Turn recap:

• From 1858.5 to 1859.5 you fire the Mk8 gun.

Your lookouts spot smoke on the horizon. Your radar operator reports a change in course for the enemy warship.

 

turn_1900_red.txt

turn_1900_red_intl.txt

I think I need clarification about EO mode for the Mk8. It's not OP as such-- can it be used under local control? If so, does it suffer the penalties of firing under local control, or only OP suffers those? The description of EO seems to suggest it would not suffer the low visibility penalties that OP would, but I'm less sure about the 1/2 chance from just being in local control.

 

The way I see it, I have two main options. The first would be to turn away and increase speed. I'm confident 17 kts is now Sposobnyy's maximum speed, so I should be able to open the range back up, and eventually continue radar-controlled Mk8 fires, perhaps even until she sinks. She's close enough that she might get within range of her Volnas briefly, but I can take a hit or two if need be, and the GDM-C would be in arc and might be able to help me with one of them. Within the bounds of the limits of the rules and the scenario, I have no doubt this is tactically the best choice, though it does exploit some concessions to playability and simplicity imposed by the rules and by the scenario if used maximally. It's, also, not the most exciting, frankly.

 

My other main option is to turn toward Sposobnyy, increase to maximum speed, continuing to fire the Mk8 at maximum rate the whole time. I'll probably eat some Volnas, and the GDM-C will be out of arc to help me, though hopefully, between closing the range (perhaps eventually past minimum, though that's a lot of incoming missiles between then and now) and improving the damage capability and accuracy of the Mk8, I might come out of it the better. But if I'm going to do that, I'd prefer to have my Sea Cats available for counter-missile fire, so I would need to switch the fore Sea Hunter back to air mode, but then I'd need to fire the Mk8 under local control, and if EO is either not an option for local control or no better than OP for that purpose, well, in either case, such a maneuver is not likely to pay off-- whatever benefit the Sea Cats could offer in taking down Vonas would be offset by losing out on Mk8 fires during the approach.