SireChaos
Posts: 710
Joined: 8/14/2006
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Status: offline
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I just played the Duel scenario again, and noticed a few things; I am not sure how much of this applies to other surface-vs-surface engagements.
1.) If you have reason to believe that your missiles are not going to hit the enemy before he strikes at you, for example because his missiles are already flying in your direction, it makes little sense to strike at the ships that have already fired. In Duel, playing USA, this means ignoring the Kirov and the Slavas once they have fired, and firing your Tomahawks at primarily at the Sverdlovs, the Mod Kashins and the Sovremennys. In general you should consult the platform database and ignore all those platforms that do not have SSMs - for example Udaloy, Kara and Kresta II class.
When play USSR, this is different - you must keep in mind that almost all Western warships have Harpoons, so you really cannot safely ignore any of them.
2.) Once you have located the enemy, see if you can get a submarine into their path; if they can reach a point along the projected course of the enemy, going at maximum speed, and then stop or creep once they are there, they can give the enemy a nasty surprise - additional Tomahawks, additional Harpoons, plus torpedo attacks. Remember that a torpedo cannot be shot down, and a single torpedo, if it hits, can sink or cripple most warships. That Improved Los Angeles boat has enough firepower to potentially sink half a Soviet battle group.
Submarine attacks become much more dangerous if, at the time of the attack, the submarine is within range of friendly SAMs, to protect it against helicopters.
3.) Make sure you have ONE Tomahawk strike, and ONE Harpoon strike, to overwhelm enemy defenses; do NOT hold back any missiles to mop up survivors - if you do, your missiles will face the brunt of the enemy defenses twice instead of once, meaning that twice as many of your missiles will be shot down.
Also, make sure that, if you attack with multiple groups, their missiles will arrive at more or less the same time, for the same reason.
4.) The AI is trigger-happy. If you can arrange it so that one of your ships is detected before all the others, or is in range of the AI´s missile before the others, chances are the AI will concentrate all fire on this ship. You can use this (by offering up one ship as bait) or try to concentrate on protecting that ship against it.
When I played Duel, I annihilated the Soviet battlegroup. The AI fired about 20 long-range SSMs in the first wave and 30 in a second wave; my air defenses shot down the first wave completely, and the second wave scored an incredible 8 hits on a Knox-class frigate (that´s why I mentioned item 4). My Tomahawks sank a Slava, a Sverdlov, an Udaloy and a Mod Kashin in return. Then I managed to get the US submarine between my battlegroup and the Soviets, stopped my group to let the Soviets come to them, and to the sub, and waited.
The shorter-ranged Soviet missiles all ganged up on the Virginia-class cruisers, sinking it, although with only 3 hits this time (item 4 again). My harpoons sank the Kirov, a Sovremenny and the second Sverdlov.
Then, the Soviets moved within torpedo of the submarine. My surface ships´ SAMs shot down all helicopters the Soviets launched, while the submarine´s torpedos sank all the remaining Soviet ships except for the Kresta - she would have gotten that one, too, except that it strayed into the Iowa´s gun range first.
All things considered, I´d say this was almost a textbook operation.
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Need some help with surface tactics - 
RE: Need some help with surface tactics - 
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