Pole Positions AAR

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Command: Modern Operations series >> After Action Report >> Pole Positions AAR

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Pole Positions AAR - 6/18/2018 10:06:42 PM

RIPperSVK

Posts: 23
Joined: 2/12/2018
Status: offline

This is my first simple AAR, mostly feedback for the scenario designer or questions about game mechanics/units

SPOILERS BELOW!

Playing as Russia:

- very interesting platforms to play, made me google the subs available to me
- Kontainer radars were detecting goblins, which was very surprising to me. After loading the scenario in mission designer, I believe it detected whales. That maybe makes sense (surfaced whales), but I would expect the surfaced whales to be classified as surface contacts
- should Kontainer even detect surface contacts? My googling shows it as air and ballistic monitoring radar
- some goblins were detected by MPAs but I couldn't see them on map. Typically they were found by seeing their wakes (in reality they were whales). Why didn't I see them on the map? Because of comms disruption?
- it wasn't clear what to do in the areas from the briefing. I did the right logical thing - stopped, deployed smaller sub (if applicable), went to max depth. But it would be helpful to get a message (ie. "we're installing the sonar array, it will be ready in X hours"), otherwise I just had to believe I did the right thing
- overall the scenario was quite easy - I achieved major victory (950) without much save/load. I played Silent Service just before (AARs upcoming), that helped. Only one of my boats got detected (Podmoskovye), otherwise my tactics was simple - go as slow as possible to make it in time. So I calculated lowest possible speeds for transfers between areas to be successful and stealthy, moved mostly in the layer. Civilian or greenpeace ships didn't bother me.

Playing as US:

- the western-most submarine patrolling - the Akula escort attacked me first without provocation, we both died. I got 100 points for this, no penalization for the loss of my sub which was surprising
- later I found Belgorod, and was ordered to sink it. If I did that, I got 2000 negative points for killing the 2nd sub. So in the end I intentionally didn't sink it.
- after russia restores comms to the sonar array, I cannot destroy any of its installations. That's not clear from the briefing, and also not from the messages (I got "'Cluster Lance - ES1 Removed' was triggered but did NOT fire (at least one condition failed)").
- achieved minor victory (700), probably because of the killed mine and russian sub in the western most area

Overall:

Interesting scenario, enjoyed it even though it's not a battle.

Post #: 1

RE: Pole Positions AAR - 6/19/2018 1:04:05 AM

Gunner98

Posts: 5508
Joined: 4/29/2005
From: The Great White North!
Status: offline

Thanks for the quick AAR.

Not sure about the radar detecting the whales, have not seen that before.
Depending on when the MPA detected subs, there might be an effect from the comms disruption, I cannot recall which side the MPA is on and the disruption is simulated by breaking the side to side linkage.
Most missions have messages attached or the instructions are in the briefing.
One point to note is that every sub has several random start points, so a second or thrid run may be completely different.

The US side is set up to authorize one (1) torpedoing of a Russian sub - to send a plausibly deniable message without causing a war. The earlier exchange of subs must have disrupted that, not sure what might have caused that.
Yes the window for removing the cluster lance is only during the comms blackout.

Its been a long time since I looked at this one in depth. Glad you liked it, as it is certanly an non-standard scenario aimed at not fighting.

If you have specific points that need clerifiying in the briefing or message, please point them out and I'll try and clean them up next time I have a chance.

B

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(in reply to RIPperSVK)

Post #: 2

RE: Pole Positions AAR - 6/19/2018 5:37:45 PM

RIPperSVK

Posts: 23
Joined: 2/12/2018
Status: offline

I think the main thing I was unsure from the briefing was what to do with the special subs - ie exactly how to active the sonar sites, or how to destroy one. In the end I always did the right thing - go to the area marked with ref points on the map, stop the sub, go to max depth (or send the mini sub there). But this wasn't clear from the briefing, and I also didn't get a confirmation message during the mission (e.g. "Good, we've started to activate the sonar site, wait X hours").

So I had to wait some hours of game time (hoping I did the right thing), after which I got the message that the action was successful.

It would be helpful if the briefing provided clear directions in this (go to the marked area, stop the sub, go to max depth with the sub or the mini sub). Having the confirmation messages that e.g. "activation of the sonar site started" would be nice, but I understand that's a bigger change in the mission logic, and needs more testing - probably not worth the effort anymore.

(in reply to Gunner98)

Post #: 3