Chains of War Bonus Scenario 1 - Reds 18/1/05

[fitzpatv]

This highly-hypothetical scenario assumes that there was a brief but global conflict between the USSR and the West in 1985, which ended indecisively but at great cost to both sides. As a result, the USA decided to scale-down the size of its military and focus on technology rather than numbers. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union lapsed into a corrupt, gangster-ridden state. China, on the other hand, benefitted from remaining neutral in 1985 and gained influence and markets across the globe. This led to an excess of confidence and, in 2005, Beijing decided to start the year by annexing the Soviet Far East. Their initial offensive went well for them and saw Chinese forces closing on Vladivostok. Moscow rattled the nuclear sabre in response, which worried the US. Washington decided to intervene and stave-off an apocalypse by halting the Chinese onslaught.

You can only play the US side and are charged with doing as much damage as possible to Chinese infrastructure, warships and ground forces over three days, while minimising your own losses. To do this, you have seven surface ships, three SSNs and Andersen Air Base on Guam. All of the ships and subs are tightly grouped in the Sea of Japan, off the coast of South Korea. The carrier Ronald Reagan is warded by the cruisers Arkansas and Texas, while the arsenal ship Colin Powell is accompanied by the cruiser Antietam and the destroyers John Lehman and Caspar Weinberger. Up ahead are the SSNs Massachusetts, Cheyenne and Seawolf, acting as a screen. The force has an abundance of TLAMs, including the new Fasthawks, which can go ballistic and reach targets in a fraction of the time taken by conventional cruise missiles, while being much harder to intercept.

Reagan’s air group features a couple of radical new types, with Avenger stealth strike planes and Ospreys instead of Vikings for ASW. Her Tomcats have new AIM-152A missiles which, in truth, are not much better than the AMRAAM C-5s carried by her Hornets and Avengers.

On Guam, there are tankers, three B-2 bombers, a Boeing 747 kitted-out with 72 AGM-86s and an advanced Aurora recon plane that can fly at 90,000’ and reach a top speed of 2,900 knots for a couple of hours.

By contrast, the Chinese are really in little better shape than they were in ‘Armed Diplomacy’. Their fighters are a mix of Finbacks and Fishbeds, with some of the former mounting PL-12s which give those, at least, a sporting chance against their US opponents. They have an unknown number of Badgers with 120nm ranged anti-shipping cruise missiles.

At sea, there are a selection of DDGs and some Jiangwei FFGs, which all have anti-shipping missiles with a range of 100nm and some light-to-medium SAMs. China also has numerous Han, Ming and Kilo subs but these are deployed to defend the coast and shouldn’t be an issue so long as you don’t go looking for them. Land targets are defended by a variety of modest-capability SAMs. Most of these lack the means to engage high-altitude targets and the HQ-12s, theoretically the most advanced, are vulnerable to low-flying attack (such as TLAMs) as well.

As for the Soviets, they have an essentially defensive force, with Fulcrums, Flankers and Foxhounds which ought to be more than a match for the Chinese fighters, some capable SAMs (Grumbles, Gladiators, Grizzlies) and a number of SSNs. Unfortunately, no-one has told them that the Americans are trying to help them and, with characteristic Russian paranoia, they can be expected to attack your forces at every opportunity, so the best bet is to give them a wide berth.

Another factor is North Korea. The hermit state starts Unfriendly and much of it is covered by a No Fly/No Fire Zone but the NE periphery can be overflown, at the risk of interdiction from three Guideline sites and point-defence Fishbeds and Farmers. You are authorised to destroy Soviet and North Korean units as you see fit, without penalty. Note that the No Fly Zone limits the action to the Sea of Japan, the Vladivostok area and parts of Chinese Manchuria which, at least, makes it fairly easy to keep an eye on what’s going on.

19/1/2005 03:00L (18/1/2005 18:00Z): There seemed little point in moving the task force, so I left it where it was, with the subs on Full Stop and scanning with passive sonar. Remembering the massive Badger strike in ‘Armed Diplomacy’ and acutely aware that I didn’t have all that many fighters or SAMs to defend against them, I made it a priority to locate their bases. With our ships’ radars off, the Chinese could only realistically locate us by means of a Badger search strike unless their ships or subs got close or they risked other aircraft getting into eyeball range. The Badgers were probably at Siping, Changchun or Harbin (maybe all three), deep in Manchuria near the edge of the No Fly Zone, so I called-up the Aurora to take a look. Flying at 90,000’, she would be immune to any Chinese attack form but not to Soviet interceptors or SAMs and it would be wise to avoid the North Korean Guidelines, too.

A Hawkeye launched and soon located nine Chinese surface warships in two groups off Vladivostok, screened by some of the less-capable Finback models. I decided to keep my Tomcat squadron back to deal with any Badgers and use the A2A-loaded Hornets against enemy fighters. One took-off and efficiently culled the four Finbacks, which only had PL-8s and didn’t get close enough to use them. Chinese aircraft score no VP.

Meanwhile, the Russians and Chinese were having at each other over Vladivostok, both sides taking losses. It seemed that the PL-12-equipped J-8F Finbacks were being used there.

04:00L: The Finbacks were replaced, so a second Hornet downed three of the new shift and damaged the fourth. Under cover of this, 6 Strike Hornets attacked the larger group of six Chinese warships, sinking a Luhai DDG and Jiangwei FFG with AGM-84s for 50VP each. Four more Finbacks intervened, so the strike planes used their AMRAAMs to down three.

05:00L: Six Avengers launched at the Chinese fleet. The surviving Finback got lucky, evaded the escorting Hornet and managed to damage a stealthed, radars-dark Avenger before the F/A-18 caught-up and disposed of it. The strike plane was, however, able to continue and, with its colleagues, completely wiped-out both SAGs (3 Luda DDGs, 2 Luhu DDGs and 2 more Jiangweis) with AGM-154s, scoring 350 points. The Hornet continued towards the nearest Chinese fighter base at Yanji and made a mess of attacking two patrolling Fishbeds, only getting one before being obliged to retreat with four more Finbacks on its tail. Our last available AMRAAM Hornet scrambled and shot down the Finbacks before they could find the task force. At +450, it was still a Major Defeat.

06:00L: There were two tunnels and numerous bridges scattered across the area of operations and destroying these would slow the Chinese push on Vladivostok, so Colin Powell began making surgical TLAM strikes. Both tunnels and a bridge scored 10VP each. The missiles overflew North Korea, which provoked a furious response. Neither the Guidelines nor the Korean MiGs could engage the low-flying missiles unless they used cannon and the fighters failed to catch them.

07:00L: A dozen TLAMs struck Yanji, which relied on fighters for defence, destroying all the AvGas tanks, a hangar and a control tower. Frustratingly, this scored nothing, despite the base being marked as a target. This proved to be standard for all Chinese air bases but there were still good reasons for attacking them.

The Aurora arrived and fuelled from a tanker over Japan before flying on to Manchuria. It found three HQ-12 sites defending each of the three suspected bomber bases but detected no Badgers, even after overflying Siping at altitude.
Meanwhile, four North Korean Fishbeds decided to go after our Hawkeye. I tried to be nice and moved it away but they clearly considered themselves Hostile, not merely Unfriendly, so a re-readied Hornet shot them down.

08:00L: Powell hit the undefended Dunhua railyard, inland from Yanji, with Tomahawks, leaving just a few targets standing and taking the score past 500 and into Minor Defeat territory.

09:00L: Another TLAM strike hit Yanji, destroying most of the ammo storage, while more saturated the tarmac spaces at Harbin but didn’t get any Badgers. Where were they?. A couple more cruise missiles finished-off the supplies and cranes at Dunhua and still more hit a variety of targets around Mudanjiang-Hailang and Jiandongcun, nearer the front-line opposite Vladivostok. Chinese fighters intercepted a few TLAMs but were mostly overwhelmed and unsuited for the task.

A Hornet escorted an Avenger with Paveways to Yanji but struggled to deal with two Fishbeds that scrambled. Both Paveways hit tarmac spaces but scored nothing.

11:00L: More TLAM strikes on bridges left just a couple standing. Two Hornets escorted four Paveway Avengers to close the runways at Yanji. As they approached, eight North Korean Fishbeds chose that moment to make a sortie. The Hornets slaughtered them, but it cost missiles and, when four Finbacks lifted-off from Yanji and our remaining AMRAAMs missed them, we had to abort the mission and retreat.

12:00L: A TLAM strike severely degraded the three HQ-12 batteries defending Mudanjiang air base. Four Hornets with AGM-84s struck Yanji from a safe distance, hitting the runway and taxiway. Two MiG-21s tried to intervene and were destroyed but only with difficulty. One dove and temporarily eluded our radar, then came-up under a Hornet and, thankfully, missed with both Pythons before we cornered and downed it. Unusual to see the AI showing that level of skill.

13:00L: Follow-up TLAMs finished-off the HQ-12s at Mudanjiang for an unexpected windfall of 50VP each (standard for Chinese ground units), taking the score to +1,130 and Average. I had some HARM Avengers available, so used them to remove the navigational hazard of the three North Korean Guideline sites.

14:00L: An Avenger with AGM-154s and two more AGM-84 Hornets hit Mudanjiang airbase and closed the runway and taxiway. Like Yanji after similar treatment, this Fishbed base went quiet for the rest of the game. However, we were now beginning to encounter J-8F Finbacks with PL-12s, which appeared to be based at Shenhicun, a small air base a little further NE. A TLAM strike battered the nearby Jiandongcun railyard, taking the score to +1,260.

15:00L: More TLAMs hosed-down Shenhicun, destroying some parked aircraft on tarmac spaces and also the nearby bridges. Two Avengers attacked the captured Soviet airbase at Galenki, close to the front line, disabling three HQ-7 SAMs with HARMs. Individual TLAMs picked-off all the radars in the overflight zone of North Korea and the nearer parts of China, as well as the last few bridges.

16:00L: The DDG John Lehman temporarily took-over TLAM duty from Powell and damaged the supply dump at Galenki, despite the attentions of SAMs and AA. Her consort, Caspar Weinberger, did a similar job on the Hulin logistics hub, in a remoter location NE of Vladivostok, using waypoints to steer around Soviet SAM concentrations. Avengers closed the Shenhicun runway with AGM-154s but two more, aimed at the Galenki runway, were stopped by SAMs. Another pair of Avengers had better luck and Galenki, too, was rendered unsuitable for air ops – the proximity of Soviet SAMs would have made this hazardous for the Chinese in any event, which was why nothing appeared to be based there.

17:00L: Lehman’s follow-up strike (we really did have a whole lot of TLAMs) finished-off the Galenki ammo dump but Weinberger was less successful at Hulin, hitting just one target due to accurate HQ-64s and AA.

By now, all frontline Chinese airbases had been neutralised and a few Fishbeds were seen pulling-back to Harbin. All J-8Fs appeared to be trapped on the ground.

18:00L: A ‘proof of concept’ strike with the new Fasthawks proved effective against an HQ-7 site, so I used a Hornet to spot for similar attacks on some HQ-64s around Galenki. The SAMs had only slim chances of stopping the supersonic missiles but we had some frustrations with malfunctions.

In another experiment, I used a couple of TLAMs to destroy a large building at Jixi railyard, near Shenhicun, verifying my suspicions that such targets scored nothing. As so often in these cases, it was a case of trial and error.

It seemed likely that the Badgers were in hangars at Changchun, so I demolished all of these with guess which weapons. This resulted in six Badgers eliminated but Scenario Platforms suggested that this wasn’t all of them, so the mystery continued.

Weinberger kept-up the offensive against Hulin and finished-off the ammo dump there, though there were still some trucks and several light SAMs and AA on-site.

19:00L: We had detected plenty of Chinese ground forces opposite Vladivostok, around Galenki on the W shore of the frozen Lake Khanka. Tried using an Avenger with Paveways to attack them but they only carry two and it was like relying on toothpicks. I needed the two B-2s with CBU-105 stand-off cluster bomb loadouts at Guam. Fasthawk strikes continued to whittle away the SAMs around Galenki.

20:00L: Recon from the Aurora showed that there was still a hangar standing at Changchun, so Powell hit it again and wrecked another Badger – but there were still more somewhere...

22:00L: The B-2 ‘Spirit of Arkansas’ attacked the Chinese ground forces W of Lake Khanka, causing indescribable havoc. Amongst other things, 105 Type 88 tanks were trashed and the score leaped to +3,830 and a Triumph.

23:00L: Powell attacked the HQ-12 sites around Changchun, wrecking two and leaving just one component standing. It was all getting academic by now but more Fasthawks finished the last SAM W of the lake and also destroyed two of the four HQ-7s screening another column E of that body of water. Though the score was past 4,000, the game wasn’t going to end early, so I soldiered-on.

20/1/2005 00:00L: Two Avengers damaged the other HQ-7s E of Lake Khanka with HARMs.

02:00L: Powell finished-off the HQ-7s, helped by spotting from Avengers.

04:00L: The B-2 ‘Spirit of California’ paid a visit to the second Chinese column, inflicting huge losses and taking the score to +5,830.

05:00L: I evaluated all remaining worthwhile fixed targets in the frontline and intermediate areas and allocated about half Powell’s remaining TLAMs to them (she wasn’t termed an ‘Arsenal Ship’ for nothing). The strikes were successful and left only ground units, rear airfields and the air defences and trucks at Hulin as targets.

09:00L: Employed the mostly useless Paveway Avengers to close the runway at Orang-Chongjin, the only North Korean air base in the overflight zone, then finish-off the disabled Guidelines, not that there was much point, really. North Korea did nothing else all game.

The B-2 ‘Spirit of Rhode Island’, loaded with GBU-31s, closed the runways and taxiways at Changchun and Siping, while flagging the remaining HQ-12s for more TLAMs. Most of these duly succumbed, leaving just one without radar (due to a HARM Avenger strike) at Harbin and a damaged one at Siping.

12:00L: As raids continued, a Soviet sub found and sank a Chinese Kilo. Not long afterwards, a Han SSN suffered a similar fate. Units destroyed by the Russians score no VP.

22:00L: During yet another attack on the ground units W of Lake Khanka, an Avenger on RTB was suddenly flagged with a ‘Lost Control’ tag, began flying in circles and then crashed, costing me 100VP. There was no sign of enemy action on the Message Log and the loss didn’t even show on Losses and Expenditures. While operational losses like this can and do occur, of course, this has never happened to me in the game before. Mystery aside, it was annoying, as it was my only loss all scenario.

21/1/2005 05:00L: ‘Spirit of Arkansas’ returned and destroyed most of the Chinese forces at Galenki and W of the lake. The score was now +8,280.

08:00L: A Chinese Kilo fell victim to the Soviet SSNs.

09:00L: A Ming-class sub suffered the same fate.

11:00L: ‘Spirit of California’ returned and destroyed all but one unit of trucks at Hulin, all but two elements of the force E of the lake and all but seven damaged units W of the lake. The score jumped to +10,130.

13:00L: Two Avengers got six of the seven targets W of the lake, the survivor being missed twice.

17:00L: Russian subs found and sank another Ming.

22:00L: The Russian SSNs disposed of a Kilo.

23:00L: Aurora made one last sortie from Guam and spotted for Powell to kill-off the last Chinese units at Hulin and E of the lake. The only surviving Chinese ground units were now stealthy Vanguard MANPAD teams that we hadn’t detected.

22/1/2005 02:00L: The Russians concluded hostilities by sinking another Chinese Kilo.

So the final score was +10,630 – what we term a ‘cricket score’ here in the UK.

The US lost one Avenger (in bizarre and unprecedented circumstances).

The USSR lost 7 fighters.

North Korea lost 14 fighters and 36 ground elements.

China lost 6 DDGs, 3 FFGs, an SSN, 7 diesel subs, 45 fighters, 7 Badgers, 9 choppers, 256 tanks, 192 APCs and 451 other ground elements.

Despite being billed as a very difficult scenario, this actually proved to be very easy, though quite good fun and not too time-consuming to play.

So that concludes Chains of War. Despite some issues with a couple of the earlier scenarios, I found it absorbing and mostly enjoyable to play, so thanks to Mike for the effort he put into designing it.

Next time, I’ll continue with Indian Ocean Fury (two scenarios to go) and will alternate this with Falklands.

[Eboreg]

22:00L: During yet another attack on the ground units W of Lake Khanka, an Avenger on RTB was suddenly flagged with a ‘Lost Control’ tag, began flying in circles and then crashed, costing me 100VP. There was no sign of enemy action on the Message Log and the loss didn’t even show on Losses and Expenditures. While operational losses like this can and do occur, of course, this has never happened to me in the game before. Mystery aside, it was annoying, as it was my only loss all scenario.

Do you still have the scenario log files? They could help with figuring things out.

[BDukes]

Thanks for all your great reviews Fitzpatv. I've learned tons from them.

M

[fitzpatv]

I had a look at the log file and can't find any reference to the incident. I could attach the whole game replay, but that would take some sifting through. I was mainly interested to know whether this was a new or rare game feature that I hadn't encountered before.

[Eboreg]

It sounds an awful lot like a bug. Is it possible to compare the amount of aircraft you had at the end of the scenario to what you had at the start? Maybe compare a post-scenario save to the initial scenario file?

[fitzpatv]

The aircraft was definitely lost - it disappeared from the Reagan's aircraft list. What makes me feel that it's a feature rather than a bug is the orange 'LOST CONTROL' flag that appeared next to it on-screen. This suggests that the condition was coded deliberately. I was then unable to give the plane orders (much as when a unit loses comms, though it remained clearly visible, flying in circles). It then disappeared and a message popped-up to say that I'd lost points for a destroyed aircraft. Oddly, though, the loss did not show on the Losses and Expenditures screen.

[Eboreg]

You're definitely going to want to ask more questions about that. Maybe post something in Tech Support or the War Room asking WTH is going on...

[fitzpatv]

I've set-up the thread on Tech Support. Unfortunately, I struggle with zip files and have not been able to work-out how to compress the scenario file so that I can attach it.

[fitzpatv]

It seems from the link I was given in response to my Tech Support post that this is, indeed, a designed feature and not a bug. It must be rare, as I've not seen it before or since. Still not absolutely sure what caused it in this instance. Possibly my plane was doing a tight turn for some reason?. It can also be caused by the pilot being dazzled by a laser, but this could not have been the case in the Reds playthrough.