January 8, 200818 yr File Name: F 14 Fleet Defender V 1.1 File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 8 Jan 2008 File Category: NACV Hello guys, this is F 14 Fleet Defender 1.1. Since I changed many things it isn´t just a small update for 1.0, but a totally different scen in many aspects. Hope you like it! Ralf Click here to download this file
January 10, 200818 yr I started playing the scenario on Tuesday (thanks Ralf!). The action was fast and furious from the outset with SSMs streaking in, provided by a Soviet surface group with significant power. I didn't use any of my Tomcats to shoot down SSMs, instead they went up as CAP and to see about interdicting the bombers that were sure to follow. Due to the distances involved that was not to be, a small herd of bombers flung about 50 AS-4 missiles my way and the F-14s only had Mig-29s to shoot down, a unsettling start to the battle. Knowing Ralf, I made sure to provision plenty of ASW patrols and I haven't been stung yet. The challenge continues but Keflavik has been silenced (TLAM strike) and with it the main bomber threat. Powerful Red surface (some carrier) are still out there, so off I go to play some more
January 10, 200818 yr Against my better judgement I played more last night until 3am this morning (okay, past 3 but that's what I'm sticking too). The battle appears to be going well for NATO. NATO has now sunk over 50 Soviet ships and destroyed well over 300 aircraft. Next up (besides the endless sub hunting) shall be the destruction of another Soviet airbase, which one I'm not sure of yet. I lost a couple more F-14s as well to stupidity, thankfully only one enemy base still has Air-to-Air capable planes, and only 20 or less of those (but they do seem to be potent Su-35). If I wasn't having so much fun I'd wonder how the Soviets produced Su-35 long before Super Hornets came along.
January 15, 200818 yr Tonight I played 90 of my 60 alotted minutes of time on the scenario, more death and destruction upon the Soviets. Just because they were bugging me (and in unrefueled range of my Hornets), I took out the LR-SAM emplacements near Keflavik and began picking away at the others within range. Meanwhile, towards winning the scenario I decided to knock out Lerwick as the other UK base seemed much better defended by SAMs. The tanker supported A-6 strike went in and did some nice damage, taking out all SAMs and radars as well as doing 29% damage on the airbase itself, for the sad but bearable loss of 3 x A-6E. The bad news of today's efforts is that a Soviet sub took out two of my 688I boats without even being localized. To be fair I totally missed the new contact report on the offending enemy and in so doing reduced whatever chance my subs had of surviving. S-3 have not been able to localize the attacker, another SSN is on the way to help out if possible. Still, the Soviets have lost 15 subs + 1 damaged to my 3 lost subs.
January 15, 200818 yr Author Hi Tony, Tonight I played 90 of my 60 alotted minutes of time on the scenario, more death and destruction upon the Soviets. Just because they were bugging me (and in unrefueled range of my Hornets), I took out the LR-SAM emplacements near Keflavik and began picking away at the others within range. Meanwhile, towards winning the scenario I decided to knock out Lerwick as the other UK base seemed much better defended by SAMs. The tanker supported A-6 strike went in and did some nice damage, taking out all SAMs and radars as well as doing 29% damage on the airbase itself, for the sad but bearable loss of 3 x A-6E. The bad news of today's efforts is that a Soviet sub took out two of my 688I boats without even being localized. To be fair I totally missed the new contact report on the offending enemy and in so doing reduced whatever chance my subs had of surviving. S-3 have not been able to localize the attacker, another SSN is on the way to help out if possible. Still, the Soviets have lost 15 subs + 1 damaged to my 3 lost subs. sounds like the hell of a fight! Glad that you enjoy it and I thus met your "Harpoon taste". Ralf
February 16, 200818 yr Today I finished up my run thru the scenario, wiped out a couple of more Red bases and sailed around the Atlantic molested the entire time! In how many scenarios can you kill 59 enemy ships, sink 28 subs (and damaged 2 more), kill 22 AD Mobile units, wow. The submarine threat was real and constant. Find some diesel boats and be glad, if you turn to avoid them you'll probably be walking right into the jaws of 4 nuke boats, oy, good thing the player has S-3B for anti-submarine work, without them I would not have survived. Thanks again Ralf!
February 17, 200818 yr Author Helo Tony, Today I finished up my run thru the scenario, wiped out a couple of more Red bases and sailed around the Atlantic molested the entire time! In how many scenarios can you kill 59 enemy ships, sink 28 subs (and damaged 2 more), kill 22 AD Mobile units, wow. The submarine threat was real and constant. Find some diesel boats and be glad, if you turn to avoid them you'll probably be walking right into the jaws of 4 nuke boats, oy, good thing the player has S-3B for anti-submarine work, without them I would not have survived. Thanks again Ralf! Thank you for playing it so intensively - you´re really welcome. When I wrote it, the main objective indeed was to set a full matrix of traps which remain dangerous until the end. Since an experienced human is superior to the AI I tried to make this one especially hard. The "algorithm" IMO is to combine the follwoing issues: 1. Numbers: The AI needs at least 3:1 I think. 2. Eyes: The AI needs an advantage here approx. 5:1 or even 10:1 (relation Mainstays to E-3 etc.) 3. Communication: The AI needs a lot of "hot spots" which can maintain an info network even if the human has destroyed a lot of assets. These network should be a combination of well placed subs (shadowing the human´s fleet), AEW aircraft and land based radar. 4. Independent "core installations": Bases should be fully independent of other bases, thus killing one doesn´t break the resistance. I usually give each base a full set of radar, SAMs and all kinds of aircraft. Some lessons learnt from 15+ years of playing a magnificient game.... Ralf
February 17, 200818 yr Helo Tony, Today I finished up my run thru the scenario, wiped out a couple of more Red bases and sailed around the Atlantic molested the entire time! In how many scenarios can you kill 59 enemy ships, sink 28 subs (and damaged 2 more), kill 22 AD Mobile units, wow. The submarine threat was real and constant. Find some diesel boats and be glad, if you turn to avoid them you'll probably be walking right into the jaws of 4 nuke boats, oy, good thing the player has S-3B for anti-submarine work, without them I would not have survived. Thanks again Ralf! Thank you for playing it so intensively - you´re really welcome. When I wrote it, the main objective indeed was to set a full matrix of traps which remain dangerous until the end. Since an experienced human is superior to the AI I tried to make this one especially hard. The "algorithm" IMO is to combine the follwoing issues: 1. Numbers: The AI needs at least 3:1 I think. 2. Eyes: The AI needs an advantage here approx. 5:1 or even 10:1 (relation Mainstays to E-3 etc.) 3. Communication: The AI needs a lot of "hot spots" which can maintain an info network even if the human has destroyed a lot of assets. These network should be a combination of well placed subs (shadowing the human´s fleet), AEW aircraft and land based radar. 4. Independent "core installations": Bases should be fully independent of other bases, thus killing one doesn´t break the resistance. I usually give each base a full set of radar, SAMs and all kinds of aircraft. Some lessons learnt from 15+ years of playing a magnificient game.... Ralf You can also take the route I took with Operation Island Wind and severely restrict the players assets and options to up the challenge level. In that case, the main strike assets were planes without SEAD or Standoff capabilities, meaning the SAM and AAA network actually presented a formidable foe because you had no choice but to engage from within their effective ranges. Add that to your combination above and one could create a very challenging scenario where the AI could actually win, not just present the player with a good fight.
February 17, 200818 yr Author Hi, Helo Tony, Today I finished up my run thru the scenario, wiped out a couple of more Red bases and sailed around the Atlantic molested the entire time! In how many scenarios can you kill 59 enemy ships, sink 28 subs (and damaged 2 more), kill 22 AD Mobile units, wow. The submarine threat was real and constant. Find some diesel boats and be glad, if you turn to avoid them you'll probably be walking right into the jaws of 4 nuke boats, oy, good thing the player has S-3B for anti-submarine work, without them I would not have survived. Thanks again Ralf! Thank you for playing it so intensively - you´re really welcome. When I wrote it, the main objective indeed was to set a full matrix of traps which remain dangerous until the end. Since an experienced human is superior to the AI I tried to make this one especially hard. The "algorithm" IMO is to combine the follwoing issues: 1. Numbers: The AI needs at least 3:1 I think. 2. Eyes: The AI needs an advantage here approx. 5:1 or even 10:1 (relation Mainstays to E-3 etc.) 3. Communication: The AI needs a lot of "hot spots" which can maintain an info network even if the human has destroyed a lot of assets. These network should be a combination of well placed subs (shadowing the human´s fleet), AEW aircraft and land based radar. 4. Independent "core installations": Bases should be fully independent of other bases, thus killing one doesn´t break the resistance. I usually give each base a full set of radar, SAMs and all kinds of aircraft. Some lessons learnt from 15+ years of playing a magnificient game.... Ralf You can also take the route I took with Operation Island Wind and severely restrict the players assets and options to up the challenge level. In that case, the main strike assets were planes without SEAD or Standoff capabilities, meaning the SAM and AAA network actually presented a formidable foe because you had no choice but to engage from within their effective ranges. Add that to your combination above and one could create a very challenging scenario where the AI could actually win, not just present the player with a good fight. You´re right - that one was missing in my enumeration. So if it´s complete, we can poste it as an info for newbie scen designers. Maybe it helps them to create challenging scens.
February 20, 200818 yr Seems I went a different route then most So far I have not used the radar systems of my fleet at all instead relying on pickets of E2's with E6's jammers about 20 miles out from my center the russian fleets fired off their missiles but they were almost blind shots due to the lack of esm info and the jamming from the a6's (Ive kept at least 2 or 3 up around the clock). My ships have not fired one AA missile yet since all stikes against me have been so uncordinated i have managed with just using the f14's for cap and antimissile duties with support from the f18's returning from attacks on enemy fleets they thrown in some aim-7's every once in a while. Damaged Rejk with a tlam but did not kill it so I sent in the B1's Vlow on burner after a refuel. Before I sent them in I sent up 12 F14's to try to see if the fighter coverage would pull away from the base and it did like any good fighter pilot would they chased after the 14's. Only lost 2 B1's and no F14's but finished off Rejk. The B2's just hit the southern UK base for 93% damage after taking a southern route in and a eastern aproach on their attack run and flying up through southern uk also after a refuel no losses so far killed the 3 closest fleets and their supporting subs about 60 ships and 12 subs ive spotted 2 more surface groups and ive only lost 5 aircraft from my carriers no sub or ship losses. Did manage to get my special forces c130's killed on an attemted low altitude insertion on the uk base on the island unfortunatly even a vlow altitude a pair of fighters found them, jumped them and killed everybody. Other then changing 10 S3's initially to carry harpoons to take care of any stragler enemy ships I have not changed the weapon loadouts of any aircraft.
February 20, 200818 yr Damaged Rejk with a tlam but did not kill it so I sent in the B1's Vlow on burner after a refuel. Before I sent them in I sent up 12 F14's to try to see if the fighter coverage would pull away from the base and it did like any good fighter pilot would they chased after the 14's. Only lost 2 B1's and no F14's but finished off Rejk. The B2's just hit the southern UK base for 93% damage after taking a southern route in and a eastern aproach on their attack run and flying up through southern uk also after a refuel no losses so far killed the 3 closest fleets and their supporting subs about 60 ships and 12 subs ive spotted 2 more surface groups and ive only lost 5 aircraft from my carriers no sub or ship losses. Well, now that's great. I thought you were talking about a different scenario or had some acronyms B1 and B2 that I didn't know. Turns out I played the whole scenario not knowing Langley AFB was even there! The bombers would have been very helpful.
February 20, 200818 yr Turns out I played the whole scenario not knowing Langley AFB was even there! The bombers would have been very helpful. ROFL. Yes, Virginia, land based air does exist. (Its no secret that Tony has a Tomcat fixation).
February 20, 200818 yr Total kill count was actually 59 ships and 22 subs i think. the scorpion was a undead ship (has 0 damage points as a platform). lost 50 aircraft and 4 helis, in the end i started getting cute and used the helis and spec forces to try to take out the sam sites lost 10 b1s + various aircraft attacking the sams sites since i made the decision to only convert 20 aircraft for sead and sending mixed packages. other then the 20 seads i kept all other aircraft with their original loadouts. Good scenario overall i played it twice the 1st time i went active on my fleets radars from the get go and got pummeled by missiles from all directions my aircraft couldn't get airborne fast enough to offer proper protection. The second was this and was able to play it out till time ran out. Only suggestions would be to maybe add a slower ship to the russian fleets already in range to keep them back for a while. They detect you and launch missiles and then charge you at 30+knots. My subs were able to hear them 100 miles out with the cz if they held back and became more of a nuisance with their aircraft and sams while the land based bombers tryied to pummel you the mission would offer the challenges of trying find gaps in the sams to try and intercept the enemy bombers. Only way i can figure out how to slow a fleet down once it gets the scent is by it having a slow ship with a 14 or 19 knot limit. This way their passive sonars will also work and you can sneak a sub ahead of their path. Also any subs that accopany an enemy fleet will not be heard since they are not trying to keep up at their full speed. that was the only major thing i would change other then tonys idea of completely ignoring the land based bombers for even a further challenge
February 20, 200818 yr i think. the scorpion was a undead ship (has 0 damage points as a platform). Yes, and this has been fixed in the updated version of the HCDB database. Only suggestions would be to maybe add a slower ship to the russian fleets already in range to keep them back for a while. They detect you and launch missiles and then charge you at 30+knots. My subs were able to hear them 100 miles out with the cz ... Only way i can figure out how to slow a fleet down once it gets the scent is by it having a slow ship with a 14 or 19 knot limit. This way their passive sonars will also work and you can sneak a sub ahead of their path. Also any subs that accopany an enemy fleet will not be heard since they are not trying to keep up at their full speed. A very good suggestion, eclipse.
June 25, 200818 yr File Name: F 14 Fleet Defender V 1.1File Submitter: RKoelbach File Submitted: 8 Jan 2008 File Category: NACV Hello guys, this is F 14 Fleet Defender 1.1. Since I changed many things it isn´t just a small update for 1.0, but a totally different scen in many aspects. Hope you like it! Ralf Click here to download this file Greetings Gentlemen, I've just had a most interesting time playing the subject scenario. To Ralf, that was awesome. version 1.0 was also. I'll try to write up some AAR's when I replay the scenarios. However, toward the end of V1.1 - well it was far from the end but the balance was tipping - I had a most unusual thing happen. I had been lucky and avoided getting painted by any Bear-D, Fencer-E or Badger-D's. Thus the red SSM's had stayed in their silos and most were at the bottom of the Atlantic after 3 sneak attacks at the beginning took out anything the size of a Slava or bigger in the three closest enemy SAG's. I'd also killed an Oscar which gave itself away by going too fast in the remnants of the main enemy CVBG. HOWEVER, I received word that my CVBG was getting detected, "and did I want to turn on the radars?". I checked all around and there was nothing within detection range - EXCEPT for a neutral merchant vessel. Next report was Series 65-76's from the south and SS-N-19's from the remnants of the northern SAG - obviously another Oscar! The 12-ship of Backfires departed their patrol station around Iceland and commenced an attack run on my CVBG. This would have all been fine, BUT my (mis)understanding was that neutrals do not report to either red or blue. For this scenario that was not the case. Any clues? Live Well. Kindest Regards, trader_26 BTW, that Su-35 Flanker-E is a piece of work - makes me wish for a real Phoenix replacement, or NATF.
Create an account or sign in to comment