs, I get a Goblin contact in the Biscay theatre, miles from anything. It turns out to have been detected by the radar of a passing Atlantique, a sure sign that it’s a periscope contact. The Atlantique closes in and identifies it as an SSK by eye, which impresses me. The torpedo hits the water and the message log informs me that Nigeria now considers me hostile. That’s… weird, but I get the hit and lose track of the Kilo class B-439, which is not a Nigerian boat. Because I have no buoys left on this aircraft, I can’t actually tell if I’ve gotten the kill, so I chuck another couple of torpedoes into the water to use their sensors. One acquires something and misses it, another launch completes the double tap. I think I should probably just double tap everything from this point, almost every submarine is surviving one hit.

Quick performance check: At ‘double flame’ speed, I am playing at 3x effective time acceleration. This might take me a while. On the bright side, the simulation is not hanging for the most part, it’s playing through consistently.

It turns out there are Harpoons on Ascension, so I load up one of the readying Nimrods with a pair to hunt down the raiders. I’m pretty sure I can argue my case that no other weapon will achieve the effect down here, given that there are no other anti-surface weapons. The patrol Nimrod I have been using is dispatched to the Falklands to do the same job.

The second Brest-Azores convoy sets off. I’m not particularly happy with the escort, it has no good ASW ships until the Latouche-Treville arrives from the Bordeaux area, but it’s going down a route the Jeanne d’Arc has already swept, so hopefully we’ll be okay.

I get another SSK on the New York-Bermuda convoy route, picked up by a P-3. Another Kilo, B-351, goes down. Overall a successful session of ASW, I’ve bagged three Kilos and two Victors in under a day and without loss. The early trading of blows has been mitigated.

[FrangibleCover]

I'm finding this quite an absorbing AAR and a looking forward to further instalments.

Have to say that co-ordinating everything that's happening over such a vast area must be a nightmare. Hopefully, there isn't too much happening at once!. Not sure if my computer could run something this big, either.

The scenario seems to duplicate or repeat elements of Caribbean Fury (presumably designed later) and even Northern Fury (Eisenhower Heads North). I would find it frustrating fighting the Cubans again after defeating them in the first two Caribbean scenarios. I also note that the Jeanne d'Arc is in the Atlantic when she's in the Indian Ocean in Mozambique Madness.

The coordination can get pretty bad, I've had moments where I'm trying to watch three different things happening in a triangle 1000 nautical miles on each side. I'm making a lot of use of the message log to keep track of stuff, and trying to be sanguine about losing assets I could have saved if I was managing more closely. The AAR is actually really helpful in keeping track of what I'm doing in each theatre, but I should say that I'm rearranging it for readability as I go, most of the stuff in the latest update was heavily interspersed between Caribbean Fury 4.5 and the convoy war.

I should say, and this and the next update should make clear, that this is not like CF #1/#2 in terms of going force on force against Cuba and trying to land a knockout blow, this is just sweeping up the shattered remains of the FAR. Ones work from previous scenarios does not feel like it's being undone, which is a common complaint for the Fury series, although personally I play them all out of order so it doesn't bother me.

I think you're right about JdA, she's going through the Bab al Mandeb in IOF #8 with the convoy, which starts on the 27th Feb, then she's off Brest on the 23rd Feb in NF #34. Regardless, I'm very thankful for her and her big Super Frelons. I don't think I've seen Vittorio Veneto in any of the scenarios I've played, or RFA Argus, so they're possible large aviation ships that could replace her if the scenario gets an overhaul.

The scenario starts (23 Feb) about a week after Caribbean fury #2 where Cuba is pretty much neutered but literally hours after CF #4 (show of force). Cuba is, in classic Monty Python fashion - Not quite dead yet... but it cannot do much. Cuba only really has the capacity to mess things up but Venezuela is a real unknown and we are still 6-7 week from CF#5 where they finally act. NF#34 runs for 30 days so will be over before CF#5

Ah? Aheh. That's not quite how the Venezuelans have reacted to me.

[Gunner98]

Good point on the Jeanne d'Arc. She will eventually make it into this theater but since she is in the IO and has to transit the Med, it should be near the end. RFA Argus has some tasks in later NF scenarios but could be on station earlier I suppose. The Vittorio Veneto is commanding the ASW operations in the Med, she will make an appearance in MF #8 'We will Rock You' currently under development and is due to be a star player in MF #10 as the convoy players assembled in the IO makes its way through the Med. I suppose I could put the Andrea Doria to sea a little early... but the AB-212 is more suited to the Med

This needs to be fixed, just not sure how yet. Tx for identifying the issue.

B

[Gunner98]

RFA Argus is also in the Med for MF#7 on 22 Feb and will be accompanying Ark Royal back to the UK with some of Lusty's Sea-Things on board

[FrangibleCover]

Lets see what else I can find:

• Ex-RFA Engadine, currently MV Engadine laid up in Piraeus. Doesn't seem to have received any conversion back to mercantile standard, but probably in poor mechanical condition and owned by Greek civilians.
• SAS Tafelberg, when I get her added to the database. Outeniqua will probably not be purchased from a resurgent Soviet Union, so I think Tafelberg will be retained in service. Problem is, South Africa has zero ASW helicopters in service and she's going to start the scenario in the middle of nowhere.
• Atlantic Conveyor, or rather another container ship with a similar conversion. I can't find out exactly what the conversion time for Conveyor was, but her sister Atlantic Causeway took only six days to convert to aircraft operations. If they act quickly it would probably be possible to get a conversion and a composite air group done and to the required position before the start of the scenario.
• SPS Dedalo - I'm really groping for options now, she's laid up in New Orleans under the 'care' of a preservation association that hasn't made much of an effort to preserve her. Allegedly she was in excellent mechanical condition when she was retired, and it would be sort of fun to have one of the last war's carriers in the OOB, but she's not going to be available for the start of the scenario.

Yeah, there's not a lot else. On this wander through the database I have also discovered something even more depressing: The Mexicans have some Gearing FRAM 1Bs that would probably be better in this scenario than most of the Royal Navy frigates. Their old sonar is at least good and old, and the absence of any air defence is no worse than Sea Cat.

[Gunner98]

Atlantic Conveyer was converted in 10 days. https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2012/04/ ... lklands30/

A similar conversion is probably the most viable option although the Dedalo is promising, perhaps for a mid scenario addition.

[FrangibleCover]

Session 4

A merchant appears off Chesapeake Bay, which is a problem. I’m not set up for convoy operations from every port in the universe, only from my main initial collection points. I decide to try to slip the merchant up to New York unescorted, at the very least I’ll find out if I can’t do that. I also note that I’m supposed to return her to Chesapeake. If this becomes a regular thing then I’ll have to set up a route patrol up the coast.

Westminster reaches the Cuban coast and begins hammering the SA-2 site with short bursts. Accuracy leaves something to be desired, but the SA-2 is wiped out and Westminster moves on to the port of Havana. I’m conscious that this port may contain a large number of Boghammars, so I’d rather have it off the table. If the Cubans have a problem with this, they can surrender. Both I and the captain aboard Westminster are British, so our knowledge of the geography of Havana is somewhat sketchy. I’m horrified to discover that rather than the dockyards and warehouses I assumed would be the port of Havana, we are in fact trying to hit the promenade and mostly overshooting into the old town of central Havana. I immediately call off the attack and try to grab some sea room, knocking out a few speedboats isn’t worth this. Hopefully, what damage I have inflicted will be enough to dissuade submarines from rearming at Havana.

Considering the complete failure of the South African searches to find anything interesting, I decide that the 707 ELINT aircraft should be moved up to Ascension to patrol the general South Atlantic region, since they can track the commerce raiders from their emissions. I notice that there’s a large airbase on St. Helena that would be perfect for them, unfortunately I also know that this airbase opened in 2015 and is very difficult to use for large jets. I’m going to just delete it from the scenario and use Ascension. The ELINT Turbodak takes over from the 707s down south, just keeping a general eye on emissions.

While I ready the strike on Havana I look enviously at the variety of carrier capable aircraft on display. Much of VC-10 at Gitmo is equipped with Kiwi TA-4Ks, which aren’t carrier capable, but by whipping around the Caribbean I could easily assemble a squadron of Skyhawks, a detachment of F-4s and another detachment of F/A-18s on the Kennedy, perfect for smashing up anyone who continues to bother me with aircraft or land bases. My reading of the briefing implies that I shouldn’t be stripping my OCUs and DACT squadrons to equip my carrier, but I will certainly be taking the matter to Admiral Faulkner. He can keep the Kfirs and the TF-16s?

Principe de Asturias flies off a quartet of Harriers to support operations from Ascension, on one of those missions you’d only be allowed to do in wartime. The Harriers can’t reach Ascension from PdA’s current position and will be absolutely reliant on a pair of RAF Tristars to provide fuel for them. Additionally, I suspect the refuelling will occur far enough from the carrier that if they fail to refuel, they won’t have enough fuel to get back. Fun, eh? As the Harrier fly they go past another suspicious contact, this one a ship with a ‘long range’ surface search radar. I’m pretty sure it’s hostile, but I can’t do much about it. Then I realise that I could, because I can refuel from the Tristars and strike the ship before flying back to the PdA if required.

I start another war

My P-3 at the Puerto Rico Bastion picks up a series of ELINT contacts from the south, which look to be three, then six Lupo class FFGs from Venezuela. My radar can’t get a good fix on them, which implies they’re jamming, and they’ve only just shown up, which implies they’re moving north. I’m not very impressed with this development, but it definitely makes me feel better about not sending JFK north into the convoy lanes from the start. With the P-3s busy maintaining the Bastion, I launch a Dolphin from Roosevelt Roads to try and get an idea of Venezuelan intentions. I can’t reach the Lupos, but I can fly past the little PBs they’ve had hanging around off-shore and see if they act with hostile intent. TG Banckert also reverses course and comes towards Puerto Rico to screen, while the Greenling begins a thirty knot dash to intercept the Lupos.

My Dolphin identifies one of the patrol boats as a Venezuelan Constitucion class, which I already knew from the emissions but it’s nice to check. Then 76mm shells start to fly past it! The damn Venezuelans are shooting at me, and with the helicopter they have engaged being 300 nautical miles from Venezuela, within the Venezuelan’s imaginary 90-nmi limit of Puerto Rico and bright bloody day-glo orange, I am not really in the mood to be told this is a misunderstanding. We are in a state of war with Venezuela, they have backed the wrong horse and they are coming for me.

I marshal my forces. In the immediate area I have one Harpoon armed P-3, four A-4 bombers, the Banckert group, the frigate Clark and the Greenling. Against this I have six of the excellent Lupo-class FFGs and who knows what else. I’m reasonably confident against air attack here, but against surface attack I’m seriously vulnerable.

To start off with, I assign the A-4s to go and sink the PBs. They’re not a major threat to me outside of their ELINT capabilities, but I’d prefer to have them off the table before I take on the Lupos. One is sunk successfully, the other escapes as I try to micro the A-4s too hard and mess up their bomb run.

Cuba again

Meanwhile, dawn has broken over Cuba and my strikes are ready to go in. I begin proceedings by launching a pair of F-14s to ward off any threats from Antonio Maceo. Then the F-4s at Jacksonville and the KC-135s lift, as does an EP-3E at Jacksonville that I forgot I have, that can go to the Venezuelan front. The F-16s from Homestead follow, then the zoo at Key West lift off and pitch in.

The first the Cubans know about any of this is a pair of CBU-87s bursting above the remains of the SA-3 site, smashing it to pieces. More CBUs rain down on the ZSU-57-2s before Kfirs burst over the airfield, strafing parked aircraft across the pan. I sigh and turn the strafing back off, telling them to try it again with their actual bombs. Soon the parking spots with visible aircraft start to take hits. With those destroyed I start chucking bombs at the HAS, without much of an expectation of effectiveness. There are too many of them to hit them all, I can’t tell which ones contain aircraft and the bombs I’m using are unlikely to be effective, but I brought them so I’ll drop them. The aircraft carrying Mavericks hover overhead, ready to smash any taxiing aircraft spotted, but everything is quiet so far. I initially concentrate the attack on the northern side of the base, near where I’ve spotted the other aircraft, then shift to the southern end where my E-8 spotted aircraft going into shelters. I’m assured by my aircraft that the shelters are being smashed, damaged both by bombing and by rockets, with multiple armour penetrations. I’m not sure I believe them, but I’ll take it. The F-4s from Jacksonville lag behind a little, I’m rebasing them to Key West for further strikes I think, and finish the job against the southern shelters. I haven’t hit the north-eastern set at all, but I’m pretty happy with how all of this has gone. No aircraft lost, only two Mavericks used and what looks to be significant damage to the air base.

Down south, Gitmo is launching a strike of its own. An RQ-2 hovers over Antonio Maceo, picking the ZSU-57-2s back up and guiding the Super Cobras in. TOWs smash the ZSUs and then the helicopters and aircraft move in, severely damaging the military side of the base and also blowing up the control tower for good measure. Proceedings are finished off by a spare S-3 from Kennedy throwing some Mk.82s into the hardened shelters before the RQ-2 does a BDA pass so low it can only be described as insouciant. I’m pretty convinced the base is knocked out as a going concern.

Kill estimates after about 24 hours of fighting around Cuba are 20 MiG-21s, a MiG-21R, 10 MiG-23s and 5 MiG-29s. These 35 aircraft are more than the 20 estimated to be active in the briefing, but if I were the Cubans I’d be parking my unserviceable aircraft outside and my serviceable ones in the HAS. I’ve also sunk two Osas, a Kilo, a Mysterious Boat and blown up an artillery battery. I think the Cubans might be finished, which means I can start moving assets out of this area and over to fight the Venezuelans.

[Blast33]

Nice to read warstories on holliday