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Deathbunny -> AAR - Air Ops Tutorial (7/24/2015 9:47:32 AM)
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I've been playing CMANO on and off since it came out and, due to increased relevance to my professional field, I've been putting more time on it lately. As a result, I've finally (!) got around to playing the Air Ops Tutorial and was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.
My first step was to establish a BARCAP box just outside the SAM range rings and assign all my Tomcats to it. I tweaked their ROE so they were Weapons Free rather than Tight, reasoning that this was an all out war Alpha Strike scenario and that anything coming the other way was not going to be Friendly or Neutral!
Next, orbits for Hawkeyes, Prowlers and KA-6s were established behind the Tomcats. I delayed the start of these missions so the fighters would take the lead and hopefully prevent any of the support birds blundering into a MiG.
With my air superiority missions established, I set up a SEAD patrol over and around the target areas. This was delayed to start 15 minutes after the beginning of the scenario to give the Tomcats chance to establish air surperiority. This would be followed 10-15 minutes later by the actual air strikes against the SAM sites, airfield, missile assembly plant and industrial area, again giving the SEAD chance to knock out the SAMs before the bomb trucks turn up.
So, all boxes and missions set up I press start and my Tomcats begin to launch. With the AWG-9s radiating and their ROE relaxed, they immediately pick up Red Air and the sky is filled with AIM-54s and a short while later AIM-7s. MiG-23s and MiG-21s die in very short order, and whilst a few of the Floggers manage to get Apex shots off none of them connect and I've managed to establish air superiority with no loses.
The support orbits establish themselves behind the BARCAP and the first pair of SEAD A-7s race in to start taking out the SAMs. The Prowler is doing a particularly effective job as numerous SA-2s and SA-3s are fired at the Corsairs for no hits. By contrast the returned Shrikes take out the Tall King and some of the SAM radars, and the cluster bomb follow up finishes the job. So far so good, but then the SA-6 pops up and suddenly life gets very hairy for the SEAD guys. They have some success evading the large number of missiles shot at them, but eventually their luck runs out and first one then the second are knocked down.
Now the airstrike proper is starting to arrive. The Walleye armed A-7s finish off the SA-2 and SA-3 sites before their Mk-82 armed brethren carpet the airfield with bombs. The GBU-10 fitted A-6s take out the missile assembly plant whilst the industrial site gets plastered with more Mk-82 dumb bombs. All strike aircraft successfully attack their targets and return home to base with no losses.
There is still the matter of this SA-6 battery and its stubbornly radiating Fire Dome and Straight Flush fire control radars. I still have a couple of SEAD A-7s in the area so manually task them taking out the SAMs. The first one takes out the Fire Dome but falls victim to a return fired Gainful. The second gets revenge though and knocks out the Straight Flush with a pair of Shrikes.
So, all in all, a successful mission but one that only racked up a Minor Victory (1000 points). As far as I can tell my losses didn't affect the score so I am wondering what I would have to do to get a higher score. Are some targets worth more than others? Is it worth picking out specific structures on the airfield to attacks?
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