AAR Hugo's Folly #1 Flight of the Governor

 

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Hi Herman talked Eds and me into trying our hand with scen#1 of Hugo's Folly.

This scen is made by Herman, tested by me for the PlayersDB. So I did have an unfair advantage of knowing the scen.

 

I played Netherlands. Intel said an invasion by Venezuela of the Dutch ABC-islands was imminent but I was not authorised to fire first. My mission was to bring my fleet to St Maarten and to extract the Governor and millitary staff by Fokker plane and helo's.

 

Thinking it over I decided the politicians in The Hague were dreaming if they thought I could defend the islands with one FFG, 2 coast guard cutters and one F16s armed for photo-recon. The force was there to deter Hugo and if that had failed it was time to get OUT.

 

So I had the group form up and race at 23 knots to St Maarten in a straight line. I launched the helo when it became ready after an hour and landed it on Mearsk. Three hours into the game Eds had started moving his fleet to the islands but I had not seen his fearsome Flankers.

 

Strongly worded diplomatic notices did not deter Eds fleet from entering my territorial waters, but no shots were fired.

 

After 4 hours, with Eds fleet close, both my Fokkers took off escorted by the F16 and reached St Maarten hours later. A few Flankers were detected but did not come close.

 

Then I ran into a sub, detected about 10nm in front of my formation and drifting. I fired a torp from 10nm away to chase the sub away (which it did at 5 knots!). I stationed a helo on top of her and boxed the group around the sub.

Dutch pilots are known for their initiative, and in a moment of communication loss, my helo pilot dropped a torp on the sub and killed her. The Commodore decided to publicise this event as deterrent.

 

Hours later a second sub was detected as well, and the helo was more disciplined and just maitained station. Still no threat from Flankers. Maybe the deterrent worked.

However then the Venezuelan fleet, now fully assembled started bombarding the islands and building after building were lost. Panic sat in and the Fokkers were ordered to take off from St Maarten, return to Aruba and rescue more marines. The flight to Aruba was uneventfull.

 

Having landed, they took off 30 minutes later and used their radars to avade the fleet, though one did decide to identify the Venezuelan fleet for a future 'gesture' by my reloading F16.

For the second time the Fokkers flew towards St Maarten, now on a more northerly track. Several passenger planes evecuating refugees flew further South.

One of these 737s was intercepted by a Flanker but with Latin flair the pilot let the plane full with women and children pass and RTB-d. The Fokkers landed a second time. Finally y F16 took off from Aruba, last man out, shot down an orbiting helo and made its escape.

 

Mission accomplished.

 

With two players with fast connections the game ran pretty fast and we finished the 12 hour gametime game in about 2 hours running 15:1 seconds. Eds took the islands but did not prevent my units from escaping - probably due to the large number of cluttering neutral planes and ships and controlling his large number of units. I' sure he'll play different next time!

Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) decided to try out the "Hugo's Folly" battleset inspired by Freek Schepers. To get a full appreciation of this fine collection, we wanted to start from beginning to end. The first scenario is Flight of the Governor, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

Elections in the Netherlands Antilles have seen gains for the political party seeking closer ties to Venezuela and its President, Chavez.

The Government has fallen and the legal status of the islands is unclear; with Curacao an independent nation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba, and Bonaire seeking a similar status, and the three smaller islands of St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, and Saba being municipalities within the Netherlands. Early this morning, Venezuela carried out a sudden invasion of the ABC islands.

 

#1 Flight of the Governor

Venezuela has recently received deliveries of new Su-30 Flankers from Russia. Coupled with the political chaos of the current situation and the aspirations of a megalomaniac, this is a potentially volatile and lethal mixture.

 

I played the Dutch while AoA commanded the Venezuelans. I did not control many forces. I had a frigate, two coast guard vessels, and merchant ship, a pair of passenger planes, and a single F-16 Falcon. Facing down the entire Venezuelan military was not going to be an option.

 

 

To get a feel for the upcoming onslaught, I launched my Lynx helicopter for a quick radar picture. The area was cluttered with civilian vessels of all types. The governmental offices were still operational so I was getting a direct feed from the maritime and aerial authorities who tracked all the merchant traffic in the area. I moved my frigate closer to the island to try and help shield her with the Sea Sparrow battery. As soon as Flanker radar was detected, I landed the helo. I didn't want her to face the potential AA-10 Alamo missiles.

 

My orders were not to engage unless attacked. Unfortunately, the computer had its own ideas. Once the Flankers were in range, missiles started firing regardless of whatever I tried to do to stop it. Oh well, so much for attention to orders...

 

Jerome was facing the same problem. He approached civilian airliners and tried to identify them visually in hopes of spotting the one carrying the Governor. Unfortunately, he couldn't prevent his planes from wasting their AA-11 Archer missiles on innocent and defenceless targets, either. So, I guess the problem "balanced" itself out. We both called this phenomenon, Another Genuinely Stupid Idea.

 

 

After one hour of game time, the Governor was ready for evacuation by plane or ship. A helo flew onto the waiting Maersk Explorer which then raced off towards the dubious safety of St. Maarten at flank speed accompanied by the frigate and coast guard vessels as escorts. This was a decoy and the Governor decided to leave on one of the the Maritime aircraft. Unfortunately, the island was currently surrounded by Su-30 Flankers.

 

In an attempt to distract from his departure, he sent one of the Maritime Fokkers on a decoy mission towards Mexico and had all the civilian airliners surge. Hopefully, the large number of aircraft would take time for the Venezuelans to track down and verify so that he could make good his escape. To his horror, the Venezuelans just shot the civilian airliners full of evacuees right out of the sky due to Another Genuinely Stupid Idea. Luckily, he was still sitting on the runway with the surviving Fokker.

 

 

The Flankers tried to bomb Aruba and came in at low altitude to deliver their ordnance. One was promptly shot down by a Stinger ManPADS. (It was obviously flown by an inept Flunker.) The situation was pretty much a Mexican stand-off. The Governor could not leave the island and the Venezuelans could not bomb it. However, they didn't need to as there was an entire invasion fleet approaching.

 

 

The little rag-tag evacuation fleet detected incoming Otomat SSMs on radar. One tracked onto a coast guard vessel and blew it clean out of the water. Seeing as the Venezuelans decided to open fire from their ships, the FFG Galen returned fire at frigates Urdaneta and Soublette with four Harpoons, each. I suspected that a full salvo would be required to sink a vessel, but I was optimistic (wildly so) that I might be able to get both in one volley. The SAM gunnery of the frigates was good and only one missile struck home, leaving the Urdaneta on fire. If I was lucky, she would sink on her own.

 

 

Meanwhile, under cover of the missile attack, the Governor decided that this might be the opportune time to make good his escape. Accompanied by the lone Falcon, he set off at low altitude; hoping to evade detection. Sadly, luck was not with the man, today. A Flanker soon returned to intercept him. The F-16 Falcon manoeuvered aggressively to deflect the attack. Both planes were expertly flown and AAMs were exchanged with neither side getting the upper hand.

 

The deciding factor was the detection of two additional Flankers coming to join the fray. There was no way that one Falcon would be able to fend off 3 Flankers so the Governor ran back to Aruba airport; hanging his final hopes on finding an opening in the Flanker interdiction patrols in which he could escape through. The situation looked extremely dire.

 

When all hope seemed lost and facing imminent capture, the cavalry arrived in the form of USAF Falcons! Hurrah! Evidently, my American friends had decided to play a role and a pair of Falcons intercepted and shot down the remaining Flankers. Now, the coast appeared to be clear for the gubernatorial departure. [The best part of the episode (like the best part of most MP games) was listening to Jerome question the fate of his planes ]

 

 

At this point, we decided to call it a night and saved the game for completion another time.

 

Thanks, AoA, for a really great game incorporating real life strategies and diplomatic exchanges. As always, the banter is probably the best part of most MP games. And thanks to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) tried to finish off our scenario with Flight of the Governor, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

Having shot down the bulk of his Su-30s, the only thing left for me to do was evacuate the embassy personnel aboard the Maersk Explorer and the frigate, Van Galen. However, AoA wasn't giving up without a fight!

 

 

As the little rag-tag evacuation force made its way to St. Maarten, a submarine contact was detected

 

 

Normally, this would not present much of a problem. I ordered my SH-14D Lynx helicopter aloft to prosecute the contact. Luckily, I had kept my eye on the radar screen because coming out of the SE was another Flanker! (Just how many of those things did Hugo buy!?)

 

There was no way that my Lynx was going to survive an encounter with a Flanker, so I quickly ordered it back to the ship. So, another Mexican Standoff ensued. I could not prosecute the contact because it was protected by the fighter and the fighter lacked the ability to attack my ships.

 

 

Something had to give. As my orders directed me to make St. Maartens best possible speed, I would just have to close with the submarine and engage the old fashioned way, with a broadside torpedo launch.

 

I ordered the Van Galen to make flank speed towards the sub contact in hopes of screening my merchants from retaliatory attack. However, AoA had his own ideas. Once he knew that had been detected, he sent a lone torpedo towards my ships and hope that he could break contact while my ships evaded the diversionary attack.

 

It was a beautiful idea since it screwed up my plans and might just prevent me from achieving my Victory Conditions as I had to get my ships as close to St. Maarten as possible. My ships turned to run until the torpedo ran out of fuel. This burned both fuel (and Time!), since I was headed in the wrong direction.

 

In 'retaliation', I hinted to Jerome that I had a sub in the Aruba area waiting to return the favour.

 

In fact, I had no sub at my disposal, but it was entertaining to watch AoA pound the waters with his sonar searching in vain for a sub that wasn't there. This was probably as close to a real life situation as we could get. Just the mere hint of a submarine's presence can cause a frenzy of activity in one's enemy.

 

At this point, we decided to call it a night and saved the game for completion tomorrow, hopefully.

 

Thanks, AoA, for making this game so realistic and to HarpGamer for the use of their server. We crashed it three times, but it always came back up. Bravo

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Tonight, Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) and I were determined to finish off our scenario with Flight of the Governor, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

After evading the lone torpedo salvo, the evacuation ships quickly returned to their course for St. Maartens. There was another sub out there and no clue to it's location.

 

 

As usual, when it rains, it pours. Once again, a submarine was detected. However, soon afterwards, a second was detected, too. Free from the Su-30 threat at last, I launched the Lynx to prosecute the sub contact that lay astride our path. It was a calculated risk. Hopefully, the sub in the aft quarter was too distant to be a threat.

 

 

Soon after launch, the Lynx dipped her sonar and localized the sub about 11nm from the frigate and closed to point blank range before releasing her Mk46 torpedo. She didn't want to give the sub any time to fire a final barrage of torpedoes before her death. The plan worked and no torpedoes were detected from that quarter.

 

 

The stern quarter was another matter. 12 torpedoes were detected, but they were only running at 28kts while the ships were fleeing at 23kts. They soon ran out of fuel.

 

This was near the 12 hour game limit. The scenario expired and I think that I won, but can't be sure due to the ever-present Victory Condition bug.

 

Thanks, AoA, for making truly realistic and challenging game and to HarpGamer hosting it.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.