RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed

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RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 7/20/2021 6:24:09 PM

Ilya78

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NIGHT (continued)

Cruise missile attack on Cubi Point

The guerilla attacks did not stop after killing the mortars. Two fuel truck exploded at two Filipino airports, destroying three F-5As and six of those beautiful piston-engined aircrafts (which later proved to be totally useless). However, the main problem came from the west. I was waiting for the bombers from Cam Ranh. Instead, my Tomcats detected some strange cruise missiles. They were flying very low and very slowly, looked like some kinds of Soviet Tomahawks. The Tomcats were not enough to shoot them down, so American and Filipino F-5s took off from the airports of Luzon. The missiles were easy to kill (Sidewinders and even guns were very effective against them), but they were difficult to detect by the Tomcats' radars, and the Hawkeye was still on the ground. One missile got through to Cubi Point and destroyed something (I can't remember). And I could not detect the place where the missiles were launched from. The P-3 doing the ASW near Luzon was ordered to fly to the west, and it finally detected the Soviet SSGN by its IR-sight (!). Flying a bit closer, the Orion dropped a sonobuoy and identified the submarine as a "Yankee Notch". Two torpedoes were enough to sink it. But the missiles appeared on the radar again... Was there another SSGN here? One of my sonobuoys much closer to Luzon found an SSGN, but it was a Charlie-I, not a Yankee Notch (an easy kill for the Orion). After shooting down this salvo, no more missiles were detected, so those ones had already been launched before sinking the submarine.

Preparing for the revenge

Both the Soviet AGI and destroyer shadowing the CVBG got some Harpoons to the face. The Vincennes accelerated to flank speed in order to reach the other ships. The Tisdale stopped the investigation of the wreck, collected her inflatable boats and headed for the carrier at flank speed. On the way she destroyed that suspicious looking trawler with two Harpoons. The Japanese P-3 and another P-3 from Guam followed the Soviet fleet. One ASW P-3 was ordered to cover the northern side of the CVBG (the Oscar still had torpedoes), and another one to sanitize the area around the replenishment zone. The crew of the CVBG wanted to take a revenge on the Soviets for the USS Gridley, but they did not have any aircrafts armed against ships, and rearming would have taken many hours. However, they called the Air Force base on Guam, and they just happened to have three B-52s being armed with Harpoons (8 missiles per plane). What a miracle! But first I had to get rid of the Soviet aircrafts and AEW helicopters. All Tomcats and Hornets were ordered to take off when they were ready. They approached the enemy fleet and started to shoot down the Yak-141 Freestyles with Phoenixes, Sparrows and even Sidewinders. The Soviet pilots were stupid enough to leave the SAM coverage of the ships, and 10 of their aircrafts were destroyed, and another two got seriously damaged. Only two of my Tomcats got damaged by AA-11 Archers, and another one flew too close to a ship and was shot down. This may have triggered something, as all the aircrafts took off from the Minsk - inculding Yak-38 Forgers. They were probably the worst combat aircrafts ever produced, but they could still shoot down my Orions, so the MPAs were withdrawn. By some reason, the Forgers did not try to chase them. Instead, they flew a circle around the Soviet fleet. I ordered my last pair of Hornets to take off, and they shot down six Forgers with Sparrows and Sidewinders, proving the Forgers absolutely worthless. The AEW helicopters were a bit more difficult to shoot down, because they were always flying close to the ships, but the Phoenixes did the job. Everythnig was prepared for the revenge at morning.

To be continued...

(in reply to Gunner98)

Post #: 31

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 7/20/2021 7:47:46 PM

Gunner98

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quote:

They were probably the worst combat aircrafts ever produced,

They have a lot of competition for that title

I give you the F7U Gutless Cutlass

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(in reply to Ilya78)

Post #: 32

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 8/26/2021 7:39:12 PM

Gunner98

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Anything else on this one guys? Plan to wrap it up this weekend.

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RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 8/28/2021 5:16:30 PM

Gunner98

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OK this one is a wrap.

Thanks for all your help guys

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RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 9/27/2021 6:28:58 PM

Ilya78

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OK, let's finish this one...

MORNING

Eye for an eye

Finally, the B-52's took off from Guam at dawn. They approached the Soviet fleet at max. altitude and launched their Harpoons. I targeted the Chervona Ukraina (this was the closest ship) and the carrier with 12-12 missiles. The Soviets did not use the radars of their ships, so they were completely unaware of the doom creeping towards them. However, everything suddenly changed when the first Harpoon approached the enemy cruiser and switched on its radar. The Soviets desperately tried to jam the missiles, then started firing at them with everything (SAM, CIWS and even guns). Only four missiles hit the Chervona Ukraina, but that was enough. Eye for an eye! However, the enemy fleet was an full alert now, with all of their radars turned on. They shot down one Harpoon after another (the CIWS was very effective against them), and none of the missiles could hit the carrier. This was my mistake, I should have launched the carrier's missiles earlier or concentrate everything on that ship.

Balzam for the wound

There was a lonely ship to the southwest of the enemy fleet that looked like a merchant ship. However, a returning Tomcat identified her as the Prybaltika, a Balzam class Soviet AGI. I didn't have anything to attack this ship, except for my submarine, the City of Corpus Christi. She was way too far to launch a Harpoon, so she accelerated to 32 kts, and launched a torpedo towards the empty water (to avoid the "torpedo tube reloading bug"). Meanwhile, one of my sonobuoys to the east of the replenishment zone detected a very slow and very quiet submarine - an SSK. An Orion and a Viking was ordered to fly there and one of them killed the submarine. And finally, the Harpoons were launched towards the Prybaltika. Two of them were enough to sink the ship.

Battle of the Leyte Stronghold

Before dawn I got the message that an uprising had broken out on the southern islands of the Philippines. The rebels built a stronghold on the Island of Leyte, and the government asked for my help to locate the base. I still had a Hawkeye and a Tomcat on Luzon (the other aircraft had already been sent back to the carrier), so I ordered them to fly over the marked position, but they could not find anything. I just didn't get he idea that the Orion's IR sight can be used to find ground targets, so the two Filipino area surveillance aircrafts took off from Luzon. One of them found something to the southwest of the marked position. Then found another thing. Then another. When the pilots realized the situation, they were above the rebel stronghold and their aircraft was shot down by a SAM. Every aircraft armed against ground targets took off from the airports of Luzon. F-5s, trainers, piston engined nightmares and the wonderful Broncos. The other surveillance aircraft tried to find the targets for the attackers, but it flew a bit too close to the base and was hit by a SAM, destroying one of the engines and the IR sight. Too bad, my attack aircrafts had to find their targets by their own, and they could hardly see anything. However, the F-5s and trainers could destroy some AAA and SAM sites. Only the F-5s had the range to return to Luzon, so everyone else had to use the nearby airfield (which was too small for such many aircrafts, so most of the planes had to land on other islands). I lost two trainers to SAMs, but one of them spotted something during landing. It was similar to the mortar group seen earlier on Luzon, so one pair of the arriving Broncos was ordered to destroy it. The other Broncos launched their rockets to the stronghold. They could hardly hit anything and the aircrafts were constantly exposed to the enemy SAMs. Then I realized that those SAMs were old Soviet MANPADS, which could not target very high and very low flying aircrafs. So the Broncos descended to treetop level and started shooting the enemy with their guns. They were very effective and it was very satisfying to watch the raging Broncos. They could find the targets easily from this height and only one of them was shot down by a machine gun. After some assaults the rebel stronghold ceased to exist and the Broncos could land on the nearby islands. Everything is good if the end is good.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

- This was the most frustrating scenario I have ever played in Command. That cruise missile attacks against the airports was a complete nightmare.
- The Miguel Malvar had reached the wrecked trawler by morning - and nothing happened. I didn't even get some victory points. It could have been fun to see some action with this old ship.
- What is the role of the Pelicano? Why is she hostile from the beginning? Does she have something with the wrecked trawler?
- The Orions could reload their sonobuoys at any airport if they hadn't used their torpedoes before. All the world's airports are full of sonobuoys! This is a bug which was very useful for the "Mozambique Madness" scenario and for this one as well.
- I have already mentioned the torpedo tube reloading bug.

Wow! A Baltic Fury #3 playthrough is in progress. That scenario is small enough for my old laptop. I had to leave it for a while, but I hope I can finish it soon. Cheers!

(in reply to Gunner98)

Post #: 35

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 9/28/2021 8:03:20 PM

Gunner98

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Thanks Ilya78

The update has a few more elements to do with the Malvar and the Pelicano.

Hope you enjoy Baltic Fury 3,

B

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(in reply to Ilya78)

Post #: 36

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 9/30/2021 8:46:20 PM

maverick3320

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Just finished this scenario. Couple notes:

-All the US ships survived without a scratch; the Tico CG that was separate from the group to start (can't remember the name) never actually even fired a SAM, although the CVBG group was basically out of SAMs by the end of the Soviet ASM barrage.

-With 8 hours left in the scenario I tried to throw a combined USAF/USN attack at the Soviet SAG (CVBG?) with 10x Hornets (12 HARM, 8 Harpoon), 2x EA-6Bs (2 HARM), 3x B-52 (24 HARM), and 4x P-3C (16 Harpoon). As best I can tell I didn't scratch the paint on a Soviet ship (I started looking back through the message log but about 8 million SAMs were fired so I gave up). About halfway through the scenario the Soviet ships started running NE at high speed so I didn't have time for a follow up strike.

-I never did find any rebels in the Phillipines; I tried flying multiple recon assets over the stated area, but all I got for my trouble was a bunch of MANPADs fired at me. Never did spot any ground forces.

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Post #: 37

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 9/30/2021 10:35:55 PM

Gunner98

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Thanks maverick3320

The best way of finding those rebels is with a P-3 using its FLIR.

Those Soviet ships will be back for another fight later in the campaign. No reason for them to hang around once their ASMs are gone.

B

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Post #: 38

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 10/1/2021 6:51:21 PM

maverick3320

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Thanks maverick3320

The best way of finding those rebels is with a P-3 using its FLIR.

Those Soviet ships will be back for another fight later in the campaign. No reason for them to hang around once their ASMs are gone.

B

Yep, my mistake - for some reason using a P-3 for land recon never crossed my mind. Oops!

Makes sense for the Soviet ships to bug out. Got me thinking about what Soviet naval doctrine actually was at the time. After one big strike from American aircraft the ships would need, at the very least, some sort of replenishment, which would be challenging in the Pacific with Japan on one hand and US CVs on the other. I wonder how irreplaceable those ships actually were to the USSR leadership...

(in reply to Gunner98)

Post #: 39

RE: Scenario for testing PF #3 Caught Flat Footed - 10/1/2021 7:11:19 PM

Gunner98

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quote:

I wonder how irreplaceable those ships actually were to the USSR leadership.

By anyone's measure, a Kirov and a Kiev class ship are valuable units.

Overall, the Pacific is a secondary theater in Moscow's eyes, and the Fleet is a tool to achieve political aim. So these units are not invaluable, but they are not much good sitting at the bottom of the sea full of harpoon holes.

Certainly to the Commander Far East TVD, they are critical - once the initial gambit is thrown he will need to reconstitute his fleet in being. His job is to tie down forces, primarily US forces - there is not much in the way of Army, two Divisions, a few Brigades etc and they are a long way from Europe. Air forces are an issue, within the five numbered Air Forces in PACAF with over 300 aircraft - tiny compared to Europe but it takes effort to keep them busy and demanding more reinforcement instead of offering up assets to the main fight. But the USN has massive force in the Pacific - 7x CVBGs, the better part of 2x MEFs, hundreds of ships. So to tie these forces down (and they are already dispersing with Nimitz moving to the Atlantic, Iowa in the Med and Saratoga in the IO), the Soviet Pacific Fleet needs to remain potent.

So that is why these guys were on a 'Shoot & Scoot' mission.

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(in reply to maverick3320)

Post #: 40

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