May 18, 200719 yr AAR: Interfet-Stabilize [spoiler Alert] Harpoon ANW scenario for the PlayersDB by Freek Schepers East Timor is an old Portuguese colony which was annexed by Indonesia in 1975. In August 1999, the citizenry overwhelmingly voted for independence, and, almost immedately afterwards, Indonesian-backed militia bacame active. By September, 250.000 people had fled the killings. In September, President Habibi of Indonesia finally agreed to the deployment of a multinational UN-peacekeeping force in East Timor so long as it was primarily Asian troops. While US, New Zealand, Italian, Singaporean, Malaysian, and Norwegian troops began the long preparations for deployment, Australia was ready and an amphibious convoy put to sea. Indonesia objected strongly to this breach of the agreement. Although this scenario has not yet been released, Tony and I decided to give it a try on the HarpGamer ANW Server. Anyone else interested in this scenario can also try it out there, too. In order to preserve the element of surprise if Tony should decide to play this scenario solitaire, I commanded the Indonesians while Tony took the UN forces. http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508069 My orders were to destroy several troop transports carrying soldiers for the Interfet operation as it is much easier to destroy units while they are embarked on ships than after they disembark and deploy. Several contact bearings were reported by submarine so I launched an unarmed Super Frelon helo to triangulate the contacts. http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508079 Once the convoy was solidly pinpointed, the submarine was ordered to dive and creep along at maximum depth. The convoy path would take it right overhead and she did not need to make any extraneous noise. Strangely, FF Anzac seemed to accelerate and pull away from the rest of the group at 31 knots. Luckily, she was still running directly towards the SS Cakra. When she was only 2nm away, I decided to launch a spread of torpedoes. I knew that she was not my main target and that I might be revealing myself early, but I was following the adage of "the bird in hand...." In addition, she held a potential inventory of 8 Harpoon missiles that could wreak havoc among my approaching ships. http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508086 The spread of four SUT torpedoes broke the surface 1 nm away from their target. An alert lookout must have noticed them as the ship began immediate evasive manoeuvres. Although the ANZAC was able to flee at 31 kts, the range was too short and the 34 kt torpedoes soon caught her and cut the SSMs available to the UN in half. Yahoo! http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508104 Unfortunately, turnabout is fair play, too. Soon afterwards, a salvo of Harpoon missiles was detected from the surviving NZ frigates. After one was shot down, I went onto the chat channel to boast about my excellent gunnery. Meanwhile, a second wave of missiles demolished both of my own Harpoon-armed Ahmad Yani missile boats before they could fire their missiles. Argggh! Moral of the story was: "Don't gloat during combat." I only had two more boats armed with the shorter-ranged Exocet. One "good" outcome of the Harpoon attack on me was the fact that one of the missiles started tracking a local fishing boat and blew her out of the water. Now world opinion would turn against the UN for harming civilians. http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508095 On the East coast of Timor, FF Hasnuddin detected the fast ferry, Jervis Bay rounding the point and set her ablaze with old-fashioned gunfire. Luckily, she did not try to escape with her phenomenal 42kt maximum speed as the frigate was only capable of 24kts in pursuit. http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment...mp;d=1179508115 Back to the Amphibious convoy, a Mandau-class missile boat silently crept up on her prey. She maintained EmCon to prevent the Kiwis from ascertaining her exact identity as she was getting navigational cues from the orbiting Super Frelon helo. A second helo armed with Exocet missiles launched to try and coordinate a pincer attack with the Mandau. Just as they arrived to simultaneously deliver Exocet from the surface and the air, fire control radar was detected from the frigate! The tattletale helo exploded in a fireball, but she had done her duty and 6 Exocets were sufficient to overwhelm the little frigate's defenses. The Mandau did not live to see the results as she fell victim to return fire. At this point, just when I thought things were getting interesting, Tony conceded defeat. With only one frigate left to protect the convoy, he didn't think that it would be sufficient to accomplish the mission. We saved the game in case he changed his mind. Thanks to Freek for another superb scenario and to Tony for a great game. It was too bad that I had the opportunity to help test this scenario during development, but I tried not to take advantage of my prior knowledge. Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare
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