First Contact 1986: having a terrible time playing Norway

[ExMachina]

This scenario is frustrating me to no end (possible because it's graded as being less "difficult")

Basically, I struggle to get even one kill on a pair of Nanuchkas, even firing all 8 of my Penguins at close range. In every scenario I've run, most or all of Norway's missiles get shot down in rapid succession.

Is there some "trick" to this one? If it's winnable it sure doesn't seem easy

(FWIW I'm running CMO v 1.02)

[AndrewJ]

This is a very difficult scenario. You are up against an enemy that has you outclassed in all respects. Their missiles have longer range, and bigger warheads; their sensors have longer range and OTH capability; they have twice as many useful SAMs, and their SAMs don't have the horrible box-launcher reload time. Despite all these disadvantages, you are expected to get 900 points to simply avoid defeat, which means sinking half their navy without any losses of your own. I don't think I've ever managed to win it outright.

I find that a salvo of 4 Penguins will often (not always) get one through to mortally wound a lone Nanuchka, although you need to make sure it's a concentrated salvo. Ideally the salvo should come two each from two missile boats, so they arrive in half the time, rather than a long string of four from one boat. Don't let the computer send your Mk2 missiles off on dog-legs either, since that spreads out your salvo. Against two, a concentrated salvo of eight seems to work in two sets of four. Expect to lose your missile boats in return, though.

[ExMachina]

I appreciate the sanity check! What put me over the edge was that I found a video of a guy playing this scenario but in CMANO-- he basically was 100% successful with his missiles and received no counterfire. Made me think I was missing some nuance.

Ideally the salvo should come two each from two missile boats, so they arrive in half the time

That's golden advice right there-- Thanks! Going to try this out ASAP

[Dimitris]

Use the terrain clutter.

[ExMachina]

>Use the terrain clutter.

Thanks. Yes, I've had SOME success using this to avoid missiles (mostly by hiding BEHIND the fijords).

However, my biggest problem still seems to be that I simply run out of missiles before coming close to inflicting a sufficient amount of damage. So I'm wondering if this was a more "playable" scenario in the early days of CMANO whereas now it's a little unbalanced?

[StellarRat]

The trick is to hide behind the little islands and spitz and use individual "spotters" to find the Soviets. You then fire your missiles from radar "shaded" positions.

[AndrewJ]

Well, with the enemy OTH radars, relying on radar shadows or background clutter isn't always a reliable strategy. They can often see you just fine.



What they can't do, since they're an AI with weapons tight, is use human understanding to figure out what those ship contacts really are. That's what's saving you.

Play this from the Russian side, and your Nanuchkas can sink most of the Norwegian ships in the first few minutes.

[thewood1]

To me, the beauty of First Contact isn't the individual scenarios. Its playing them in order from the oldest to the most modern. Its a great lesson in how naval warfare has changed and a great lesson in how tactics have to adapt to the technology.

[chrispman]

ORIGINAL: Dimitris

Use the terrain clutter.

Terrain Effects seem to be disabled in that scenario? Or maybe I am not up to date.

[thewood1]

Do you mean "Effects of Terrain type" in scenario features?

[chrispman]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

Do you mean "Effects of Terrain type" in scenario features?

Yes, excatly. "Terrain type affects mobility, sensor spotting and weapon effects".

[thewood1]

Why I asked for if its that setting specifically. From the manual.

"Effects Of Terrain Type: When activated, this allows for
different terrain types to have their effect on unit movement,
visibility, and resistance to blast effects (see 3.1, The Globe
Display for details). When deactivated, all types of terrain are
treated similarly."

I wasn't sure if there was another setting that removed terrain masking, which is specific to sensors.

[ExMachina]

Well, with the enemy OTH radars, relying on radar shadows or background clutter isn't always a reliable strategy. They can often see you just fine.

Yeah, I have not been able to observe any of the "clutter" that is supposed to make the Norwegians harder to spot/track. Background clutter also doesn't seem to affect weapon seeker hit probabilities. The best I've been able to do is hide behind cliffs, but even then the Soviet anti-ship missiles seem to be able to climb and dive nearly instantaneously (maybe that's realistic but seems pretty acrobatic for a 3+ ton missile)

[.Sirius]

ORIGINAL: thewood1

To me, the beauty of First Contact isn't the individual scenarios. Its playing them in order from the oldest to the most modern. Its a great lesson in how naval warfare has changed and a great lesson in how tactics have to adapt to the technology.

Thankyou I built them [8D]

[thewood1]

ORIGINAL: ExMachina

Well, with the enemy OTH radars, relying on radar shadows or background clutter isn't always a reliable strategy. They can often see you just fine.

Yeah, I have not been able to observe any of the "clutter" that is supposed to make the Norwegians harder to spot/track. Background clutter also doesn't seem to affect weapon seeker hit probabilities. The best I've been able to do is hide behind cliffs, but even then the Soviet anti-ship missiles seem to be able to climb and dive nearly instantaneously (maybe that's realistic but seems pretty acrobatic for a 3+ ton missile)

A couple years ago there were issues with ships being masked by terrain. After the fix, I did extensive testing on it and it does work very effectively at times. But there are all kinds of parameters around masking. Type of radar is a big one and modern radars don't have as much of an issue. So isn't distance from shore. Masking terrain height is also a factor.

As to the 1986 version of the scenario. I consider it a worst case for Norway, of the four scenarios. The difference in missile tech and radars are to the advantage of the Soviets. I think it might be the only one of the four where the Soviets really outclass Norway's capabilities. IIRC on the 1986 one, I had to sacrifice one or two ships to get the Soviets to expose themselves. I actually had to play it a couple times to figure that out. In all the other years, Norway killed all Soviet ships with some damage, but no losses to Norway.

[Gunner98]

We wrote a scene for H-Hour which depicts this type of setup, actually two scenes but one got cut. Key difference was that when the Norgi missile boats started their run, the Soviets pulled further out to sea to take advantage of their longer range missiles and get a better radar picture - right over top of a waiting Type 209 S309 Ulstein. Working in combination with the sub with the missile boats flushing the pray was the best way we found to make it work. Time & technology was not a friend to the Norwegians in this fight until the Skjold class started arriving in the late 90s

[thewood1]

Its probably the one weakness of these scenarios in relation to realism. Norway's ships are on their own. No air or sub support. But I can see leaving them out to simplify the scenario execution.

[Gunner98]

Agree, they are great for a study in the subject and point out the usefulness of a comprehensive approach.

The other gap is shore based radar which the boats rely on to maintain stealth. In the book we dropped a few FAB-250s onto the Nordkapp surface search radar just as they were starting their run to make it more sporting.

B

[thewood1]

Its also good the the author didn't fall victim to scope creep. There are always a million "what about" possibilities. The scenarios, as is, are a lot of fun and educational.

[ExMachina]

A couple years ago there were issues with ships being masked by terrain. After the fix, I did extensive testing on it and it does work very effectively at time

If I wanted to see this for myself, what setups would you recommend I try to best see these effects? I've already tried placing surface units with two other ships at the same distance away, one with background clutter and one without. However, I cannot seem to make the detections of one ship less likely than the other, even going back to 1970s radar equipment on the detecting platform. I must not be getting the terrain placement right