I was re-introduced to this scenario by a bug report. It took roughly five minutes to re-create the bug from the provided save game. It took another 3 hours for me to stop playing the stupid thing! That was the first time in a number of months I'd spent any real time playing HC for non coding purposes. So with Labor Day Weekend on the schedule I thought I might find opportunity to take the scenario for a spin from the start.

 

The bug report that started it all: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2228326

 

Find the scenario at: http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...mp;showfile=361

 

So this is my kind of scenario, lots of action, not all that much ASW, waves of missiles

 

For this time out I chose to play as Blue which meant I controlled the Russian and European forces arranged against the US. The action focuses on Southern Norway, the UK, and out to Iceland. My job was to eliminate the US presence in Norway as well as delouse the Shetland Islands with their US Marine tenants. This is a near future scenario and all the fun toys are in play, SCALP, Taurus, Kh-101, JSF, Eurofighter, Rafale,... I also got to drive the UK's new (to be) carrier and those naval JSF are potent beasts!

 

This scenario is not for the faint of heart. There aren't air groups of only two planes like you normally see, 6, 8, and 12 are much more likely numbers in this adventure. To compensate I increased my normal section size from 2 planes to 3. At the opening bell I took a chance and re-armed many of my planes to more optimal loadouts (longer ranged AAMs for the most part). A standard tactic of mine is to win some measure of air superiority before worrying too much about sending out anti-surface strikes. With the resources at my disposal I was able to do both while keeping my air defense focus. The European standoff weapons are of a just perfect range for the targets at hand with cruise missile ranges of 324nm and 216nm. AEW assets were sparse but capable and over the course of the scenario my placement of them turned out to be amazingly lucky.

 

The opening gambit by the US forces was the lay out a AEW bridge from Iceland to Norway while pushing in a fighter sweep. The sweep dented but did not break me. A small smattering of strike aircraft followed but were dealt with. As I was regenerating from the sweep the Strike Eagles appeared on the horizon and due to the sheer number, they tried my resources and presented quite the challenge. Alas even the old rusty Tornados helped out and the F-15E parts littered the ocean and parts of the UK.

 

The next threat was even more serious, TLAM. Not just a few at a time, we're talking groups of 64 to 130 or more missiles. Yes, the US must have fired at least the entire TLAM arsenal in a matter of less than an hour. My lucky placement of AEW assets helped me detect and track the incoming missiles for proper disposal. That disposal required even the efforts of ground attack planes that only carrier Sidewinder for AAMs, it was that close! Luckily none got thru. Not all was so grim however, my own strike aircraft were already bringing the airbase on the Shetland Islands to its knees and not long afterwards the pounding of Norway began.

 

Somewhere in this timeframe 12 x F-22 met their making at the hands of Meteor missiles and some transiting Eurofighters got a sniff of F-117 and downed the whole group. There was that luck again

 

Once the TLAM tapered off I got a sniff of a US CSG and sent a couple of Backfire to investigate. They managed to launch their ASMs but were killed on the way home by, wait, you guessed it, aircraft that were left homeless by the Shetland strikes, oops. The rest of the anti-ship Backfire raids were escorted by Su-35.

 

Anyway, the pummeling of Norway continued, some brave JSF pilots rolled back the AEW bridge from Norway to Iceland and the battle for air superiority on the UKADZ continued. I was pressed constantly, F-35A are a tough beast to keep at bay and the safe zone didn't extend far beyond my coastline (i.e. the US was successfully controlling most of the sea between Iceland and the UK).

 

Given that omnious feeling of being backed against the wall, luck came to my rescue again after downing a number of B-1 bombers when some CALCM were detected less than 20nm from a Sentry. The CALCM were not easy to stop since they are so stealthy. More than once I lost contact with the incoming missiles even though I knew there were pressing home their attack. During the CALCM attacks another lucky group of my planes quite literally ran under a package of 4 x B-2 bombers and dispatched them. Another group of B-2s later met their match in a similarly lucky encounter. That seemed to be the only way to find the B-2s, having swarms of planes running around looking for CALCM! In the end a Roland battery was levelled by CALCM that were not detected until they hit, scary.

 

Not long after this the US air started to feel the pain of being swatted from the sky. My area of influence increased and I could start anti-CSG strikes in earnest with my remaining 16 Backfires. They did a good job but the real gem was my French Barracude SSN that sank a Perry, Burke, and a Tico before putting two torps into the CVN and sinking the attached AO. Sadly half of the torpedo tubes were out of action or more damage would have been done. I really felt bad that I wasn't in a position to kill the direct attached SSN. After total victory was achieved I turned on Show All and it had grounded itself on the Norwegian coast.

 

My ground strikes concentrated on destroying the Norwegian bases, once that was accomplished the planes that could started attacking the fast US resupply convoy and finishing off the CSG. My control of the air was now cemented since I didn't have to worry anymore about attack from the East (but in a show of good foresight I started doing ASW with my carrier and amphib groups). That said, I was still repeatedly surprised to find aircraft already in range of my fighters and occasionally they had already fired AAMs at me.

 

Anyway, with some of the CAP birds free to re-arm for ship strike I now had in the neighborhood of 100 anti-ship/SE armed aircraft. I was now the juggernaut and quickly broke down the fast convoy. A SSN added to that group's misery and my Oscar II finished off the last four ships with missiles.

 

That left one large US surface group (that I knew about). My attacks turned there with similar results, my forces were just too comparitively strong at this point. Right about then I got a torpedo warning from my carrier group, agh! I split the affected Type 22/23 from the group and ran like mad, dispatching a helo with 8 SBs along the bearing of the torpedo. I managed to get a good fix on the Seawolf (while I was happy to get a fix I was not happy that it was such a capable boat). My two Stingray LWTs both missed, one came close so I finished laying bouys in wait for more helos. The Seawolf then got infinitely smart and slowed down. Despite being within my SB field the Seawolf disappeared and I didn't pick it up again until it had sunk that first Type 22/23 and had launched on another. Thankfully my second encounter resulted in a LWT hitting and sinking the Seawolf. That was a good feeling since that one sub had bottled up all of my naval forces that were trying in vain to get around the sub to put boots on the ground of the Shetland Islands.

 

Speaking of the Shetlands, my Jaguars levelled the Marines on the island once the situation in the air permitted.

 

Anyway, that last US surface group went down with heavy loss of life and by this time I had been awarded both Minimum and Total Victory. I like to kill whatever I can see so I at this point disobeyed my orders and levelled the bases on Iceland as well as those on Greenland. I left the SAM batteries in tact, someone else can clean those up though I did eliminate the ones in Norway so I would accidentally lose fighters to them.

 

So if you couldn't tell, I really enjoyed playing this scenario and hope to get a chance to play as the US some day. Thanks Palex80 and the cheering section on #harpgamer IRC!

 

You did a bit better than I did.

 

I lost the use of my most northern base when it got hit by a dozen or so tomahawks, after I'd used all my planes and missiles to destroy the incoming calcm and bomber attacks (and kill off all the rest of the tomahawks). I managed to lose a squadron of fighters in the opening engagement. But still, those standoff missiles are really great, you don't really have to worry about anything but being jumped by invisible fighters, I quickly learned as soon as you see them in range, you need to flee, because they have already fired missiles, you just can't see them yet.

 

I didn't kill all the bases (I did perform some "suppressive" long range cruise missile attacks on some of their bases though), I've just got the tovic screen come up:

 

Blue (me):

Aircraft - 99.

Bases - 1 Damaged.

AD Mobile - 2.

 

Red (US):

Carriers - 1.

Ships - 53.

Subs - 1 (not the seawolf, but the SSN attached to the CVN)

Aircraft - 743.

Helos - 108.

Bases - 5 destroyed, 1 Damaged.

AD Mobile - 4.

Armoured - 2.

 

A very enjoyable scenario, the early attacks could easily swamp someone not prepared (like me).

 

I might see how Red goes next.

Hi everyone. After a very long pause from Harpoon, I am back playing the game. I'm going to put up a new version of this scenario, followed by the rest of the series. Cheers, Alex

Hi everyone. After a very long pause from Harpoon, I am back playing the game. I'm going to put up a new version of this scenario, followed by the rest of the series. Cheers, Alex

That is great, thank you Alex! The next build of the game will have some big changes to aerial refueling and a long-sought AI toggle (for making the AI groups follow the path laid out by the scenario author).

Hi,

 

where can I get this scenario? The link Tony gives doesn´t lead to a 1GIUK or GIU 1 scenario. Or did I miss something?

 

Really would love to play through this GIU series.

Hi, where can I get this scenario? The link Tony gives doesn´t lead to a 1GIUK or GIU 1 scenario. Or did I miss something? Really would love to play through this GIU series.

 

JSF, you already know how the downloads work around here.

 

They are organized by sim (HCE), file type (scenario), and battleset (GIUK).

 

You can also search by author (in this case, Palex80).

 

This particular scenario is here

Hi Brad,

 

 

Hi, where can I get this scenario? The link Tony gives doesn´t lead to a 1GIUK or GIU 1 scenario. Or did I miss something? Really would love to play through this GIU series.

 

JSF, you already know how the downloads work around here.

 

They are organized by sim (HCE), file type (scenario), and battleset (GIUK).

 

You can also search by author (in this case, Palex80).

 

This particular scenario is here

 

 

You´re right, I really should know after all these years. have become a little rusty, though because of another long-time absence.

 

Thx for Your hint.

I´m going to do an AAR in return, promised.

That would be great.

I´m going to do a AAR in return, promised.

 

That would be great.

 

The least I can do. Though I currently lack the time to write scenarios, playing becomes possible, again.