Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Herman Hum

Ed Higgins, Jeronimo, and I finally got together for a game last night. There aren't that many 3-sided games, so we elected to try Eric Weincam's EU-5 Tin Canary scenario made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

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The Canary Islands are located just South of the Atlantic entrance into the Med. Owned by Spain, they have represented a strategic control point since the days of ancient Rome.

One of the islands, Grand Canaria, hosts a large Spanish military base complete with hardened aircraft shelters and underground bunkers. From this base, the EU can interdict any shipping moving in, or out of the Med. As long as Gran Canaria is functional, the US can not re-establish their LoC through the Med.

Russia has officially sided with the EU and has committed substantial surface forces to complement the French units already in the theater. Together they are prepared to oppose a pair of American carrier groups.

The strongest side was probably the USN so Ed commanded it while Jerome controlled the Russian CVBG leaving me the EU forces. This was quite a large scenario and would test the limits of the ANW server.

We started the battle and Jerome's submarines immediately detected unknown ships from their towed sonar arrays. Although no precise locations were available, we at least had a general idea where they might be and decided to throw the dice and gamble everything on a lightning-quick strike. A Carrier Battle group is phenomenally capable of defense and I had only a single squadron of Backfire. A coordinated SSM strike from the Russian CVBG and SSGN might be sufficient to overwhelm the defences of a single CVBG. We held no hopes of defeating both CVBG.

[image]http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21781&stc=1&d=1209857140[/image]

The bombers launched from the mainland while AEW helos and the E-2 Hawkeye rose from the ships at sea. The ECM environment was phenomenal with most of the radar screens turned to hash from the powerful Prowlers. We planned to roll back the CVBG defences with a series of SSM attacks to draw out the AMRAAM fire from the CAP and then kill the Hornets with Flankers from the Kuznetsov. Once the Hornet 'sheepdogs' were out of AMRAAM, then we would strike with the AS-6 Kingfish from the Backfire. We had an ace up our sleeve in the form of a Bear reconnaissance aircraft that had managed to creep into range north of the CVBG. Once the Backfire came into range, she would climb and designate targets for the Backfire. That was the plan, at least. However, the best laid plans of men and mice...

All was going well with the launch of the strikes. As the bombers passed over the Russian CVBG enroute to the USN CVBG (now identified as the George Washington), Flankers and Rafale fighters launched from the De Gaulle. Some were armed with ANS, some with ARMAT, and the rest were with MICA AAMs for escort. It was an impressive wall of aircraft, but the power of a US carrier air wing cannot be underestimated.

[image]http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21782&stc=1&d=1209857231[/image]

As the Backfire passed over, the Slava, BCGN, and Kuznetsov began to loosing Shipwreck and Sandbox SSMs on Bearing-only Launch. The odds of them hitting anything worthwhile were slim to none in the face of at least three AEgis-equipped escort vessels that had already been detected by ESM. However, they hoped to occupy the SAM defenses while the true ship-killing AS-6 Kingfish would follow behind them. This was quite appropriate for this was the land of the Azores and home of bullfighting; where the matador distracts the bull with a cape before issuing the killing blow.

The plane was proceeding well with Ed's CAP concentrating on the incoming Sandbox. After they had used up their AMRAAMs, Jerome's Flankers ate them up with Alamo missiles. In the fierce ECM environment, targets were hard to lock up for the SARH missiles that needed radar guidance to home on their targets. Still, the Hornets fought back and managed to exact revenge on the inbound Rafales and Flankers. The SAMs were doing a fantastic job on the SSMs. The Rafale ASCMs [Anti-Ship Cruise missiles] were likely going to be needed. The Backfire released their Kingfish and timed them so that the CAP would be too busily engaged with them to worry about the Rafale and Hornets approaching on the deck.

The inbound strikes got a slight respite when they finally managed to burn through the jamming from a Prowler that had been positioned far forward of the CAP. She was immediately killed by a volley of missiles and the radar picture cleared momentarily. It was long enough to splash 6 Hornets in quick succession for the lost of a single Flanker.

The AS-6 Kingfish were just a little bit late. This allowed Ed to nearly slaughter a flight of ANS-armed Rafale before they could release their missiles. The surviving Rafale immediately loosed his ANS missile on BOL in a "use'm or lose'm" gesture.

With over 40+ ASCM approaching the GW CVBG, things were just getting interesting when we had to call an end to the game. Ed conceded that he didn't think that he could win any longer even though none of his ships had even been hit, yet. Alas, we were unable to continue the saved game after the server was updated. Still, we had a heckuva good time while it lasted and can't wait to try it again.

Thanks for a very nice game, gentlemen, and thanks, to Harpgamer for hosting 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.

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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.

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One of the most mysterious events of the war happened on May 16th, when a Sea King was found burning and abandoned near Punta Arenas airbase. The British claimed a 500nm navigation error but, after the war, it became clear that SAS Special Forces had been planning a raid to take out the Exocet-armed Super Etendard aircraft which had sunk Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor. Speculation on the nature of this operation still ranges from SAS-Hercules aircraft landing on Rio Grande airbase in order to destroy the planes on the ground to the setting up of covert radar facilities to provide early warning for the fleet.

Fact is that Chile felt it was the next target of the Argentine junta and, therefore, open to cooperation with the British.

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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."

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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.

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The Soviets will attempt to seize Norwegian bases in any all-out war. This will be done by physically seizing some bases and cutting off others from the rest of NATO. NATO must re-supply these bases using naval convoys. The success or failure of the convoys will be of paramount importance to both NATO and Soviet commanders.

This scenario is a re-make of a Harpoon Classic scenario from the original GIUK battleset and has yet been released. It is available only from the ANW MP server.

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The Soviets will attempt to seize Norwegian bases in any all-out war. This will be done by physically seizing some bases and cutting off others from the rest of NATO. NATO must re-supply these bases using naval convoys. The success or failure of the convoys will be of paramount importance to both NATO and Soviet commanders.

This scenario is a re-make of a Harpoon Classic scenario from the original GIUK battleset and has yet been released. It is available only from the ANW MP server.

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Prior to war breaking out, a small Dutch Task force of frigates delivered the Dutch Marines to Finnmark. Having trained there for years, several companies of Marines have joined their Norwegian and British counterparts to await the expected Russian attack into Finnmark.

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The Soviets will attempt to seize Norwegian bases in any all-out war. This will be done by physically seizing some bases and cutting off others from the rest of NATO. NATO must re-supply these bases using naval convoys. The success or failure of the convoys will be of paramount importance to both NATO and Soviet commanders.

This scenario is a re-make of a Harpoon Classic scenario from the original GIUK battleset and has yet been released. It is available only from the ANW MP server.

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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.

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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.

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ORIGINAL: TonyE

In a few weeks I will (almost certainly) stop running the two Stratsims ANW MP Servers.  This is your fair warning to take advantage of them now while they are still running.  It appears some others in the community are putting effort into getting a server up and running which would be excellent.

It has been fun to play some MP games with you and to watch even more of them being played.