mack2 -> AAR: Fortress Keflavik - GIUK 6.0 - RED (12/13/2008 10:56:40 AM)
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AAR - GIUK 6.0 - Fortress Keflavik - RED This was one of my favourite scenarios years ago when all I had was the demo of the various older versions of Harpoon. Having played it earlier as blue for a total defeat of the Soviet forces, I now play it as the Soviets. Orders - Invade Keflavik. Soviet Forces 3 Bomber Regiments based in continental Russia, and a squadron of fighters based out of Bodo, Norway. The Invasion SAG comprised of: CV Kiev with a flight wing of approximately 20 assorted Helos and 12 Forger VTOL. CG Slava DDG Sovremenny x2 FFG Krivak II CL Sverdlov DDG Udaloy x2 And another 10 or so merchant and amphibious ships. Some scattered submarine forces comprised mainly of 2nd rate Charlie, Echo, Foxtrot and Victor submarines. Nato Forces F-15 Eagles, a large contingent of ASW patrol planes, attack planes such as Phantoms and Buccaneers, an Iowa Battleship Task Force, and presumably some submarine assets. Keflavik was also reinforced with of E-3 Sentry AEW craft, and there was some forces at Storonoway in the UK. The Battle Begins First orders were to relocate my 27 Backfires, and 16 Bear-G to Bodo, and launch a strike with the Badger G against Stornoway. I also started on rearming a handful of Forgers set to Guided, and setup my formation. I'd set up a small amount of Forgers in the SAG formation to try and shoot the expected Harpoon assault, and shortly after doing so, not less than 10 real-time minutes into the scenario, one of them visually spotted a wave of Tomahawk Missiles, launched either via Submarine or very early on in the battle by the the Battleship Battle Group. A flight of Helos were dispatched to the location of the sighting, the radar of the group was lit and the group succeeded, along with the hastily launched Forgers, in launching a hail of Goblet, Gecko, Gadfly, Aphid and Grumble at the incoming missiles. I thought thankful that the only missile that got through the Slava's point defences missed, but time seemed to hang as 8 more made a beeline straight for the Kiev. Having apparently come inside the minimum range for the Goblet and perhaps having expended it's Gecko magazine, I hoped beyond hope that it's guns could do the job. 2 waves of missiles struck the Minsk, with 6 of the powerful Tomahawks ripping it in two, and gutting the SAG of it's fighter cover, however light, as all the Forgers scattered to all parts what they hoped was survival, some choosing to head for Jan Mayen, or Greenland, or ejecting near one of the ships of the surviving group. The radars detected another wave of incoming Nato planes. Despite the shock of the loss of the Flagship, Slava shot down the low flying Phantom's before they could launch their deadly payload of Laser Guided Bombs, but could do nothing as a group of Orions launched a Harpoon strike from long range. The Harpoons annihilated the Udaloy Admiral Tributs, it firing to the last, knocking down over 75% of the incoming missiles but to no avail. One of the Victor III submarines had detected the Nato SAg and had moved inside the out ring, hoping to get a shot at the centre of the formation and get some payback for it's fallen comrades, even if it didn't know that it was doing so. The Badger's had also launched their own variety of death and destruction, with 24 Kingfish Missiles completely destroying all the parked planes and putting Stornoway out of commission for weeks. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. 16 More Harpoons incoming. More Gadfly leapt from the Sovremenny, emptying the magazine to try and defeat the threat. One harpoon hit the ship, causing heavy but manageable damage to the ship, including some flooding and a quickly put out fire, as well as destroying one of the AK630 mounts. The Backfire and Bear squadrons were ready to fly, and was sent via a circuitous route to, sent north of the Soviet SAG, the Bear would break off and attack the Nata Battle Group, and the Backfires would continue over Greenland and attack Keflavik directly. The Victor realised it would not be able to intercept the Battle Group centre without making high speed and high noise, it fired at the CG Leahy with 1 Type 65 and 1 80A Torpedo, hoping the ships would detect the Submarine, and the group would turn toward away from the Torpedos towards the Victor. Unfortunately for the crew, the Leahy did not detect the torpedos at all until far too late, only having enough time to brace for impact before it was hit in the bow, and sank. Shortly after the Victor was hit and sunk by Stand-Off ASW from the CGN Virginia. Losses at this point were: Blue - 1 Ship, 22 Aircraft, 1 Base. Red - 1 Carrier, 1 Ship, 1 Sub, 18 Aircraft, 16 Helo. The Bear moved towards the Nato Group, along with an escort of Flankers in Long Range setup, who engaged and destroyed a flight of F-15 who threatened the Bear. A Hormone Search Helo also headed to the Battle Group, and located the group for the other assets to shoot at. They paid with their lives as a Sparrow missile from an Eagle took them down with no chance of rescue. The Slava launched a strike of 12 Sandbox at the Spruance, exposed at the edge of the formation. The long range missiles of the centre failed to reach in time, and it was hit by 5 missiles leaving barely a trace of the ship or it's crew. The Bear's also fired into the formation, hoping to hit the main AAW assets that survived, those being the CGN Virginia and CG Belknap and it's long range SAM. The Kitchen Missiles streaked into the formation, and despite heavy SAM fire, hit the CG Belknap class and sunk it, but unfortunately the only missile that made it to the CGN Virginia was shot down by it's point defence. It was still a major loss for the SAG. 4 Eagles who strayed too close, or possibly decided to risk moving towards the SAG in an attempt to shoot down the Bear, were shot down by Gadfly from one of the Sovremenny class ship. A lull in the fighting against both Surface groups occurred as the air forces arrayed against them withdrew and rearmed, reloaded and regrouped. The Nato group pursued the Soviet Group, who moved northwards and away, hoping to buy time for the bombers to kill Keflavik and then return to attack the Nato Battle Group. The 2 bomber formations were in range, and both launched their Kingfish Missiles at Keflavik. 81 from the Backfires, and 36 from the Badgers. 6 Fighters, 24 Attack, 18 ASW and 2 AEW were reloading or rearming, and a desperate scramble resulted. Every Patriot missile in the base was launched, in a vain attempt at reducing the overwhelming number of incoming missiles. The inevitable result, the huge warheads destroying everything they hit, causing a massive loss of life and equipment, if the Soviets did manage to take Keflavik, they would have to rebuild it from scratch. The orders did require reducing the defences, and with the threat from the base making the invasion extremely difficult, it was the only sensible option. With one half of the mission complete, that being the destruction of the Nato Forces on Keflavik, it left the destruction of the Nato battle group, the thorn preventing what was left of the Amphibious group from completing their mission. The aloft E-3 Sentry flew towards Thule Air Base in Greenland, whilst the Soviet SAG moved to avoid a possible short range missile duel, or even worse, coming up against the Iowa in a gun battle, even with a Sverdlov class Cruiser, the Iowa could break the entire formation without raising a sweat. The Bombers all moved back to refuel and rearm after some very long missions*. A handful of Harpoons were launched at the SAG but shot down. I was expecting more to come though. I launched a succession of the bomber squadrons, in a race against time, which I believed I would win, to locate and attack the very danger close Nato Battle Group. The only Nato ship that had been fixed was an OH Perry Class, at which was launched a half-dozen Sunburn missiles from the Sovrenemmy class ships. With the Nato Group depleted by both ship loss and attrited by previous missile attacks, only 1 missile was shot down, the rest sinking the fragile Frigate. 8 more Harpoons attacked the group, and after a quick course change to allow more of the SAG's remaining SAM's to fire, they were shot down by a mix of Gecko and Gadfly from the Sverdlov, Slava and 1 of the Sovrenmenny, the last Harpoon being shot down only 2nm from the Sverdlov. The Tu-95 Bear were first on scene, and loosed off a series of missile attacks at the Nato Battle Group. First to sink was the Knox Class, then the Coontz, Virginia was lucky with 4 of the Kitchen being shot down or missing, but the Wichita was not so lucky, being hit by one of the misses and sunk. The Iowa was hit in the stern by a single missile. At this point the remaining ships attempted to flee, but it was too late. The Virginia was leading an apparently charmed lif, (as charmed as you can be when the entire SAG has been sunk around you, as the next wave of 4 missile all missed entirely. Iowa was hit twice more, but was still not sinking, nor had the crew abandoned the ship. Surrender was offered but not taken. A final, decisive attack of 28 Kingfish followed, Virgina putting up resistance to the end with the destruction of a handful of the incoming missiles. Virginia was hit 4 times, Iowa by 10, finally ending the threat of the Nato Surface Group. The Ivan Golubets, who had completed it's refuelling, and the damaged Sovrenmenny as an escort were detached back to Bodo with the rest of the group proceeding to Keflavik. The SAG proceeded to Keflavik, landing some troops on the opposite side of the Island, and some of the Submarine assets made their patrol sectors, joined the group or stood outside Keflavik landing commandos in preparation for the landing. Nuclear Release was granted, but at this late stage using it for anything seemed unlikely. After some days sailing, the group anchored outside Keflavik, and launched the Invasion of Iceland. The Soviet Navy had won a great and decisive Victory, but not without cost. Total Losses: Nato: 9 Ships: Iowa, Virgina, Leahy, Belknap, Leahy, Spruance, Knox, Coontz, Wichita. 81 Aircraft. 7 Helos. 2 Bases destroyed, Keflavik Invaded. Soviet: 1 Carrier: Minsk. 1 Ship: Udaloy. 1 Ship Damaged: Sovrenmenny. 1 Submarine: Victor 3. 22 Aircraft. 20 Helo. After-Game Notes: The loss of the Kiev followed by the Udaloy was one of the worst hammering's I'd had that early on in a game. When I lost the Udaloy, I was seriously thinking I was looking down the barrel of a defeat. I wasn't attacked as hard after that, despite taking some more damage/losses. If that Tomahawk that missed the Slava had hit it instead, I probably would have lost the amphibious group, as it was the key to defeating another 3 or 4 missile attacks. Even losing the Sovrenemenny instead of it only taking 50% damage could have swung the battle. I had to reload an autosave after I had a fast time compression on and also Afterburn on the Backfires. I was doing a screenshot, alt-tabbed and had forgotten to either turn off the time compression or take off AB, crashing the Backfires from lack of fuel. Luckily I had an autosave from just enough that nothing changed in the scenario, but the Backfires made it to base on 0% fuel somehow. It didn't really matter either way, but it would have slightly skewed the scenario status. I believe this scenario has a big balance issue when the player is Soviet. The 3 bomber squadrons can easily take out all 3 of the major units (the Nato Surface Group, and the 2 bases), the 27 Backfires could probably do it on their on within the time of the scenario. Without even going the long way, they could probably just punch through on AB straight at Keflavik and get out. This scenario would probably be more difficult b only having the Bears or the Badgers. Might be an idea to try it out in the future, by running the Backfires off the map on AB. Or just not using them. All in all, this is a reasonbly challenging scenario, the blue forces do take some work to defeat, and requires handing of most aspects in this game.
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