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Realism Question: Single "Improved Los Angeles," class vs Soviet Battlegroup

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Hi All,

 

I've been messing with a few games from Simulations Canada lately, including Grey Seas, Grey Skies, which I mentioned at http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/topic/25555-playing-hce-as-a-blind-gamer/page-3

 

On a lark, I decided to set up a scenario inspired by a sequence in Red Storm Rising, in which USS Chicago is ordered to attack a battlegroup which includes the battlecruiser Kirov, among others. In retrospect I didn't include all the ship classes given in the description of that sequence, and perhaps should have.

 

I added an Alpha class submarine to the mix as well to make things interesting, and just commanded the Chicago versus what seems to my uneducated eye an overwhelming force.

 

I was struck by how well I actually did. I managed to sink four ships, including the Soviet submarine, while more or less consistently dodging helicopter dropped torpedoes and RBU rockets. I was left with the battle cruiser alone, which was still quite dangerous on account of the helicopters. I was eventually struck by a torpedo, thus ending the scenario.

 

My credulity was actually strained quite a bit, and that's why I'm writing to ask just how unrealistic the simulation actually was. I must have evaded something on the order of 10 torpedo drops.

 

The ships arrayed agains me were:

1. Kirov class bc

2. Slava class Cruiser.

3. Kresta II class cruiser.

4. Sovremennyy- class destroyer.

5. Alpha-class submarine.

 

Any comments appreciated. GS, GS assumes an area of around 8,000 square nautical miles, give or take.

At first blush I would say your ability to sink the enemy is reasonable. That is a lot of torps they fired at you though, my opinion is that the enemies wouldn't have many good enough fixes to put as much ordnance in the water as they did. Overall, reasonable tally of sunk tonnage with some questionable Soviet tactics.

  • Author

Thanks, TonyE. :) Glad to know it wasn't entirely improbable. I suspect i just got lucky with the torpedoes. It only occurred to me mid-way through the scenario that the game actually prompted me to make evasive maneuvers, and I didn't have to come up with those manually.

 

THere's only so much anybody can do with a program written in Basic, I suppose. The publisher indicated to me that the genesis of the simulation was a training tool for the USN, suggesting that I have a "somewhat de-contented and de-classified," version. All in all, I'm fairly impressed, peculiarities in the design aside.

It would not be hard for an LA class SSN to sneak up on a battle group like that.

 

It would likewise not be hard to inflict considerable damage.

 

Clear datum and escape? Especially once discovered and located. Quite possibly a different story.

 

As you saw.

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