Dine And Dash - Caribbean/HCDA

[NefariousKoel]

Just submitted my first.

 

Please take it for a spin and let me know about any oddites and what you think.

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...mp;showfile=422

[CV32]

File upload approved. Thanks! Looking forward to checking it out.

[Stalintc]

Congratulations on the release of your first scenario, lets hope it is the first of many!

 

Thank you for sharing with us!

[NefariousKoel]

Thanks guys.

 

My big concern with this one is the difficulty. Let me know if it's a little too much because I may need to adjust forces a bit.

[Stalintc]

I am playing through the scenario as I speak, i'll post some feedback up when im done

 

I play in realtime pretty much exclusivley so it might be a little while!

[CV32]

I strongly recommend that folks download and install the latest version of the HCDA database (HCDA-090513) for best results with Nef's new scenario.

 

(This latest iteration of the HCDA continues to update magazine entries, including some of the platforms featured in this scenario).

[Stalintc]

Scenario Feedback

 

Positive:

 

- Consistant resitance and threat from the Venezualan navy, I loved the fact that the way you had placed the ships and their routes formed a nice tight coast guard and actually forced an encounter with them.

 

- The submarines were very dangerous and seemed to be placed quite realistically for their type, being diesel boats they are meant for coastal defence, so the relevance of these was spot on!

 

- Your formation patrols and missions you had setup for the AI showed the Venezualans dislike for the Roosevelts presence in the waters quite clearly and it looks like they expected the Roosevelts appearance in their waters.

 

- The Arleigh Burke is (as im sure you knew) a VERY powerful destroyer even when on its own and I actually think the force balance you put into the scenario was on the mark. It is amazing to see the Burke in action on its own. It proved capable of fending off about 34 incoming Otomat missiles with a certain degree of ease, only having to shot down the last one or two of each wave with CIWS. However of course the SM-2 supply was gone by the end of the engagement. Both Brad and Tony watched the missile engagement in IRC, using Tony's little DLL which outputs game data to IRC for testing. Very impressive.

 

- There was room there to get the Burkes main gun involved in the action, which I think is fun in any scenario to get the deck guns involved. Especially when it came to shelling the SAM on the coastline to allow the choppers to roll in to the rescue.

 

- Good time allocation, I felt that I had enough time to do what was needed and to be flexible in my approach to the coast. While still maintaining the urgency to get there in time.

 

Negative: (with constructive comments)

 

- The fact that there were so many enemy ships to contend with enroute to the coast made it very nearly impossible to get there, the only reason being is that the Burke currently cannot use its SM-2 mount against surface platforms because of a game limitation. This meant that the ship engagements had to take place with the main gun, which I didnt neccesarily mind, but it made things very awkward, especially since the harpoons from the P3 were virtually impossible to get through the highly effective aspide defences of some of the surface vessels. Of course this is good in some ways, because I love a challenge, but it did make things very close to the wire being that I had a pinch of luck.

 

Suggestion - might be worth replacing the helos on the Burke with a variant which is capable of carrying ASUW weapons (also with ASW) to bolster the ASUW capability in this scenario. Or perhaps adding a handful of ASUW capable attack planes at the BLUE airbase.

 

- At about 20hrs to go on the clock I had downed about 1/4 of RED's airforce, but the other 3/4 did not launch to get involved in the action. They still had about 68 planes on the ground which were fighters and 10 attack. Of course this can be good in some ways because this could indicate RED's refusal to launch more planes do to the hopeless situation for them in the air against the Eagles. I did not see any action from the F-16's or the Mirage50's at the airbases.

 

Suggestion - Add some more attack\patrol missions spaced out throughout the scenario, also bolster the formation patrols with some of the other fighters that are available. I noted through looking in the scen editor after play that the F-16's had no formation patrol orders, nor the Mirage50's. Remember that the GE will only launch the fighter make\model that you have specified in the scenario editor for the formation patrols. It will not use the other fighters when it runs out of them.

 

Further Notes:

 

During the scenario I ran out of shells for the main gun and no reload was initiated. This had came about because there are currently a few ships in HCDA without any entries for thier magazine (The Arleigh Burke being one of them). This was paticularly dangerous for the integrity of the scenario, since the gun was heavily used in the surface to surface action. In order to finish the scenario I was given a helping hand by Tony and Brad to get some extra rounds to use to finish the scenario (because I wanted to make sure that the viConds worked...)

 

However Brad has quite kindly updated the magazines for the ships involved in the scenario so that this cannot happen, so as Brad has mentioned in the previous post all users that want to play the scenario to its fullest MUST make sure they have the latest version of the HCDA database which is available now from the downloads area.

 

Also thank you for submitting the scenario Nef, I had a great time playing it and I hope others will too. I hope to see more of this work from you in the near future

 

 

Cheers

 

Terry "Stalintc" Courtney

[NefariousKoel]

Thanks for the feedback and great suggestions!

 

I knew there were a couple force facets that needed some adjusting. I'll touch up the ASuW situation and definitely the opfor air.

 

I think the most difficult part, for me, is getting the opposing air missions taken care of. Any tips on repeated air missions and such would be appreciated.

 

I'll update this one soon.

 

I have another scenario completed and just doing some basic testing before I post it for a shakedown. It won't be quite the skin of your teeth nailbiter such as this one as I made it to be played from either side. Hopefully the forces arrayed against each other keep it interesting.

 

Edit: I've adjusted some things but not sure how well the AI will run it.

I'm not really sure how effective the air patrol missions are. Will they utilize ESM detections? They seem to just sit around or fly right past fairly often. I realize that getting some a/c with radar detections out there is good but not always reliable. Could use some suggestions.

[CV32]

I took your scen for a spin and had much the same experience as Stalintc when it came to opposing air.

 

I took Roosevelt around to the east, and for most of the game I managed to keep her undetected.

 

That is, until I was unceremoniously torpedoed. This is (in fact) a good result. Bravo for good submarine placement!

 

I think the most difficult part, for me, is getting the opposing air missions taken care of. Any tips on repeated air missions and such would be appreciated.

 

Use the 'Continuous' or 'Variable' repeat feature to maintain a constant patrol or to throw some uncertainty into when AI aircraft might appear on station.

 

I'm not really sure how effective the air patrol missions are. Will they utilize ESM detections? They seem to just sit around or fly right past fairly often. I realize that getting some a/c with radar detections out there is good but not always reliable. Could use some suggestions.

 

If its aircraft are equipped with ESM detections, the AI certainly will exploit ESM detections.

 

Aircraft on formation patrol, however, particularly non-AAW/ASUW patrols, will continue to perform their patrol.

 

For ASUW work, its often a good idea to put a group of suitably equipped aircraft on formation patrol, but beyond the range of player controlled sensors. If the AI picks up a suitable ship target, this group may leave formation to execute an attack.

[NefariousKoel]

*Scenario Updated*

 

I uploaded the newest version in which the air missions were completely redone and made some other adjustments.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look forward to any more suggestions.

 

And thanks, Brad, for updating the DB.

[Stalintc]

Hi Nef,

 

Is the update file on the downloads section the right one? only I have opened it up and there appear to be no changes to the scenario setup?

 

I noted that despite the zip files being named differently, the scenario files have the same modified date and time on them.

 

Just thought I would ask

 

Cheers

[NefariousKoel]

Hi Nef,

 

Is the update file on the downloads section the right one? only I have opened it up and there appear to be no changes to the scenario setup?

 

I noted that despite the zip files being named differently, the scenario files have the same modified date and time on them.

 

Just thought I would ask

 

Cheers

 

That's a good question. I used the update file option when uploading the new one. It says it was last update on the 16th which would be the updated one since the original was submitted on the 12th.

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...mp;showfile=422

 

Check to see if there are a handful of F-16s at the blue airbase. That will be the updated version.

[mack]

I just played it (with the updated database, last night I was wondering how on earth Venezuela had managed to steal about 40 E-7 Corsairs and were launching them from patrol boats ). With the 24 hour time frame, the first thing I did was send the Roosevelt back towards the ANG base to give a buffer zone and allow the Eagles much more time to intercept enemy flights. I also figured it was probably the last place any enemy surface vessels were.

 

A few Flankers wandered into it's SM-2 range, and they were promptly dispatched. The Eagles took out everything else in the area, whilst the P-3 patrolled looking for enemy surface ships. After the last of the Flankers went down, it turned into a turkey shoot, every Eagle pilot in the mission would have ended up as a fighter Ace, splashing a couple of attacks of 10 or so enemy attack planes, plus the sitting duck trackers.

 

The 16's had been loaded up with Jassm, and through the mission used them on the Simon Bolivar IAP, probably causing a few holidaymakers to have their plans ruined as well as sinking some surface ships.

 

A Tomahawk strike disabled the SAM guarding the objective, and I turned the ship back to get into range for launching the recovery mission.

 

The Venezuelan navy were sent to the bottom by repeated Harpoon and Jassam strikes and once they were going the threat was minimal (I was sweeping for subs with the P3, but nothing was found).

 

The 1st helo launched stayed on station just long enough to win the scenario, but I didn't really think I'd gone the full 20 minutes (it was a very tight bingo fuel situation), so I launched the 2nd just to be sure.

 

They stayed there for an hour, came back, and I turned the ship about back towards the ANG base. I had the Helos re-armed with Penguin missiles which subsequently sunk the final enemy surface ship, then back to a ferry configuration (which was actually a Hellfire anti-surface loadout, which had the same range as the Ferry loadout), and took the hostages/rescued people back onto dry land on the ANG base.

 

A final strike destroyed Simon Bolivar IAP, then the time ran out.

 

Status:

Blue:

0 Losses.

 

Red:

Ships - 12 Sunk.

Air - 96 Destroyed.

Helo - 6 Destroyed. (unsure)

Bases - 1 Destroyed.