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Flankerk -> AAR-Waking The Bear. ( Spoiler Alert etc ) (10/24/2006 1:03:11 PM)
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This is a DB2000 scenario built by Mike Mykytyn set on 11/4/01.
The background is a Kurils landing by Japan with the Russian Pacific Fleet to oppose them.
Needless to say I chose to play as the Pacific Fleet [sm=00000116.gif]:
The game was played through in 3.7.
My available forces were a mixture of submarines, some capable and some definitely a liability.
At game start I had two Kilo class at sea North of the Kurils, Paultus and Admiral Kolchak, at sea to the South of the Kurils I had a very capable Oscar II ,Omsk and Leopard a useful Akula I Improved.
All remaining forces were at Petropavlovsk, two available Il 38 May and 4 available Ka 27 Helix A being based there. In port and with a significant transit ahead of them I had , Let Komsomol'ska-na-Amur, a Victor III. There was Del'fin, an Akula I ,Gepard an Akula II and Tomsk an Oscar II. Less capable units consisted of K-180, a Delta III ,and TK 20 a Typhoon.
At game start ( 12.00 ) all submarines set a course towards the Kurils at creep speed, to check for any snoopers. Available aircraft set to sanitise area around Petropavlovsk. The two landing zones in the Kurils were marked on the map,some considerable distance from my forces.
12.36 Leopard detects a surface contact to North East and moves North at creep speed still.
12.37 Contact classed as supertanker.
13.51 Bulk carrier detected,probably near the supertanker.
14.07 Second Bulk Carrier in same group detected.
14.24 Container vessel and an escort ,Ikazuki detected. Contacts remain firmly to the North East so speed changed to cruise.
15.15 Haruna detected, probably to front of the group.
15.32 Speed dropped to creep as contacts now to the East and appear headed West. Immediate detection as speed drops of an Ikazuki now at 13NM or less. Unsure whether detected,course change and depth change assuming we might have been.
16.40 Leopard is promptly sunk by a Mark 46 dropped close to her position. A good start to the game.
21.00 All subs set to cruise speed, most being in open water by now and no contacts detected near them.
Day 2 the 12th, and for most of the day no contacts are detected and speed remains at cruise for all. By late evening:-
20.35 Omsk is about 100 NM off the southern landing zone and detects a surface contact to the West, speed dropped to creep.
20.38 Contact classed as Shirane
22.50 Asagiri detected, however neither is a good contact.
23.38 Contact with Shirane lost.
The 13th,Day three.
2.30 Towada class AOE detected by Omsk,likely at Northern Landing zone.
Omsk is steadily approaching the southern landing at creep,several of the more capable subs from Petropavlovsk are within 100NM of Northern Landings.Those that are ,are set to creep speed,as are all noisier submarines.
9.26 Omsk now has a possible group detected between it and the Southern LZ,the Shirane is back along with probably two Asagiri.
9.51 Another Asagiri is likely near or patrolling off the Northern zone.
12.35 Omsk is about to be run over by the Shirane group,at about 2NM two USET-80 fired at Shirane,three SS-N-19 Shipwreck missiles fired at each Asagiri.
12.36 Both Asagiris sinking,Shirane escapes the torpedo attack.
12.44 USET-80 fired on Shirane.
12.50 Shirane struck and sinking. Omsk now about 50NM offshore and not in very deep water,decide to clear area at creep speed.
14.21 Intermittent contact from Omsk with Sagami AOE probably at beachhead.
16.16 Gepard is now the closest submarine to the Northern Landing and detects a cargo vessel at that beachhead.
17.27 Gepard detects an Asagiri apparently patrolling off the Landing Zone.
17.48 Omsk detects a Neartip lightweight torpedo at close range.
17.50 Omsk struck by Neartip,suffers 50% damage and flooding results.Ordered to periscope depth as vessel clearly going to sink,damage by now already at 72% and rapidly rising.
17.52 At periscope depth Orion MPA detected which promptly drops another torpedo. Omsk abandoned after launching all 18 remaining SS-N-19 on a BOL launch to the Landing Zone area.
17.54 Two ships at least struck and likely sunk before Omsk sinks. Tomsk being in range and already brought to shallow launches all 24 SS-N-19 as a follow up strike. Battle damage assessment is limited but Southern landing Zone is thought to have been virtually destroyed.
18.14 Abakuma detected by Gepard,difficult to ascertain which ships are at beachhead,and which are patrolling offshore.
18.42 A second cargo vessel detected,this is fairly definitely at the Landing Zone.
19.34 Third cargo vessel detected.
20.35 Asagiri detected,again by Gepard and again uncertain precisely where.
20.56 Towada class detected at LZ
22.37 Haruna detected, thought to be at LZ.
22.51 Contacts mostly lost,presumably as a CZ is crossed,however this does at least help clarify that most vessels are at the landing zone,but two Asagiri and Haruna seem to be patrolling offshore. Gepard now some 39 NM out from the beachhead.
14/4/01
6.33 Miura and Atsumi classified at LZ by Gepard,range now 20 NM.
7.48 Asagiri closes to about 2 NM from Del'fin but at 25 knots,subsequently moving away.
8.18 Gepard detects Tachikaze at LZ.
9.20 Ikuzuki classed as at LZ.
10.25 Gepard at creep speed and 6 NM offshore from Landing Zone. 4 USET-80 torpedoes fired bearing only launch.
10.35 Second wave of four torpedoes fired.
10.37 Ikazuki struck.
10.38 Cargo vessel struck.
10.44 Three available tubes ready,three more USET-80 fired.
10.46 Hit on Towada and a cargo vessel.
10.47 Miura struck,estimated to be six remaining targets.
10.53 Tachikaze is hit.
10.54 Atsumi is is direct range,one USET-80 fired at her.
10.55 Two torpedoes strike a cargo vessel.
10.56 Two torpedoes fired directly at Kongo class,one at remaining cargo vessel.
11.02 Cargo vessel is hit.
11.03 Kongo hit by two torpedoes.
11.07 No firm contact on Atsumi, two torpedoes fired at her BOL.
11.13 Atsumi sinking.
11.34 Victory conditions trigger.
Its nice to return to an old favourite of mine all of which appears to be working as intended. The scenario runs surprisingly quickly despite the lengthy transit times. I tend to find things differ on most occasions I have played this through. Several times I have found the submarines in port get ambushed, or the Kilos have to fight their way through. I rarely lose the Leopard either. Having said that,the scenario can be tricky and is not always an easy one to win.By definition your submarines cannot remain hidden forever, and have to announce their presence when they fire. The sonar values and torpedo ranges used in DB2000 are particularly effective at making this a close range and difficult encounter,probably as it should be.
I particularly like the long transit times involved. This tends to make for some difficult decisions,basically of when to sprint and when to drift. You often find that with hindsight you made a mistake. In this game its entirely possible that Omsk should have cleared the area faster once the initial attack was made,while Leopard blundering into an escort at cruise speed was careless.
All round, a very nice scenario indeed in my opinion. I'd be interested to see how others solve the problems encountered, or how the Japanese player side fares.
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