Matrix Games Forums

In this magnus opus, lasting three days of game time, NATO has formed CTF155 to secure Socotra and the Bab-al-Mandeb. Specifically, you must clear the Bab of mines; use the marines on the Peleliu task force to take Socotra; seize the Bab in an amphibious and/or airmobile operation with British and French forces; establish recon outposts on six Red Sea islands NW of the straits and establish a new 5th Fleet HQ on Socotra (once secured).

There are a couple of general bugs to begin-with. ‘Civilians’ is a selectable side and the game regularly and annoyingly sets Biologics (which erroneously include location markers) to Hostile.

As ever, you have several task groups with which to achieve the above objectives. The British Ark Royal group, with the carrier plus two destroyers and a frigate, starts some 300nm S of Socotra, with the olier Fort Victoria and a frigate trailing 61nm to the SSE. The French oiler Var, escorted by two frigates and also accompanied by an LST, is 84nm W of the carrier, while the helicopter carrier Jeanne d’Arc (on leave from the Longest Battle in the Atlantic!) and a corvette are 131nm SW of Socotra. Ark Royal has replenished since Mozambique Madness, but her air group’s striking power is still fairly meagre and the above collection of ships appears scattered and vulnerable.

The helicopter carrier Peleliu, with a cruiser, destroyer and two amphibs, begins 203nm ESE of Socotra, with the LST Barbour County trailing by 129nm. Peleliu has a few Sidewinder-armed Harriers and numerous choppers.

Following some way behind is a group consisting of the frigate Brewton and five auxiliaries, which are intended to establish the base on Socotra in due course.

Near Masirah in Oman, you have one American and one Italian frigate escorting another five auxiliaries, who are also to help construct the base.

Elsewhere on the map, the auxiliary White Plains is off the coast of Somalia and hurrying to contribute to the base-building effort. Some 400nm ahead of her, the French frigate Floreal is on anti-pirate duty, though the Somalis have gone quiet of late and play no active role here. The auxiliary Jules Verne is sitting in mid-ocean, acting as a comms relay vessel.

Just to the W of Socotra, the resurrected French destroyer Jean de Vienne is nervously shepherding a pair of minesweepers towards the island in an attempt to clear the minefield suspected to lie off the N coast. There are several more minecraft in harbour at Djibouti.

Finally, in the Southern Red Sea, the British frigate Lancaster is in an exposed position between enemy bases.
You have two submarines, HMS Trenchant starting close to the Jean de Vienne and USS Columbus some way further W.
NATO has two main airbases at Thumrait in Oman and at Djibouti, though these can be reinforced by a US Harrier squadron based in Kuwait and, at a cost in VP, various French and British formations dotted around the Arabian Peninsula.

Support aircraft are present in Arabia, at Diego Garcia, the Comoros, Reunion and at various African bases from Kenya to Senegal. In addition to tankers and patrol planes, these include an assortment of transports, which can be used to move troops from British- and French-influenced territories to Djibouti, from where they can be deployed at the Bab-al-Mandeb.

One thing these diverse aircraft share in common is a dire lack of effective munitions. You have almost nothing to attack with at Djibouti and the Arabian-based planes lack genuine stand-off weapons, being limited to Paveways, Mavericks and bombs.

Nowhere are there any A2A missiles that you would trust beyond about 5nm range under the post-Tiny settings. I hasten to add here that I have not downloaded the update that set AI engagement range to 75% and the enemy have been operating to NEZ in this playthrough (not that it’s mattered much). I’ve read some of the discussion on this and frankly believe that there is no single solution, as deciding which range to fire at depends so much on circumstances. Without designers meticulously handcrafted firing ranges in each scenario (impractical for legacy modules), this is and will remain a big advantage for the player over the AI. To be honest, I’m reluctant to download any more updates until things settle down and 64x graphics do not tempt me sufficiently.

As for the opposition, the Soviets still have air groups based on Socotra and at Sana’a in Yemen, supposedly reduced since Socotra Scramble but still dangerous, with Fulcrums and anti-ship missile toting Fencers. Usefully, the latter are all at Sana’a and Socotra does not have an effective strike capability. The Russians have Osa boats remaining at Socotra and the usual contingent of subs, including a Charlie SSGN.

Yemen, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan all suffered in the last scenario, but have limited formations of outmoded aircraft on call. Eritrea has also discovered that it has a flotilla of Osas, while not all of the small craft clustered around the straits perished last time out. The Yemenis also have artillery at both objectives and some Styx batteries at the Bab.

Helpfully, given the shortage of modern munitions available to NATO, hostile SAM defences are quite modest, with only a few at Socotra and nothing at the Bab, which relies heavily on AA guns. However, the mostly Yemeni ground forces are most numerous and will take some wearing-down, while mines at both locations present an awkward and elusive threat.
As with Air-Sea Battle, I’ll be breaking this post down into three daily instalments:

Day 1 – 04:00Z 19/2/94 to 03:00Z 20/2/94
19/2/94 04:00Z: To begin-with, I launched as many ships as possible from Djibouti to prevent their loss should their piers be destroyed by air attack. I then realised that this might hinder my amphibious operations and hurriedly sent the landing craft back, leaving the minesweepers at sea. Happily, the slip didn’t matter much.

Infuriatingly, the game’s duff navigation routine meant that the ships at Masirah (the La Salle Group) had to steer around Masirah Island instead of going through the strait. Again, the loss of time shouldn’t be serious.

About eight Fencers, escorted by as many Fulcrums, approached HMS Lancaster, which immediately had a sub contact, probably explaining how she’d been detected. The frigate kept radars dark and ran at Flank, sending her ASW Lynx to hunt the sub and act as a decoy. I lost the chopper and had no chance of rescuing the downed pilot (-2 VP , but aircraft losses cost nothing on their own). However, the Fencers failed to locate the Lancaster and she escaped. It seems that some Yemeni Fitters participated in the strike and the AI managed to ditch four of them on the way back, scoring me a point each.

A Joint STARS from Thumrait did some good work locating numerous Yemeni ground units on Socotra from a safe distance. It also spotted three Osa boats off the N coast, two to the W and the other to the E of the landing area. HMS Trenchant zapped the Western pair with Harpoons, but scored no VP.

05:00Z: An AI-controlled Starlifter left Diego Garcia with ammo for the squadrons at Thumrait, which were in the process of being reinforced by the US Harriers from Kuwait. I could have diverted it to Djibouti, but this seemed too risky. Given the Soviet fighters circling over Socotra, it would clearly need an escort and I primed a tanker to give Ark Royal’s Harriers the necessary support.

The enemy had it in for HMS Lancaster. Four Sudanese Flogger H bombers came at her, but learned to their cost that she had a Sea Wolf battery for defence. Happily, that was the limit of the Sudanese threat and the frigate escaped to the Saudi base at Jeddah, her part in proceedings over.

06:00Z: Reports suggested that Ethiopia was considering changing sides and had attacked Eritrea in an effort to use the wider conflict to re-assert her former control over her neighbour.

I began ferrying troops to Djibouti as transports readied. Some runs, especially from W Africa, require one or more refuelling stops en route and some selectable loadouts don’t have the range to cross from Gabon to Kenya. Other aircraft, like some Kenyan Buffaloes, can only reach Djibouti by overflying Ethiopia and are best not used, at least initially. Others have to take a roundabout route off the Somali coast and should not be assigned to Ferry missions until they have a clear run to Djibouti, avoiding Ethiopian airspace as far as possible. By no means everything can be shifted in one run and it’s a long way back to Gabon, let alone Senegal.

I decided that, given my under-armed fighters, the best way to deal with the Soviet CAP at Socotra was to create a No Fly Zone over the island, using the Peleliu Group’s SAMs. After a Flogger got too close to the approaching task force and was downed by a lucky shot (Soviet planes score 3VP), they showed a distinct reluctance to get airborne, having, no doubt, realised the risk.

Mirage recon was yielding some useful data on enemy strength at the Bab. As well as tanks, artillery, two Styx batteries and APCs, there were a number of large, 17-point infantry companies with integral mortars. Plenty of small craft in port, too.

07:00Z: One of the few French strike assets, a pair of Gazelle choppers with little HOT missiles, attacked Mayyun on Perim Island at the Bab and took-out a 152mm battery. Enemy ground units score you nothing, but it has to be done.
A Super Puma landed a token Spec Ops Commando element on Fatma Island, off Assab in Eritrea, thereby establishing the first recon outpost with no opposition. Encouragingly, the Soviet aircraft at Sana’a were restricting themselves to protecting their base.

08:00Z: A Sea Harrier from Ark Royal vaporised the third Osa off Socotra with two Sea Eagles. Meanwhile, a second Super Puma landed special forces on Jazirat Jabal Zuqar Island without resistance and the Gazelles damaged a second 152mm battery on Perim.

09:00Z: The Starlifter arrived at Thumrait with welcome supplies.

A Puma landed a more substantial force on Jazirat al Harush al Kabir island, since recon had detected some enemy troops there. As the briefing had told me to avoid combat on the outpost islands, the troops settled for lying low and observing.

The Gazelles finished the artillery on Perim, but were now totally out of HOT missiles, leaving a Mirage with two loadouts of AS.30s as our only strike plane at Djibouti. There was the option of paying 40VP to call-in some French Jaguars from Arabia, but their short-ranged weaponry didn’t seem worth the cost. I decided that I could deal with Socotra by bombarding the place with the Peleliu Group, while using the planes at Thumrait to sort-out the Bab-al-Mandeb. Sent a KC-135 to Djibouti to support this strategy.

The AS.30 Mirage destroyed a pier at Dhubab, on the Yemeni side of the straits, writing-off six enemy small craft, but there were plenty more. Possibly a waste of ammo.

A Boeing 727 reached Djibouti with a handful of troops. You might as well use these two chartered airliners, but they make poor transports.

10:00Z: We were told that we shouldn’t attack Ethiopia, as the Italians hoped to bring them over to our side. That suited me fine, as I had no intention of bothering them.

A Sea Dragon chopper began sweeping surface mines at the straits without interference from the enemy, but I was well aware from last time that it was useless against bottom mines.

11:00Z: USS Columbus made an abortive attack on Dhubab’s docks with her two Tomahawks. The first was downed by AA fire and the other malfunctioned.

12:00Z: The minesweepers Verseau and Cephee, minus the detached tender Loire, began work off Socotra. At the Bab, the chopper had cleared 35 mines, but there are always more…

13:00Z: Trenchant detected a Victor III NW of Socotra. Mindful of the danger from Russian Stallion or Starfish rocket-fired torpedoes, she lay low, tracked and waited for Jean de Vienne’s ASW Lynx to do the honours for 20VP.

Two F-15s (my ONLY two F-15s), attacked Perim and destroyed most of the heavier AA guns there.

15:00Z: Tried attacking Perim with Harriers using GBU-16 LGBs, but fell foul of the ‘no directors able to illuminate target’ issue. Using two planes didn’t help and I RTB’d in disgust, equipping all subsequent sorties with cluster munitions.

Enemy small craft began to launch around the straits. The minesweeper Milazzo, sent to tackle bottom mines, backed away cautiously, especially in view of the Styx threat.

Where possible, I began moving transport choppers from Kenya, Oman and the White Plains to Djibouti, as an airmobile operation offered better hope than an seaborne landing at the Bab. Note that several of the choppers provided can’t reach and are pretty useless.

16:00Z: A second Boeing (737) made a delivery to Djibouti, but then went under AI control and decided to fly back over Ethiopia. Miraculously, it survived to reach Nairobi, but was then unavailable.

Two Harriers hit Perim with Rockeyes, eliminating about half the infantry at the Myrmidom port. The idea was to clear this area to serve as a bridgehead.

Verseau came under fire from 122mm artillery at Socotra and was lost for -5VP. Cephee also took slight damage. USS Fletcher (Spruance class) retaliated and destroyed the offending battery with TLAMs, leaving three more. The minesweepers had found nothing and Cephee temporarily withdrew. It seemed that the minefield was close inshore under SAM and artillery cover which meant, at least, that our amphibs and escorts could get into the designated zone, where they had to remain for up to 48 hours.

17:00Z: We were given an elaborate mission in support of bringing Ethiopia over to our side. The idea was that a Pilatus executive jet would convey the Admiral of 5th Fleet to Kabri Dar airbase in the Ogaden region of SE Ethiopia to negotiate with sympathetic elements, with the Italian Embassy acting as go-betweens. The plane would be preceded by a Combat Talon Hercules with a Delta Force team, who would secure the location for the Admiral’s arrival. Our task was to provide escort, refuelling for the Hercules and combat support in the event of a double-cross. There were lots of contingency plans, but none had anticipated the actual problem. I noted that the Pilatus and Herc were shown as Airborne on the Bahrain Air Ops window...but where were they??. After much searching, I found the Hercules already off the Somali coast on full fuel, which was OK, but the Pilatus?. Ridiculously, it was in the Gulf of Guinea, W of Gabon, with absolutely no chance of reaching Kabri Dar, even with refuelling stops!!. Bit of a bug here…

Hoping that this wouldn’t cost me the game, I made a new Save file and continued, pragmatically flying the Pilatus to Libreville and the Combat Talon to Laikipia, where they stayed. At least they vanished from the Bahrain window, which was hopeful. We did, at least, get 50VP for being handed this otherwise poisoned chalice.

Elements of the Ethiopian military then tried to upset the process by sending four MiG-21s on a desperate sweep against Djibouti. The Mirages downed the lot without loss, but it scored no VP either way.

A Puma landed some special ops troops at the unoccupied Zubair island. This was at the very limit of the chopper’s range and it had to override going Bingo and trying to go RTB while unloading. It still made it back OK. The other two outposts would require alternative transport, but a Chinook was on its way from Kenya. Worryingly, I still hadn’t scored any VP for establishing the outposts. Do you need to take them all first, or clear them of enemy, or land a certain minimum force, or do you only score at the end of the game?. You simply don’t know.

20:00Z: The Peleliu Group began bombarding Socotra. Despite a 122mm battery somehow returning fire and slightly damaging the Fletcher (I’d tried to observe my 2nm range advantage), all enemy artillery was eliminated, the sole Gauntlet battery destroyed and the airbase brought under fire, scoring a nice haul of VP for parked planes, of which there were more (especially Fulcrums) than we’d been led to expect.

21:00Z: All visible enemy ground forces on Socotra were destroyed. Cephee returned, but had found no mines as yet.
A Sea Stallion transferred from Thumrait tried to shoot-up Perim with its 12.7mm gun, but found that a ‘technical’ ZSU could fire back and abruptly withdrew.

22:00Z: There’s always the ones you can’t see!. More Yemeni troops were spotted SW of Mori on Socotra and brought under helicopter-supported bombardment. A Cobra managed to demolish a 17-point company with 30mm fire, but then had to dodge a Grouse as the usual invisible MANPADs began popping-up. I found a chopper with a Ferry loadout quite useful for spotting from a safe position off the coast.

Due to a basic weakness in the rules, it wasn’t possible to land troops on Socotra by chopper. All the choppers are on the Peleliu and the troops are on the amphibs and, the way the game works (or doesn’t) there is no way around this. Frustrating.

23:00Z: Further heavy damage was inflicted on the new wave of Yemenis on Socotra. However, a Grouse downed a Sea Dragon from Thumrait while I wasn’t looking, mortar fire from an infantry company took-out the sonar on Cephee and a mine slightly damaged Jean de Vienne. We rescued the chopper crew for 2VP and an F-16 apparently located the remaining Yemeni units far and wide across the island, suggesting there weren’t many left…

At the Bab-al-Mandeb, a strike from Thumrait destroyed the remaining light AA guns at Perim and then cluster-bombed the garrison. A CH-53 was then (however unrealistically) able to exterminate the remaining Yemeni forces on the island with its 12.7mm gun (need to place the chopper with the target to its left and it is then lethal). The whirlybird’s crew painted an image of a Dalek on its side upon their return!.

20/9/94 00:00Z: As we switched attention to the Ras Menheli Peninsula on the mainland, Harriers destroyed the local 57mm AA with cluster bombs, leaving a couple of technicals to remove before I could unleash the Daleks. The enemy had plenty of troops poised for a counterattack, backed by artillery, tanks and Styxes.

The Chinook conveyed special forces to Jabal al Tair island, which was hard to see (had to abort unloading to avoid ditching troops in the sea) but undefended. One to go.

A Puma landed a small force to occupy Perim, though there were still a few Toraghs at the docks. Tried in vain to remove these using high explosives from the commandoes.

The bombardment of Socotra continued as yet more Yemenis appeared out of nowhere. We lost a Huey to a Grouse but, again, rescued the crew although the SAR chopper took damage. Meanwhile, I tried using empty RHIBs to pathfind a route through the mines to shore. All four boats were lost to mines and mortar fire from a previously undetected infantry company near the airbase, so another was sent-in and the enemy were scoured away. At least losing RHIBs costs you nothing, so the idea was a good one.

01:00Z: The mines off Socotra remained an issue and one saw-off our fourth RHIB. Two Sea Dragons were on their way, one from Djibouti, but the one at Thumrait could only detect mines, not clear them. Reasoned that, if need be, I could fly paratroops in from Djibouti.

An F-15 cleared away the technicals from the tip of Ras Menheli and a CH-46E began butchering the defenders. However, enemy artillery got wind of our token force on Perim and wiped them out. It would have to go before I could try again, but was well-shielded by AA guns.

02:00Z: Infuriatingly lost the less-useful of the Sea Dragons to another Grouse which was where I’d already killed two teams. As usual, this happened while I was concentrating on the Bab and this enabled the MANPAD to land several hits, giving me no chance to evade. It then died quickly.

We were then told that, regardless of the Kabri Dar fiasco, Ethiopia was changing sides. We could overfly their territory, their fighters would stay grounded but we had best not fly within range of any SAMs. The price was that NATO had agreed to support their reconquest of Eritrea, rightly or wrongly. As a result, our overstretched forces would have to strike Eritrea and support Ethiopian forces as required, so long as this did not prejudice our existing tasks. We would also have to escort a liaison officer to Addis Ababa at some point.

This simplified flying planes to Djibouti and meant that I could now use the Buffaloes, in part to fetch the troops at Nairobi that the Boeing could no longer move. It occurred that I could land ground troops near Eritrean bases to take-out installations there and take the pressure off my strike planes and choppers (most Eritrean forces would be occupied holding-off the Ethiopians on the front lines). Two F-16s with HARMs were sent to Djibouti to help with the Eritrean Goa sites at Massawa.

I was having some issues with the choppers being unable to detect Yemeni ground forces at the Bab without supporting strike aircraft in the vicinity. This was overcome by dropping to 1,000’. In this way, the tip of Ras Menheli was scourged of enemy forces. Choppers were also able to infiltrate through gaps in the AA cover torn by Harrier strikes and eliminate the two Styx batteries. More Harriers blasted the 122mm battery that had caused problems at Perim, but I had lost sight of a second one. Few enemy combat troops are now visible on the peninsula amongst the many surviving AA guns, but I’m sure there are plenty I can’t see. A T-55 unit proved resistant to the choppers, but was mauled by a Harrier with cluster bombs and left with one component.

At Socotra, Barbour County arrived with more RHIBs, but three were apparently lost to the same mine, despite being around 2km apart (I didn’t see exactly what happened, as I was micro-managing the action at the straits). To add to this, another 17-point infantry company had somehow been hiding in plain view and damaged Cephee, disabling her engine. Barbour County herself took some damage from either the mortar or a mine. I do wonder if the enemy will ever run out of troops or mines and the former’s ability to hide is ludicrous given the number of sensors I have available. By the end of the first day, the offending infantry had practically been destroyed, but the battle raged on.

Interesting stuff, I do enjoy the scenarios where you get to make strategic decisions about where to position your assets. Socotra seems to be proving a tough nut, would the RHIBs allow you to shuffle some Marines from the transports onto the Peleliu so you can establish a little airhead?

It sounds like the Pilatus turned up at good old 0.00,00N 0.00,00W? This sort of thing is why I tend to play scenarios in the editor.

Good reading material, better than the morning papers

Always good to know that people are enjoying these posts. After all, it's what they're there for.

If I can, I'll try that method to move troops to the Peleliu, but I'm running out of RHIBs, so it could be too late.

If I could only take the time to learn the Editor, it might indeed be the answer to some of the bugs encountered in too many gaming sessions. So much else to do, though...

Hay Vince

Great AAR as always!

I think the helo's that don't have range can possibly jump to a ship and back to land to get north. Been a while but I think that is set up that way.

Sounds like a lua issue with the Platius, when lua gets confused it drops the unit at 0'0'0'N 0'0'0E which is in the Gulf of Guinea. In the editor you can simply move it (M key) to where it is supposed to be. I'll take a look at why that happened

I do like that you are feeling the pinch for resources. One thing I am really trying to show is that this theater, although the focal point of the west for decades in the post CW era - is really just a sideshow backwater that stands in line behind the ETO, PTO, North Atlantic, Med and Carib. I suppose the only areas less served would be the South Atlantic and South Pacific.

Keep em coming!

B

Damn, I opened up this scenario telling myself that I'd just have a quick look at the Lua to find the error and maybe prod at the helicopter basing problem, but once I got in the basing problem was so interesting that I didn't want to spoil myself by opening up the Lua! I shall have to do this one after Longest Battle or something.

Day 2 (03:00Z 20/2/94 to 02:00Z 21/2/94)
03:00Z: With the local time 6am, dawn revealed that some of our recon teams on the Red Sea islands had company. On Jazirat Jabal Zuqar, they were able to destroy a ‘technical’ with explosives but, on Jabal at Tair, an infantry platoon survived such treatment and a recon Mirage had to finish it off with cannon. Meanwhile, an AS.30 Mirage sank an Eritrean Osa boat, but scored no VP.

Troops landed by chopper near Assab in Eritrea removed the local AA batteries with mortar fire, then headed for Asmara and Massawa.

At long last, a RHIB survived to make landfall, empty, at Socotra.

04:00Z: Marines landed by hovercraft and quickly took Mori Port for 50VP, taking the score to +158, which was still a Minor Defeat. They then ran into another six Yemeni infantry units, including two companies with mortars, plus a Spriggan anti-tank unit. The latter’s missiles ridiculously provoked SAM fire from the warships which was, of course, totally useless. Both sides took damage, but the landing force managed to reach and take the airfield for another 100VP.

At this point (and while trying to mount strikes at the Bab-al-Mandeb, I received detailed instructions on the base-construction plan. It seemed that two of our LCU amphibs would be going to AI control in 30 minutes and therefore needed to be unloaded and launched by then. Special Actions could be used to designate more LCUs for this duty as needed. Needless to say, one of the LCUs concerned was en route to the beach at the time and could not be unloaded in time. In the event, it didn’t matter much, as the amphibs did NOT revert to AI control, after all, nor did they perform any base-building functions. One did strike a mine and the passengers eventually unloaded with a few casualties.

The strikes at Ras Menheli finished the T-55s on the peninsula and cleared some more AA from the target zone. Some troops landed by chopper on the tip of Ras Menheli and at Perim.

05:00Z: The wretched Pilatus took-off from Libreville under AI control and the Combat Talon did likewise from Laikipia. This ensured that the Pilatus would crash before reaching Bahrain. The Combat Talon might have made it but, by a freakish piece of misfortune, its course was going to take it directly over the Soviet fighters and SAMs at Sana’a. Nothing I could do about it.

After much pain, an aggressive ‘damn the MANPADs’ approach with Peleliu’s choppers cleared away the excessive numbers of Yemeni troops around Mori. We lost a couple of helicopters, but rescued the crews. The choppers then flew on to investigate a cave entrance discovered in the W part of Socotra, eliminating more infantry and a Pakistani-made Anza MANPAD team there.

At the Bab, our choppers wiped-out everything S of the Limit of Exploitation (LOE) line.

06:00Z: As troops began to come ashore in earnest at Socotra, yet more Yemeni forces began advancing from the centre and W of the island and bringing us under mortar fire. They seemed to have run-out of Grouse teams and were supported by Anzas instead. Once again, the enemy were slaughtered by choppers and naval artillery and some Marine armoured amphibious vehicles were nearing the mysterious cave.

While my back was turned, something wiped-out the landing contingent at Ras Menheli. The Log suggested it was a mobile AA unit. Unfortunately, our ground forces don’t seem to fire back unless manually told to do so. While they are on Weapons Tight, the AI’s tendency to represent everything as Unknown while keeping its own units on Weapons Free was working against us.

The Chinook inserted a special ops element on Kevin Island, which was undefended. We had now established all seven outposts, but had yet to receive a single VP (and still hadn’t by the end of Day 2).

07:00Z: Yet another counterattack came-in on Socotra, this time including some Russian infantry from the SE. They had initial success because I wasn’t looking but then suffered the same fate as the earlier waves. Nothing happened when our armour reached the cave and the tanks were then wiped-out by a 4-point Yemeni platoon which popped-up while I was dealing with the Russians.

Switched the Starlifter flights to Djibouti, which cost nothing and landed more troops at Ras Menheli.

08:00Z: The Combat Talon duly committed suicide over Sana’a, grossly costing me 50VP and provoking a major Soviet fighter sweep that disrupted and delayed other operations until they RTB’d. We didn’t have the wherewithal to tackle eight Fulcrums and eight Floggers.

The Mori area was now looking secure and, while small Yemeni infantry units kept appearing, the enemy seemed to be out of large companies, MANPADs and artillery. Still no real clue about the mechanics of base-building.

09:00Z: Harriers and supplies began arriving at Djibouti while fighting continued on Socotra.

10:00Z: Our detachment at Ras Menheli was destroyed by three AA ‘technicals’, though it did take them with it. Harriers began demolishing the AA defences around the base of the peninsula with cluster bombs, but one plane found them less effective against the gaggle of Boghammars and Ashura boats off Perim.

11:00Z: Another swarm of Yemeni light infantry attacked on Socotra. Choppers and 155mm howitzers clobbered about a dozen units, but they kept coming.

At Ras Menheli, choppers and Harriers wrought havoc amongst a counterattack force, including tanks and artillery, near the base of the peninsula. Meanwhile, the two F-15s destroyed the piers on Perim and at Murad on the tip of the peninsula, along with such small craft as were still in port.

12:00Z: Our AS.30 Mirage sank a second Eritrean Osa. The last of the Harriers were on their way to Djibouti.

13:00Z: About another dozen Yemeni infantry units were massacred on Socotra. By now, I was sure that the enemy were just re-spawning at intervals and that I would almost certainly be fighting them for the rest of the game. So far, this has proven to be so. It is totally tedious and has greatly detracted from my enjoyment of the scenario. Helicopters can wipe them out long before they get near the port and airfield, but it requires micro-management, slows the game down badly and distracts me from more important tasks every fifteen game minutes or so.

14:00Z: Harriers finished-off the tanks and AA guns at the base of Ras Menheli and the choppers then disposed of the exposed infantry.

More nonsense at Socotra, with a Flogger and Mail taking-off from the supposedly secured airfield and killing one of our choppers before falling to the warships’ SAMs. I wasn’t looking at the time and pieced it together from the Log.

Adding to my growing irritation, the Pilatus duly ditched and cost me another 50VP, regressing the score to +180 and a ‘Minor Defeat’.

15:00Z: Realised belatedly that some of the naval auxiliaries would not be able to reach Socotra in time to score VP. I would have had to split the La Salle and MP2 Groups to prevent this. I limited the damage as best I could by detaching units and sending them on ahead.

16:00Z: We re-established a small presence on Ras Menheli, where a Yemeni HQ struck by the F-15s burned-out and scored us 5VP. Other enemy HQs, including the cave and the overall Army HQ, are too well concealed and armoured for the munitions we have available.

17:00Z: The enemy responded to the latest Ras Menheli landing with an armoured column. Planes and choppers got most of them, but they eviscerated our small contingent ashore. There was now a growing shortage of ammo at Djibouti and several planes were on Reserve loadouts, pending the return of the Starlifter.

18:00Z: Harriers finished-off the armoured column and one plane thinned-out the Boghammars with bombs, only for more to launch from Dhubab on the mainland. My fear was that the small craft and, worse, the armoured columns, would keep coming indefinitely, as at Socotra.

19:00Z: Sure enough, recon detected two more Yemeni armoured columns further up the coast. The AS.30 Mirage sank a third Eritrean Osa.

20:00Z: Our special ops flying column reached Asmara and destroyed both Goa sites there with mortar fire in Bravo Two Zero style. The AS.30 Mirage sank what proved to be the last Osa and also shot down an Eritrean Colt scout plane, not that it scored anything.

Cluster bomb attacks mostly wrecked the second armoured column, which was invitingly bunched in its assembly area. A Harrier hit the third column with incendiaries, but with disappointing results. Depressingly, yet more enemy armour was spotted still further NW. Meanwhile, a Harrier with bombs and cannon cleared the straits of small craft, but these seemed to be re-spawning, too.

21:00Z: Choppers and the F-15s did what they could against the Yemeni tanks and mechanised/motorised infantry.

22:00Z: By concentrating on the non-armoured units, choppers inflicted heavy damage on the enemy columns. Encouragingly, they now seem to be out of 152mm artillery, so they might be finite, after all. However, a CH-53, returning to base, was caught by one of the occasional massive Soviet fighter sweeps and lost, with no realistic chance of rescuing the crew. All other vulnerable aircraft took cover at Djibouti and operations were temporarily suspended.

21/2/94 00:00Z: The flying column dismantled the Eritrean Goa site at the port of Massawa, not that it scored anything, but could find no aircraft there or at Asmara. Perhaps they were based on the Dahlak Islands?.

Support ships were, by now, arriving at Socotra. Only La Salle, Durham and Spica were not going to make it by the specified time. There was a danger of ships hitting mines if left to the mercies of the AI and USS Gary took some damage in this way.

01:00Z: We received 10VP for USS Barbour County staying on-station off Socotra for 24 hours. I used a Special Action to allocate an LCU to base supply duties but, so far, this has had no effect whatsoever, with the airfield showing as captured, with no supplies and completely unusable. It also holds a Flogger which could still, theoretically, take-off at any moment and which I can’t attack. All-in-all, this is an extremely buggy scenario.

To emphasise this, I suddenly found that cargo flights to Djibouti had turned around and were heading back to base because there was insufficient room on the airbase (which showed as 78% full). Presumably, there were restricted facilities for larger planes, but some warning would have been nice. For the flights under my control, I was able to redeem things by launching a few planes to free-up landing room. Crucially, though, the Starlifter was incoming and, being under AI control, there was nothing I could do to prevent it returning to Diego Garcia. This left me with insufficient munitions to destroy the Yemeni mobile forces and make occupation of Ras Menheli practicable. I might just get another chance later-on.

02:00Z: I resolved to do the best I could with what I had. As the Soviet CAP dispersed, I sent a recon Mirage to Dahlak Island, finding four ground-attack ‘technicals’ and stirring-up a couple of Eritrean Fishbeds, which appear to have been at Asmara, though the commandoes didn’t find them there.

A CH-46, helped by an F-16 spotter, began destroying the nearest enemy infantry to Ras Menheli, while one of the few available Harriers was sent after the nearest pair of tanks with iron bombs, more in hope than expectation.

Three Mirages were sent to deal with the MiG-21s with tanker support and a pair of Transalls left with paratroops to try to take Dahlak Island.

One day to go. I’ve now been playing this scenario off-and-on for about 16 days and, to be honest, am getting very weary of it. Too many bugs, far too many enemy troops on Socotra and insufficient clarity on the scoring system. Overall, one of the least impressive Fury scenarios, I’m afraid.

Day 3 (03:00Z 21/2/94 to 04:00Z 22/2/94)
03:00Z: On reflection, I realised that I didn’t need fancy munitions to destroy Yemeni tanks. While helicopter machine-guns were ineffective, the cannon on fighters would likely do the job (in the game, at least), so our Harriers were put on fuel-rich Ferry loadouts and sent-in alongside Mirages and a pair of HARM F-16s. The nearest tanks and infantry to Ras Menheli were quickly eliminated and the armoured columns further NW began to be cut down to size.

Mirages downed both Eritrean MiG-21s for a point each and there weren’t any more. However, in a piece of total rubbish, out supposed Ethiopian allies sent three of their own Fishbeds to engage the force headed for Dahlak Island. I had no choice but to shoot them down, which scored nothing either way.

The AI-controlled LCU continued to deliver supplies to Mori port. It scores no points and simply isn’t worth the bother of the Event messages it generates every half-hour.

04:00Z: Two Transalls delivered a strong force to Dahlak Island, but the ground troops fell foul of the game’s land navigation system and struggled pitifully to negotiate narrow peninsulae leading from the undefended E end of the island to the base at the SW end.

Strafing and CH-53 attacks dealt with most of the non-armoured Yemeni units NW of Ras Menheli and got rid of some of the tanks. Unexpectedly, though, Yemeni MiG-21s sortied from Hodeida and this, in turn, stirred-up the Soviets, who began swarming all over the area. A Flogger killed two Mirage fighters over Eritrea after spoofing the French planes’ missiles on 15% chances, then hitting first time with the reply on each occasion. This enabled it and its wingman to down two Transalls returning from Dahlak and the enemy also caught and destroyed an RTB’ing CH-53. We killed a Flogger and Fishbed in reply, the former after it pursued into SAM range of Djibouti.

05:00Z: The lesson was that we couldn’t engage that close to Hodeida and needed to re-occupy Ras Menheli once the Soviets quietened-down, then defend it against counterstrokes.

Some more Soviet planes flew over Africa and Mirages caught two Floggers on RTB at a disadvantage, putting both into the waters of the straits.

On Dahlak, we overcame the navigation issues by Auto-Engaging the enemy ‘technicals’ with explosives (can never understand the silly range of those weapons) while Ignoring Plotted Course While Attacking. The Anglo-French troops suddenly discovered that they could cross the intervening terrain and all four ‘technicals’ were duly eliminated. We now had to physically reach the Soviet base across more peninsula and water obstacles without this get-out.

06:00Z: Overcoming everything the navigation system could throw at them, the paras struggled to the Soviet base, occupying it for 50VP. Two enemy infantry then appeared out of nowhere, but were destroyed by our mortars. There was no more opposition on the island.

Helicopters conveyed a large force to Ras Menheli. Meanwhile, I resorted to USS Columbus to cull some of the swarm of Boghammars and Ashuras in the straits with tinfish.

07:00Z: Harriers and Mirages strafed enemy armour, this time keeping well S of Hodeida. Troops on Perim Island mortared and sank three replacement Ashuras as they threaded the narrows.

08:00Z: A Paveway F-15 attacked Dhubab docks, eliminating the pier that still seemed to harbour small craft. Another Ashura was sunk by mortars in the straits but what was probably the last one was missed twice with Mavericks by the other F-15 (which was a prize waste of space throughout).

09:00Z: The problem with Djibouti’s capacity had de-allocated the Starlifter, now back at Diego Garcia, from its supply mission. I fixed this by toggling the Special Actions and it took-off again.

By now, all support ships were in the Amphib Area off Socotra, with 19 hours to spare. White Plains scored us 10VP, perhaps prematurely. Too late, I realised that Mount Vernon wasn’t QUITE in the designated area, having been concealed by the Peleliu Group marker. In soccer terms, it was a VAR call, but it was going to cost me points.

The waster in the Maverick F-15 triggered a MiG-21 CAP from Anad airbase in Yemen which, in turn, got the Soviets going again. This delayed further operations against the surviving Yemeni armour. Two Mirages were able to pick-off an incautious Fishbed.

The last Ashura was mortared and sunk in the straits.

10:00Z: A Flogger again flew too close to Djibouti and required about ten missiles from SAMs and Mirages to dispose-of. Otherwise, we waited the Soviets out.

11:00Z: All this time, the utter tedium of machine-gunning regenerating enemy infantry continued on Socotra. Some variety was provided by the discovery and destruction of a Spetsnaz recon unit.

12:00Z: With the Russians away, the mice could again play. Reinforcements were flown into Ras Menheli and the Harriers inflicted heavy losses on the still distant Yemeni armour. 10VP were scored for the supply ship Regent at Socotra.

13:00Z: The Yemenis got mauled some more NW of Ras Menheli and more reinforcements were delivered before the Soviets woke-up again. The auxiliary Orangeleaf scored me 10VP at Socotra.

14:00Z: Having landed two more contingents on Perim, I moved them towards the two piers at Myrmidom and Mayyun. The latter was occupied and unlocked 20VP – this should really have been made clearer in the Briefing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to do the same at Myrmidom, because the map shows the pier as standing on Water. I suspect that the total lack of points for Ras Menheli was down to the pier at Murad having been destroyed by an airstrike, which meant that it could not be occupied. At +313, the score was still Average.

15:00Z: A Harrier destroyed three Yemeni tank elements advancing S from Hodeida, then outran Soviet CAP, which was becoming more regular and persistent.

16:00Z: An F-15 destroyed the Yemeni Brigade HQ at Mori for 5VP. Rationally, it should have been possible to capture it with ground troops.

17:00Z: Recon suggested that the Yemeni armour near Hodeida wasn’t moving and would now struggle to reach Ras Menheli before the game ended. There was a chance that the AA guns around Dhubab might suddenly mobilise and attack, but I suspected (rightly) that they wouldn’t and that there was no point in striking them. That left the enemy air force, which was realistically too strong to fight with a half-dozen Mirages and a couple of F-16s. There were a couple of subs somewhere. The Kilo was almost certainly in the Red Sea, where Lancaster had nearly stumbled on it, but enemy airpower made sending our Breguets there far too risky. As for the Charlie, its whereabouts remained a mystery, but the thing’s lousy sonar makes it as blind as a bat and it had probably failed to detect us.

18:00Z: An F-16 from Thumrait probed enemy defences and destroyed a radar, but this scored nothing.

19:00Z: Retiring, the F-16 lured-in a couple of MiG-21s and destroyed them for 2VP. Meanwhile, Peleliu scored us 50VP and Cleveland 20, taking the score to +338- still Average.

20:00Z: A Djibouti-based F-16 lured-out two Fishbeds from Hodeida, but missed with Sidewinders on 53 and 85 and had to make a hasty exit.

21:00Z: As the very last reinforcement flight reached Djibouti, a Yemeni MiG-21 tried to interfere and was downed by a Mirage.

22:00Z: Thumrait’s other F-16 disabled the Guideline site at Ataq airbase after flying into its range, a Mirage downed another Fishbed over Yemen but this wasn’t doing much good and I suspended such operations.

23:00Z: Another 10VP were scored for the amphib Cayuga, taking the score to +400. Frustratingly, this was still stubbornly Average.

22/2/94 00:00Z: The Mount Hood scored 20VP, Private Anderson another 20 and the freighter American Merlin 50 but, at +490, the score was still Average and we would get no more points for ships.

03:00Z: As the remaining four Yemeni tank platoons were finally moving S, Harriers destroyed 15 of 16 elements (typical!) before Russian fighters arrived in great force and they had to flee, narrowly getting clear. A Flogger pursued as far as Djibouti and fell to SAMs.

So, the final score of +493 was officially Average, despite the great majority of objectives having been achieved. I should probably have had at least 50 for Ras Menheli, 20 for Myrmidom, 35 (5 each?) for the seven island outposts and 100 back for the AI suiciding the Combat Talon and Pilatus, not to mention possible points for missions that might have been completed but for the Kabri Dar bug. Perhaps +698 would be a fairer assessment, which surely counts as a win?.

NATO lost a minesweeper, 8 RHIBs, 2 fighters, 2 transports, 11 choppers and 61 ground elements (plus the Pilatus and Combat Talon).

WP lost an SSN, 3 Osas, 26 patrol boats, 21 fighters, 2 Fencers, 8 attack planes and (wait for it) 2,935 ground elements. At four elements per platoon, the 1,880 Yemeni infantry elements destroyed amounted to 470 platoons. How big was their army in 1994??

Ethiopia lost 7 fighters and Eritrea 4 Osas, 2 fighters, a transport and 27 ground elements.

I think I deserve a medal for grinding my way through this scenario over about three weeks. For much of the time, it wasn’t much fun. A lot of work would be needed to make it more balanced and enjoyable, so I’ll summarise the bug fixes here:

1. By far the worst issue was the never-ending Yemeni army on Socotra. The Fury series is normally excellent for its careful research of what was available to all parties in 1994, but this was a total departure. There should be a realistic-sized Yemeni and Soviet garrison on the island and, once this has been destroyed, that should be that. If the scoring needs to be amended for this and other fixes, so be it. Please don’t do anything like this again!.
2. The Kabri Dar bug must be addressed. The Pilatus and Combat Talon should really start at Bahrain and be required to return there. There’s every chance that the rest of the mission hides more bugs, as might the subsequent mission (blocked on this playthrough) to send an envoy to Addis Ababa, so check carefully.
3. The triggers for scoring VP at Ras Menheli, Perim and the recon outposts need to be fixed.
4. The erratic behaviour of the Ethiopian MiG-21s needs to be addressed. Perhaps this was intentional, simulating rogue elements in their military, but a message clarifying this when it happens would be helpful. Then again, it might be a knock-on effect of the Kabri Dar bug. Perhaps it would be better if Ethiopia goes Friendly or Neutral after the deal is brokered.
5. As matters stand, there seems to be no penalty for losing control of objectives after taking them (perhaps I’m wrong, as it didn’t happen). I could, perhaps, have saved myself a lot of pain by just letting the Yemenis overrun Socotra once I’d gotten the VP and there was really no point in attacking the enemy at Ras Menheli-Hodeida, either.
6. Minesweeping doesn’t work well in the game and there is no realistic chance of sweeping all the mines in the straits or scoring any points for it. You could award a point for every 5 mines or so but it might simply be better to declare the mindfields there and at Socotra cleared and remove them after a minesweeper has been there for a certain number of hours.
7. In general, land warfare doesn’t work well in CMO and some of what happens is frankly ridiculous, like wrecking tanks with light cannon and using long-ranged ‘contact’ explosives, not to mention NATO units on Weapons Tight sitting there doing nothing while a lone enemy ‘technical’ hoses them down and the player’s attention is elsewhere. Mortars and chopper machine-guns against ground targets are greatly over-powered. Best to focus on air and naval warfare and just have land units as targets.
8. The LCU supply mission to Socotra doesn’t work and should be fixed or omitted.
9. Enemy aircraft should be destroyed or captured when Socotra airbase falls, as should small boats at captured piers. Similarly, it should be possible to capture enemy HQs with ground units.
10. The Starlifter should be under player control to avoid the ridiculous inability to fix the capacity problem at Djibouti.
11. Mainland Eritrea should, perhaps, be an exclusion zone for NATO ground forces, to prevent the use of special ops to attack Massawa, Asmara and Assab. Then again, it didn’t make any difference that I did so (unless it would have mattered for the notified missions in support of Ethiopia that never actually happened).
12. Biologics and Location Markers should not be classified as Hostile.
13. Civilians should not be a selectable side.

Moving on, it’s Hail Mary in Chains of War next, which is another huge scenario, as is Hormuz Hoedown in this campaign. It would be nice to play something shorter for a change.