After some trial and error, I managed to pull off a triumph with a score of 720
One has to be careful to detect the Soviet subs some distance out from the ships, as if they get close enough, you might be screwed. Lost HMS Hampshire to a Badger launched missile, so I felt it imperative to move Wasp much closer to Iceland, and rely on Orions to look for the Soviet surface force. The Wasp's lack of Skyhawks (which I'm given to understand is period-correct), make it a very dicey proposition to give adequate air cover, due to the distance from the F-102s at Keflavik
When I did spot the surface force, i was able to pull off a devastating first strike with a pair of Buccaneers at long range. One has it's 4x bombs slam into the Kresta cruiser, immediately blowing it up. The other Bucanneer damaged the Sverdlov.
The Soviet ships got caught with their pants down as I sent the Bucanners in low with their radars off, guided by an orbiting Orion. God I love the Blackburn Buccaneer!
Successive raids wiped out the Soviet ships, with just the oiler left barely afloat at one knot.
A combonation of Orions, STANAVFORLANT ships, and aircraft from Wasp allowed me to take out 2x Charlies, 1x November, and a persistent Victor that survived alot of torpedoes, due to that class being able to match or slightly outrun the air-dropped torpedoes of the day. I did get it before I launched any weapons, but I expended more ASROCs than I would have liked.
As a follow-up on my larger feedback on your WW3 1968 campaign, I recently completed this newly released book (
https://a.co/d/1eQoJva), and it gave me some fascinating perspective on the ASW challenges of this time, particularly ship-based ASW. The threat of longer-range, wake homing and pattern-running torpedoes was recognized over a decade before 1968, and some tried to argue that an ASW helo alone was better to have than a Helo AND shipboard ASW weapons (no doubt to save money).
