Matrix Games Forums

Balance of Power
Three days into WW3, Combined Task Force 165 is formed with the intention of reinforcing Western-aligned and oil-rich Brunei, which is threatened with isolation by various threats. The Soviets have been permitted to use the Vietnamese base at Camranh Bay, even though Vietnam has not yet actively joined the conflict. Meanwhile, there are irregular forces in North Borneo which have been incited to raid into the Sultanate. You can only play the Western (or Australasian) side.

Your forces are best described as feeble and scattered. The oiler Endeavour is 63nm S of Ambon, Eastern Indonesia, escorted by the destroyer Hobart, frigate Wellington and accompanied by the LST Tobruk and bulk-carrier Stancliffe, the auxiliaries transporting Australian troop reinforcements for what promises to be a long haul to Brunei. The group has limited air defence and just one low-grade ASW chopper.

Some way to the S, the frigate Newcastle is hastening to catch-up with Endeavour, carrying two much-needed Seahawks. Not far away from her is the oiler Westralia, which is charged with replenishing the Abraham Lincoln CVBG when it transits the faraway Malacca Straits (outside the four-day scenario duration).

To the N of the Endeavour, an Australian survey ship, the Mermaid, is trying to return to Darwin. The SSK Onslow is in the vicinity, but lacks the speed and endurance to be of much use as an escort.

Off East Timor, where Fretilin rebels are battling the Indonesian Government for independence, the Aussie patrol gunboat Wollonggong is engaged in humanitarian support tasks.

Some 82nm S of Bali, the frigate Sydney is escorting the oiler Green Rover with a view to (eventually) joining-up with the Endeavour convoy. Sydney has two more Seahawks.

The British frigate Chatham is approaching the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra with a couple of Lynxes on board. The plan is for her to go to Hong Kong, but this involves traversing the area of Camranh Bay.

On point duty for the Lincoln CVBG, the frigate John L Hall is NW of the Malacca Straits, aiming to sweep them for submarines or other hazards before the carrier arrives. She has another two Seahawks.

The oiler Black Rover is in a desperately exposed position off the N coast of Borneo and is intended to link-up with Endeavour if and when she arrives.

A British SSN, the Spartan, is posted a considerable distance off Camranh Bay, screening for enemy naval activity, but she only has outmoded 4nm-ranged torpedoes.

Brunei has a small navy, with three Exocet-armed PCFGs, only one of which starts ready and a couple of landing craft. Also in the South China Sea are an assortment of small Malaysian and Singaporean warships, all of which are under AI control.

The Philippines has two patrol craft, the Pangasinan and Aguinaldo, on duty SW of Palawan.

Air assets are likewise scattered and less than formidable in most respects. Australia has permission to base no more than two Orions at Butterworth, near Penang in NW Malaya (the restriction applies to aircraft on the ground at any given time). Malaysia and Singapore have Sidewinder-armed fighters and recon aircraft under AI control and will share intel with the West.

At Brunei, there are no fighters whatsoever (and just a few MANPADs for air defence). The Sultan’s air force has some helicopters with no ASW capability and a few light ground attack planes.

On Palawan, the Filipinos have four F-5s with Sidewinders or bombs and two recon planes, only one of which is any good at the role.

All other land-based aircraft are in Australia, New Zealand or Guam. The Indian Ocean bases of Christmas Island and Cocos Island are available for use, but you start with just one short-ranged recon plane on the former. There are four Orions at Learmonth in Western Australia, three at Darwin, one at Scherger on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, five at Adelaide and two at Auckland.

Fighters are limited to a squadron of 11 F/A-18s at Katharine in Northern Territory, which cannot be based outside of Australia. There are three Boeing tankers at Brisbane which could potentially support them.

Otherwise, there are four New Zealand Skyhawks at Ohakea on the North Island which are supposed to be ferried to Brunei to make the Sultan feel protected and six transport Boeings or Hercules at Brisbane and New Zealand with which to fly-in troops and ammo in addition to that carried by the Endeavour group. In theory, you are required to move one or two Huey Bushranger choppers to Brunei from Darwin but, in practice, there seems to be no mechanism for doing so.
Finally, there are two more Orions at Guam, but they are limited to MPA loadouts.

It should be noted that no MPAs can be based in Brunei, the Philippines, Singapore or Indonesia for political or security reasons. There are no ammo stores at Christmas or Cocos Island.

As for the enemy, the Soviets are only supposed to have a single Nanuchka PCFG at Camranh Bay, but Scenario Platforms lists other vessels including a Sovremenny, Kresta, Kara, Kashin Mod, Grishas and Stenkas.

Numerous submarines are at large, including a Yankee Notch cruise missile launcher, Charlie, Victor III, a couple of Kilos and a Tango.

Insurgents can be expected to deploy swarms of small craft.

The USSR supposedly has a mixed aviation regiment at Camranh Bay, with Kitchen-armed Blinders, Fulcrums, assorted Foxbats, MPAs and tankers.

Vietnam has some frigates, including some with Styxes, MiG-21s in the air and Goas and Guidelines for air defence.
There is no evidence of high-end Soviet SAMs as yet, but there is no real way to attack their bases anyway.

Potentially, it looks like a serious mismatch…

A further consideration is Indonesia. The sprawling island nation starts Neutral, but has imposed Exclusion Zones over its land masses, leaving constricted corridors for your air and naval forces to transit to and from Brunei, often forcing a roundabout approach which can play Hell with the AI’s Bingo Fuel and RTB calculations. Caution is advised here.

Indonesia is actively patrolling its waters and airspace with frigates and patrol boats. These are mostly of limited power, but the Ahmed Yani-class frigates carry Harpoons. They also have a diesel sub. Aircraft are mostly recon types, with some Tiger II fighters (Sidewinders) and Hawk light attack planes.

Assessment and Planning
What the Hell should we do about this?!

The obvious convoy route was between Sulawesi and Molucca, then around Sabah to Brunei. Indeed, a few calculations soon showed that there was no other way for Endeavour, moving at 14 knots, to get there in time, even in a four-day scenario. Newcastle could catch-up in 17-18 hours at Flank if she wanted to risk a sub ambush. There seemed little choice, as Endeavour needed her help badly.

There was the option of adding Wollongong to the convoy, but there was no real point and she could never have caught-up, anyway, so I left her around East Timor.

Sydney and Green Rover were told to sail past Bali at 19 knots and aim to rendezvous with Endeavour via the Makassar Straits between Borneo and Sulawesi which, I calculated, would take about 50 hours.

Chatham was 1,450nm from the same rendezvous point but, at her Flank speed of 30 knots, she could get there (via the Sunda Strait, Java Sea and Makassar Strait) at about the same time as Green Rover (and had enough fuel to do so).

John L Hall could not help Endeavour and was told to concentrate on casing the Malacca Straits with initial support from one of the Orions at Butterworth.

Westralia realistically needed to reach Singapore in order to meet-up with Lincoln. It seemed safest to go S of Indonesia, then via the Sunda Strait, where MPA cover from Christmas Island could be arranged.

Mermaid had 835nm to go to Darwin and could just make it at 10 knots. Onslow could cover her at first, but she would then have to rely on MPA support from Darwin.

Spartan was detailed to watch activity at Camranh Bay, potentially intercepting any attempt to blockade Brunei. She would have to be careful, as she was no real match for a Victor.

Black Rover was in serious trouble. Heading to Brunei would be suicidal, so I had her make for Singapore at Flank and pray. Any link-up with Endeavour could wait.

Brunei’s Navy would be useful against small craft but would get crushed by the Soviets. I moved them inshore and scheduled everything to sortie from dock as soon as it was ready.

The two Filipino ships could act as pit canaries along Endeavour’s route or engage small craft.

Brunei had no real defence against Soviet attack and would just have to grin and bear it. There were numerous ground units (visible only on Unit View) which would no doubt have to play Whackamole with tiresome insurgents spawning endlessly from the jungle. I set the Message Log to raise pop-ups on any new ground contacts to help with this.

It was possible that the Soviets might face range constraints when attacking Brunei with aircraft. It would certainly be a stretch for Fulcrums, but they had tankers, so there was no guarantee. A real risk was having the runways at Brunei’s Rimba Airport closed by bombing, preventing reinforcement flights, but there was nothing I could about this.

All reinforcement flights would have to go through Darwin. The Skyhawks could get there via Scherger, then go all the way to Brunei, as they had an excellent ferry range. All of the transports could make it from Darwin to Brunei in one hop, but the Hercules at Ohakea would need to fuel at Townsville, Queensland before going to the Northern Territory base. While the Boeings might have been able to miss-out the Darwin stop, I had them refuel there anyway, as they would need to hold-off from the approach to Brunei if there were enemy fighters in the area and the reserves of fuel would be useful. Note that there is no Cargo to load, as all troop arrivals happen via Lua events when planes reach Brunei.

The Orions at Learmonth were told to move to Christmas Island and the other Australasian-based MPAs to gather at Darwin. Tankers were flown-up from Brisbane to Darwin and Katharine.

Day 1
15/2/94 04:00Z: A Nanuchka was detected 140nm offshore from Brunei. We had nothing to engage it with. A Bear was seen over the South China Sea, soon joined by two Fulcrums and a Blinder.

There were two Indonesian Sibarau patrol craft in the Malacca Straits and another ahead of Newcastle.

Plenty of craft were spotted between Sabah and Palawan.

Four SEAD Foxbats attacked Brunei with Kilter ARMs, knocking-out four radars (no VP cost). A Spetsnaz squad appeared to have fallen victim to the Pebble Island Raid (Falklands) bug, wiping itself out with its own explosives.

While I was distracted by the Foxbats, two Toraghs surprised the Filipino patrol boat Pangasinan. Before I could respond, all of her weapons and her propulsion had been knocked-out. Cue lots of performance issues as the enemy fired myriads of 12.7mm rounds.

05:00Z: A pair of Blinders came-in low and bombed the Sultan’s Palace at Brunei, leaving it 48% damaged. One was hit by a Mistral but survived.

Off the coast of Brunei, the tanker Donax was torpedoed by a probable Kilo, much that we could do about it, costing 25VP.

There were at least nine Toraghs and dhows around the Pangasinan, which was sunk for -10VP. Two F-5s from Palawan sank four of the small craft with bombs, but this scored nothing. Attempts to attack with cannon proved impractical. The planes have a 9-hour-plus turnround time.

An insurgent Grail team infiltrated Brunei and was dealt with by a Gurkha platoon.

06:00Z: The ever-careless Russians managed to ditch a Fulcrum and two recon Foxbats for a VP each. Some similar losses followed later in the day.

07:00Z: What appeared to be four freighters were seen approaching Brunei, covered by the Nanuchka. It looked like an invasion force.

08:00Z: An Orion from Butterworth attacked the landing force with Harpoons, sinking two trawlers and damaging a Viet Tran Quang Kai frigate. The Nanuchka managed to down the fourth missile with a Gecko.

Some Scorpion tanks of the Sultan’s army dealt with another Grail team. They then came under fire from a 120mm mortar, but managed to deal with it after taking some damage. None of this scored anything.

The Kilo torpedoed and destroyed an oil platform for -50VP. The Orion was too low on fuel and out of sonobuoys, so could not intervene.

09:00Z: A ‘technical’ appeared in the W of Brunei and was taken-out by a Gurkha Milan anti-tank team.

A Foxbat shot down two Malaysian Super King recon planes (being flown in pairs for goodness knows what reason). At least it cost no points.

The three Scout choppers at Brunei’s Anduki air base, carrying AS.11 anti-tank missiles, made an attempt to harass the landing force, but failed to find it.

10:00Z: We were offered the choice of gaining Indonesian assistance in return for helping them suppress the Fretilin insurgency. Indonesian air bases and airspace would be made available proportionately to the amount of damage we did the rebels, notably a couple of marked (and well-fortified) HQs. However, this would cost 500VP due to the outrage such an action would provoke, domestically and internationally. There would also be penalties for hitting any civilian, UN or NGO targets, putting a premium on the limited numbers of precision weapons available to the F/A-18s at Katharine. We had an hour to decide. Overall, it did not seem worth the cost, so I declined. We were told that diplomatic efforts would be made to sweet-talk Indonesia and that these would take longer than the scenario duration to play-out…

The Nanuchka fired its six Sirens at the oil platforms, doing damage. Two later sank, costing another 100VP.

A second Orion arrived off Brunei, located and finished-off the remaining transport trawler, the Viet frigate and the Nanuchka, none of which scored anything.

11:00Z: Another ‘technical’ came over the border near Anduki and a recon squad took it out.

13:00Z: A pair of Foxbats patrolled the NE approaches to Brunei for 15-20 minutes, then withdrew. The Malaysian frigate Musytari still had a functioning air search radar, which provided valuable early warning.

14:00Z: The Scorpions dealt with a rebel infantry platoon.

More Foxbats arrived off Brunei.

Intel arrived that a Soviet convoy was en route to Camranh Bay, no doubt with high-end SAMs. It had a Kara and Sovremenny (at least) for escort, which explained where the other enemy surface assets were. It had passed between Taiwan and Luzon about 24 hours ago and was expected to arrive in two or three days. As our MPAs would struggle for range and there was enemy fighter cover, our options for attacking this force were realistically limited to HMS Spartan, which was told to move cautiously towards a likely intercept point E of the port.

15:00Z: Another ‘technical’ emerged from the jungle and was swatted by the Milan team. However, two more appeared and quickly destroyed both the Milan team and a Gurkha platoon with ZU-23 fire. A mortar team then disposed of them.

A Boeing 707 reached Brunei with Australian troops and some RBS-70 MANPADs. Almost certainly due to a bug, this scored nothing (a message did appear).

An Orion from Guam counted 21 small craft in three groups, barring the exit from the Celebes Sea between Sabah and Mindanao. The rebels had a small port at Languyan island.

16:00Z: It seemed that the Indonesians were unhappy with our refusal to attack the Fretilin!. Without warning, a Tiger II shot down an Orion transiting the Sunda Strait back to Christmas Island (it was definitely in international airspace), costing 8VP. As we had no fighters in the area, this closed the Sunda Strait to our planes. Indonesia remained Neutral in terms of base and unit markings. This was almost certainly a bug, perhaps caused by Indonesian units being set to Weapons Free.

17:00Z: My luck being what it is, I just happened to have a second Orion in the Sunda Strait at the time, flying outbound to cover Chatham. The Tigers gave chase and the MPA switched her radar off and dived to minimum altitude, making for Butterworth, as the way home was blocked. Somehow, the AI botched its attack and the Orion got away.

Meanwhile, Chatham was dangerously close to the Indonesian frigate Martha Khristina Tiyahahu, a former British Tribal-class ship with 114mm guns and Sea Cats. Chatham tried to avoid escalation and steer around the slightly slower Indonesian ship at Flank. Tiyahahu went to Flank and moved to cut her off, obviously intent on attacking, despite being marked as Neutral.

The four New Zealand Skyhawks made it to Brunei, only to find that there was no ammo for them there. It appeared that it was on a Hercules that would be one of the last transports to arrive.

Meanwhile, four Aussie F/A-18s with two Sparrows each had flown to the Celebes Sea with two of the three tankers in support, aiming to cover the transport flights. By this point, it was evident that they would not be able to remain on station for long at all, as one tanker had already been obliged to turn back and the third was on its way from Australia.

18:00Z: Tiyahahu was looking as though she would JUST get into gun range before Chatham could pull clear and I couldn’t afford that, knowing how much harm even a single low-calibre hit can do to systems in this game. So I fired a Harpoon and cursed as the AI made a 15% spoof roll with chaff. A second Harpoon struck home and, even then, did relatively little damage, but it slowed Tiyahahu to 20 knots and, showing saintly restraint, Chatham was able to get clear. The overriding thought was that this should simply not have been happening.

19:00Z: Two Tigers overflew Chatham, but carried-on almost all the way to Singapore before RTB’ing. The British frigate continued to be shadowed by Indonesian recon planes.

The Aussie Hornets had to accept the inevitable and began a long and uncertain flight back to Northern Territory. Providing air cover for Brunei can’t be done.

20:00Z: My jaw dropped as a message told me that a Soviet merchant ship had ALREADY reached Camranh Bay, costing me 100VP. Given advanced warning, I might just have gotten Spartan there in time or used Orions from Butterworth, but enemy fighters, possible sentry subs and MPAs would have made this dangerous. Lacking this, I had no way of preventing this happening.

A Hercules reached Brunei with some troops and Rapiers and a New Zealand Boeing followed with more infantry but the VP Schedule is a one-way street and I scored nothing.

21:00Z: Two more ‘technicals’ sneaked past our recon squad and did some damage to the Shell oil company HQ near Anduki before a mortar team culled them.

Simultaneously, the Foxbats returned and an incoming Boeing had to pull away until they had gone, thanking Musytari for the timely warning.

22:00Z: The Boeing reached Brunei with more Aussie troops but, again, scored nothing.

Another tiresome ‘technical’ appeared and was mortared before it could do any harm.

The Foxbats returned at dawn, so an incoming Hercules held-off. When the Russians had gone, the first Boeing left for Darwin, rather than risk being lost on the ground later.

23:00Z: Another ‘technical’ got a mortaring. Yawn!. Some rebel infantry then made for the Palace and fell foul of the Scorpions.

The two attack F-5s paid a visit to Languyan, sinking a Toragh and three dhows.

We were told about a suspicious LPG tanker, the Berget Danuto, which was requesting docking rights at Darwin. Apparently, she’d made an unscheduled stop at Mumbai and had Bulgarian officers. I once read a Frederick Forsyth novel about al-Qaeda using an LPG tanker as a floating bomb, so the intent was evident. We were told to board her with the patrol boat Geelong, now ready at Darwin, but I favoured a more direct approach to the problem. Sent-out Geelong, with a recon Orion and an F/A-18 with Harpoons.

By now, all the Hornets and tankers were back from the abortive remote CAP mission.

The Hercules arrived at Brunei with more troops, including Milans and Rapiers. I wasn’t totally sure how many of these troops were actually appearing on the map. The answer seemed to be ‘some’.

By now, Newcastle had caught-up with Endeavour and Black Rover was approaching Singapore, miraculously unscathed.

16/2/94 00:00Z: A Filipino MAR Maritime, searching for the Russian convoy (if it was still out there) had a close encounter with a fighter and probably survived because the latter was low on fuel. The MPA returned to base. I was otherwise using an Orion from Guam to search, so far to no avail.

01:00Z: Another rebel infantry platoon was wiped-out by the Scorpions.

The recon Orion located the Berget Danuto 440nm W of Darwin. The Hornet had had to RTB, such is their miserable endurance on a map of this scale, so I sent-out another with a tanker.

02:00Z: Blinders with Kitchens sank the tanker Akawa Iborn off Brunei, costing another 25VP.

The Hornet put two Harpoons into the Berget Danuto, which didn’t explode, but slowed to 7 knots. We got a silly message about a civilian ship being under attack, but I was past caring.

Thoughts
This scenario is seriously flawed, I’m afraid.

For starters, it is too big and too long.

The VP triggers for the reinforcement flights are broken. It is very hard to score any points at all.

Indonesia should (presumably) not have attacked me. Regardless, there needs to be a better incentive for helping them against the Fretilin or that whole side of things needs to be dropped.

It is impractical to attack the Russian convoy (unless there’s something I don’t know).

It is impractical to provide air cover for Brunei.

The AI scores heavily for most of the (easy) things it can achieve, badly affecting game balance. Then again, perhaps I should have been getting stacks of points for the transport flights – I don’t know.

I’ve no idea what role Papua New Guinea is supposed to play but, for now, their peripheral units and transport flights are just a drag on already stressed game performance (everything stopped dead on numerous occasions, taking some time to recover).

It isn’t possible to move the Hueys from Darwin to Brunei.

I’ll wait for some comments before deciding whether to continue into Day 2 of 4. As it stands, I’m not keen.

It's been awhile since I played this but there does appear to be some bugs with scoring and the Indonesians. I don't recall what the Papuans are up too specifically. However, I have always viewed this scenario as one of the Fury scenarios where you really aren't supposed to win or do well period. It more to demonstrate the difficulties of managing a larger theater with a lot of activities and few/obsolescent resources when the heavy hitters are allocated elsewhere. Which is a realistic position to be in and historically a major one in this theater, hello ADBA Command. I just take this one as a Kobayashi Maru scenario that immerses the player in the story and thankful when they can handle a more concise objective with a modern well equipped force.

You're probably right. After all, the Fury series is essentially 'the game of the book that might be written sometime' and a lot of it is about the story. Nonetheless, it does take a long time to play, with the performance issues sometimes bringing my machine to a complete stop and the bugs don't help. I'm still pondering whether to continue while cycling through the other games I play and doing the other things that comprise my life.

fitzpatv wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 12:16 pm You're probably right. After all, the Fury series is essentially 'the game of the book that might be written sometime' and a lot of it is about the story. Nonetheless, it does take a long time to play, with the performance issues sometimes bringing my machine to a complete stop and the bugs don't help. I'm still pondering whether to continue while cycling through the other games I play and doing the other things that comprise my life.

Performance capabilities are a concern for sure. I have recently upgraded my machine to just try and keep up.

Hi Vince, thanks for the report.

Unfortunate about the scoring and performance issues. This scenario is meant to be a showpiece of time, distance, and international complexity. I cannot remember off hand, but there are at least 9 or so nations with a stake in the game. If I could have found a reason to put a Dutchman down there, I would have, and maybe call it ABDA redux. I suppose this could be four scenarios instead of one, but each would be on the smallish side - perhaps a better option.

This scenario is linked with PF-6 Priorities, where you have roughly this same force, now assembled near Bruni, new allies, and the Lincoln CVBG barreling through your AO but not under your control. This is another scenario that pits limited ranges and capabilities against requirements that might not be realistic.

The Indonesian setup is meant to put the player into the position of either holding their nose and dealing with the devil or living with the consequences. Since you declined, those units should not be attacking you, but they should be actively making a pita of themselves. By accepting the agreement, you make the transit of many of your assets, including LR CAP, much easier.

Your study of Frederick Forsyth has prevented what can only be described as an earth-shattering Kaboom

There are quite a few more little surprises and, no doubt, annoyances to come, so I hope you will play on. If however, you move on, the next scenario is much quicker and straightforward, but does have some unique challenges.

Bart

Day 2

Well, as Bart was keen for me to continue into Day 2 and I’m happy to help with his project in any way I can, here it is. Overall, it was an improvement on Day 1.

03:00Z: The Berget Danuto duly sank which, of course, wrongly cost us 25VP (a poor reward for saving Darwin). It also caused the AI to mark all ‘Commercial’ units as Hostile, which complicated matters somewhat going forward.

The Russians shot down another Malaysian Super King.

At 03:51Z, an Orion from Guam found the Soviet convoy 226nm E of Hainan and 510nm NE of Camranh Bay, doing 10 knots. Other than Spartan, which moved to intercept, we still had nothing to attack it with. The P-3 spotted a Sovremenny, Kashin and Kresta in the van, followed by a Kara, two freighters, two tankers and a RO-RO container ship, then a small freighter and a tug bringing-up the rear. The formation looked vulnerable to attack from the rear, which seemed Spartan’s best bet if she could move around it. An AEW chopper was providing intermittent cover.

04:00Z: At 04:30Z, we received some intel on the Russian convoy. The RO-RO ship was the Zeran, believed to be carrying high-end SAMs, SSMs and maybe small craft.

05:00Z: Traversing the Java Sea, Chatham spotted four Harpoons streaking towards her and parried them with her Sea Wolf system. Her chopper located the Indonesian frigate Ahmad Yani to the S. Chatham’s first Harpoon was downed by a flukish 3% shot from a 76mm gun, but the second struck the enemy ship and immobilised her. Two Tiger IIs barrelled across the Java Sea after the Lynx, which just made it back to Chatham in time.

06:00Z: The two Foxbats returned to Brunei. Once they had gone, the transports began their long journey back to Australia.

07:00Z: Black Rover rather miraculously made it to Singapore.

I decided that it was best to eliminate any Indonesian warships that might interfere with the survey ship Mermaid’s passage to Darwin. An Orion sank the corvette Memet Sastraweria without incurring a penalty. Meanwhile, the Ahmad Yani died of her wounds.

08:00Z: The Orion sank the patrol boat Silea, which was the nearest Indonesian vessel to Darwin.

10:00Z: The last Boeing transport reached Brunei, bringing in more Aussie troops but getting no VP. Meanwhile, a Foxbat bagged another Super King and unluckily (for it) missed two more on good odds.

11:00Z: A Foxbat downed two more Super Kings. Why the Malaysians kept sending them out in pairs with no escort is something only the AI could explain.

12:00Z: An intel update on the Soviet convoy revealed that it contained a weird variety of false-flagged ships (German, Luxembourgeois and even US!). Less amusingly, it had a Victor III escorting it, which made Spartan’s task even riskier.

However, we were given surprise reinforcements to do the job!. Six Aussie F-111s with four Harpoons each spawned at Brisbane, along with two RF-111s for recon. The latter were pretty useless, as their sensors were no better than those of the attack model and their only advantage was range. Additionally, three B-52s with eight Harpoons each materialised at Guam, with eight KC-135s. I already had an Orion from Darwin in transit to Guam via Papua to test feasibility before sending six more.

These additions were not available straightaway and the B-52s would not be ready for four hours, while the convoy steamed steadily away at 10 knots.

As if this wasn’t enough, at 12:30Z, a request arrived from the Papuans for help with a rescue mission. A Cessna Citation had crashed in the high jungle mountains W of Mt Hagen airfield while en route from a place called Mokmer to the capital, Port Moresby. Lacking the capability themselves, the Papuans wanted the wreckage and any survivors found. A Sea King spawned at Townsville to assist with this, but it had no ground search abilities and, in any case, dusk was approaching, which would hardly help. Perhaps one of the RF-111s would be useful here?.

All this happened just as the last Hercules was arriving at Brunei with the ammo for the New Zealand Skyhawks. We got no VP for this, either…

13:00Z: The Foxbats re-appeared over Brunei just before 14:00Z and their departure gave the last Boeing a window in which to leave.

14:00Z: The F-111s left Amberley to rendezvous with our three Aussie tankers off North Queensland. There would then be a bridge of US tankers all the way to the targets. One RF-111 was on its way to Papua, the other staying home.

I then had one of those annoying bogus ‘AI Emergency’ messages, which happen when the game gets a fuel calculation wrong, decides it knows best and re-directs one of your planes needlessly to a new home base on RTB. The lead Guam-bound Orion veered-off towards Wewak in Papua. Of course, it was perfectly capable of reaching Guam and I reinstated my original orders without further interference. We could do without this feature.

The AI pranged another Fulcrum. If our intel was to be believed, the Russians had now lost five of their nine MiG-29s to such accidents.

A second pair of Foxbats unexpectedly appeared off Brunei, only just too late to intercept the Boeing, which had to make a course change to make sure it stayed out of their radar range.

15:00Z: Approaching the N end of the Makassar Strait, TG Green Rover encountered the Indonesian patrol boat Siribua. Taking no chances, HMAS Sydney sank it with a Harpoon. The Indonesians brought it on themselves…

One of the follow-up bunch of Orions turned back to Darwin because an RTB instruction (to Guam) had not registered with the AI. It was too late to do anything about it by the time I realised.

Off the Queensland coast, predictable in-flight refuelling chaos set-in, with the six F-111s ignoring the three nearby and available Aussie Boeing 707 tankers and making instead for the least distant American ones N of Papua (which had refuelling set to ‘Not Allowed’). Nothing would change their minds, so I had to make the KC-135s available. I’ve never quite grasped whether Boom and Drogue refuelling are the same thing and it is possible, I guess, that the RAAF’s tankers couldn’t refuel their own F-111s. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?.

16:00Z: There were further issues with the bug whereby aircraft given a choice of tankers keep changing their minds about which one to use and end-up using none of them. Some manual orders eventually sorted this out.

17:00Z: The last Hercules got clear of Brunei and headed for Darwin. It was good to get all that over with.

19:00Z: Five Aussie Orions were now readying at Guam.

Far away in the Malacca Strait, USS John L Hall sank the Indonesian patrol boat Sigalu and continued towards Singapore. Orions continued to sweep the Strait for hidden subs.

The Filipino MAR Maritime re-located the Russian convoy as the F-111s performed a second refuelling operation SE of Mindanao.

20:00Z: As for the rescue mission, the Sea King could barely reach Moresby, where it waited for daylight and the wreck’s location before taking the medical team to care for any survivors. The RF-111 re-based to Mt Hagen and did a lot of nocturnal terrain-following, but found nothing before taking a break at the airfield. Perhaps it would be easier in daylight. Try as I might, I still couldn’t locate Mokmer, which didn’t help.

The three B-52s, free of refuelling considerations, attacked the convoy from the rear. The AEW chopper saw them coming and the Russians re-arranged into a better formation, putting-up a barrage of SAMs which downed most of the 24 Harpoons. They couldn’t stop them all, though and the vital Zeran was sunk for 150VP, while four other merchantmen and the Kara-class cruiser Tashkent were all hit. The MAR Maritime was very helpful in identifying targets accurately.

21:00Z: Just as things were looking better, a Yankee Notch SSGN bombarded Brunei Airport with its Sampson cruise missiles. After all the trouble it had taken getting them there, all four Skyhawks were lost on the ground for 3VP each along with two choppers, five Bo-105s and a CN-235-110. Despite being useless, the Bo-105s and CN-235-110 were adjudged to be ‘High Value Aircraft’ and cost me 8VP each, which has to be wrong, making each one worth eight Fulcrums.

Two stricken Soviet merchantmen foundered for 50VP each as the remainder of the convoy continued at 6 knots.

The Yankee Notch fired another eight Sampsons and destroyed an oil farm for 10VP.

At the exit from the Makassar Strait, Chatham was ambushed and sunk by a Soviet sub, costing me 50VP plus 3 each for her Lynxes. She had to be travelling at Flank to have any chance of catching-up and I’d hoped that TG Green Rover (which had cased the area with an ASW chopper) had run interference for the frigate. It seems that the Kilo (or Tango) had simply avoided detection and failed to intercept the Sydney and Green Rover. Still, it would be unlikely to be able to attack again.

22:00Z: Another eight Sampsons destroyed another oil farm, the Shell HQ and a pipeline at Brunei for another 30VP total. There was no defence beyond the ineffective MANPADs. At least the thing was now out of missiles.

After a long flight and three refuelling exercises, the weary F-111s finally got to attack. They sank the remaining four merchantmen for 50VP each, along with the Sovremenny for 25 (not 50, like the Chatham) and the tug, which scored nothing. The damaged Tashkent was saved by a double Harpoon malfunction, the Kresta was hit once and the Kashin hit two missiles with 38% and 25% shots with 30mm cannon.

23:00Z: A Foxbat belatedly arrived and hit the spotting Orion with an Acrid just before the P-3 dropped below the weapon’s engagement floor. Fortunately, it was only damaged 66.5% and was able to escape as three more Acrids lost lock due to the dive.

The Tashkent died of its wounds for 50VP.

John L Hall reached Singapore, where she screened Black Rover and waited for the Lincoln CVBG.

17/2/94 00:00Z: Two F-5s visited Languyan, but struggled to find targets, sinking one dhow and damaging another before dropping some bombs on the enemy harbour to no apparent effect. The sinking of the Berget Danuto meant that all the ‘Commercial’ shipping in the area was marked as Hostile, so I had to be extra-careful about what I attacked.

Another 10VP were lost due to civil infrastructure at Brunei burning-down in the wake of the Sampson strikes.

An F-5 intercepted and downed a Bear for 4VP (half the value of a Bo-105).

It was by now obvious that the Aussie Orions could not reach the Kresta and Kashin from Guam, so they turned back. I also called-off Spartan and sent her towards Brunei, as the Victor would have had her on toast.

01:00Z: After much searching, the RF-111 found the Cessna wreckage.

A Foxbat got another two Super Kings.

03:00Z: (Day 3, but for the sake of tidiness). The Sea King reached the crash site and rescued three survivors, actually gaining 25VP!

So, Day 3 gets underway with the Endeavour and Green Rover groups about to link-up in the Celebes Sea and try to break through the Languyan island chain. The surviving small craft there shouldn’t pose too many problems, but there is the risk of a lurking sub to consider.

I also need to consider whether to keep Spartan moving towards Brunei in the hope of catching the Kilo that attacked there earlier (and is hopefully out of torpedoes) or move her out of the way to avoid an encounter with the Yankee Notch, which is almost as dangerous to her as the Victor.

Overall, the score is just negative and a Major Defeat, but this takes no account of what I should have scored for flying reinforcements into Brunei and the AI has had undeserved windfalls for the LPG tanker, the Orion downed by the Indonesians and the excessive value of the Bo.105s.

I’ll take a break from it and resume later. Incidentally, the worst of the performance issues seem to have been caused by anti-virus updates and scans. I’ve therefore decided to do the following when playing Command – turn-off Microsoft Edge, disconnect from the internet, then temporarily suspend anti-virus protection. This appeared to help in the most recent session.

Yes, I believe the Aussie 111s are like the USAF versions and are boom refueling only and cannot tank from the probe and drogue only Aussie tankers.

Boom refueling vs probe and drogue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling

Yeah, the Aussies were in a bit of a refueling pickle; the fuelers could only support the F-18s and not the F-111. A quote from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._33_Squadron_RAAF

A consortium of Israel Aerospace Industries and Hawker de Havilland converted four of No. 33 Squadron's six serviceable aircraft to in-flight refuelling tankers between December 1988 and May 1992.[15] Their probe-and-drogue configuration allowed them to refuel the RAAF's F/A-18 Hornets and the Royal New Zealand Air Force's Douglas A-4K Skyhawks, but not the RAAF's General Dynamics F-111 bombers, which required a boom system; the other two 707s continued to be used purely for long-range transport.[15][17] The RAAF had argued for an air-to-air refuelling capability for both the F/A-18s and the F-111s, but the Australian government refused to fund the latter, considering the F-111's existing range sufficient for deterrent purposes. Observers such as journalist Frank Cranston speculated that aside from any cost issues, the government was concerned that extending the bombers' range would signal to the region that Australia was adopting a more aggressive defence posture.[22][23]

In the editor, you can change the stance of the neutrals back to neutral.

That was a very lucky Sampson strike on Bruni. The strike on the airport in testing took out one or two aircraft, not all of them. By evacuating the transports, you avoided a major catastrophe. I think the Skyhawks can shoot the Sampson down, cannot remember. Also the Bo-105 - this is from memory, so could be wrong: I set the HVA by role, which prevents having to write 20 or more triggers for each AC type. I guess that I didn't detect that the Bruneian Bo-105 was 'transport'. I think I need to set another linked event to deduct those points - one of the minor pitfalls of the event system, which could probably be completely rectified with lua if I were smart enough.

Interesting.

The problem with the Skyhawks and the Sampsons was that the Yankee Notch's strike happened during my attack on the Russian convoy, so I didn't see the missiles coming until it was too late. It's the sort of simultaneous timing I tend to suffer from and, the bigger the scenario, the harder it is to keep everything in view. The ambush of the Philippine patrol boat at the start was another example of this kind of thing.

Starting Day 3 now, with my anti-virus set to Gamer Mode...

Day 3
04:00Z: Day 3 started chaotically as the buggy nature of the scenario asserted itself. First, the damaged Orion that was limping back to Guam simply vanished when I re-loaded the game – at least it wasn’t recorded or scored as lost and it would have been out for the duration, anyway.

More seriously, the Vietnamese then started shooting at the Soviets, who responded in kind!!. It was probably caused by a Vietnamese warship on Weapons Free getting within gun range of a Grisha, which it sank. Carnage ensued, with the two sides kicking the proverbial out of each others’ air groups and the Viets also sinking a Stenka patrol boat and crippling an AGI. It did something to offset the illegitimate windfalls the AI had benefitted from earlier, but it really shouldn’t have been happening. The Grisha and Stenka scored nothing.

Amidst all of this mayhem, an Orion found the Kilo that had attacked shipping and oil rigs off Brunei and, after much frustration, sank it for 50VP. This convinced me to move Spartan well out of the way.

05:00Z: I tried getting some Bruneian air support for Endeavour and Green Rover, but it turned-out that the Sampson strikes had also closed the runways at Rimba Airport, which was inoperable for the rest of the game.

The Filipino MAR Maritime located 8 Toraghs and dhows lurking to the NE of the Languyan archipelago, another 7 to the SW and a stray left over from the F-5 strikes in the middle. This left the convoy with a channel it could sail through in the middle.

12:00Z: By now, the convoy was traversing the Languyan area, undetected by the enemy small craft.

13:00Z: Having re-armed at Guam, the Aussie F-111s returned and re-located the Kresta and Kashin with a search-strike. Despite the presence of some Viet MiG-21s in the vicinity, the lead pair of Aardvarks sank both Russian warships for 76VP total, including a chopper. An orphaned Hormone later ditched, taking the score to +150, which was still a Minor Defeat (with the scale running up to +800, suggesting that I should have scored quite heavily for the transport flights to Brunei).

16:00Z: Just as I thought that Endeavour and Co were getting clear of Languyan and, typically, while I was struggling to micro-manage the bug-infested refuelling of the returning F-111s, a Kilo popped-up dangerously close to the convoy. I just spotted it in time despite not getting a message about it and it didn’t detect me early enough from its point-of-view, probably because it was tearing about at 19 knots. Newcastle’s and Wellington’s choppers eventually pecked it to death with three torpedo hits for another 50VP. Even at +200, it was STILL a Minor Defeat!. What did I have to do?
It suggested that the sub that sank HMS Chatham was a Tango. I had Onslow moving in the direction of the event, but she was not too likely to get there in time.

The F-111 strike and supporting tankers made it back to Guam.

18:00Z: With Soviet losses to the Viets taking the score to +204, it was finally Average.

I’d ferried an Orion back to Christmas Island from Butterworth, as it lacked ammo and I needed the basing slot for another. Needlessly, I sent it onward towards Darwin for a new loadout and this flight-path took it into Indonesian radar range, bringing two Tigers down on it with shocking speed. By diving to minimum altitude and turning its radars off, the P-3 managed to survive, heading to Learmonth and thence to Darwin, only to find that there was no ammo for it there, either, not that it mattered much.

23:00Z: After a dull passage of play, the Filipino F-5s sank three insurgent boats and crippled another with bombs.

18/2/94 02:00Z: Mainly to alleviate the tedium, I sent Aguinaldo to finish-off the four remaining insurgent boats in the NE flotilla. This proved to be a big mistake!. The Filipino patrol boat hit the first Toragh to appear with her 40mm gun but, despite the things having only 4DP, it kept coming and the Aguinaldo was then saddled with a 10-minute reload time. Her other weapons proved hopelessly inaccurate and, joined by three more, the Toragh rapidly took-out every system on the patrol boat with contrastingly-effective RPG and 12.7mm fire. I was left hoping that they didn’t have enough ammo to finish her off, but fires suggested otherwise. Lesson learned, but these small craft seem seriously over-powered.

03:00Z: By now, Endeavour and Green Rover, plus escorts, were approaching the Buliluyan channel at the NE tip of Borneo. Recon suggested that there was no opposition here, but that at least two Vietnamese warships were some distance off the NW coast of Borneo. In themselves, they did not seem a big problem, but they could potentially bring-in Blinder strikes or maybe the Yankee Notch or even the Victor from the Russian convoy. Another concern is that it seems touch-and-go as to whether the convoy can actually reach Brunei in the scenario time-limit.

There will be another interlude, then I’ll play the final day.

Thanks for hanging in there Vince

Bart

Day 4

06:00Z: The Endeavour convoy fell foul of the game’s lousy automatic navigation (Pathfinder) system while trying to weave through the Buliluyan Strait and decided to go the long way around. Corrected this by moving it in small stages at a time.

08:00Z: I realised belatedly that, despite this, Tobruk had decided to go the long way after all and I had to detach her from the convoy and increase her speed to Flank to catch-up. The convoy otherwise made it out of Buliluyan and was now on the final stage of its long journey down the coast of Sabah to Brunei.

Meanwhile, the Aguinaldo had miraculously survived!. Having damaged her 97%, the Toraghs ran out of ammo and withdrew and the crew put-out her fires, leaving her motionless but still afloat.

11:00Z: A patrolling Orion from Butterworth picked-up a sonobuoy contact and homed-in on the Yankee Notch, which had come to Brunei to torpedo some oil rigs. It needed three torpedo hits to sink the SSGN, which was worth 50VP.

15:00Z: The survey ship Mermaid, lavishly escorted by Orions most of the way, made it to Darwin and scored 25VP. Aussies look after their own.

18:00Z: HMAS Sydney reached Brunei for 25VP, followed shortly by Green Rover for 100 more.

19:00Z: Hobart (50VP), Endeavour (100), Newcastle (25), Tobruk (100) and Stancliffe (100) all reached Brunei. For whatever reason, we scored no VP for getting HMNZS Wellington there. At +793, it was now a Major Victory and, with 800 needed for a Triumph, the missed points for Wellington were the difference.

22:00Z: The Filipino F-5s returned to Languyan, found no trace of the Toraghs that had beset Aguinaldo, so attacked the insurgents’ SW flotilla instead, sinking two dhows and two Toraghs.

23:00Z: South of Indonesian New Guinea, the patrol boat Sigarao was a bit too close to her Papuan counterpart Rabaul so, to forestall any incidents, I sent an Orion to deal with her. The Indonesian boat was initially shielded by being in a No Navigation Zone, but was sunk when she emerged.

19/2/92 04:00Z: It ended in a Major Victory, with a final score of +794. In truth, it was comfortably a Triumph with the points for flying reinforcements into Brunei included, even if Soviet air losses to the Vietnamese partly balanced-out the other defects with the scoring system. How far the Viet-Soviet conflagration prevented Blinder attacks on the convoy, I’m not sure, but the enemy would have struggled to detect it, anyway.

‘Australasia’ lost a frigate, patrol boat, 2 civilian tankers, 3 oil platforms, 4 fighters, an Orion, 9 Malaysian and Singaporean patrol planes, 6 Bruneian support aircraft 4 choppers, 4 radars, 9 ground facilities and 7 troop elements.

The USSR (and insurgents) lost an SSGN, 2 SSKs, 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, a PCFG, a corvette, a patrol boat, 6 merchant vessels, 3 trawler transports, a tug, 18 insurgent small craft, 2 tanker aircraft, 5 MPAs, 17 fighters, 2 SEAD Foxbats, 4 recon Foxbats, 8 choppers, 41 troop elements and an LPG tanker that was classified as Commercial.

Indonesia lost a frigate, corvette, 4 patrol boats and a chopper.

Vietnam lost a patrol frigate, 45 fighters and 10 SAM elements.

So, I made it to the end, getting my convoy to Brunei and destroying theirs to Camranh Bay. As I said before, the scenario has some serious bugs and needs some work, especially with the scoring triggers and the behaviour of the Indonesians and Vietnamese.

A feature of Pacific Fury is that the player repeatedly has to change sides so, next time, I’ll be switching back to commanding the Soviet air group in the Vladivostok/Ussuriland area as it tries to raid the Aleutians.

Thanks Vince

On my list for fixes when I get CMO back up and running on my new machine

Bart