sharker2003
Posts: 7
Joined: 1/3/2007 Status: offline
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Apologies, the top got lopped off that message, that was Herman's half of the AAR from 'BLOCKADE'. That covered the last 1/4 of the scenario, after we broke for an intermission for a couple weeks. That was pretty much how it went, my first helo had located the Hezbollah Dhow, but she was nonly equipped with ASW torpedoes so she was essentially toothless against surface targets. Since she still had plenty of fuel I bided my time for 9 minutes until my second helo was readied with 68mm rockets; in the meantime I sent my first helo off scouting for my Hezbollah targets in the coastal traffic soup. They quickly located two unusual contacts off by themselves, as we approached they were revealed to be Hezbollah ships! All too late I realized that while one was a dhow, the other was a Boghammer PC. Before my helo could clear to safe range one missle whoosed by, and the other made contact. Unsure if any aircrew had survived I radioed a nearby Unifil warship for assistance, knowing that it was hopeless, the helo crew, if they even survived, would have been quickly recovered by Hezbollah. In the meantime, I made a tactical decision. Our orders explicility forbade us from sending surface assets north of the 33N, but when sitting on the line the dhows were tantilizingly close to our SSM range. We would only have to sneak 9NM or so over the line for a shot. I reasoned that in real life, with tensions being as high as they were the Isreali's would probably be so enraged at the loss of their helo and so despised UNIFIL that they'd go for it too. I sent one FFG west along the line at high speed to distract the UNIFIL DE lurking nearby and snuck my other vessel north, mixed in with some surface traffic. It turned out to be unnecessary. UNIFIL's helo, launched to help search for our downed comrades was immedietly shot down as it approached the Hezbollah Boghammer. This provoked a convient, and oh-so-brief, shooting war between the vessels that left both the dhow and the Boghammer burning and the UNIFIL vessel untouched. It also spared my crew from the spectre of knowing they blew up a vessel possibly harboring their countrymen, and saved us some ammo to boot! At this time, looking for some sweet revenge my helo swooped in on a remaining dhow and fired off her rockets, damaging but not sinking the dhow. In a move that suprised even me the UNIFIL warship vengefully slammed a Harpoon into her side, sinking her and winning the scenario decisively for me. My FFG slipped quietly back onto our side of the line, and no one was the wiser. Thanks again to Freek for sucha great scenario, which really works well as a three player scenario, where real-life politics can be simulated and orders can be violated, for a price (if you're caught). This is definetly one of my favorite computer Harpoon scenario's I've played. Also thanks to Tony for keeping that server up, especially after we keep crashing it. Cheers, Brandon
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