You have new air contacts on radar. You also have new ESM bearings.

 

turn_1606_blue.txt

turn_1606_blue_intl.txt

Vampire! Vampire!

Hmm. This is a situation that I find myself unable to analyze.

 

The only missile I know of that Red could field that matches the data (range of launch, speed of missile) is a Harpoon (if the Moskits were the target, SM1MRs would be in range, but the speed doesn't work, and I don't think SM1MRs can target surface-skimming Moskits; Sea Cats can but the range is much too far; and all non-missile targets are out of range for everything I can come up with except a Harpoon), and the only platform I know of wielding Harpoons is the Combattante IIB (assuming they still had Harpoons left at this date). But I would have expected S010 and S012 to have registered as VSmall rather than Small if they were Combattantes. So I'm at a bit of a loss there.

 

Also, I guess it's my turn to double-check the time stamp on the turn: I would have thought the Moskits would have closed the gap in a little over a minute, but it appears they've managed about a quarter of the distance in 3 minutes?

 

 

 

 

Anyway, as soon as I can based on range factors (13.5 nm against air targets, I think), I want Uragans in flight against the incoming presumptive Harpoons, an Uragan each (M021 first, then M022) with a tentative plan to launch the third Uragan I think I can get in flight before impact at M021 unless it's evident it has been taken down prior to the third launch, backed up by AK-130 and AK-630 fires (though neither has anything better than the min 1% hit chance as near as I can tell) and 3rd gen jammers and decoys. If it becomes evident another platform is the target, and assuming surviving missiles enter arc for further fires, I'd be inclined to look at that option.

 

Also, with an eye to the earlier point regarding "use it or lose it," seeing as I might be suffering some injury in the relatively near future, I'll launch a second Moskit at S011. If S010 and S012 are Combattantes, one Moskit'll do, and they should have little chance to stop the Moskit; assuming S011 is a Babr, it could use a second Moskit more than I need one sitting in a possibly-disabled launcher.

 

I guess one or more F4-Es are back en route. Triangulation suggests about 50 nm, so we have about 3 minutes before it/they arrive, probably. After I launch the second Moskit at S011, I want to come to 315T to get my other Uragan launcher a better arc; if this maneuever gets the aft launcher in arc in time to bear on the incoming Harpoons, I'd probably be inclined to put one more Uragan on each of them.

 

EDIT: Actually, no probably about it. If the rear Uragan can get in arc in time, one more Uragan on each Harpoon for sure.

I expect they are Harpoons, but you're quite right about the Combattante IIb signature being off.

 

You're also right about the closing speed of the Moskit. Something odd going on there.

 

I think your reasoning for how to deal with the Harpoons and any additional Moskit shots is also valid.

 

Do we want to have the Hormone B move toward Maykop, to put some distance between it and the approaching F-4 threat? (There doesn't seem to be any reason to recall it now.)

 

Do you want Ladnyy to come toward 315T or stick with the merchies?

Tactical Turn 1603 was the turn of launch. No missile movement will occur in that turn since the movement phase has already passed. The launch position is actually 1606 due to launching taking place after 3 minutes of ship movement in the 1603 turn. This turn, 1606.0, is an Engagement Turn and the missiles have only moved for 15 seconds (first movement phase).

 

It's a peculiar way the paper rules deal with invoking a change in turn types. No funny business here!

As excellent a tool that SimPlot is, I think that there is probably a sort of disconnect between the way the paper rules handle turns and the way they are able to be depicted visually.

 

I didn't think there was any funny business.

I'll summarize my concern for posterity and future consideration. However, the subsequent paragraph thereafter addresses my most important response to the immediate situation and current game.

 

I know of the rule that you are talking about. My major issue with that quirk in this context is that I suspect it's not going to end up applying to the incoming missiles because of the transition to engagement turns. I have stopped short of considering the rule in question erroneous, not least because it does not show up in the errata, but primarily because I had taken it to be the acceptably and consciously unrealistic compromise to a situation in which there was rigorous turn-by-turn live play and one side decided it was imperative to make a snap decision to fire reactively during tactical turns without requesting a transition to engagement turns first, with the conscious choice to do so despite the implications from a rules standpoint. In a more free-form situation, particularly in the context of non-spontaneous planned fire, I had anticipated a transition to engagement turns around the time the fire conditions were met, with missile fire taking place in the first-fire phase of the corresponding engagement turn.

 

Most importantly in the short term, I recognize that I neither clarified nor stated these assumptions, nor did I recognize and address the fact that we were not in engagement turns during the 1603 post (when it might have been easier to have done something about it), so I accept responsibility for this issue.

 

Any discrepancy in signature sizes (if there was one) is also relatively irrelevant. Had I a reason to expect we were facing Combattantes (if, in fact, they are), I likely would have fired immediately, rather than at 30 nm. However this would only have added a couple of additional miles to the engagement range, of little importance at missile speed.

 

I do not think Ladnyy it's going to be able to get into a position to effectively help me defend against the Harpoons (certainly feel free to correct me on this if you disagree), so, with Harpoons in the air, what is done is done. I recommend staying with the merchants.

 

I would send the Hormone at FMP, for a distance of 15 nm, at 225T (I believe the enemy ships will still be in radar range).

 

To be explicit, my intention is to launch the second Moskit at S011, and all Uragans and future missiles, during engagement turn fire phases. On the off chance that we have transitioned back to tactical turns at some point, my intention is to transition to engagement turns prior to launch. This is a standing intention.

 

Several edits were used to fix voice-to-text and other typos.

I do not think Ladnyy it's going to be able to get into a position to effectively help me defend against the Harpoons (certainly feel free to correct me on this if you disagree), so, with Harpoons in the air, what is done is done. I recommend staying with the merchants.

Oh I didn't think Ladnyy was ever going to be in a position to defend Stoykiy given the bearing of the threat.

 

It was a question of being in a position to block leakers fired against the merchants, and to defend the merchants against other potential threats.

 

We're still in good shape.

I apologize for not correctly identifying the signature size of red surface contacts. S010 and S012 should be VSmall.

Nothing to worry about; no harm done.