Jeronimo (AoA) and I got together for another round in our ongoing battle over the Falklands, last night. We finished MayDay and moved onto San Carlos, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

By the 20th of May, there were strong indications that invasion was imminent. Destroyers had shelled Argentine coastal garrisons and rumours were rampant that SAS troops were on the ground. During the night, an Argentine freighter was shelled by an unknown British warship in Falkland Sound.

By daybreak, Argentinean observation posts saw the amphibious force steam into San Carlos waters.

 

I had some pretty challenging objectives. The amphibious ships were landing troops at San Carlos Sound while their air cover was located quite some distance from them. Also, I had to protect not only the carrier, but also the two separate groups of valuable logistics support vessels.

 

 

I stationed 2 Combat Air Patrols [CAP] near San Carlos to give the Marines some air cover. On their approach, they noted that the surveillance radar near Port Stanley was still active. I didn't want my aerial activities revealed to the Argentines, so one CAP strafed the installation into oblivion.

 

At this point, Jeronimo quipped, "What out for my Pucaras" and I got cautious. I didn't know if he had launched planes from Port Stanley or not so I turned around to investigate and stumbled over two supply vessels hiding in the harbour that I would have missed otherwise. Both of these light craft were also strafed until they sank. (Thanks for the tip, AoA )

 

 

Not long afterward, he really did send out a surge from Port Stanley that drew off my two lone CAP flights. It was a beautiful move. As I was hunting down the planes from Port Stanley, a surge of aircraft rose from the Goose Green dispersial field!

 

 

The Goose Green Pucara were the real dagger hidden behind the surge from the East and they drew in close to HMS Ardent who was on her way to bombard the airfield. All four of the Pucara were able to deliver their loads of rockets onto the little frigate and left her sinking with 44% of her flotation destroyed and on fire. After pulling up from their attack, the Pucara decided to pursue my reconnaissance helicopters instead of finishing off the striken ship. Several Lynx and Gazelle helos were down by gunfire before the combined AAA of the landing force brought down the Argentine Banzai charge.

 

 

The Harrier relief arrived just a little bit too late to help. At this point, we saved the game and hope to pick it up tomorrow.

 

Thanks for a very nice start. I'm looking forward to finishing this one.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Jeronimo (AoA) and I were determined to finish our fight from last night over San Carlos, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

After pummelling HMS Ardent under a hail of rockets and gunfire, the battle entered a lull. Ardent sank under her weight of damage and HMS Yarmouth completed her mission by blasting Goose Green. I postioned 5 CAP [Combat Air Patrols] over the landing forces and hoped that they would deter further Argentine attacks.

 

 

As the waiting grew long, the pilots on CAP grew tired and had to be replenished. It was at this specific moment that AoA decided to launch a massive attack. Evidently, he had been timing my patrol rotation pattern and managed to catch me with only 3 CAP flights over the Marines. Only one plane appeared on radar, so a flight went to investigate. As they closed, they activated the radar and found an entire swarm of inbound Skyhawks, Nesher, and Mirage bombers. After sounding the alarm, they closed to engage with Sidewinders. They claimed 2, but both Harriers were lost in the return fire from Magic and Sidewinder missiles.

 

 

The first wave was beaten back with only two bombers slipping through the defensive wall of SeaCat and SeaWolf SAMs to deliver their bombs onto HMS Brilliant. But then there was a second wave...

 

 

And then a third wave. The Argentine tide broke over the beachhead with a veritable horde of bombers releasing bombs throughout San Carlos Bay. HMS Plymouth had nearly 30 bombs dropped on her and escaped without a scratch. HMS Brilliant was less lucky and exploded after a string of bombs straddled her. Bombs penetrated the deck of LST Sir Tristram and left her ablaze along with LPD Intrepid. Frigates Yarmouth, Broadsword, and Argonaut were left in serious danger of sinking.

 

Luckily, the game ended at that point and victory was awarded. "Close" is the only word to describe this victory.

 

Thanks to Jerome for another fantastic game and to HarpGamer for hosting it.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

So Jerome won the game?

I 'won' the battle, but Jerome left me with black eye, swollen lip, concussion, broken arm,....

Thanks to Tony for hosting my first game between me and Herman.

 

Herman's AAR will follow.

Silent Hunter UK is new to the ANW MP community so we met up to initiate him to the finer points of head-to-head play. He's played some ANW SP, but never had the opportunity for MP so we chose Dawn Patrol, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

SH had played this one from the Norwegian side, before, so he wanted to try his luck as the Russians. I obliged.

 

We approached one another cautiously, but with systems off. However, curiosity seemed to get the best of SH as he flipped his Radar onto active for a quick peek. It was enough for me to get an ESM contact from him and send a barrage of Penguin missiles back down his proverbial throat.

 

 

He was quick to react and slam SS-N-9 Sirens into two of my boats before his two Nanuchkas went under. One last Hugin unleashed her Penguins before succumbing to a salvo of Sirens. In the end, I lost 3 missile boats in exchange for his three Nanuchkas, but I was awarded victory.

 

Thanks to SH for a fun game and to HarpGamer for hosting it.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

I actually had my radar on intermittent. I got suspicious of two contacts coming up on my radar but with no ESM emissions. A merchie wouldn't be like that. I should have opened fire sooner, but Dawn Patrol does have merchies present.

 

Perhaps I should have had my radar on the whole time... "Sirens" do have a longer range.

 

I should have remembered to use my jammers earlier. I hadn't released the air defence capability of the "Nanuckha" class, but it ultimately proved moot. I resigned when it became clear I would lose the third corvette fairly shortly.

 

Thanks to Herman for a great game and HarpGamer for hosting it.

 

I told him about this article I and some others have been working on. It's on Soviet/Russian nuclear weapons and their appearances in fiction. Your feedback is welcome.

 

Mnogo Nukes

Herman contacted me this morning asking for a game.

 

Since I hadn't played any real sub v. sub in this game and I'd read about Power Sweep (made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB) from this thread, we went for that.

 

I chose the NATO side, having a Swiftsure and a Kobben. Herman had, as I later discovered, a "Charlie", a "Victor II" and a "Tango"

 

I decided to adopt a two-level search strategy, with the Kobben and the Swiftsure alternating between depths. The Kobben was on intermittent sonar, but the Swiftsure remained silent.

 

Eventually I acquired a contact and the Kobben went not only active, but revved up its engines, much to Herman's surprise.

 

Not being fully aware of how to do Bearing Only Launch at this point (I had to look it up in the manual), I waited until the contact, the "Victor II", got into Spearfish range of the Swiftsure and opened fire. The Kobben got destroyed before it could engage, although tied up a couple of torpedoes with its decoys.

 

The Spearfish hit the Victor, but the Swiftsure had several torpedoes launched at it. I launched a spread of Spearfishes off in the general directions of the torpedoes, followed by Tigerfishes. To my surprise, one Spearfish acquired a target when it went active. The target was destroyed (I guess the "Tango", Herman can tell you more). Another torpedo acquired a target.

 

A fair degree of friendly taunting was going on in chat (he had denied he even had a "Victor II") and Herman commented he had two torpedoes heading my way. I replied "I'll believe that when I hear them", just as the Swiftsure got hit, probably by a nuclear-tipped "Starfish". Sedgwick indeed.

 

Herman decided to let the current torpedo run play out and his third sub went to the bottom.

 

Technically a no-score draw, I claim moral victory for stopping the "Charlie" going after shipping.

 

Thanks to Herman for a very fun game and to HarpGamer for hosting it.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

Silent Hunter UK came back early this morning and in the mood for revenge, sweet revenge. He had been reading the multiple AARs posted for Power Sweep, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB, and he wanted to try his luck at it. I was more than happy to oblige.

 

 

We started off lazily enough with me in control of the Russians and SH in command of the NATO forces. Cruising along, I soon got a contact report from my Victor II escort. Everyone slowed down as we proceeded to lock down this sub. I was quite surprised to learn that it was SSK Kobben as it is normally very difficult to detected. I only later learned that it was on Intermittent active sonar.

 

The Victor II closed in to bag her when she suddenly turned on her engines and approached at full speed. I didn't want to take unnecessary chances, so I started dropping SS-N-15 Starfish on her. Amazingly enough, she survived 2 torpedoes before the third one finally penetrated her hull before she reached launch range. I was pretty surprised by this somewhat unorthodox tactic and thought that I had the game nearly in the bag since the quieter of my two opponents had already been vanquished. Oh, how wrong I was going to be proven...

 

 

My subs resumed cruise speed towards their objective. The next contact I made was in the form of a torpedo warning! The launch transient also revealed the submarine so I dropped my last SS-N-15 Starfish on the contact only to find that it was also decoyed. A brace of ET-80 torpedoes towards the contact was fruitless as the Spearfish caught my sub dodging vainly. The score was now tied and I was out of long-ranged weapons.

 

SH was to pull another unorthodox attack. He launched his Spearfish on Bearing-Only Launch and they picked up my surviving Charlie and Tango subs. At that point, I decided that I, too, could use some wild tactics and launched a nuclear-tipped Starfish at the last bearing I had for his submarine. Just as the Spearfish sank my Charlie, the detonation caught his SSN Spartan. But, there was still one more fish in the water.

 

SSK Tango ran as fast as her little propellers could push her, but she was just a diesel-electric boat capable of 17kts and the Spearfish was coming in at 48kts. It was no contest as she imploded at maximum depth. The game was officially a draw in this Pyrrhic victory/loss.

 

A truly fabulous game was played with neither side giving the other a inch. Thanks to SH for a great match and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Herman and I, rearranging a game that could not occur yesterday after a server crash, decided to play Whose Islands Are They?, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

I was playing the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and had to protect a research vessel in some islands disputed with Vietnam. However, my rules of engagement meant I was not permitted to fire first.

 

I did a sweep of the islands, with the destroyer group's radar on intermittent and the research vessel (with frigate escort on intermittent).

 

I eventually located five vessels, which were clearly patrol boats and clearly hostile- no radars on. Since my ROEs prohibited firing first, this resulted in a vessel getting up to the research vessel and sunking it under cannon fire.

 

My response was swift and deadly. I launched four ship's worth of "Seersucker" missiles at the five vessels, which all sank. I was able to redirect some still in flight missiles onto another one.

 

However, he had not only sunk the escorting frigate, but launched a salvo of "Styx" missiles at the destroyer group, sinking the destroyer. The "Styx" may be old, but against a non-Aegis protected vessel in enough numbers, they can be deadly. The destroyer sunk, meaning Herman had the required three kills, giving him a victory. I had destroyed enough ships, but failed to protect my research vessel, so it was a loss for me.

 

Victory for Herman.

 

Thanks to Herman for a great match and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

Silent Hunter UK is really getting into the spirit of MP. He came back for another round. With only an hour to play, we chose Whose Islands are These?, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

SH commanded the PLAN forces while I had the Vietnamese. I sent my landing forces to the island while my screening missile boats searched for the PLAN to the northwest. I suspected him to approach from that direction. To my sheer and utter surprise, I detected radar signals from the East!

 

 

After re-calling all my forces to deal with these new contacts, I also detected radar from the North. This guy was everywhere. I maintained Emissions Control [EmCon] and crept closer hoping to surprise him. I managed to get into visual range of the first contact only to find that it was the LST Dajiang and her escort. I immediately opened fire on the LST. I was tempted to kill the escort, but the needs of the mission have to come first even before the survival of my own ships. The LST could land Marines on the islands and take control from me. The PLAN could not.

 

After turning on the radar, I pounded the LST into a pyre. Also, I unleashed a salvo of 8x Styx SSMs towards the Luda destroyer to the north.

 

 

SH also fired back to target all four of my screening missile boats, however they had already fired their weapons. Eventually, he sank all my escorts, but I won the day for I had destroyed his landing force and thus was awarded victory.

 

Another great game, SH. Thanks for an excellent session and to HarpGamer for hosting it on their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

JoaoDiogo just bought ANW and HCE and wanted to try out the MP quality of Harpoon. He's only played some ANW SP and the old H3 demos, so we chose Dawn Patrol, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

 

Joao is a big simulation player in Portugal so he's pretty experienced. He kept his radar off and crept around very quietly as I combed the Norwegian Sea for his ships. He did a very good job of evading contact.

 

 

However, curiousity got the best of him and he turned on his radar for a peek. and I had 3 missile boats that were in range when his blips appeared on my ESM report. I fired off one boat for each of his Nanuchka missile boats. I managed to sink 2 of them, but the missiles from one Hugin tracked onto an already dead target and were wasted. Joao wasted no time and blasted three of my ships as the rest closed for a final barrage of SSMs.

 

 

A second volley of Penguins sealed the deal. Three Hugins lost for the death of three Nanuchka corvettes. Victory was awarded.

 

Thanks to Joao for a fun and stealthy game and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Jeronimo (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) and Tracy Vierra both came looking for matches today. Both wanted something quick so we decided to try out a scenario that is just about to be released and tested it for MP play, Hemphill's Ordeal, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

This scenario has not yet been published, but is available from the HarpGamer MP server. Here is an account of the battle with AoA.

 

 

This scenario is an interpretation of the account from Michael A. Palmer's, "The War that Never Was".

 

"About a dozen Soviet submarines of various types, both diesel and nuclear-powered, lay athwart the sea lanes leading toward the Norwegian Sea. The Soviet Northern Fleet staff had charged its submarines with three tasks: reconnaissance for long-range SNA strikes, delaying the movement north of key American convoys and task forces, and attacking NATO ships and installations with torpedoes and missiles.

 

The Soviets had far better success with more traditional attacks. In the first twenty-four hours of the war, Soviet submarines and strike aircraft sank nearly half of the twenty-five ships in four convoys steaming for north Norway. By the evening of the 14th, one American destroyer, five frigates, and five freighters were at the bottom of the North Atlantic."

 

 

I played the Soviets while AoA acted as Hemphill. One of my Foxtrot diesel submarines immediately detected the convoy once the game started. After taking a quick periscope fix, she found herself at point-blank range with FF Trippe and immediately loosed a full volley of wake-homing and acoustic torpedoes at the convoy. The Trippe counter-detected the attack and immediately launched her own response in the form of an ASRoc torpedo. Moments later, an ET-80 torpedo slammed into the Trippe and broke her keel. The celebration aboard the Foxtrot was short-lived as the return shot from the frigate caught her desperately diving to escape. The score was tied at 1:1.

 

 

The NATO convoy continued towards Iceland and directly into the path of a second Foxtrot. The sub crept in past the escort and was in range of the freighters before loosing a single torpedo. This failure to engage with overwhelming force would prove to be her undoing. After revealing herself, she was destroyed by another ASRoc-deployed torpedo before she had a chance to fire her remaining weapons. The torpedo missed.

 

 

My two surviving assets were a Charlie- and an Echo-class missile-guided submarine. Both set off to engage the enemy with torpedoes. However, the enemy was not cooperating and had taken a rather circuitous route around them (almost as though they knew the position of my subs). They tried to engage with SLCMs, but all missiles were efficiently shot down by the surviving Underwood frigate. They tried to thread their way in between the sonobuoys the enemy was deploying. Unfortunately, the Echo II was caught near the surface while still in the process of firing her Shaddock missiles. A Mk 46 torpedo interrupted the firing sequence with 2 weapons still unfired.

 

The Charlie managed to close the range to the convoy, but was unable to engage with torpedoes before she was caught moving at high speed to intercept. Another Mk 46 torpedo ended her career just outside of torpedo range. Although my command had been destroyed, the enemy spent so much effort trying to evade them that he was unable to accomplish his own victory conditions and the game ended as a draw.

 

Thanks to AoA for a really fun game and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Joe Baxter is a real life sailor just getting off the CVN Nimitz. He's never had an MP game of ANW even though he's bought and played every version of Harpoon since 1989. Today, he got his baptism of fire. We elected to play Dawn Patrol, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

Both Joe and I had played Dawn Patrol so it offered no surprises to either party. However, instead of the crippled ANW AI, we were now each facing an experienced and cunning opponent. I played the Norwegians while Joe commanded the Russians.

 

 

Not long after startup, my ESM detected distinctive radar emissions from Nanuchka-class missile boats. I decided to try and creep towards my targets behind a group of Neutral fishing boats. As they were only making 12kts, I slowed my Hugin missile boats down to match their pace. Once in approximate range to the fuzzy radar contacts, I decided to let loose a salvo of Penguin SSMs. One Hugin boat concentrated on each of the 3 Nanuchka contacts with full barrage of 6 Penguins.

 

 

Joe was no slouch and quickly detected the inbound missiles and returned fire. All three Hugin and a local fisherman were soon sinking. However, 18 Penguins were sufficient to overwhelm the defences of at least two of their targets as I was granted victory a few minutes later. A well played match.

 

Thanks to Joe for the session and to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

 

Tomorrow, June 29, 2008, a 3-sided session has been scheduled between Joe, Tracy Vierra, and myself for 1700 PST. Anyone interested in playing or watching is most welcome to attend.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 

Joe Baxter, Tracy Vierra and I decided to bid farewell to the ANW server with a real bang by playing Freek Scheper's new 3-sided scenario, Shadow the Boomer, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

 

After several vicious carrier battles in the Barents Sea and with the ground war stalemated in the Nordic winter, negotiations started to end the war. Both parties observed a cease-fire, which held surprisingly well in the first week.

 

However, NATO feared Putin would make use of the cease-fire to bring his boomers to bastions prepared in the Barentz Sea. USN and Royal Navy hunter-killer subs were sent to stake out Severomorsk and be prepared to shadow SSBNs exiting the harbour.

 

 

We each had a command of a single submarine unit. My boat was an SSBN trying to break past a Trafalgar- and a Los Angeles-class SSN for a deterrent patrol.

 

 

From the very start, there were numerous contacts throughout the Barents. I had a very strict timetable to keep and was traveling on the surface in the company of an icebreaker.

 

The SSBN arrived at the separation point and all was going well. The Trafalgar had been detected over 40nm distant and was not expected to interfere. The problem was that the Los Angeles was nowhere to be found. Only later did we learn that she had been sunk.

 

After diving and proceeding on course to the patrol position, several interesting things happened. Several distant torpedo contacts were reported from my sonar room, but I had no clear indication of what had happened. Evidently, the Los Angeles had run across one of the ASW patrols, but no word had been received about the outcome.

 

In order to adhere to the schedule, the SSBN had to move at a higher speed than I would have liked. Unfortunately, this generated more noise and it was subsequently detected by the Trafalgar who then moved in to trail the boomer. I was under orders not to allow this to happen. When I felt that Trafalgar was within torpedo range, I fired two USET-80 torpedoes on Bearing-Only-Launch and took off like a racehorse. (Well, like an aging racehorse.)

 

 

The Trafalgar counter-detected the torpedoes and returned the favour in-kind with a pair of Spearfish torpedoes in my direction. Both my USET-80s missed, but they had spooked the Trafalgar into running at high speed. A helicopter had detected the commotion and dropped a pair of torpedoes on her. The Trafalgar died just moments before the Spearfish caught up with the boomer.

 

The first one was decoyed by a noisemaker, but the second one exploded against the hull next to the reactor vessel. Without power, the SSBN was doomed.

 

The game ended in a draw since all three players had been sunk without accomplishing their victory conditions. A truly fitting end to a very enjoyable scenario.

 

Thanks to Tracy Vierra and Joe Baxter for the game and to HarpGamer for the use of the server.

 

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.