HDS1 4.0 Sichelshnih, turned out for me the best scenario for a long time, it really surprised me, I started to feel like doing an AAR half way through it, thus I have no notes for the first part but I have some save games to work from.

I'm playing blue side.
Scenario background is the US 2nd armored division being surrounded in Germany, at Willhelmshaven, need to be evacuated in 3 days, shipped to the UK via sealift.
Victory conditions look interesting, game time limit is 3 days AND at least 12 transport ships (MRCH) must embark at W.haven (be on station for 1 hour) AND at least 10 MRCH need to reach the UK coasts (onsta 1 hour) AND W.haven port has to be protected for minimum 40 hours (onsta). The total victory condition is a HUMINT piece, sink 1 BCGN, ouch. (For some reason the total condition is ORed, we will treat it as ANDed.)

 

Here is a map of the scenario, it's at 4 hours game time, so the surface groups are still around their starting positions.

Blue forces are
Norwegian Sea, North of UK,

• (AFC) Ark Royal carrier group, with Type 42 Type 22 escorts, 12 Sea Harriers
• (AES) O'bannon destroyer group, Imp. Spruance, Knox and and O.H. Perry

at the UK coast in front of Edinburgh (airbase Leuchars)

• (ABS) Nottingham sealift group, 6xMRCH with Type 42, Type 21 and a Leander escort

South of Ireland and West of the English Channel

• (ACS) Manchester sealift group, 6xMRCH with Type 42 and Type 22 escorts
• (ADS) Hawes sealift group, 6xMRCH with O.H. Perry and Knox escorts

The surface groups are on course to enter the North Sea via the shortest route, sealift groups are steaming for W.haven.
Blue has, already in the North Sea off the coasts of UK and Norway, 3 subs, the SSN Baton Rouge (Los Angeles), SSN Swiftsure and SS Upholder.
Air support is provided from airbases Leuchars (8 Tornado F3, 10 Jaguar GR.1 plus helos) and Wethersfield (12 F-15C, 6 F-16C and helos). There is also a squadron of 8 AH-1W Super Cobras station at W.haven.
Important to note the lack of fixed wing AEW! Hence helos with good search radars will be very important.

OPFOR threat is expected to be primarily submarine and surface based though fighters from Sola and Okecie will be a problem plus there is the ever present threat of long range bombers from Murmansk.
Murmansk is a big burden on blue, combined with the lack of long range AEW means strict EMCON is permanent for all surface units and possible approaches to blue bases will have to be patrolled at long range.
HUMINT also tells us there is a BCGN somewhere, probably entering from the North but might already be in the North Sea.
Plus who knows what will come out of the Baltic?

Start
Surface groups form up for high speed transiting, HVUs and AAW ships in the main body, ASW escorts patrolling only the front sectors but only out to the AAW ring, there are precious few of them, sprint-drifting in the ASW ring would just present them as torpedo targets plus leave them totally vulnerable against an air threat at the edge of the SAM range. ASW helo patrols are sent out to 40nm to lay sonubuoy arrays in the picket ring, there is just enough of them for the 2 front sectors facing the PIM. We are sailing on prayers.
All groups go at cruise speed except Nottingham which is the closest to W.haven already in the North Sea, so they go at creep.
The subs start to patrol the North Sea, to be able to confront the BCGN should it be there.

Unfortunately only the Ark Royal's Harriers start equipped with AMRAAMs, so Leuchars and Wethersfield need to start by rearming the Tornados and F-15s, we just have to hope there is nobody in the air nearby ( ). But W.haven is too exposed even for that hope, at only 400nm from Sola and Okecie, so 6 F-15s from Wethersfield take off immediately for a W.haven CAP, they will just have to do with the Sparrows on the first sortie or we might loose the port and everything. Leuchars also only does 4 Tornados first, keeping the other four in Ready 5 with Skyflash-es to avoid a pants down.

Actually the Sola base is just too inconvenient to bear, it's air search radars cover half of the North Sea and even short legged a/c-s can reach any sealift route from there. It has to be eliminated for the 2nd armor to have any chance to fight an other day! The first good news coming in is the INTEL that Sola has only short range SAM and ELINT confirms after a few minutes there is no AEW stationed there either.
Leuchars Jaguars have a reasonable chance with the 37nm Alarms!
The Wethersfield F-16s with 70nm HARMs could safely take care of the radar but then it would be left to the Jaguars to do ground damage and they would need to fly over Sola for a bombing run (no ASuW standoff loadout). That's not an acceptable risk with Sola just launching fighters annoyed by the ARM attack. I also can't tie down large part of my available fighter force to cover a second run at Sola, turn around time is like 2.5 hours and I need my fighters to fly several long range BARCAPs for my bases latest 3 hours from start, Murmansk is just 1200nm away! and the W.haven CAP will also be bingo, if not winchester by then.
So it will be the F16s with Mavericks which can be fired from 13nm out, with the tripple ejectors they carry 6 per plane, hopefully 36 Mavs should leave just bits and pieces on the ground.
(Only now that I write this I realize I should have used the Tomahawk TLAMs from the O'bannon and Baton Rouge for ground pound!!)

OPFOR hasn't showed yet fortunately.
As soon as ground crews finish, shortly after Game Time (GT) 00:00:30, the Sola air strike groups start to leave

• 4 F-15s with AMRAAMs from Wethersfield take off first for primary MIGCAP, they head for 70nm South of Sola. The plan is they will pop up, turn on radars and eliminate, but at least draw away South, the Sola fighter CAP just before the ground strike groups start their final run. 2 F-15s remain at Wethersfield for anything unexpected.
• 6 F-16s with Mavericks leave next, they need to be on target last but Wethersfield is 200nm farther from Sola than Leuchars. The F-16s will attack from SW.
• 4 Tornado ADVs with AMRAAMs from Leuchars head for 60nm NW of Sola, these will be the reserve MIGCAP, should the Sola fighters prove to be a handful for the Eagles and also as FORCAP for the Jaguars, should those be detected before they can fire the Alarms.
• 10 Jaguar GR.1s with 2 Alarms each from Leuchars, these will attack Sola from W.

At GT 00:01:10 the 4 F-15s, 80nm S of Sola turn North on high and switch radars on. They pick up 3 contacts at 50 to 70nm. One of these detaches from the base formation ( a cheat again) now tagged ZJA, unfortunately the Jaguars, 55nm W of Sola, are apparently too close and ZJA turns to intercept them instead of the F-15s. The Jaguars digress towards North to evade and to get closer to the reserve Tornados, 55nm NW of Sola. The same time 6 small contacts take off from Sola, tagged ZIA, and vector for the F-15s, the party is on.
The Tornados dispatch of group ZJA with 5 AMRAAMs, they were Mig23 Flogger Gs, some relief, at least not Flankers or Fulcrums. (Those are very hard for the AMRAAMs in HDS1 which sets AMRAAM base PK at a ridiculous 40%). The Jaguars close in on Sola which is launching more MIGs. The Tornados dispatch one more pair of Floggers and then the Jags are in position to launch the Alarms.
In the meantime the F-15s engage ZIA, shoot down 4 with AMRAAMs, evade the AA-7 Apexes and use Sidewinders on the remaining two Floggers. (The Apex has virtually 0 PK over the F-15 on full afterburner, +1300kts bonus, this is the positive side (or an other drawback) of the too low AAM PK in the battleset, also it is gaming the game, but I silence my conscience saying that the Floggers would have anyway been unable to achieve and maintain radar lock for the SARH Apex while evading 6 of my 10 AMRAAMs)
The MIGs taking off from Sola waste all their long range AAMs on the incoming Alarms. The base shoots down 8 more with 16 Hawk SAMs but 9 still hits the base and knocks off the radars! Tadaam.
Around this time the F16s are arriving from the SW and soon scare the hell out of the commander as they report 4 visual contacts at 7nm! One of the contacts the F-15s picked up, still in the base formation, not showing on the group map, wondered just across the ingress of the F-16s!! The plan goes up in flames ...
Or not? The Falcons are still flying. Turns out these are Mig27s, an ASuW patrol, without AAMs to speak of. Down they go under barrage of Sidewinders from the F-16s.
The radars are off, MIGs are down or returned to base on winchester, two of them is actually chasing the Jags with AA-8 only, the Tornados could take them but Jags ask for the privilege and notch up their first air to airs with Sidewinders. The F-16s go in for it free, 29 of the 36 Mavs are on target, the base is not destroyed but takes 56% damage and 5 planes and a helo are also destroyed on the ground. Probably it will be ok for the Jags to return unescorted with bombs to finish it off.
All groups head for their home bases, the Tornados have fuel enough to do it on full burners, even the F-15s can use military power all the way home, this will help to make them available sooner for BARCAP.
Just to complete the Sola part of the AAR
at GT 00:03:20 6 Jags return after refuelling and rearming with laser guided bombs and destroy the base, they did not encounter any MIGs on the way.

With Sola out of the way, 4 Tornados that were rearmed to AMRAAMs during the Sola strike, are launched to fly BARCAP in two twoships. They head to patrol zones 350nm from Leuchars and W.haven on the direct path to Murmansk. The AI bombers are known to be a straight minded bunch.

Everything seems to be under control.

Only a recon Foxbat and two sleepwalking Flankers arrive to W.haven from Okecie, but these are easily dispatched by the BARCAP.
I realize that the subs will take too long to sweep the North Sea. As Sola is no longer a factor I can send one Sea King from Leuchars and Wethersfield each to scan the sea with radar, they have just 500nm range but they can cover most everything except the entrance to the Baltic.
They come up empty so I turn Baton Rouge and Swiftsure to the North as the BCGN will surely come from there.

Around GT 00:04:00 the Leuchars Tornado BARCAP picks up a contact to the North just off the coast of Norway, they id it as an AEW Helix with 50nm AAW ring, I have a feeling we have found our BCGN. The helo is doing 15kts in 190 degrees, Baton Rouge and Swiftsure adjust their course to intercept it's path.

Everything looks good, all pieces will soon be where I want them.

At GT 00:05:30 bit of nasty surprise, the W.haven North BARCAP Tornados find a trio of Mig31s coming up on their ass out of Okecie. Those MIGs are armed with 80nm Amos AAMs! All they can do is get out of the way, fortunately the MIGs are not going after them, rather they vector for the Leuchars BARCAP Tornados. The BCGN must have tipped off Okecie fighter control and they scrambled killer MIGs for the planes shadowing them!
They can do but scram, fortunately the Tornado has better cruise speed and range than the MIG and they soon give up chase. Still the Murmansk - Leuchars bomber corridor was left unwatched for good half our. Gives an itchy feeling. Fortunately nothing came through the window.

Not for long though.

GT 00:06:30 Both the North (2xTornado) and East (6xF-15) BARCAP of W.haven realize that their radars are being jammed!! No one knows since when as for once the Staff Assistant was silent on this!! ( ) I don't even have bearing on the jammers!
The F-15s are just 40nm E of W.haven so they head East to burn through the jamming.
The Tornados are 350nm N of W.haven, the EW plane can be anywhere around them, they hope for the best and head to North towards Murmansk.
The APG-70s of the Eagles burn through the noise only to find a flock of Kh-31P Krypton ARMs screaming for W.haven. Worse they are 20nm North of the Krypton's flight path, will not be able to meet them head on. They fire all their AMRAAMs on the ARMs astern and continue on burners to the E in the hope find the attackers and make them pay for this. Just as they go bingo they pick up Su-24 Fencers at low at 50nm to the E. But the F-15s need to turn back to Wethersfield, low on fuel.
W.haven scrambles 3 Super Cobras in desperation and readies it's SAMs.
The Cobras bring down 2 Kryptons, SAMs do two more. But 2 Kryptons get through.
When the missiles are only at 5nm I switch W.haven radar off.
I have actually experimented here some, with radars "on" the Kryptons knocked radars off two out of two, with radars "off" they did just 1% damage and 1% plus air search radar. Still not sure though if switching radars off makes a difference for the Kryptons.
I continue with 1% damage but with air radars because as dust settles I switch back the base radar and it picks up the Tu-16 EW Badger at 289nm to the North well behind the BARCAP Tornados . Without the base radar it is 1:0 for red already as the Badgers could have launched on W.haven and I would have only known it on impact.
The other shift of BARCAP F-15s arrive from Wethersfield, they are only 40nm W of W.haven, I kick them on burners to reach the axis of any incoming Kingfishes asap. The Tornados also speed up to military to intercept the Badgers. Fortunately the Badgers do not launch at W.haven from the maximum range, perhaps they were looking for ships with 110nm ASM Kingfishes? The Tornados intercept them some 200nm from W.haven. 1 Badger J EW, 1 Badger D Recon and 4 Badger G bomber. Nasty pack.
But it is not over yet. The F-15 are still North of W.haven and I also sent all the Cobras that way when 16 Kh-5 Kingbolts pop up from the E. Luckily these are relatively slow missiles at 660kts, the Hawk SAMs do good job on them, only 4 gets through and does 27% damage on the port.

Question: W.haven status info shows there are still 128 SAMs available but the AAW ring is only 3nm radius, like guns only.
Are these 128 remaining SAMs all short range?
Or how long does it take to reload the Hawk batteries?

Now it's over. I move the East BARCAP further out to the East, to 100nm. Apparently the F Fencers with their new ECM POD and the 85nm Krypton ARM are very dangerous.

Here a relatively quiet period follows until GT 00:12:30, I will continue with that in my next post.

HDS1 4.0 Sichelshnih, turned out for me the best scenario for a long time, it really surprised me, I started to feel like doing an AAR half way through it, thus I have no notes for the first part but I have some save games to work from.

It is a great old scenario. An AAR is a fabulous bonus! Love the labels on your screenshot, btw.

 

Those are very hard for the AMRAAMs in HDS1 which sets AMRAAM base PK at a ridiculous 40%

.

 

Truth be told, probably a more realistic figure for radar guided AAMs generally.

 

I have actually experimented here some, with radars "on" the Kryptons knocked radars off two out of two, with radars "off" they did just 1% damage and 1% plus air search radar. Still not sure though if switching radars off makes a difference for the Kryptons.

Red tends to shoot its ARMs in salvoes, so while shutting down the radars won't do anything to help your radars survive an initial salvo (all ARMs in HCE have memory), it does keep Red from shooting more.

 

Question: W.haven status info shows there are still 128 SAMs available but the AAW ring is only 3nm radius, like guns only. Are these 128 remaining SAMs all short range? Or how long does it take to reload the Hawk batteries?

I'm thinking those are Stingers?

Lets continue.

 

GT 00:12:00
A pair of Tornados transiting to the North W.haven BARCAP patrol zone spots a group of Nanuchkas just exiting the Baltic.
The contact is quickly lost but I dispatch a Sea King helo with SS radar in their direction from Leuchars and start to rearm the Jaguars with Alarm and Sea Eagle missiles.

GT 00:12:25
:o A question that nobody wants to hear, that is whether I want to counter-fire a torpedo down on the incoming bearing?
5 very small torpedo contacts detected by the Manchester group, probably was picked up by HMS Manchester herself in the main body!

Taking a closer look at the group formation the commander's mistake is obvious. The Manchester group started at a 145degree course, I have set up ASW patrols in the SE sectors, but the group has turned to 40 degrees E some 6 hours ago to transit the English Channel, their NE quadrant was fully exposed . Sigh, wish HCE would also have the ASW patrol zones tied to the PIM.

There is not much to do, the torpedos are already within 3nm doing 55kts, Frio Dolphin bravely throws herself in their path, the rest of the group turns South at flank speed. The first torpedo misses the Dophin, so does the rest but these four then sinks Amsterdam and Eastern Valor . 16 of 18 transport ships remaining.
As the group slows down the Type 22/3 Chatam's towed array detects the attacker 7nm from the main group, too close, the swarming helos throw some 10 Stingrays on it for good measure and the Akula SSN is quickly sunk.
The Hawes group arrives by this time, the two groups join up, set up ASW patrols properly to the E and sail on towards W.haven.

GT 00:13:00
The Sea King reestablishes contact with the Nanuchkas.
The Jaguars take off.

GT 00:13:30
We have an exact fix on surface group ZOS. It is the BCGN Kalinin and CG Azov, plus Krestas, Sovremenny, Neustrashimyu, Udaloys esorting amphibious ships.

around GT 00:14:00
The Jaguars sink the Nanuchkas and also the AGI Okean the Sea King has found on it's return trip.
I send a Sea King AEW from Ark Royal to shadow the Kalinin group and to help Baton Rouge maneuver.

GT 00:15:00
Baton Rouge is right in the path of the Kalinin group.

I want to fire my torpedos from the relative position pointed at by the blue arrow, I estimate that creeping to the W at 5 kts will take the sub there. But instead I end up at the tip of the red arrow. I did not consider the closing speed of the red group. (Ok, I will take my navigator with me next time ). Worse, when I saw that the picket Udaloy will pass right over Baton Rouge I fired a torpedo at it and that was from within 5 miles. Predictably the whole group turns on active sonar and the Udaloy detects Baton Rouge and she is destroyed by standoff ASW weapons.
STOP. << RWD
GT 00:15:00
Baton Rouge is right in the path of the Kalinin group.
The NAVIGATOR informs the commander of Baton Rouge they need to speed up to 10kts to reach the planned torpedo firing position relative to the BCGN.
When they are in postion the Baton Rouge fires Mk48 and ADCAP torpedos at the Kalinin, Azov, the Udaloy and the Neustrashimyy (which is blocking the escape path). When the whole group goes active sonar an SSN is also revealed in the South picket position.
GT 00:16:00
At least one torpedo impacts on all targeted ships and they are sunk.
The rest of the group is taken care of by F-16s with HARMs, the Ark Royal's Sea Harriers with Alarms and the Leuchars Jaguars finish off with Sea Eagles. One Neustrahimiyy stays afloat and I fire 4 Harpoons at it from the Swiftsure which send her under.
GT 00:18:00
Soon though the Swiftsure has an incoming torpedo out of nowhere. Fortunately she is able to outrun it.
Hmm, the Swiftsure was cruising when I ordered it to launch Harpoons. She has risen to shallow for that, but crusing at shallow means cavitation so the SSN, of which we have lost contact after it has turned off sonar, must have detected and attacked with a standoff torpedo. Fortunately it did not have an exact fix on us. The torpedo was 4nm off target. Lesson, need to slow to creep when firing missiles from sub!

Baton Rouge and Swiftsure both starts patrol to the E looking for the lost SSN.

GT 00:18:55
The Leuchars BARCAP Tornados detect 4 Tu-22 bombers and shoot them down with Sidewinders and guns.

GT 00:22:00
The Okecie fighter control picked up a habit of sending Mig-31s one by one ( ! ???) after the W.haven East BARCAP flight of 6 F-15s.
The F-15s countered the superior range of the AA-9 Amos missiles with a split maneuvre: while 4 F-15s remained high, on station with active radar, 2 F-15s split off and approache the Mig with radars off targeting it via JTIDS.
This was working well, except one time when the hunter pair fired 3 and 3 and 2 AMRAAMs on the Mig without scoring , then the Mig fired 6 Amos on the 4 F-15s, I let them reach the Eagles to test whether the random generator started to throw 0s only, all 4 Eagles were destroyed . This ended up RWD.

GT 01:07:30
New contact, large sub from the Upholder. Got an exact fix, the enemy sub is only at 3nm, Upholder is inside active sonar range, can't risk an attack now. I try to keep shadowing the sub while moving Upholder out of sonar range. Finally it is at 7nm away and I've a Sea King above too, this combination is lethal the Charlie II is sunk at GT 01:09:30 by 3 air launched Stingrays.

GT 01:17:00
New contact, ASW helo patrol of Ark Royal detects SSGN Charlie I via sonubuoy, some 26nm out from the main body.
Sea Kings are sent to intercept, the group slows to 5kts, to stay out of range of the Charlie.
GT 01:17:15
The Charlie is sinking.

GT 01:17:30
Ark Royal ferries two of her Lynx-es to the Nottingham group, which only has two helos for ASW patrol.

All groups are now in the Northern Sea.

O'bannon searches for subs coming out of the Baltic.
Ark Royal is cruising for the center of the UK coast to cover the return leg of the transport groups with helo patrols. Currently I've ordered the group to stand still so that London, Cumberland and Sheffield uses creep speed to change patrol sectors as they reconfigure formation for a South PIM. If I allow the group even just to creep the ships changing formation are going at flank speed, asking for torpedoes.
I also do not dare to speed the Nottingham group above 5kts. Only the Phoebe of the escorts has a towed array sonar and a single pair of helos are patrolling ahead. That pair from the Ark Royal is much needed.
The Manchester-Hawes groups cruises at 10kts, they are better covered thanks to the Perry and the Type 22/3 Chatham plus some 10 helos.
Both of these will need to go at high speed on the return leg to reach the UK coasts before the time limit. Still, by then, these waters will have been searched at least once.
Upholder and Baton Rouge are now also patrolling the area.

GT 02:01:00
O'bannon's Seahawk detects a sub via MAD, 25nm out.
The Seahawks are out of sonubuoys, the Moinesters Seasprite is dispatched, finds the Kilo and sinks it.

GT 02:03:00
Ark Royal's Sea King detects sub with MAD, 37nm from the group. A Tango.
The second torpedo hits it, the Tango surfaces with 85% damage, fortunately my ships are out of visual range, so it can not broadcast targeting coordinates on me.
The crew gets a few minutes to get out and the helo sinks it.

GT 02:06:40
Ark Royal, Sea King, sonubuoy, 34nm, Tango.
I love Sea Kings, got 4 torpedos.

GT 02:07:10
Ark Royal, Sea King, MAD, 44nm, Kilo

GT 02:09:10
Nottingham, Lynx, MAD, 10nm
A Tango lie in wait right in front of Wilhelmshaven, no cake mister.

GT 02:09:30
The 2nd Armor starts to embark.

GT 02:11:30
Heading home

GT 02:21:00
Nottingham, Manchester, Hawes are 50nm from the coast.

Victory conditions are not triggered, but the boys of the 2nd Armor know it full well, I won't be buying beers when they are around.