kmart494

Ok, SHUK. You got a red ship. Now we need one more.

Both Soviet escort choices are fine. Just waiting for a few more Red players to pony up.

I will let you guys have a helo. It will be consistent with the modified scenario info that will be posted soon.

Ok, Dylan. You got Red air. We just need two Red ship captains.

Ok. Yishten and CV32 are Blue side. You guys can pick two escorts from this list, but only one ship of any given class. Sovremenny, Udaloy, Kashin, Krivak I (SS-N-14c), Krivak I (SS-N-14d), Natya minesweeper. You will be escorting three merchants. The slowest of them is 16 kts.

Well then, I need two volunteers for Blue and up to three for Red. Tonight I will post a list of ships that Blue may use for their escorts.

Well, that's kind of weird but still interesting.

I want to add an air element to the mix just to test the process of using them. An ongoing discussion with Larry Bond reveals the best way to run either a live miniatures or PBEM game is to keep to tactical turns for as much as possible. That speeds up game play. Engagement turns would be executed when precise movement and fire is needed. But, standing orders would dictate the details of how those things work, such that a player would not necessarily have 15-second control over their forces. BTW, I have been reviewing the Krivak data and they make a pretty good escort. It does not have much offensive punch, but it has a good Sea Skimmer Capable SAM system. Since the objective for the Soviets is largely defensive, I can see why the original scenario has them. EDIT: It appears that one of the original scenario Krivaks is armed with the SS-N-14d which has an ASuW capable torpedo. Hmmm, now that is interesting.

For the next PBEM, I am proposing a variant of the Red Star Over The Gulf - Divide and Conquer scenario from Naval Sitrep #48. The Soviet forces are two escorts and three merchants. Iranian forces are two warships and maybe a few aircraft. That means we could have 2 Soviet (blue) players and 2 or 3 Iranian (red) players. The scenario will take place in the middle of the Persian Gulf, with the Blue objective to run to Kuwait to deliver war cargo, and the Red objective is, of course, to stop them. We could build this scenario with Blue side selecting their escorts (within reason--from ships that were actually in the gulf at the time). This will be known to Red side since their passage into the gulf would be easily observed by the Iranians. Red side could select their attack force based on their estimation of what it would take to achieve the objective of sinking the merchants. Blue side would not know the force composition until they attack. What do you guys think?

The Red Star over the Gulf scenario Divide and Conquer looks promising. USSR forces are several tankers/merchants escorted by 2 Krivaks. Iranian forces are ex-US Sumner and Vosper Mk5. Variants include a Sovremenny, Udaloy, and Iranian F-4 aircraft.

It seems most of the High Tide scenarios use a lot of platforms. That may require a lot of players. I would like to keep things to a "medium" level until I get more referee experience and time. I am contemplating the Desert Shield 1990 scenario from Naval Sitrep #49. There are 4 blue ships (and helos) and 3 red ships (with some helos). The battle area is the entire Persian Gulf. Blue force has 2 (maybe 3) task groups and red force has 1. So, maybe that scenario can use 2 blue players and 1 red player. Things can be divided up even more if other players wanted in, but I am hesitant to have as many as 7 players.

Well, at least you can simulate missile hits by breaking bricks away.

Your analysis of the situation with regards to the scenario goals and real world considerations is correct. The scenario forces are based on actual events, but the orders and victory conditions are not. I suspect that if the scenario had been designed to replicate the real world, the outcome would have been the same--nothing. The Kashin and merchant went about their business and the Iranian only hassled them.

Iranian Setup: Sahand approaches the convoy from the southeast, at 35 knots. Me thinks you got east and west confused.

For all that followed along with this PBEM, please post your comments in this topic. I would appreciate any feedback about the game, the process we used to play it, and especially if you used SimPlot Viewer to follow along. Also, any general thoughts about the game flow including units and tactics can go here (Armchair Admiral ).

Did you guys have the opportunity to follow along using SimPlot Viewer? I would like to have feedback about Viewer and the overall PBEM process.

This scenario was a test of using the new SimPlot Viewer for displaying player information in a multi-player game. Also tested was a PBEM process that Tony Eischens and I came up with for using the HarpGamer forum to play a blind game. I say both tests were a success. SimPlot Viewer SimPlot Viewer was created by me as an off-shoot of SimPlot. Most of the code is the same, but Viewer allows players to add their own graphics (range circles and suspected but unconfirmed enemy unit locations). The original SimPlot was meant to be a one-player application, but it quickly evolved into a multi-player/referee capable app. With those changes came code problems that threatened to spiral out of control when I tried to use it for both a referee and individual players in the same game. The major problem is that Harpoon4 deliberately denies information to players until they earn it via various sensors. Ultimately, I had difficulty separating all the different kinds of information for each player when, as a referee, I had access to all of it. Viewer solved that by importing player dedicated files that only contained the information the referee says they should have per H4 rules. HarpGamer Forum Tony offered to use the HarpGamer forums for hosting PBEM games. Well, since everyone has equal access to the forums, a way to deny opposing players access to each others information, orders, and files had to be found. The solution, if I understand it correctly, was to place each player(s) into restricted groups that would not see and therefore have access to the opponent forums/topics. I suggested allowing everyone else the opportunity to access all player forums so they could follow along. I think Tony created a very workable system and I look forward to using it again. The Scenario I wanted a small unit scenario to test the above processes. The Red Star Over The Gulf - First Strike scenario fit the bill. While similar to the introductory scenario Gulf Escort Deja-vu, it used USSR units instead of US (it doesn't always have to be US, does it? ). The USSR was Blue player (eeustice) and Iran was Red player (Yishten). Just to quickly summarize, Red player saw an advantage in both missile and gun capability. This meant staying out of Blue SAM range and engaging with his limited missile complement followed up by gunfire. Attacking the Blue escort was the only way to achieve success without making severe sacrifices (namely the Red warship). I suppose in the real world, outright attacking a Soviet warship would likely provoke a strong military response that would be unfavorable to Iran. Although the scenario rules did not prohibit this aggressive tactic, it would be interesting to see how well Iran could achieve the goal of attacking the merchant without inflicting severe damage to the escort first. The attached file below is the final SimPlot turn file that also has the range circles I was using to determine when certain events take place (such as detection and weapons fire). The file must be viewed with SimPlot and not SimPlot Viewer. A big thanks to both players and Tony for making this test a success. I will be running another game either later this month or in early January. turn_1909.txt

The misunderstanding about the Don-2 was mine. I thought only the Mod Kashin ships had the upgraded radar, but I might have been mistaken about that. Since the ship in play was never modified, I thought it only had Don-2. The merchant did not use any radar during the game.

Red player, please post your thoughts about the scenario in this topic. Also, please post your thoughts about using SimPlot Viewer to game out an H4 scenario.

Blue player, please post your thoughts about the scenario in this topic. Also, please post your thoughts about using SimPlot Viewer to game out an H4 scenario.

Blue player has hoisted the white flag. He can no longer protect the merchant, and you can easily sink it. You are the victor! You played an excellent game. I will create an After Action Report thread for you to post your thoughts about the scenario and using SimPlot Viewer for an H4 game.

Since you cannot protect the merchant, it will eventually be sunk. I am calling this scenario as a victory for Red player. You played very well for having no experience with the paper rules. Are you a computer Harpoon player?

To speed things along I executed several Tactical Turns using your last known intentions. You fired the Mk8 gun 18 times. Your lookouts can now see the enemy warship, and you still have the enemy merchant on radar. The warship has stopped and has lots of smoke coming from it. I am waiting for Blue player to give his intentions for the game. turn_1909_red.txt turn_1909_red_intl.txt

To speed things along I executed several Tactical Turns using your last known intentions. The Kashin has taken 7 more gun hits and now has 87 damage points and 0 speed. The Kashin is effectively dead in the water with many systems destroyed and a minor fire. Your lookouts can now see the enemy warship, and it does not appear to be damaged. I believe it's not possible for you to achieve any scenario victory goals. What are your intentions? turn_1909_blue.txt turn_1909_blue_intl.txt

Players, please stand by for a little bit longer before the next turn is posted. I have asked Larry Bond a rules question and I anticipate a response later today.