February 10, 201115 yr Game start: Time of day 2325 hrs 09 Feb. Slow the CVBG [AAC] to creep, reset the formation to something I like better, switch all the Hornets to Intercept loadout, launch air patrols. Get the JMSDF surface group [AFS] headed back to rendezvous with the CVBG, and get all the subs moving towards Petropavlovsk. Examine Petropavlovsk --- Ye Flippin' Gods! *125* bombers?!? [AFS] has a surface contact on sonar. Staff assistant wants [AAC] to light up its radars, as surface contact is within visual range. Declined. Time to go 3:23:54:20 surface contact identified as neutral merchant Lachesis, spd 20 course 295. TTG 3:23:43:00 ESM contact with a Mainstay AEW bird and an EW Badger. TTG 3:23:38:00 WTF is an AGI doing still floating, and only about 100 nm north of my CVBG?!? Light up the radar on one of my Hawkeyes for a better look. TTG 3:23:37:00 Good grief, there's another one to the NE at abot the same range. Why the heck did we overlook them? Order Kirishima to launch 4 Harpoons at each AGI. Hawkeye also reports many bombers and fighters inbound from N, order escorting F-14s to intercept. Launch more F-14s to replace escorts. TTG 3:23:31:12 Scratch one AGI. TTG 3:23:29:58 Scratch the other AGI. TTG 3:23:23:08 The Toms kill a pair of Bear-Ds. TTG 3:23:21:10 Eleven Backfires down. Go Tomcats! TTG 3:23:20:20 Two more Backfires gone. TTG 3:23:19:10 Okay, got the last Bear-D. My surface units should be safe from detection for at least a little while. Meanwhile, I see that my Hornets are now ready for air-to-air. This is good, if the pace keeps up I may need them soon. Hope there aren't too many more Flankers out there, those AA-12s have an unpleasantly long reach ... TTG 3:23:12:30 The Toms bag another 4 Tu-26Cs. Incredibly, even though they had to know from RWR that the Toms were closing, the Backfires kept advancing to their doom. Eight Sparrows killed them all in one shot, and that's the last of them for now. Order the Toms to RTB. TTG 3:23:04:40 Two pairs of Foxhounds, some more Flankers, and a May show up to play. Vector in the next set of Toms, and launch replacements. TTG 3:22:54:30 Hmm ... surface contact from one of my subs in the Sea of Japan. Order the sub to creep and evaluate. TTG 3:22:50:45 Got the Foxhounds, the Flankers, and two Mays. Unfortunately, 6 more Flankers and a dozen unknown fighters have just popped up. The Toms are keeping busy. Current score is 28 Soviet aircraft and 2 AGIs killed, for no friendly losses. TTG 3:22:44:50 The unknowns were more Foxhounds, and 3 of them are now dead. Out of AIM-54s, the Toms are RTB. TTG 3:22:34:50 The next wave of Toms claims the 6 Foxhounds that didn't turn back. Yet more Flankers downbound. How many of those wretched things are out there? TTG 3:22:29:00 ... and two more dead Flankers. These ones were Su-27s, with the earlier version of the AA-12, not Su-35s with the 94-mile range of the later AA-12s. Order the Toms to loiter at High. Oho! A bunch of new ESM contacts, mostly land based SAM and SSM, but also a Helix AEW bird near the southern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula. The plot thickens ... :-) TTG 3:22:18:00 More Foxhounds coming out to play, and what looks like 8 Bears behind them. Launch more Tomcats. $1 minutes until the first lot of Toms will be reloaded. Hope I don't run out of F-14s before then, I don't want to risk Hornets with Sparrows against any of the Sov fighters I've seen so far. TTG 3:22:13:15 Hmmm ... Two pairs of Foxhounds, 10 miles apart, both pairs at Low altitude. So why is one pair doing 560 kts while the other pair does 570 kts? TTG 3:22:00:30 The F-14s have claimed another 6 MiG-31s, but two dozen Backfires have just popped up, and there's another AEW Helix out there to the SE of the first one. Looking like at least two Red surface groups waiting for me. I've got an SSK fairly close to the new one, perhaps it can do something with them in a bit. TTG 3:21:57:30 Four more Foxhounds down, leaving just the Bears to deal with immediately. The Toms have used up their last Phoenix, but they still have Sparrows and Sidewinders for the bombers. TTG 3:21:55:20 8 Sparrows = 8 dead Bears. Order the Toms to RTB, and send the next wave after those 2 dozen Backfires. TTG 3:21:57:30 The Tomcats have just finished killing 18 Backfires, 6 Badgers, and 6 Bears, and are RTB. For more good news, the first 8 Toms have just finished reloading. Just as well, since I've just launched the last of the original bunch for CAP. Wondering where the Soviet subs are, they have to be out there somewhere. That surface contact in the Sea of Japan has faded without ever being ID'ed. Hope it was just a merchie. Current score 92 Sov a/c and 2 AGIs killed for no friendly losses. Saving the game for the night, more to come tomorrow.
February 10, 201115 yr Definitely going well for you, and heading off the challenges nicely, thanks for sharing and am looking forward to more.
February 11, 201115 yr Author Part the second: TTG 3:21:09:40 2 Foxhounds that were harassing my forward Hawkeye splashed. TTG 3:20:46:10 2 Su-27 killed by the Toms. TTG 3:20:44:30 ... and two more Foxhounds ... TTG 3:20:42:10 The sonar contact in the Sea of Japan just came back on CZ, and the Toms claim another four Foxhounds. TTG 3:20:39:40 One group of F-14s uses its last 3 AIM-54C to kill a Flanker. RTB. TTG 3:20:37:40 The other group uses its last 4 Phoenix to splash a pair of Foxhounds. Red seems to have quite a lot of Foxhounds today ... RTB. Order the replacement groups to Military at High, because there are more fighters inbound, and the Hawkeye is feeling a bit lonley. TTG 3:20:30:10 The fighters in question, a Flanker and a Foxhound, are toast. Order the Toms back to cruise. TTG 3:20:46:10 The forward Hawkeye is getting a bit low on fuel. Launch another one, with a Prowler escorting, and post them a little further forward. TTG 3:20:12:50 Two more Flankers down. TTG 3:20:10:30 ... and two more ... TTG 3:20:08:30 Relief. The contact in the Sea of Japan is a neutral merchant. Order my sub to resume speed. TTG 3:20:02:10 Two more Flankers offed. TTG 3:19:58:00 A pair of Flankers manages to evade my last 6 Phoenix, and get into extreme range for their Alamos. The Toms go to burner and evade easily, then RTB. I could probably catch the Flankers and kill them with Sparrows, but they are RTB as well, and why take chances when you don't need to? TTG 3:19:57:00 Scratch a pair of MiG-31s. TTG 3:19:31:00 What's this? A surface contact, 225 nm NNW of the carriers, via USS Birmingham's sonar. Hmmm ... TTG 3:19:29:10 Two Flankers and a Foxhound die by Tomcat. Toms RTB, replacements en route. TTG 3:19:28:10 Three more Foxhounds are history. Wondering if this is an illustration of the old line about it taking a brave man *not* to be a Hero of the Soviet Union ... TTG 3:19:19:00 Birmingham's sonar contact turns out to be a Soviet warship, heading for the carriers at 35 knots. Order a couple of flights of Intruders to deal with the problem. TTG 3:19:18:10 Hello! 10 new surface contacts, mostly FFLs, just lit off their radars about 350 nm N of the carriers. That's the third major Red surface group so far. TTG 3:19:17:00 Spoke too soon, there's a Slava, a Sverdlov, and a pair of Udaloys in there too. TTG 3:19:07:50 Two more Flankers dead. TTG 3:18:50:30 ... and two more Foxhounds, also deceased. TTG 3:18:46:05 The Smyshlennyy, a Mod Kashin DDG, is vaporized by 32 air-launched Harpoons. TTG 3:18:40:00 Two more Flankers fall to the Toms. TTG 3:18:32:10 Add 2 more Foxhounds to the tally. TTG 3:18:23:20 Okay, we've got an EW Badger coming out to play. Send some Toms over to run it off. TTG 3:18:50:30 It's getting to be time to do something about that surface group to the N, with the Slava. Launch the rest of the Intruders, with Toms and Prowlers escorting. TTG 3:17:58:15 Two more Flanker pilots go swimming. TTG 3:17:51:50 There turned out to be both a jammer and a chaff-layer Badger out there. It took 6 Phoenix to kill them. Toms RTB. TTG 3:17:46:20 Time to relieve the E-2 / EA-6 patrol. TTG 3:17:28:40 The strike escorts claim a pair of Flankers. And ANOTHER AGI shows up, way too close! Clearly, I need to lay on some remedial education for my recce boys and girls ... :-( TTG 3:17:23:20 The strikers sink the AGI en passant, 3 Harpoons expended. TTG 3:17:21:20 The escorts just shot down 5 of 6 Forgers that came out for a look. There's a Kiev out there somewhere to the NW. TTG 3:17:20:10 The last Forger dies. TTG 3:17:18:50 Four more Forgers splashed. TTG 3:17:14:30 Strike results: we sink the Slava, the Sverdlov, an Udaloy and a Krivak, with another Krivak crippled. The rest of the group stops in place, or mills about looking for men in the water. Strikers and escorts RTB. Current score is 8 Red ships sunk, 2 damaged, (I think he had one run aground in the Kuriles somewhere) and 145 Red a/c and 1 helo destroyed, against 0 Blue losses or damage. Time for bed, more on the weekend.
February 13, 201115 yr Hi Warhorse, looks like you really understand your tactics - great play so far! Looking forward if you really manage to win it without losses/heavy losses. Thought I had made this ine hard Regards, Ralf
February 13, 201115 yr Author Part the third: TTG 3:12:24:30 Subsequent operation have killed several more Soviet ships and an Echo II SSGN, along with a passle of aircraft of various sorts. Unfortunately, they have also cost me two Japanese escorts, seven Intruders, and a Viking. These losses are entirely attributable to the lack of focus brought on by lack of sleep, as is the fact that your correspondant cleverly forgot to save the log file after quitting for the night. The current losses are: BLUE: 2 ships, 8 aircraft, 4 helicopters destroyed, 0 damaged RED: 11 ships, 1 submarine, 197 aircraft, 13 helicopters destroyed, 3 ships damaged TTG 3:12:04:50 Two Hornets launched for the purpose shoot down a snooping May ENE of my carriers. TTG 3:11:57:50 Okay, this is wierd. I just got a report that the Kirov has gone down. I'm certainly not complaining, but she's in the group to the NNW, which I have yet to attack! Perhaps she grounded in the Kuriles, or ran afoul of one of her own subs? TTG 3:11:36:35 The Toms claim another pair of Forgers. The Soviet pilots certainly don't lack for courage or persistance. TTG 3:11:19:50 Two more Forger pilots go swimming. TTG 3:11:08:20 Two Hornets launched for the purpose eliminate a paqir of Badger jammers which have been making a nuisance of themselves off to the W. Hornets RTB. TTG 3:11:06:50 The first pair of Hornets claims another May. RTB. TTG 3:11:00:00 Time to launch another strike on the group to the NW. TTG 3:10:08:00 Tomcats escorting the strike claim seven Helix, including an AEW model. SAMs from the target group claim an Intruder. TTG 3:10:05:40 First strike results - a Tarantul III and a Sovremenny. TTG 3:10:05:00 More results - another Tarantul III, The Baku CVHG, a Berezina AFS, a Nanuchka, and an Udaloy. Another Sovremenny, a Slava, the Azov, and the BCGN are heavily damaged. TTG 3:09:59:55 The BCGN Frunze gives up the ghost and sinks. TTG 3:09:52:50 The strike escorts claim another 8 helos, then beat a hasty retreat as the surface group proves to be still capable of launching Grumbles. TTG 3:09:47:10 It would appear that there is an Oscar SSGN just N of my carriers, as 20 SS-N-19 just popped up. TTG 3:09:44:10 The dice really don't like me. In spite of a total of more than 80 SAM and AAM expended, with never less than 55% final Pk, 3 Shipwreck get through to Lincoln, damaging her to 68%. Hang in there, big guy ... TTG 3:09:22:00 The toms kill 4 Backfires. TTG 3:09:13:30 Birmingham launches torpedos aginst the NW surface group. TTG 3:09:05:20 Birmingham claims a Kresta II CG. TTG 3:09:05:10 ... and is killed herself, by something she never saw ... TTG 3:09:05:00 ... but from Davy Jones' locker, she still manages to claim an Uda AO and an Udaloy ... TTG 3:08:42:00 I launch a small strike with Hornets against the remainder of the NW group. TTG 3:08:40:00 Another pair of Badger jammers manifests itself. I launch a pair of Hornets to intercept. TTG 3:08:11:00 The strike claims a Tarantul and a Slava, for no losses. TTG 3:07:50:00 Launch a strike with Intruders against the remainder of the group to the N. TTG 3:07:42:30 The Badger jammers die. Hornets RTB. TTG 3:06:45:40 The strike finishes off the Northern surface group. Strikers RTB. TTG 3:06:14:30 A group ofd Hornets claim the Azov and a Sovremenny. Of the NW surface group, only a solitary Nanuchka E now remains. TTG 3:06:11:00 There's a pair of Red subs off to the E of my carriers. Vikings are working the problem. TTG 3:04:33:00 Finally! After about 20 torpedoes expended, the latest group of Vikings manage to kill one of the subs, a Charlie I SSGN, and a small group of Hornets finishes off the NW surface group. Time to go for the moment, more follows later. Current score is: BLUE: 2 ships, 1 sub, 9 a/c, 1 helo destroyed, 1 carrier damaged. RED: 1 carrier, 35 ships, 2 subs, 212 a/c, 42 helos destroyed, 1 carrier and 2 ships damaged.
February 14, 201115 yr Author Part the last: TTG 3:03:21:20 Patrolling F-14s claim another Bear-D. TTG 3:03:07:50 Two more Badger jammers downed. TTG 3:03:06:10 A pair of Mays are the latest victims of the Toms. TTG 3:03:00:30 Strike escorts claim 3 Mays and 4 Helix, including an AEW variant. TTG 3:02:52:00 Looks like the strikers killed the entire NNW surface group in one pass. TTG 3:02:36:55 4 Tu-26 downed. TTG 3:02:15:00 Another Oscar manifests itself, and once again, in spite of what should be overwhelming SAM and AAM defences, one of 20 SSMs gets through, damaging Carl Vinson to 22%. There is something very wrong here, because I'm not being jammed, but my missile defences are not working nearly as well as they should! TTG 3:02:06:00 ... and now a torpedo attack coming in. Run Away! TTG 3:01:46:45 A small group of Hornets kills a stray Kresta II that got hung up on an island. TTG 3:01:35:00 A Victor III turns up in the area the torpedo attack came from. Vikings and Seahawks to intercept. TTG 3:00:38:50 We manage to kill a Victor I off to the E. ASW seems to require a LOT of torpedoes. TTG 2:21:15:50 2 more EW badgers shot down. TTG 2:19:39:20 F-14s down 4 Backfires. Launching a major strike on Petropavlovsk. TTG 2:19:35:30 ... and a Bear-F. TTG 2:17:43:50 At the cost of 18 F-18s and 13 F-14s, Petropavlovsk succumbs to a combination of Walleyes and Tomahawks. Victory is awarded two minutes later.
February 14, 201115 yr Author This was a pretty good scenario. Although I started off quite well, I found it very difficult to maintain the high level of concentration necessary to keep losses to a minimum. At the end, for the strike on Petropavlovsk, I simply didn't bother to try. I suppose I could justify that by claiming that this was the last battle in the theater, and it was the final strike of the battle, and I knew I had the firepower to kill the base whatever losses I took, all of which was true, but the truth is, I wanted to get it over with. I could have loaded my Hornets up with SLAM, and whittled the SAM defences down, and that would have kept my casualties down, but it also would have taken another day or two to finish, and I knew I had the game won already. A couple of questions I'd really like answers to: Why were my anti-missile defences so lousy? 80+ SAMs and AAMs with a final kill probability of 55-60% should kill about 45-50 incoming, but on two separate occasions I got missiles leaking through from a strike of 20. Is this just bad luck, or is there something I'm not seeing? Secondly, why is it that I can have an ASW plane squatting right on top of a firmly located sub, drop all my torpedoes one at a time on the target from less than a mile away, and have NONE of them even engage? I understand about limited seeker radius, but come on! How can I make it any better than that? The few sub kills I got took about 20 torps apiece! Am I doing something wrong, or is there a glitch in the game somewhere? As a final note, I notice that one neutral sub got sunk. That was RED's doing, the Victor I that I sunk off to the East of my carriers was shooting at it on several occasions. I guess it eventually scored. RIP. Ralf, thanks for a good scenario, I had a lot of fun with it!
February 20, 201115 yr Hi Warhorse, congratulations on your brilliant tactical play and thanks for this wonderful AAR ! This kind of feedback is what a scenario designer needs from time to time Best Regards, Ralf
February 20, 201115 yr A couple of questions I'd really like answers to: Why were my anti-missile defences so lousy? 80+ SAMs and AAMs with a final kill probability of 55-60% should kill about 45-50 incoming, but on two separate occasions I got missiles leaking through from a strike of 20. Is this just bad luck, or is there something I'm not seeing? What was your Surface SAM Fire Rate (under Staff Options)? Secondly, why is it that I can have an ASW plane squatting right on top of a firmly located sub, drop all my torpedoes one at a time on the target from less than a mile away, and have NONE of them even engage? I understand about limited seeker radius, but come on! How can I make it any better than that? The few sub kills I got took about 20 torps apiece! Am I doing something wrong, or is there a glitch in the game somewhere? There isn't a glitch as such, but a limitation in the game that will probably need some adjustment in the DB to accommodate. Many lightweight torpedoes have an acquisition range of 1,000 yd or less (roughly half a nautical mile). And we know the game has difficulty with the geometries of short range engagements (witness the ATA gunnery issues), so getting an aircraft to drop a torpedo under a mile or less is very tough. Even at 1 nm you are twice the distance of the seeker acquisition range of many torpedoes, as earlier mentioned. Myself and Tony have discussed this previously, and what I am probably going to do is reintroduce an artificial boost to the torpedo acquisition range (probably a floor of 1,000 yd or some such). I will probably post in the Beta section to get folks' thoughts on it.
February 20, 201115 yr Author A couple of questions I'd really like answers to: Why were my anti-missile defences so lousy? 80+ SAMs and AAMs with a final kill probability of 55-60% should kill about 45-50 incoming, but on two separate occasions I got missiles leaking through from a strike of 20. Is this just bad luck, or is there something I'm not seeing? What was your Surface SAM Fire Rate (under Staff Options)? Surface SAM RoF was set to 'Normal'. Secondly, why is it that I can have an ASW plane squatting right on top of a firmly located sub, drop all my torpedoes one at a time on the target from less than a mile away, and have NONE of them even engage? I understand about limited seeker radius, but come on! How can I make it any better than that? The few sub kills I got took about 20 torps apiece! Am I doing something wrong, or is there a glitch in the game somewhere? There isn't a glitch as such, but a limitation in the game that will probably need some adjustment in the DB to accommodate. Many lightweight torpedoes have an acquisition range of 1,000 yd or less (roughly half a nautical mile). And we know the game has difficulty with the geometries of short range engagements (witness the ATA gunnery issues), so getting an aircraft to drop a torpedo under a mile or less is very tough. Even at 1 nm you are twice the distance of the seeker acquisition range of many torpedoes, as earlier mentioned. Myself and Tony have discussed this previously, and what I am probably going to do is reintroduce an artificial boost to the torpedo acquisition range (probably a floor of 1,000 yd or some such). I will probably post in the Beta section to get folks' thoughts on it. Okay, that sounds good. Thanks!
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