New Scenario for Testing: Northern Fury 11.6 'Out on a Limb'

[Gunner98]

OK guys, this one is a little out of sequence. I'm going to wait for a while before I build the amphibious scenarios and this one takes place right after those - but about 12 days before 'Shoulder to Shoulder'. It's a tough one as well.

You, as Commander of the USS Eisenhower CVBG have been directed to position yourself between Norway and Iceland to ensure there is no Soviet interference with the ongoing operations to seize the Island and establish a firm base for upcoming operations.

Next on the work list is to fill in the scenarios between this one and 'Shoulder to Shoulder'.

As always, am very interested in your comments and critiques.

Enjoy

B

Correct file uploaded

V 1.1 loaded

[Excroat3]

Just opened this one up - a few points

Is the briefing from Shoulder to Shoulder? It doesn't seem specific to this scenario.
The stations for formations are pretty weird at start, as soon as I launch the scenario the Eisenhower group stops and ships start moving all over the place at flank to reform.

Everything else looks good so far!

[Gunner98]

The scenario description is different, but perhaps not different enough from Shoulder to Shoulder

Not sure what's happening with the formation. I reset everything. Will take a look.

B

[Excroat3]

The scenario description is different, but the Side Briefing once you launch the scenario is the same as Shoulder to Shoulder.

[Gunner98]

I must have loaded the wrong file. Sorry bout that. The formation was all buggered as well, fixed that but now both groups are sitting at '0' knts going to cruise. Will fixe that up in the next update.

Must have been seeing double last night!

[magi]

ive just started this.... i do see that you shared rp's with the Ike missions and some others... and if anyone makes changes.... it all gets helter skelter....

[magi]

ok..... zulu 10:45:57.... although less than 2 hours of game time has transpired.. there has been a great deal of activity....

looking over the scenario.. i was immediately uncomfortable with the position of the Ike group... in that given the mission was basically to act as a defensive barrier protecting iceland.. with a beta mission of reducing jan mayensfield.... it seemed imprudently to far north and east than was necessary and at great risk....

sooooo..... i changed a number of loadouts on the strikers to ata.... and up graded many of the tomcat loadouts.... i considered reversing course and heading to rendevous with the detroit right off and now regret that i did not...

i launched some single tomcat patrols to take out red search assets that might head my way... i moved the long range asw patrol in front of the ike group as being more useful and being less just cannon fodder...

my modest first strike package on jan mayensfield was very successful in defeating the air defenses.. wrecking the runway and destroying aircraft.. some artillery and other assets on the ground... following strikes should now be unopposed...

i defeated the first red fighter sweep with the loss of one tomcat.... i was very conservative in committing my fighters... launching them singly.. and with considerable micro management....

then came the next wave which was very large and an odd abundant mix of recon assets with a bunch of escorts.... as it developed.. i set up a barrier supported with 3 jammers... and i would engage and withdraw.. then commit more planes to the fight... i tried to keep a few fighter on deck in reserve for the next push... but ended up having to launching them all...

with obsessive micro management and some and good luck i destroyed all of them other than a few mig 31's that rtb'ed with the loss of two aircraft... it was a slaughter really that got down to a lot of gun fighting.... when it was over.. i have two planes with partial ata loadouts.... with 5 or 6 ready in hour and a half... i am low on missiles and will not be able to rearm many of them...

i do not believe red has a target-able solution/location on me at this time... as i have shot down a couple of meandering backfire bombers... i have reversed course to meet the detroit but dont think there is time before it all goes bad here... as there is now a third red wave coming and i am about down to guns on my two air defenders on cap.... soooo... i will probably end this here...

one odd thing... some of the leading su27 escourts in the recon push in the south.. did not engage.. even when i was flying wing to wing with them... i was even able to shoot soon of them down with guns... i went and checked the settings and didnt see a problem... but i believe you should look at it....

Ps..... I noticed a few locked rp's.... there was no tag on them.... I was wondering if that was supposed to be the Ike patrol area..... however there was nothing in the mission statement about it.... which was good because there was no way I wanted to go there...
SIDE: NATO
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x F-14B Tomcat
1x F-14A Tomcat
1x U-2S
1x F/A-18C Hornet


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
36x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
18x AN/SSQ-53D DIFAR
9x SSQ-963A CAMBS III
18x AN/SSQ-53B DIFAR
84x AIM-54C Phoenix
40x AIM-9M Sidewinder
2x AGM-84E SLAM
2x AGM-65F Maverick IR
8x GBU-12D/B Paveway II LGB [Mk82]
4x GBU-10J/B Paveway II LGB [BLU-109/B]
11x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
31x AIM-120A AMRAAM
25x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
35x AIM-7M Sparrow III
12x AIM-7P Sparrow III
29x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]



SIDE: WP
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
5x MiG-23ML Flogger G
2x Tu-16P Badger J
1x Vehicle (Flat Face B [P-19])
2x SA-3c Goa Quad Rail
3x SA-7a Grail [9K32 Strela-2] MANPADS
1x Vehicle (Low Blow [SNR-125])
16x Su-27S Flanker B
1x 23mm ZU-23-2 [BTR-ZD]
1x Be-12PL Mail
3x SA-18 Grouse [9K38 Igla] MANPADS
1x AvGas (40k Liter Tank)
4x 152mm/48 2A36 Giatsint-B Towed Howitzer
12x MiG-31 Foxhound
2x Tu-16Ye Badger K
3x Su-24MR Fencer E
20x Yak-28R Brewer D
12x MiG-23MLD Flogger K
22x MiG-25RBS Foxbat D
2x Su-24MP Fencer F
2x Tu-22MR Backfire C


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
61x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
5x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
41x AA-9 Amos [R-33, SARH]
4x SA-18 Grouse [9M39]
7x Generic Flare Salvo [2x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
6x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
2x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
5x AA-10 Alamo D [R-27TE, LR IR]
4x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27RE, LR SARH]
4x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R, MR SARH]
4x AA-11 Archer [R-73]
1x 30mm Gsh-30-1 Burst [30 rnds]
6x Generic Chaff Salvo [8x Cartridges]
4x AA-6 Acrid F [R-40TD1, IR]

[AndrewJ]

I just loaded this one up, and there seems to be an isolated bunch of Russian airfield units that are separated down the coast from their main group.



Are they supposed to be in that location?

EDIT: That's odd. Now it's showing up as a group (Bodo) properly. Weird.

[Gunner98]

maji

Sorry I missed your report. Thanks a lot, will need to fix a couple things there for sure. Ammo loadout reflects being in action without replen, when you ramp up the loadouts to heavy it doesn't leave many missiles available for later sweeps - and they will come [;)]

The locked RPs are indeed the Ike Patrol zone and you get some decent points for being there - but it might be a bit harry without a replen from the AOR. Will put something in the brief.

Tx

B

[Gunner98]

Andrew

I had that happen to me once in testing as well. Might be something I did when changing up the scenarios.

Tx

[AndrewJ]

Well, it's 12:41 Zulu and things are really tense on the Ike, but there seems to be a brief moment for a sitrep.

With a main mission of 'defend Iceland', and a secondary of 'beat up Jan Mayen' it didn't look like I needed to stay so far NE. Why snuggle up to the enemy? I've got plenty of range to bombard the island, so the Ike is ordered to reverse course and head SW, and eventually meet up with the AOE closer to Iceland in a zone patrolled by my P-3s. Let the enemy spend time and fuel coming to me. This move leaves the Spruance dashing to catch up and get out front again, but it's a chance it'll have to take. (So far, no submarine problems. Fingers crossed.) My own sub is given a course ESE, and ordered to periscope depth, where it creeps along providing ESM and plane spotting data. I consider an initial TLAM strike on the mainland, but there's probably AEW and CAP and SAMs up there which would make it a wasted effort, so I hold off.

The Jan Mayan strike launches immediately. The first element in is the pair of F-18s with iron bombs, which hook around the SW end of the island, staying in the radar shadow of the ridge. A hard right turn sends them E over the narrow mid-section of the island, laying a stick of bombs on the SA-3 before it can react, and dropping another in the center of the weather shelters. Two quick-reaction Migs make it into the air, but I manage to deal with them while escaping amid Grouse fire, and then the LGB planes move in to tackle their targets from a safe altitude. A string of bomb malfunctions weaken the strike, but the command bunker and big runway are destroyed, and the secondary runway and access point are heavily damaged.

Meanwhile my ESM is giving indications of jammers to my NE, so the CAP spreads out to investigate, and destroys some of them before Mig-31 radars start showing up on the screens. Before long I'm facing heavy pressure from Mig-31s from the NE, followed by a very heavy push of many aircraft from the E. I manage to deal with the first group of Mig-31s, but the massive eastern formation (which turns out to be a heavy recce probe, with numerous Brewers and high altitude Mig-25s) is more problematic, and I literally end up launching every single fighter before I can fend it off. I'm trying to ignore the Mig-23s and pick on the Brewers selectively before they can get close enough to see me with their radars. Fortunately their radars are old technology, and I think my Jammers have managed to keep them from getting a clear look at my main formation. Nonetheless, doing this puts me at some risk, and more Mig-31s come down and interfere with the northern flank of the fight, causing some losses.

While all this is happening I do manage to in-flight refuel one of my F-14s and sneak it up N of Jan Mayan, where it manages to shoot up more jammers and ELINT planes, including a prowling recce Backfire, before it gets driven away by the Mig-31s. The U-2 is in a dangerous place up there with so much enemy air activity, so I pull it back to do BDA on Jan Mayan, and do ELINT duty. No way I'm sending it east to play with Mig-31s.

Once that heavy enemy push is over most of my planes are running for the carrier to reload, but the few stragglers with missiles left push east into the vacuum, catching sight of the enemy tanker line. I'd really like to interfere with that, and I try hard, but there just aren't enough assets to succeed. I manage to launch 5 extreme range Phoenix shots at them, but one strikes an enemy jammer that gets in the way, three more miss by the slimmest margins, and only one kills a tanker. That's not enough to disrupt operations significantly, and soon another wave of Mig-25s and Mig-31s is coming off the tankers, driving me back again.

There seems to be no end to the Mig-25s, which get closer and closer to the carrier, and I'm left nervously counting the seconds until the first few of the reloaded F-14s lift off and manage to stop the last of them. (What wouldn't I give for a 30 minute turnaround a la Sweden - an hour and a half is excruciating!) Now I'm in a bit of a lull, I think, although a couple more Backfires have tried to take a look, and I'm getting ESM hits on more Mig-31s, 23s, and SU-27s, which are starting to fill up their patrols again. My air-to-air missile situation is looking rather bad. I only have 26 Phoenix left on the carrier, and they're all mounted on aircraft. No spares! Everyone else is filling up with Sparrows at the moment, but I've only got 30 of those left in the magazines. I'm also down to 35 AMRAAM in the magazines, although I've got 7 full loaded F-18s ready to go, so that's not too bad. Still, if I have to face more Mig-31s (and there's probably a dozen or more of them still out there) I'm going to have problems, not to mention any heavy bomber raids. And there's still 20 hours to go...


Misc observations

There are a bunch of sonobuoys scattered all over the ocean at the start of the scenario, with no apparent source. Are they left over from a previous scenario?

The Ike's medium ASW reference points are a bit tangled up, causing irregular zone shapes instead of your usual concentric rectangle pattern.

The Recce Push mission is actually an ASuW (naval) mission, and as a result the SU-27s and Mig-23s were not engaging me at first. I changed Engage Opportunity Targets to YES and that allowed them to shoot.

There's a lot of bad guys out there. I'm going to get swamped!

[Gunner98]

Misc observations There are a bunch of sonobuoys scattered all over the ocean at the start of the scenario, with no apparent source. Are they left over from a previous scenario? The Ike's medium ASW reference points are a bit tangled up, causing irregular zone shapes instead of your usual concentric rectangle pattern. The Recce Push mission is actually an ASuW (naval) mission, and as a result the SU-27s and Mig-23s were not engaging me at first. I changed Engage Opportunity Targets to YES and that allowed them to shoot. There's a lot of bad guys out there. I'm going to get swamped!

Thank you Andrew

I put this one together with a mind to giving the player some unique problems. Those Brewers were pulled out of 3rd line reserves, easy to defeat but a drain on resources, and in one of my test runs it was a Brewer that found the Ike. PVO has now taken over defence of North Norway hence the plethora of MiG-25s and added MiG-31s.

Regarding your points:

Sonobuoys: yes I'll clean those up, thanks
RPs: Will fix
Opportunity Targets; nice, magi also pointed out that behavior but I wasn't sure what was causing it. Appreciate the help.
Regarding your last point. The consequences of being found - are not good. Strategically the Soviets know they are reaching a breaking point; they need a victory and the Ike is a nice plump cherry!

Looking forward to your next steps,

B

[AndrewJ]

The lull doesn’t last long, although the fierce attacks of the early morning seem to have stopped, and soon my forces are grappling with small units of Mig-31s and occasional recce Backfires. The exchange usually goes in my favour, but I’m still watching my missile stocks dwindle.

I figure I have two options. I can either continue to fall back and attrite the Russian air forces as they arrive, and hope they don’t have a second surge coming, or try and gather my forces and make a spoiling attack of some sort. I decide on the latter. I refuse combat as best I can while my carrier group steams south and the AOE heads north to meet it, and then in the early afternoon, when most of my aircraft have recycled, I launch.

The first to go up are the second wave of Jan Mayan strikers, headed north, and then the main body launches east, taking jammers and tankers and every single Phoenix I have, and leaving only a pair of ready F-18s and a few re-arming F-14s to defend the carrier. Their target? The enemy tanker line! If I can punch through and kill that I figure it might disrupt any planned operations directed at my receding carrier group.

As the aircraft head out they are passed by a wave of TLAMs headed for the nearest enemy airbases. I don’t expect the TLAMs to get through, but I do hope they will disrupt the enemy by forcing them to direct CAP and interceptors against the missiles, instead of my aircraft.

The plan actually works! The Jan Mayan strike successfully pummels the remaining facilities on the island, and then my OCAP punches through the remaining Russian fighters before destroying the five tankers orbiting off the coast. Some of my planes head north and south, making a clean sweep of the arc of recce and ELINT birds. Meanwhile the TLAMs astonish everyone by reaching their targets. Some draw fire from the reserve Mig-31s, but most make it to their airfields, and despite the SAM defences I manage to severely crater three runways (two at Andoya, one at Bodo) and chip a few other facilities.

At this point I have a chance to leave cleanly, or hang around and try to exploit my success. I (recklessly) decide on option B. The Mig-31s that went after the TLAMs are now out of position to defend (wait for it…) an AWACs. I can’t resist! While I engage some Mig-23s and Su-27s one of my F-14s gets into Phoenix range, and spends two precious missiles to down the radar plane. This does not impress the Russians, who decide that a mix of two dozen fresh Mig-25s and Mig-23s is the perfect response. It’s time to run away. Wouldn’t it be nice if I had fuel?

Speaking of which, two fresh tankers launch out of Bodo, and a pair of Mig-31s are heading in for a drink. I can’t resist this either, and turn back some more of my F-14s, knocking down the tankers, and sending the thirsty Migs back to base. (No, they didn’t run out of fuel, alas.) Total tanker score is now 8, which should put a hole in their plans. But all this has delayed my retreat, and it’s now a desperate rearguard action, pursued by that swarm of angry new fighters. Hasty over-the-shoulder AMRAAM shots cool their ardour a bit, but it’s touch and go all the way back to the carrier.

After that I’ve got no offensive power left, and my only strong defences are my SAMs. (The AOE group has joined up with the carrier now, and the extra cruiser reassures my greatly.) I have a whopping 6 Phoenixes left in the entire fleet, and only 26 AIM-7Ms, which means some F-14s don’t have loadouts. All my F-18s have loadouts, but I’ve only got 1 AIM-7P and 3 AMRAAMs left in the magazines, so there won’t be any reloads. I’m even starting to count Sidewinders (there’s only 13 in the magazine).

So, for the rest of the night and into the next morning I steam cautiously north towards Jan Mayan again, nervously watching the ESM traces of pairs of patrolling Mig-31s. I occasionally sneak a fighter around them in the dark to pick off their remaining ELINT planes, using Sidewinders in order to preserve my few precious long-range missiles. The Russians make no further efforts to engage, and with dawn I can turn about and head for Scotland.




Comments

Looking over the scenario afterwards I can only say Wow, that’s a lot of attackers! You weren’t kidding about bad things happening if you’re detected. If they launch, you’re screwed. I’m thinking complete loss of carrier group.

I’m very glad I didn’t head east. I might have earned 100 pts in 6 hours, but only by sticking my head in the lion’s mouth, and I wouldn’t get it back out again. The Russians actually detected my position by radar even though I retreated, but they didn’t get the positive ID they needed to launch their strikes. That’s the only thing which saved me.

This is a tough one. It took me a combination of intense micromanagement and running away in order to preserve my carrier, and I doubt that anyone playing this using missions will be able to manage a complete success.




Assorted items

The Bodo Intercept mission and CAP Bodo mission have no units assigned to them. Also unlike the other airfields, Bodo has no SAM defences around it. Since there are 110 aircraft there it’s not a minor base, and would probably be well defended.

There is no event or trigger for activating the Tromso CAP.
There is an action for CAP Active Orland, but Orland is not present in this scenario.

The Backfires at Olenogorsk (133 TBAP and 840 TBAP) and Severomorsk (402 TBAP) are outfitted with land attack AS-4s. Should there be a separate mission to attack Iceland with these? Currently they get assigned to the CV Strike Eisenhower mission, and then immediately RTB because they cannot engage maritime targets.

One of the Su-27Ss in the CV Strike Eisenhower is not set to escort status.

Should NATO E-2s be considered High Value AC for scoring?

The Russian subs are well placed to intercept a carrier group which moves forward, but they’re not really well placed to catch anything retiring towards Iceland or coming up from that direction. Maybe have one further south-west to keep NATO honest?

The “recommend we request support from Iceland” message seems to suggest there’s something the player needs to do, but when they look to Iceland there’s nothing there, which may puzzle them. Perhaps the message should say something like “we’ve requested support from Iceland”, so the player knows they don’t need to perform an action to get the support.

Should the AOE have munitions on board? The briefing mentions that you can restock A2A munitions, but I wasn’t able to do so. (Although I may have been doing it wrong.)

I think VFA-32 should really be VFA-37?

[Gunner98]

Well done Andrew

Will do the fixes you indicate. Was wondering why those Backfires were turning back - didn't have time to investigate.

I thought the AOE had a bunch of A2A ammo on board, will double check.

What shape is your Air Group at the end? My hope is that its down by about 40% or so, i.e. down to about 14 or 15 Tomcats and Hornets. Just a storyline thing.

Your an aggressive commander Sir! Thanks for the help.

B

[AndrewJ]

Losses weren't quite that heavy, maybe around 10 airframes altogether, but bear in mind that I got a bit of a free ride during the big recce push, before I realized what was happening and turned opportunity fire on. Also, I was essentially hand-flying every airplane except my helicopters and MPA, which will cut losses compared to someone using missions.

[Gunner98]

OK Here is version 1.1 with some fixes to the points above. Mostly cleanup and quick fixes but some adjustments as well.

I look forward to your comments and critique.

B

[magi]

i am not able to get.. v1.4 shoulder to shoulder.. v1.1 out on a linb..and bush vs kunetzov to load.....

i have done the update... i can load other scenarios... v1.2 the longest battle.. v1.3 shoulder to shoulder.. etc....

[lamboman43]

ORIGINAL: magi

i am not able to get.. v1.4 shoulder to shoulder.. v1.1 out on a linb..and bush vs kunetzov to load.....

i have done the update... i can load other scenarios... v1.2 the longest battle.. v1.3 shoulder to shoulder.. etc....

Bush v Kuz loads just fine for me. Didn't test the other two you mentioned though.

[Gunner98]

Strange, I'll re-save and upload tonight when I get home.

Anyone else having issues with these ones?

B

[SnakeMan]

Hi Gunner98, thanks for all your scenarios!

I just tested with CMANO v1.11 Service Release 6 - Build 870.3 and it loads "Northern Fury 11.6 Out on a Limb V1.1.scen" without any problems.