Yishten

OK, based on the summary so far, I am given to understand I have fired 4 Sea Killer's and lookouts report observing three impacts. If that is a correct assessment, I want to plot to fire the last Sea Killer at the warship. I want to bring my heading to 180T and increase speed to maximum (39, I believe) and put some additional distance between myself and the warship. I think it's time to activate the AWS-1 air search radar in case I face incoming missiles soon. Once the last Sea Killer has cleared the control channel, I want to change my aft fire director to air mode and, at that same time, change my fore fire director to surface mode. My plan is to try to widen the range between myself and warship by about 2nm and, hopefully, if this last Sea Killer can hit and reduce the warship's speed further, be able to turn to fire my 114mm at him (it's an error on my part that I'd not attempted so before) outside of the window of his ability to respond.

No, I figured it's theoretically possible the radar could be either ship. I'm not sure that the two ships are on precisely the same bearing, but they are awfully close. But I'd have resolved the ambiguity in favor of assuming the warship was broadcasting, all things being equal. I also worry I was unclear: I know Sposobnyy is a Kashin from the High Tide annex, the SitRep article, and Wikipedia. Wikipedia suggests it was the 13th Kashin commissioned, and the High Tide annex, -assuming I understood it correctly- (and thus my major point of confusion: I don't know that I understood it correctly), says that the 13th Kashin should have Volgas, not Don 2s. My question was whether I misunderstood the annex and/or misnumbered Sposobnyy. Now, it's possible I was clear to begin with, and your response was the limit of what you felt it appropriate to clarify at this time. If so, certainly say no more. I just wanted to make sure I'd not caused any confusion.

Hey, that ESM feature on SimPlot's pretty neat. Okay, so here's something (and if it's most appropriate to leave off answering this until after the scenario, I have no complaint with that-- I'm willing to jump to my own conclusions): Project 61 (Kashin) in the High Tide Annex-- sensors are 2 Don 2 for Units #1-11, or 2 Volga [Don Kay] for Units 12 and on. Now, I'd failed to find verification in the text of the rules about this, but I took that to mean order of commissioning-- the 12th and later Mod 61 Kashin's had the Volgas, and units had the Don 2's if commissioned before that. Now, that assumption may have been wrong. I also wasn't sure, if the aforementioned assumption was correct, what unit number Sposobnyy would have; counting based on data on Wikipedia suggested 13, though, so I was operating under the assumption that Sposobnyy had the Volgas. Belokonenko DOES have Don 2s, though, and the bearing on SimPlot passes close enough to both ships that I cannot tell which is broadcasting (is there a way to zoom the image?). But I find it perplexing to imagine that the merchant would be activating its radar and the warship would not. So I guess what I'm wondering which of my assumptions (either about what the Units #1-11 vs Units #12+ bit meant, or about what unit number Sposobnyy is) is wrong. Or, if neither of those assumptions was wrong, then I guess Holmes would tell me that the merchant did, in fact, activate her radar. Anyway, as far as the actual mission goes, though, I plan to plot another Sea Killer launch as soon as my channels are cleared from the current missile, and I intend to increase speed to 38 and later to 39 at the earliest possible moments for each.

Excellent. Plan another Sea Killer launch against the warship and increase speed to 29 kts at the next opportunity.

That is sufficient verification for me. I do not believe I have any additional orders for the reaction fire phase. I am off-heading, though, and closer than intended, so I want to come about to 220T at my next opportunity, and bring my speed to 20 kts. I also want to plot Sea Killer II fires on the warship. If I haven't missed any relevant details, it should be in arc after we reorient, and being a Cmd missile, I believe I can only fire and control one at a time, so the plan will be to fire Sea Killers, in succession, at the warship.

OK. Two units at approximately the expected position sighted at approximately the expected time. Although I would prefer a more positive ID, I'm not prepared to jeopardize the success of my mission to achieve it when circumstantial factors all line up to support a conclusion. As such, I am going to tentatively classify these as blue units. My ideal is to keep them beyond 8.5 nm but within 13.5 nm, allowing me the ability to attack without suffering return fire. To that end, my intention is to activate the Decca, maintain my current heading, and decrease my speed the maximum safely available-- I believe that would put me down to 17 kts this tac turn. I plan to continue to decrease to 10 kts when able, barring some new information. If and when I am able to identify one of these units as larger than the other, I intend to plot Sea Killer II fires on the smaller target, though I will adjust that plan if new sensor data becomes available, and I am prepared to pick a target and begin firing on the off chance that distance to target falls below 10 nm before better data becomes available.

That's fine.

Kmart, if you can check the Red Player thread at your convenience, I have added another post.

OK, I've had the opportunity to think about this a little further and if it's not too late to do so, I'd like to amend my orders and plans. I'd also like to add a section here about my thought process, and maybe you or Albert could tell me, at the end, if some obvious glaring tactical errors were evident to you. Clearly I may be working from wrong assumptions and/or luck may go against me, but hopefully I'm not just being fool-headed with my thinking. I will put the actual intent and orders at as the very last paragraph so you can skip over the other stuff if you'd rather. So my assumptions are, based on the scenario data and what I figure my distance from Tunb al Kubra to be, that Sposobnyy and Belokonenko are about 20 nm from me, and that they will continue in a vaguely northwesterly direction (call it 290T) at roughly the scenario speed of 14 kt give or take a few. I should close that distance by, very roughly, 10 nm per Intermediate Turn if I proceeded directly toward them. My original though had been to try to pass more to port, end up around 10 nm from them, and then, if I'd not already located them by other means, activate the Decca. Based on those assumptions, I would then be at or near attack range against Belokonenko with the Sea Killers, and a bit further from Sposobnyy-- if very lucky, in the envelope where I might attack without suffering attack in return. However, I am not convinced I have sufficient missile strength to ensure that Belokonenko sinks, and might expect that I will need to resort to gunfire at some point. In such a scenario, with Sposobnyy getting closer, my chances look grimmer. But I anticipate Sposobnyy will have a tough time countering the sea-skimming Sea Killers, and is a smaller platform, so I wonder if I perhaps use the Sea Killers to try to weaken or even mission-kill Sposobnyy, then I might have the freedom to handle Belokonenko purely with my guns. I am confident I can do sufficient damage to Sposobnyy, at least, to make sure that Blue Side cannot get even a tactical victory (and any damage prevents decisive victory), though it does nothing to help me avoid a draw-- only damage on Belokonenko does that. But I wonder if it's not a gamble that perhaps I need to take if I want any chance at a decisive victory-- I think my original plan could manage to get me a tactical victory more safely, but I think it basically has not real hope of a decisive victory. So, my new intention is to approach the presumptive locations of Sposobnyy and Belokonenko, still at 35 kt, but with the intent of coming up more to starboard. I intend to keep the fore Sea Hunter in air mode, the aft Sea Hunter in surface mode, and run passive initially. I will travel for 30 minutes at 300T, turn to 310T and travel 30 more minutes, and then activate the Decca unless I encounter targets first.

That's ok with me, if it's ok with our referee.

My intention is to pass south of Tunb al Kubra and proceed at speed with the intent of maneuvering slightly to port of the presumptive location of Sposobnyy and Basil Belokonenko, thereafter to move into range and commence the attack. To this end, my intention is to proceed at 35 kts at 280T, maintaining passive emissions, for 1 hour until 1900 local time, or until such time as I detect presumptive targets or radar emissions. If I have not detected anything by 1900 local time, my intention is to come to 300T, continuing at 35 kts, and activate the Decca radar. I could not find reference in Annex K as to whether the Sea Hunter fire control radar has the option of different modes, but since the fore Sea Hunter is used to control the Sea Cat missiles, and since I believe those have surface-to-air capability, I suspect it must be able to change modes. To that end, my intention is to have the fore Sea Hunter in air mode, the aft Sea Hunter in surface mode.

Fine with me. I'll take the Iranians.

If I'm playing, I'm more than happy with either side.

I do, yes. I've read the system through a couple of times, haphazardly attempted to solitaire more than once, but have admittedly only managed to find a live opponent for two games in the past-- and one of those did not reach completion. It's been a bit frustrating, honestly.

With the caveats that I have, to now, been a lurker rather than participant (which my post counted no doubt made obvious), that I have never used SimPlot previously, and that I am not so deluded as to fancy myself a particularly skilled naval simulation tactician, and all that having been said I would certainly understand if you would prefer to pass me over, I am nonetheless tentatively interested.