1.1

 

I was discussing with Tony about the lack of the vessel that became Admiral Kuznetsov in the earlier DB. The vessel is present here, under its present name (albeit spelt "Kusnetsov") and described as the ship of a thousand names.

 

I chose the Indian Ocean battleset and Invincible?, as Ark Royal retiring this Friday (12 November).

 

The mission here is to use a British carrier group, consisting of Invincible, two Type 42/3s, two Type 22/3s and a Type 23, along with a Trafalgar SSN and an Upholder SS to stop a Soviet surface action group reaching the Arabian Sea.

 

It appears the Soviet SAG is randomly determined. On first play, it included a "Slava". That game froze shortly after HMS Argyll got splattered by a bunch of "Sandbox" missiles that we first saw coming visually (I understand getting a Sandbox by visual means still gives people nightmares...)

 

I decided to operate my radars intermittently; about five minutes on, then five minutes off. I increased my formation zones to 20/40/80/160 and set ASW patrols, with a two-Harrier CAP covering a Sea King AEW patrol. To be honest, I'm not sure the CAP was needed; the Soviets didn't have any AAW capable aircraft.

 

The problem with the Invincible class that it doesn't have that many Harriers, especially as the type wasn't initially designed for STOVL. I had only eight on board; although this was due to the presence of the (rather handy) Sea Dart launcher that would later be removed.

 

There is a little satellite system codenamed KEYHOLE and it features in this game, giving one helpful hints as to where to look in a vast ocean. KEYHOLE gave me the location of a number of units in the SAG including a "Kashin", a "Kresta II" and a "Sovremmenny" (henceforth called a "Sovvie"). While these units wouldn't stay up there for long,

 

I had an idea where they were and so sent my entire group towards them, planning for a mass fleet action.

 

I actually first had a CZ contact from one of my subs, but since I couldn't identify the target, I decided not to risk a long-range Harpoon shot. I never did manage to launch anything from those subs...

 

The British used to have a rather good stand-off ASuW missile called Sea Eagle; it has now been retired. This was an option for Lynx, Sea King and Harriers; I used plenty of them.

 

With my two-plane CAP, I only had six Harriers to do the attacking business, but the helicopters would also help. I could safely launch from stand-off range of 50 miles; well outside the Soviet SAM umbrella.

 

As we got closer, I decided to launch a Harrier based air-attack using AMRAAMs against a Soviet ASW helicopter. This was rather like shooting fish in a barrel; but it's clear that the RN lost something when they retired the Sea Harrier back in 2006.

 

As we approached, the Harpoon missiles of some of my escorts came into range. Perhaps I should have held off on the attack until everything was in range and chucked one massive strike at them (although I don't appear to have had any Exocets, which made that strategy a bit stupid).

 

This is where the clear advantage between us and them came into play. Apart from the Sovvies, most of the ships were only equipped with SA-N-1 or SA-N-3a SAMs, which didn't stand a snowball's chance in a blast furnace against Harpoons.

 

I took down a Sovvie and a "Kashin" (IIRC) in fairly quick order. The Sovvie managed to shoot down a couple, but the "Kashin" didn't stand a chance. If you look at the "Full Report" of a damaged ship, you can see flame animations on the top-down view. An interesting feature.

 

A strange little tune played when these vessels sunk. When I listened through it on the third go, I found it was meant to be "Rule Britannia".

 

As our forces closed, the Soviets let off a small riposte; eight "Sunburns" from the Sovvie and later four "Styxes" for a "Mod Kashin" (the class classically called "Tattletales").

 

Rapid responses to this launch came from my escorts and the Sea Dart-carrying Invincible, with saw Sea Darts and Sea Wolves launching from their launchers in fun style. These proved successful in dealing with the seaskimmers and further Harpoons were fired back.

 

Then the Soviets tried a different strategy. Missiles were going to be used in different ways...

 

(to be continued...)

1.1 (Part Two)

 

I probably should have changed formation earlier; I wouldn't have lost as many choppers. With inbound Harpoons heading for a "Kashin", the Soviet destroyer started to launch SA-N-1s. I realised that he wasn't shooting at my missiles, he was shooting at my helicopter. A Sea King had wandered over and the "Kashin" was taking shots at that.

 

The S-125/SA-3/SA-N-1 series isn't a very good missile these days. It may have bagged an F-117A back in 1999, but that was more luck and stupidity than quality. Even c.1990, it was rapidly becoming obsolete (cf. Operation El Dorado Canyon- OK, that was an export version).

 

It took about eight missiles before the Sea King eventually went down. Another chopper or two would be shot down later.

 

The Soviet ships then started hurling the "Goas" at my two Type 22/3s, which had run out of Sea Wolf missiles.

 

The AI at this point then decided to do something a bit stupid. It launched Sea Darts that it could have more effectively used.

 

Basically, whenever an SA-N-1 was launched, the Sea Darts on board HMS York and HMS Manchester, my Type 42s, would try to shoot down the SA-N-1s. However, due to the short distance that the "Goas" had to travel and the long distance the similarly-fast Sea Darts had to cover, they simply weren't able to reach the attacking missiles in time. They'd have been better used against the attacking SAG!

 

A lot of the missiles missed. However, some slammed home. With one of my frigates taking serious damage, I decided to move it to the back of the formation, followed by the other one later on.

 

Both, however, eventually sank under heavy fire from the remaining Soviet ships.

 

The "Kresta" and the (extremely obsolete) "Sverdlov" went down in due course. I was basically chucking Sea Darts at them as the range closed - and decided, wisely, to move Invincible to the rear of the formation, lest she get too close and take damage; she eventually ran out of Sea Darts. The Sea Darts proved highly effective; while they weren't doing much damage, they were far more accurate than the SA-N-1s.

 

I was also launching off air strikes at every opportunity. At this close range it was basically a case of taking off, launching missiles then landing again. I'm sure that the crew would complain about the sortie rates I was enforcing on them...

 

With only one "Mod Kashin" left, clearly crippled, I decided to close in with my Type 23 and finish it off with guns, but it went down before I could do that.

 

I was expecting a victory message; I didn't get one. Clearly I had to find the subs.

 

KEYHOLE gave me the location of an Alfa to my east and I sent the force over there, along with my two subs. Fixes were gained and lost, but eventually helicopter-launched torpedoes from the Sea Kings managed to send two Alfas to the bottom. They are rather noisy subs, it should be remembered. This was done with liberal use of time compression.

 

The rest of the battle was spent sailing the task force towards the Arabian Sea, with a few ships running aground and frequent weapon breakdowns. Oh, and I lost four Sea Harriers due to a lack of fuel.

 

The clock ran out and the game was a draw. Subs are notoriously hard to find.

1.1+ 900502

 

"Ambush" - NACV

 

Let's just call this what it was; an unmitigated disaster. The only enemy units I destroyed were aircraft and a land base.

 

My mission was to attack a US carrier group heading for Iceland; with land-based "Backfires" and "Bears, along with a large number of submarines dotted along the way; including some SSGNs. I had the then-hypothesised air-to-air "Backfire" available with the AA-9 "Amos"; these would get a liberal use.

 

Failure to set the notification settings early on meant I lost my two "Okean" spy ships very quickly, although one did down an F/A-18 before it went.

 

I decided to eliminate Keflavik airbase quickly to prevent P-3 Orions etc. from using that and eliminating shore-based ASW coverage for much of the North Atlantic. I duly flattened it with a two-wave AS-6 attack (many were shot down, but enough reached their target) from my "Backfires", which I initially decided to not send against a carrier group.

 

My submarines had rather frequent weapon mount breakdowns, but their performance would have been poor anyway...

 

I launched some "Bears" to locate the carrier group near the Eastern Seaboard and it got an ESM reading on a Sentry. I launched air-to-air "Backfires" in an attempt to destroy it. Before they got there, F-15s introduced the Tu-95 to their missiles and I lost the contact.

 

An "Akula" and two "Victors" got a CZ contact and headed to attack it from long range; torpedoes then showed up out of the blue. The "Akula" was hit and I surfaced it for purely humanitarian reasons (I would do that with other subs too, but only a few before I stopped caring). The two "Victors" followed.

 

Shortly after this, nuclear release was authorised. Not that I actually managed to nuke anything...

 

I identified a submarine group and launched an SS-N-16 at it. I notice that the missile component is actually much slower than it would be in the later High Tide annex. This managed to hit and destroy USS Phoenix, a 688 that I believe appeared in Red Storm Rising. Checking the game status, I noticed that I had destroyed 34 aircraft at this point (Keflavik must have been packed...).

 

Then things went more than a little Pete Tong.

 

(to be continued)

Taking out a land base for fighters and ASW aircraft doesn't ultimately do a lot of good when you're facing a floating air base with 80 aircraft (including the S-3 Viking ASW aircraft) and enough SAM defences for a small city.

 

Submarines started to go down in rapid succession as they were prosecuted by carrier-based aircraft with more tenacity than a womp rat. One of my subs launched three SS-N-16s at another sub contact; one missed, two were shot down before they could miss.

 

I lost my two "Oscars", although one took 7 hits to sink; the class is seriously resilient.

 

Most of my submarines were now gone.

 

In desperation, I launched some "Backfires" on high-level patrol, hoping to find an ESM signal. Two were shot down out of the blue and I then directed my entire force at the area.

 

The first lot were a mixture of "Bears" and "Backfires", a bit of a mistake. Ten Tu-95s went and I turned on my radars; I'd detected fighters and my air-to-air Tu-22Ms hurled AA-9s at the fighters. I managed to down some Tomcats with the long-range missiles.

 

The "Backfires" were split from the group (I don't remember why, possibly ease of use). They then hit bingo and were sent back to base. AIM-54s then shot up the "Bears" and I eventually lost them all.

 

Then I found a large surface contact. I launched a large number of AS-4s, an improved Spruance. These were shot down by AIM-54s.

 

The "Backfires" landed, re-armed and took off again- they were attacked by AIM-7s, with seven losses. I detected F/A-18s and shot down three with my AA-9s. I decided to follow the retreating Hornets back and then located a Belknap CG, as well as the carrier.

 

At this point, I launched the nuclear AS-4s, then turned for base. It was a thrilling moment watching the countdown clock as the AS-4 and AS-6 missiles sped towards their targets, hoping that some would get through. None ultimately did; with most being shot down by SM-2s and AIM-54s from sources I hadn't detected (I hate you, Cooperative Engagement Capability!).

 

I ordered the nearby subs to head for the group, which launched torpedoes from extreme range. Unfortunately, the contacts disappeared and the 54-minute Type 65 journey was for nothing. The subs were also lost.

 

With some of the fighters gone, I sent my Tu-22Ms for another go. I got a good fix on most of the group and launched. However, no missiles made it.

 

My third attempt saw most of my remaining "Backfires" destroyed. The fourth was only done with three air-to-airs and a bomber, which failed utterly.

 

With none of my subs able to get to the Iceland area (one had ended up off Gibraltar) and my bombers all gone, I hit fast-wind and ended the game when I saw that the enemy had achieved their minimum victory conditions.

 

Oh well, you can't win them all and I've learnt some lessons from this. The US investment in their navy in the 1980s really paid dividends; an attack on a CVBG would have been a lot harder in 1989 than in 1980.

Awesome AARs, especially that last! Sorry to hear the imperialists showed you up, that'll change I'm sure.

For the next mission, I'm breaking out the big guns.

 

Nine 16-inch ones in fact.

1.2

If I hadn't made an error at the beginning, this would have been a total victory. Instead I had to settle for a minimum one in what was largely a walkover.

 

Having watched a documentary on the Top Ten Fighting Ships where the Iowa-class battleship was rated the greatest warship type of all time (second was the Nimitz-class supercarrier), I chose a scenario from MEDC that featured one - Study 1.

 

My mission was to conduct "fire suppression" on the Lebanese coast, occupied by Syria. In practice this meant levelling a couple of airbases and a port with TLAMs and the 406mm guns on Missouri.

 

So, my force consisted of five ships; Missouri, a Leahy CG, a California CGN, a Kidd DDG and USS Farragut (DDG-37). All of the vessels had Standards for defence, but none of them were Aegis vessels, something felt to be rather unbalancing in this battleset (it's unbalancing in naval warfare full stop).

 

I decided that the best defence is a good offence, so I chucked my Tomahawks at a Syrian airbase. All 32 of them, which duly flattened the joint. The Tomahawks here appear to be the 250-mile anti-ship versions with a land-attack capability thrown in and not the thousand mile plus TLAM version. I also launched some of my ASW helicopters to patrol for any submarines in the area, even if Syria is not a country renowned for its prowess in submarine warfare. Or in other forms of warfare, as amply demonstrated in nearly everything from the 1948 Israeli War of Independence to 2007's reactor destruction.

 

In retrospect, using all 32 on a single base was a mistake; I should have spread them to the other bases. This prevented me from getting a total victory.

 

As I started up, I detected no less than 24 MiG-25s on my ESM. I decided that since I'd been detected, I might as well switch everything on to give me a maximum chance.

 

Then things started to get fairly easy. The MiGs didn't even attempt to run or accelerate; they wandered into SAM range and went down like grouse on 12 August. Recce MiGs, regular MiGs, it didn't matter.

 

Eventually, somebody launched some missiles at me; 4 AS-12 "Keglers", which would feature a lot in this scenario. My notes record my initial thought that I was dealing with SSC-3 "Shaddocks"; I was expecting some shore-based SSMs. I got none.

 

At about this point, I decided two things; I was going to need to use my Harpoons on land targets and that with this many fighter jets buzzing around, it was best to land my rather vulnerable ASW helicopters.

 

It now becomes necessary to complain about the AI in this version. This scenario is meant to showcase the potential problems the Syrian Air Force can cause close to home. Not when it comes in one or two at a time against a highly capable US force in aircraft designed to tackle heavy bombers and which handle like pigs. The AI had no idea of a mass attack.

 

This is not to say that I didn't have some slightly hairy moments; one missile in this first wave narrowly missed my battleship and there were others that were destroyed by Phalanx or splashed harmlessly. However, such was my confidence in my SAM capabilities that I was able to time-lapse some of my SAM engagements.

 

As I headed north, I detected a surface contact on radar. I decided to ready my Seahawks for a stand-off attack with Penguins, not desiring to get into a missile duel. They took a while to ready and I ultimately just forgot about them.

 

Three were three contacts at this point; heading at 30 knots. I determined these were probably not fishing boats (are there neutrals in this?) and decided to engage with Harpoons.

 

I was correct; they turned out to be four hostile ships - a "Petya" corvette and three "Osas". I lobbed Harpoons at them and three were sunk. What is the name of that sinking tune? Is it "Anchors Aweigh?" (which I only know because it was a corpse's ringtone on NCIS).

 

I decided to hold off on further 'Poons on the last "Osa" to let my BB have a go with its 406mm guns, having not used my guns before. Three shots were fired, but all missed. At this point, with no nice animations here (there is a hit flash, but I didn't see it), I lobbed a couple more Harpoons at this last ship and it sunk.

 

I continued north, intending to use my Harpoons on another Syrian airbase that I wasn't in range of yet.

 

(to be continued)

Nice work and in the newer battlesets/game versions you'll see one important change, the restriction that land-only capable missiles can only attack land targets...

 

Neutrals were added by yours truly with the help of many familiar names after HC Gold. Of course scenario authors could simulate neutrals with Red merchant ships in those older versions and occasionally did that.

Thanks for the info.

As I headed north, I found another four surface contacts. I decided to engage these with Standards and guns, to save my Harpoons for later. When my recommendations came up, I removed the Harpoons and replaced them with Standards; somehow I managed to launch two Harpoons though. Again, same result.

 

When I finally got into Harpoon range of Damascus AB, I lobbed 16 missiles at it, fending off another missile attack. When this only did 13% damage to the installation, I realised that I was going to have to sail up the coast and level Latakia with guns.

 

After dealing with another attack, I decided that I might as well attack Beirut port (I'd held off believing that targets would "pop up" when I got there), which would give me the second base anyway. I launched 42 SM-1s in two waves at the place. Missile launch animations can take a while when you're launching that many missiles. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

 

At this point, I decided to save my missiles; I was getting a tad concerned about running out of them. I fairly quickly destroyed the port; those guns are powerful!

 

When I didn't get a victory message, I double-checked my orders. I needed to destroy one hundred aircraft and I'd only got 74. So, I'd need to destroy Latakia as well to get the aircraft there.

 

I carried on up the coast, adjusting my formation to move Kidd up to the front as it had more SAMs. It's worth discussing that class here; originally intended for export to Iran, they ended up in US service after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They are clearly powerful vessels and the large number of SAMs here proved very useful.

 

There's not a lot else to say here. I thought I was facing a mass attack from Latakia, but it never materialised; I also realised that a number of aircraft attacking me came from Minakh; somewhere else that I should have Tomahawked.

 

I fended off all the attacks, although there were some near misses and then took out the airbase with just three salvoes from my battleship. Shortly after that, the Star-Spangled Banner played with the victory message and asked me if I wanted to carry on. I didn't really - I couldn't get a Total Victory.

 

I'd destroyed eight ships, 101 aircraft and three bases, damaging a fourth.

 

That scenario needs a decent AI to work; later versions will hopefully have it.

----

The next mission will The Svalbard Incident from HDS I; I get to play with a "Kirov" .

1.3 Part One

 

The world has changed; the USSR has entered the dustbin of history and a good number of naval units will be turning into scrap much faster than anticipated.

 

With superpower confrontation moved from "possible war" to "alternative history", Harpoon had to change its focus somewhat. I'll get onto some of the "small wars" stuff later.

 

1.3 brought the HDS1 group of 4 new battlesets, with new scenarios in the existing four areas (GIUK, NACV, IOPG and MEDC) covering potential conflicts that could arise from the "CIS 'Bargain Basement Sale of Slightly Used Weapon Systems'", to quote the description of HDS2 IOPG; one of Harpoon's best lines, up there with "The Ship of A Thousand Names" - as well as other things related to the events of the early 1990s.

 

We start getting a more "military format" order system with the HDS I battleset. We also get considerably more platforms.

 

It is worth noting that scenario dates are given in the orders, although the game clock seems very much linked to my system one for starting times. The scenario I chose was the first from HDS1 GIUK, The Svalbard Incident.

 

The date here is given as April 1998. The V-22 Osprey is present in this in ASW and transport forms; it would not enter RL service until 2007, although that was more due technical issues.

 

Playing the CIS (now there's a term that's somewhat fallen out of use), my mission is to attack and destroy a US amphibious group as it leaves the Arctic. Now the normal CIS approach to that would involve liberal use of "Backfires"; I don't have any.

 

My land-based air consists of 6 "Bears", 3 recce "Foxbats", 5 "Flankers".

 

I have two groups of surface forces. To the east is a "Krivak III" and three "Matkas". The III version of the "Krivak" was the KGB Border Guards version, which removes one of the SA-N-4s, the SS-N-14 and one of the 100mm guns, shoves the other one to the front and adds a helicopter pad with two AK-630s. The database describes it as "actually a better ASW weapon than either the Krivak I or II class", but I'm not hunting subs here and this proved to be rather poor in a surface-to-surface role - the Soviets never really went for helicopter AShMs, while the best surface weapon the class has, the "Silexes" are gone. The "Matkas" are the lightly defended fast attack craft loved by the Soviets; in other words, targets.

 

My other surface group looked a bit better. A lot better. A "Kresta II", another "Krivak", a "Sovvie" and... Kalinin. Yep, I had a "Kirov" to play with. This ship swapped out the SS-N-14s for SA-N-9 point defence missiles (or would have done if they'd been fitted in RL); considering that a ship like this would be a target of a good couple of squadrons of aircraft, it's a good decision.

 

Two diesel subs wrapped things off.

 

As I started, I noticed that my groups already had pre-set travel paths. I decided to leave these until I got a contact.

 

I then launched my recce Bears out on patrol. As I was dealing with an American amphibious group, I assumed Harriers would be present; a correct assumption. I set the repeating patrol feature, with patrols every 10 +/- 2 hours.

 

I also launched my three Recce MiG-25s for a search. Their ESM systems promptly detected a Seahawk hovering around. Since these were ship-based aircraft, it became clear that the amphibs were nearby. However, I wasn't able to shoot the Seahawk down - as my MiG-25s didn't carry any weapons. Who designs a recce bird and doesn't give it a couple of missiles for targets of opportunity?

 

Then I detected fixed-wing aircraft. Harriers! My "Flankers" didn't have the range to intercept the Harriers, which was rather annoying, particularly in light of later events.

 

With this location, I vectored my "Krivak" group towards the general area. The Harriers got into Sidewinder range, the MiGs went to afterburner and ran for their base. Unfortunately, they ran out of fuel and crashed. That was stupid.

 

At the same time, my submarines detected an aircraft flying above them by their passive sonar. Since I couldn't do a thing about this and no torpedoes were being launched, I ended up ignoring the repeated detections throughout the scenario.

 

Then problems started to occur more serious than the loss of three MiGs - my "Krivak" group was about to run into some very tough opposition.

1.3 Part 2

 

I was now about to discover that removing the forward SA-N-4 from the "Krivak" may not be an issue when dealing with refugees, but it is when you're dealing with Harriers. I got inbound aircraft on my group. Aircraft that promptly launched Maverick missiles, which go just above Mach 1.

 

With the Matkas only equipped with "Grails" for their own defence, it wasn't surprising when a Maverick hit one of the hydrofoils and sunk it. Then the "Krivak" took a hit and was slowed down to 24 knots. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and ordered the ship to head for Severomorsk at full speed.

 

Then another "Matka" proved that it was actually a bit more capable. As the Harriers closed, the ship shot down two of them! More Mavericks were launched and I turned my frigate back to help the "Matkas"; otherwise they'd go down very quickly. I also scrambled the "Sukhois" to try and intercept the Harriers.

 

Realising that the SA-N-5s were rear-mounted, I turned the ships around to bring their weapons to bear, but it ultimately didn't do anything. All the ships were destroyed by Mavericks, with multiple hits on the "Krivak III". I reflected that this wouldn't be so quick with my other surface group; they would put up more of a fight.

 

Happily, things were about to start going my way. The Su-27s arrived and launched medium-range AA-10 at the Harriers, which launched Sidewinders back. In the exchange of fire, I destroyed two Harriers for the loss of a single Su-27. I considered that an acceptable loss ratio.

 

A later patrol from the "Bears" and the "Flankers" found a Seahawk and an Osprey. They were operating without their radars on. Going active, I located surface contacts and found that they were in range of Kalinin's SS-N-19 "Shipwrecks".

 

The reporting name of the P-700/SS-N-19 is a very good one indeed. These are among the most powerful missiles in the game; very high speed, enough DPs to severely damage most vessels and with a huge range. I proceeded to launch all sixteen at the group; I could only fire four at a time, so it took four trips to the allocation screen. As I was launching, my air group had to level and lost the ships on radar; the last eight launches were bearing-only.

 

Not that it really mattered. Once the missiles were in flight, I set an intercept course.

 

They would take nine-and-a-half-minutes in game time to get there; I used time compression until the last minute.

 

It's plain to see why the "Kirov" class was as feared as it was; it's a positive killer to everything that's not a carrier group packing AEGIS. The first salvo sunk an Anchorage class; not a new ship but still rather large The second did not appear to get anything; while the third took out a Large Slow Target of the Newport class. The fourth hit an already blazing target, I don't remember which.

 

I got the victory message and was asked if I wanted to play on. I chose to do so.

 

My submarines found a surface contact, but it was too far and too fast for them to make the intercept. A Tornado F.3 proved too far for my Su-27s to reach, turning and running as they arrived.

 

I then IDed another surface group, which included a British Type 22 frigate and a Canadian Iroquois destroyer. Then two Seahawks arrived.

 

They launched Penguin missiles at my group. I was a bit concerned; my orders said protect the BCGN at all costs. The SA-N-6 missiles launched but completely missed! My "Sovvie" was hit by two missiles, which merely slowed it down. The "Grumbles" were being particularly poor today; it took several of them to finally destroy the Seahawks.

 

I was asked if I wanted to leave the destroyer behind. I said no; as I needed the "Sunburn" missiles for the surface action. I would use them shortly afterwards on the 'phib group.

 

When we got into range, I launched my eight "Sunburn" missiles. Four of them went for the amphibious carrier Tarawa and four at another Newport. I didn't watch the flight in 1:1, something I now somewhat regret, because it's always fun to watch these anti-shipping attacks in real-time. Both vessels sunk, but not with a victorious Soviet anthem, but sad music. Perhaps more appropriate in a way; there would have been a lot of men on those ships.

 

With only an Over Head Projector (Oliver Hazard Perry FFG) left of the PHIBGRU; I turned my attention to the other larger group. A Lynx made an attack with its Sea Skuas. It made a hit on the "Sovvie" (which took all the hits that group got), but took a SAM of its own. Then the Canadian Iroquois destroyed one of my few Ka-25 "Hormones" with an SM-2MR.

 

The surface group turned to run; going too fast for the damaged "Sovvie", I had to leave it behind. Even then I couldn't keep up, so I turned for Severomorsk.

 

Then the enemy SAG turned to follow me! I decided to turn for a surface action (which might have a mistake), landing my choppers. I readied my "Flankers" with iron bombs and launched them; the range was too far. I decided to use them against the lone OHP when they'd been readied again.

 

Our groups got into range, a Charles F. Adams DDG started firing Standards at me... then the game crashed to desktop.

 

Oh well...

Sounds like NATO elected to use the Doomsday device without warning.

 

I'm enjoying the running record, btw.

I'm likewise enjoying the narrative. This is an all time favorite of mine, I played blue many years ago, and ended with a gun battle to the death between the Kirov and the STANAVFORLANT CF Adams. Mine crashed then as well. "The Bank Getaway" is my take on the same theme.

Been a bit busy, but I'll try and get one of these done in the couple of weeks.