baboeska
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Joined: 9/15/2014
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AAR of my last CMO Unofficial Tournament game, and pointers from previous games.
The scenario is two CVBG's, each with two subs, fighting near Hawaii, approx 20 minute turns, pre-planning is everything.
I went full blitzkrieg on the first strike, held back 4 or 8 Tomcat's for fleet defense and sent everything else in, cleared the sky on the way in while my ELINT and AWACS skirted around his flanks
then when it came to the first strike, he launched all his Tomcat air superiority fighters and manually targeted my A-6's, hitting 6 or 7 out of 10 before they got their missiles off. He also hammered my A-7's which were loaded with Shrikes very hard about the same time. My jammers were probably not within the 60nm or so they needed to be for max effectiveness.
On the plus side, @CanofWhoop felt like he'd been presented with a rather large whoop package, enough to intimidate significantly.
At the same time as my strike was ending, I launched TASM's from max range from my sub near his CVBG, unfortunately, with out much fuel they didn't start fires, only knocked his supply ships down to 10% each. By that time I had very limited BDA intelligence.
He also, as soon as the threat was a bit clear, launched his strike wings at my carrier. I suspect partial motivation was fear of loss of flight deck operations if he waited.
The Tomcats I kept back disrupted his strike, but none the less, he got 12 or so Harpoons fired, those in conjunction with his TASMs sunk an Arleigh Burke. I'd told my supply ships to go north, separate from group, and unfortunately, they are actually useful in the group even if as nothing but missile-sinks (targets that eat up missiles).
His A-7s diverted due to lack of fuel - he picked the wrong flank for staging luckily enough, and he sent a couple of S-3s probably with bombs to hit my supply ships which were outside the reach of my missile defense systems.
Relative points not moving may have broken his S-3 strike, as my carrier shot them both down. I love the idea of a relative point circle to draw out the long range SAM's, but, could not trust that, and one Tomcat could break that.
A short time later I started moving my far sub closer, while he started on an ASW operation at the rough position of the TASM launch, he found my first sub and sunk it.
Then, my next sub got caught in a bottle neck between the Hawaiian Islands - I'd gambled that I could get closer for the TASM/Harpoon strike capacity, and took a short cut, it seemed a good idea at the time, while my CAP and surviving strikers (1 A-6 got home, 1 A-7 got home) (edited) were re-arming. I launched one last CAP fighter at the end of my last turn, and on his next turn he sunk the sub in the bottleneck and I called GG.
It helped that he basically wrote to me "All your base are belong to us you have no chance to strike".
The game between CanOfWhoop and I lasted 8 turns.
It came down to points, and a lack of viable air frames and methods to strike. I knew there was a tiny chance my last A-6 could get through if I played an enders game style fly in with every single aircraft, no longer Hawkeye's or Elint, but simply, missile sinks to distract his weaponry while the strike hits.
I also made a few big mistakes. I had my doctrine settings set to RTB on fuel out, which meant my CAP left the scene a little bit earlier than I liked, though it did mean I had more Phoenix's, not that they did me any good. (edited)
Should have set it to manual, considering the huge distances involved. The first thing I did was launch the strike packages and CAP wings, if done fast enough, there's time for two strikes.
Very different to the game with @Eskild where (I assume) he was distracted by a Tomahawk misfire, and was launching all his ASW gear when my strike came in and just about board wiped him. (edited)
And nowhere near as drawn out as the game with @cristianwj, who is one of the luckiest sub drivers I have ever met. He actually got a sub close enough without detection to launch 12 missiles, and then torps, yet somehow my carrier survived. The probable reason @cristianwj offered me a draw was due to an Ender's game style last minute move that did massive damage to his carrier, leaving him unsure if it would sink or not. (edited)
Also @CanofWhoop gave me the recipe for whoop, so onwards and upwards. It involves midnight sun. (edited)
Things I could have done better in @cristianwj's game... Never call off a blitzkrieg half way through against a still hostile opponent.
Things I could have done better in @Eskild's game... Don't misfire a Tomahawk unless you want a flaming datum where your submarine was - though the weird luck of action response may have led to the closest thing to a clean sweep I've yet done. Make sure it is not BOL but rather specific ships targeted.
Things I could have done better in @CanofWhoop's game... Sorry Tomcat drivers, if you end up swimming, that's how it goes. Ultimately, as the mission briefing says, all air craft are expendable for the purposes of primary objectives.
I like to think if I'd won we might've been able to do SAR with what's left of the sub-hunting forces but tbh with hostile subs out there, I think I know what would be prioritised in the short term, sigh.
Was some very good games, I feel I learnt a lot. Thank you to the good players, thank you @Yooper for making this happen, and thank you @musurca for making IKE/PBEM.
@cristianwj showed me that A-7's with AIM-9's and guns can and do wreck aircraft well in time of need. And the damage to his carrier was due to broadside hits which are more likely to penetrate armor than slant hits. @Eskild showed me how important luck is. And @CanofWhoop showed me, if your gonna hammer someone, throw everything, and make sure supporting assets are on station for the vital moments or it's a waste of their lives, if your getting hammered, try to ride it out, and hit back the moment the window is open. (edited)
I thought I'd keep specific tactics back until the tournament is over, and it's over for me, so yeah. I did have the passing thought, I haven't uploaded the QR code to the forum, maybe my last A-6 has a chance in hell, but in the real world @CanofWhoop played a very very good game. I am amazed as to how well he hit my A-6's as they were inbound, I'd recommend spacing it out a tiny bit, lead with the Tomcat's, clear the skies (not a whole turn, just 50-100nm of spacing), then send in the A-7's and A-6's and TASM's, perhaps. Shrug But I gave the QR code to my opponent and to @Yooper so that's GGWP.
The answer to crack the tin cans, appears to be over-saturation.
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Complex Unofficial Tournament AAR for Lamb - 
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