New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Moderator: MOD_Command
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
SITUATION
After initial operations against Cuba have greatly reduced its combat power, I'm left with somewhat reduced forces to deal with it. I have plenty of older aircraft on shore, and I've got the Kennedy carrier group, which is decent, if a bit old, operating to the south of Cuba. There's a nuclear cruiser group to the east coming in from the north side of Haiti, slightly ahead of an oiler with a coast-guard escort. Three older SSNs guard various choke-points around Cuba, and there's another oiler (the Suribachi) north of Havana, recklessly close to the island, in my opinion, with only a single old frigate on guard.
This would be quite enough to keep Cuba from taking any significant offensive action, and let me continue to reduce its defenses, except that someone ambitious in the SOF hierarchy has convinced the administration to make a risky raid to paradrop into the outskirts of Havana and seize a series of intelligence sites, before coming in with helicopters to get them out again. I need to clear the way for that operation before tonight, and conduct and cover the insertion and extraction. I've also been assigned a variety of government administration and communications targets, logistics targets, and army assembly area targets. At the end of it all, I'm expected to have my ships assembled 250 miles south of Cuba, ready for operations further south.
Cuba's defences are not entirely gone. While the Havana region's taken a battering already, there are still an SA-10 and plenty of lesser SAMs in the area, and the central spine of the island is a continuous chain of dangerous SA-10s. I don't expect any surface ship opposition, although a misplaced enemy sub could be unfortunate, and I think the air situation should be in my favour (although I'm never happy when there are rumours of Mig-31s still active). I am a little worried about Guantanamo Bay being exposed to ground assault, and I'll have to keep an eye out there.
THE PLAN
In the east, the cruiser group is ordered to form up around the oiler, and then escort it in pretty much a straight line to the assembly area. They should be able to make the trip at a reasonable 15 knots and arrive with a few hours to spare. They have to pass through the straits between Haiti and Cuba, where I expect an SS would love to lurk, but it would be risky to operate ASW planes in the area (plus, I don't have any nearby), so it'll be active sonar all the way.
In the north, the oiler Suribachi, only 35 miles off the coast of Cuba, will skirt the island at 18 knots, before rounding the western tip of Cuba and heading to the assembly area. It'll be active sonar for her only escort too, and rabbits' feet and four-leafed clovers all around in the hopes that we haven't been noticed.
The Kennedy carrier group will steam slowly eastwards, staying about 100 miles south of Cuba, ready to support operations for a little more than a day, before turning and heading down to the rendezvous.
My focus on Day 1 will be a massive alpha strike around mid-day, with the specific goal of eliminating air defences in the vicinity of our SOF targets, and also damaging soft targets in the Havana area, but only as a secondary objective. I would rather start with strong fighter sweeps, but I'm mostly loading for air-to-ground, and I probably don't have the time to wait. If I'm to get into Havana tonight I must concentrate on immediate SEAD today. Night 1 will concentrate on covering and executing the SOF raid. Day 2 will be devoted to tackling communications targets and the like, before the carrier is so far south it can't support effectively, and Night 2 will be the rendezvous in the assembly area.
DAY 1
As my cruiser group moves to form up with their oiler, the surveillance radar in Guantanamo starts reporting a large slow-moving bogey far to the south. A maritime patrol aircraft? It could be problematic if it gets closer and turns on a radar. A pair of lightly laden F-14s and an S-3 tanker head off to intercept it, and eventually ID it as a maritime patrol Bear before they shoot it down as it nears Jamaica. If it was operating out of Cuba that's one thing, but it also raises the possibility of unfriendly (but not yet hostile) surveillance aircraft operating out of Central or South America. Something to keep an eye on.
Meanwhile, the Kennedy group, which has been sailing along in a stately fashion while rearranging its formation, suddenly reports torpedoes coming in from behind! The startled group accelerates as fast as it can, while launching helicopters and S-3s down the torpedo bearing, and fortunately the torpedoes run out of fuel before they reach us. It seems the sub captain fired a little early. The S-3 soon picks up the contact, and sends the Kilo to the grave, and the Kennedy group resumes course.
Not long afterwards the Spadefish, creeping in the strait between the Yucatan and Cuba, picks up another sub at long range. This one's a modern Victor, but it's still a long way off, so the Spadefish sticks up a mast and calls in an S-3. (I've started using a house rule for myself: if I want my other units to react to a contact detected by a submarine, then I first have to send my sub to periscope depth and turn on the radar for 15 seconds, to represent a burst radio transmission to a satellite somewhere. It feels a bit less 'gamey'.) Intel reports the nearby San Julian airbase is closed, but I send an escort along anyway, and a good thing too when a pair of Mig-23s try and bounce the S-3. They're shot down, the Victor is sunk, and the three planes head back home safely, keeping a watchful eye for more planes. (I never did meet the Mig-29s there, since they were still readying when I flew past, and I never went to that tip of the island again.)
While we were hunting the Victor, the White House sends an SR-71 to fly around Cuba, taking advantage of the good weather to get excellent imagery of the entire island. Although an SA-5 takes a potshot at it, and a MiG attempts to intercept near Guantanamo, it escapes unscathed. Analysis of its data reveals several important items: an SSM battery waiting on the east tip of the island, heavy air defences and troop concentrations around the 62nd Division barracks near Holguin, and the layout of air defences and troop concentrations in and around tonight's SOF operations area.
The SSM battery will require reasonably prompt action, if it is not to engage my cruiser group as it passes the straits. They could probably shrug off attacks from lesser missiles, but I'm not sure what exactly is in the tubes, and if I have bad luck with my defences the results could be fatal. Therefore some A-7s are sent down with a tanker in attendance. They had to dodge a wandering MiG-23, but eventually refueled and came in low over the hills from the north, bombing the SSM launchers, and hurtling away to safety. They all made it back to base, although one wide-eyed pilot kept eyeing the AAA hole in his wing all the way back.
About the same time, an Su-27 lifts off out of Jose Marti airport and makes a dash north, possibly headed for the tankers over Florida. My flight of F-16s on CAP salvo their Sparrows at it and shoot it down, and then turn and start burnering back home for a quick turnaround. As soon as they're too far away to be of further use, multiple enemy planes start lifting off out of the two Havana airbases. Judging by their emissions, at least some of them are Fencers. Alas, poor Suribachi! You've been spotted...
With nothing on CAP over the Suribachi I start desperately scrambling planes out of Key West and Homestead, and burnering them towards my ships. (I've got no F-14s up in the area. Some are escorting the S-3 out west, some are hunting the Bear out east, and I've decided to 'save' the ones on ship for the strike later in the day. Not good!) The first of my planes make it in just before the enemy, and they manage to shoot down a swarm of incoming Mig-21s, but now fighters of all sorts are launching out of the Cuban airbases (including Mig-31s - I thought those would be held in reserve!), and missiles start flying in all directions. I could open up with the SAM on my frigate, but two of the Su-24s are hanging back, and that means they've probably got ARMs, so the radar stays off for the moment. The desperate fighter combat continues at wave-top level, and at least I'm better there than the Mig-31s, which are fairly clumsy down low, and I manage to claim a couple, much to my delight. The incoming flight of Su-24s, presumably trying to bomb, are shot down, and I manage to wing one of the ARM carriers (making them drop their loadout and RTB), so the frigate finally manages to take a couple of shots. In the end it's desperately close, but I manage to keep the enemy from firing on my ships, although some of my fighters are damaged or lost in the process.
Shortly before 10:00 my heavy SEAD strike begins, bringing in essentially everything I have, and attacking from the north and south simultaneously. First shots are taken by my TALD-carrying F-14s, but the Cubans show their contempt for the decoys by shooting at the planes instead! Once again their tactics are rendering my decoys useless. Heavy strikes by HARMs and Shrikes manage to shut down the big radar-guided SAMs. Enemy fighters popping up are a real problem, shooting before I can get a shot off at them, but fortunately they spend most of their missiles trying to hit my ARMs. This time I have plenty of Phoenixes waiting for them, so they don't manage to land in one piece. With the major high-altitude SAMs destroyed, Maverick carrying planes move in to deal with SHORADs and the numerous MANPADs that ring the combat zone, as well as swarms of AAA in my immediate target areas. This allows my planes with iron bombs (and I have a lot of them) to inflict heavy damage on soft targets and troop concentrations in the area of operations. When the raid departs, around noon, I'm confident I've cleared the air defenses around the targets. I've not attacked the airfields directly though, so if they've got anything more lurking in the hardened shelters, then that could be a problem.
The afternoon is mostly spent preparing for upcoming activities. C-130s load paratroops, extraction helicopters forward deploy south to Key West, and my C-130 tankers move in to MacDill to reduce flight time. I'm concerned about Guantanamo, especially as there looks to be heavy activity near the 62nd Division barracks, so I ferry some of my conventional attack planes from Key west and Homestead over to Nassau. They won't be making attacks in the dark, so they can rest overnight and be ready to defend Guantanamo Bay if it is attacked in the morning. The Commando Solo (with escort!) flies to the Havana coast and starts broadcasting reruns of 'I Love Lucy', to demonstrate how well America understands the common Cuban man.
At sea, the Soviet AGI has been spotted along the south coast, so a flight of F-18s take care of it with Harpoons. Further east, the cruiser group gets a hard sonar contact on something near the Haitian coast, and patrolling helicopters are sent to investigate. They find and sink a Foxtrot, which makes everyone on board breathe easier. (Fortunately the water's too deep for it to have been laying mines in the straits.) North of Havana, the Trepang gets an intermittent contact on an SS some distance away, as it comes in through the first CZ, but the contact is difficult to hold, and it's lost as the Trepang maneuvers to close. If it changes course there's the very real possibility that I could inadvertently put it in my baffles before I can re-establish a direct path contact, which could be fatal. The commander chickens out and calls for help, and an S-3 is sent to cut across Cuba west of Mariel. It makes the risky journey, joins the hunt for the SS, and finds and sinks another Foxtrot.
NIGHT 1
Just before evening another strike is sent into the Havana area. Heavily loaded with Shrikes, it concentrates on destroying all remaining radars in the area. These are mostly AAA radars, but I want them dead anyway, so the skies are radar dark for my night-time raid. My iron bombers stay home (it's too dark for most of them to see), but LGB carriers wreck the remains of the naval base at Mariel, and start working on the missile supply depot. The soft structures there are quickly destroyed, but the bunkers take an enormous pounding. I eventually use up all my BLU-109s and still don't destroy them all. No fighters come up to oppose me, so things are looking hopeful for the SOF raid.
A couple of hours later the paratroopers arrive, jumping accurately on target. They've got fighter cover, a TARPS bird overhead, and the AC-130 inbound. I've already bombed and destroyed the troop concentrations in the region, so I'm expecting local militia resistance, if anything. Probably light infantry, and a few soft vehicles. What I get is a mechanized infantry quick response force in quick lightly armoured BTR-60s! Uh-oh... Fortunately they're some distance away in the hills, so I've got a bit of time. I scramble night-vision equipped F-18s from the Kennedy and Key West, while the AC-130 bores in. Unfortunately, that turns out to be a rather clumsy thing to operate, nowhere nearly as nimble as the fighters I've been using here. It manages to severely damage some of the first attackers, but its wide turning circle takes it too close to one of the remaining Grouse gunners, who manages to blow the 40mm cannon out of the side of the aircraft with a well-aimed shot. Fortunately my F-18s arrive before much longer, and between strings of well-aimed 1,000 lb bombs, night-vision Mavericks, and shots from the damaged AC-130, they manage to break up the attack. (I should really have had those overhead before the raid...)
There is no further resistance to the raid, and the helicopters manage to fly in and recover their troops. The MH-60s need some refueling to make it to Blanding, but the big MH-53s can make the flight directly, and they all make it back to their destination, with bundles of intelligence materials for the spooks to pore over.
In the small hours of the morning a few Tomahawks are used to strike isolated TV transmitters. (I haven't used any up to this point, wanting to preserve my limited supply.) The ones directed at the station near Bayamo prompt a Mig-23 to lift off out of Holguin, so there's definitely resistance there.
DAY 2
When morning comes, and they can see again, some of my attack planes with iron bombs strike the three locations I raided overnight, flattening the buildings unopposed. (I suppose I could have taken some saboteurs along to do this during the raid, but at the time I was more concerned with having anti-infantry firepower, so I had taken nothing but line troops.) While that's happening, fighter probes towards Holguin prompt several more MiG-23s to lift off and get shot down. Reconnaissance along the coast near Santiago de Cuba reveals that the SA-10 there is too close to the escarpment, and I can actually pop up over the ridge and get within its minimum range before it can react! F-14s manage to strafe it and put it out of commission, which gives me much more freedom of maneuver. (Post-war analysis was later to reveal that this battery was actually out of ammunition, and only serving a surveillance function. The F-14s were strafing empty missile tubes...)
This is all preparatory to another major strike, intended to destroy the 62nd Division barracks, vehicle parks, and air defences, and prevent them from attacking Guantanamo Bay. This time I do use my TLAMs, in a combined attack with HARMs and SLAMs from both sides, and Shrikes from the north. The attack focuses on the SA-10, which is overwhelmed and succumbs, and then the other major SAMs are dealt with in sequence. Fortunately this is enough to take down the entire high altitude air defence, which allows the Maverick shooters, LGBs, and Bombers to tackle the remaining targets in sequence. It was a major tanker operation to get all these planes here at once, and it is gratifying when they all manage to make it home.
Once the attacks are recovered, the carrier turns and heads for the rendezvous area, moving at a brisk 20 knots, until it is the same distance out as the cruiser group, at which point it slows down to match its 15 knot speed.
NIGHT 2
The Suribachi group is the first to arrive in the rendezvous area, followed by the carrier group and the cruiser group. The sudden appearance of an enemy sub in the zone, picked up on long range active sonar, is cause for a brief flurry of action, which is a bit more surprising because it turns out to be a Victor, not another SS. After that, patrolling in the zone continues uneventfully as the carrier UNREPs in preparation for moving south.
(Various technical bits to follow in a later post.)
After initial operations against Cuba have greatly reduced its combat power, I'm left with somewhat reduced forces to deal with it. I have plenty of older aircraft on shore, and I've got the Kennedy carrier group, which is decent, if a bit old, operating to the south of Cuba. There's a nuclear cruiser group to the east coming in from the north side of Haiti, slightly ahead of an oiler with a coast-guard escort. Three older SSNs guard various choke-points around Cuba, and there's another oiler (the Suribachi) north of Havana, recklessly close to the island, in my opinion, with only a single old frigate on guard.
This would be quite enough to keep Cuba from taking any significant offensive action, and let me continue to reduce its defenses, except that someone ambitious in the SOF hierarchy has convinced the administration to make a risky raid to paradrop into the outskirts of Havana and seize a series of intelligence sites, before coming in with helicopters to get them out again. I need to clear the way for that operation before tonight, and conduct and cover the insertion and extraction. I've also been assigned a variety of government administration and communications targets, logistics targets, and army assembly area targets. At the end of it all, I'm expected to have my ships assembled 250 miles south of Cuba, ready for operations further south.
Cuba's defences are not entirely gone. While the Havana region's taken a battering already, there are still an SA-10 and plenty of lesser SAMs in the area, and the central spine of the island is a continuous chain of dangerous SA-10s. I don't expect any surface ship opposition, although a misplaced enemy sub could be unfortunate, and I think the air situation should be in my favour (although I'm never happy when there are rumours of Mig-31s still active). I am a little worried about Guantanamo Bay being exposed to ground assault, and I'll have to keep an eye out there.
THE PLAN
In the east, the cruiser group is ordered to form up around the oiler, and then escort it in pretty much a straight line to the assembly area. They should be able to make the trip at a reasonable 15 knots and arrive with a few hours to spare. They have to pass through the straits between Haiti and Cuba, where I expect an SS would love to lurk, but it would be risky to operate ASW planes in the area (plus, I don't have any nearby), so it'll be active sonar all the way.
In the north, the oiler Suribachi, only 35 miles off the coast of Cuba, will skirt the island at 18 knots, before rounding the western tip of Cuba and heading to the assembly area. It'll be active sonar for her only escort too, and rabbits' feet and four-leafed clovers all around in the hopes that we haven't been noticed.
The Kennedy carrier group will steam slowly eastwards, staying about 100 miles south of Cuba, ready to support operations for a little more than a day, before turning and heading down to the rendezvous.
My focus on Day 1 will be a massive alpha strike around mid-day, with the specific goal of eliminating air defences in the vicinity of our SOF targets, and also damaging soft targets in the Havana area, but only as a secondary objective. I would rather start with strong fighter sweeps, but I'm mostly loading for air-to-ground, and I probably don't have the time to wait. If I'm to get into Havana tonight I must concentrate on immediate SEAD today. Night 1 will concentrate on covering and executing the SOF raid. Day 2 will be devoted to tackling communications targets and the like, before the carrier is so far south it can't support effectively, and Night 2 will be the rendezvous in the assembly area.
DAY 1
As my cruiser group moves to form up with their oiler, the surveillance radar in Guantanamo starts reporting a large slow-moving bogey far to the south. A maritime patrol aircraft? It could be problematic if it gets closer and turns on a radar. A pair of lightly laden F-14s and an S-3 tanker head off to intercept it, and eventually ID it as a maritime patrol Bear before they shoot it down as it nears Jamaica. If it was operating out of Cuba that's one thing, but it also raises the possibility of unfriendly (but not yet hostile) surveillance aircraft operating out of Central or South America. Something to keep an eye on.
Meanwhile, the Kennedy group, which has been sailing along in a stately fashion while rearranging its formation, suddenly reports torpedoes coming in from behind! The startled group accelerates as fast as it can, while launching helicopters and S-3s down the torpedo bearing, and fortunately the torpedoes run out of fuel before they reach us. It seems the sub captain fired a little early. The S-3 soon picks up the contact, and sends the Kilo to the grave, and the Kennedy group resumes course.
Not long afterwards the Spadefish, creeping in the strait between the Yucatan and Cuba, picks up another sub at long range. This one's a modern Victor, but it's still a long way off, so the Spadefish sticks up a mast and calls in an S-3. (I've started using a house rule for myself: if I want my other units to react to a contact detected by a submarine, then I first have to send my sub to periscope depth and turn on the radar for 15 seconds, to represent a burst radio transmission to a satellite somewhere. It feels a bit less 'gamey'.) Intel reports the nearby San Julian airbase is closed, but I send an escort along anyway, and a good thing too when a pair of Mig-23s try and bounce the S-3. They're shot down, the Victor is sunk, and the three planes head back home safely, keeping a watchful eye for more planes. (I never did meet the Mig-29s there, since they were still readying when I flew past, and I never went to that tip of the island again.)
While we were hunting the Victor, the White House sends an SR-71 to fly around Cuba, taking advantage of the good weather to get excellent imagery of the entire island. Although an SA-5 takes a potshot at it, and a MiG attempts to intercept near Guantanamo, it escapes unscathed. Analysis of its data reveals several important items: an SSM battery waiting on the east tip of the island, heavy air defences and troop concentrations around the 62nd Division barracks near Holguin, and the layout of air defences and troop concentrations in and around tonight's SOF operations area.
The SSM battery will require reasonably prompt action, if it is not to engage my cruiser group as it passes the straits. They could probably shrug off attacks from lesser missiles, but I'm not sure what exactly is in the tubes, and if I have bad luck with my defences the results could be fatal. Therefore some A-7s are sent down with a tanker in attendance. They had to dodge a wandering MiG-23, but eventually refueled and came in low over the hills from the north, bombing the SSM launchers, and hurtling away to safety. They all made it back to base, although one wide-eyed pilot kept eyeing the AAA hole in his wing all the way back.
About the same time, an Su-27 lifts off out of Jose Marti airport and makes a dash north, possibly headed for the tankers over Florida. My flight of F-16s on CAP salvo their Sparrows at it and shoot it down, and then turn and start burnering back home for a quick turnaround. As soon as they're too far away to be of further use, multiple enemy planes start lifting off out of the two Havana airbases. Judging by their emissions, at least some of them are Fencers. Alas, poor Suribachi! You've been spotted...
With nothing on CAP over the Suribachi I start desperately scrambling planes out of Key West and Homestead, and burnering them towards my ships. (I've got no F-14s up in the area. Some are escorting the S-3 out west, some are hunting the Bear out east, and I've decided to 'save' the ones on ship for the strike later in the day. Not good!) The first of my planes make it in just before the enemy, and they manage to shoot down a swarm of incoming Mig-21s, but now fighters of all sorts are launching out of the Cuban airbases (including Mig-31s - I thought those would be held in reserve!), and missiles start flying in all directions. I could open up with the SAM on my frigate, but two of the Su-24s are hanging back, and that means they've probably got ARMs, so the radar stays off for the moment. The desperate fighter combat continues at wave-top level, and at least I'm better there than the Mig-31s, which are fairly clumsy down low, and I manage to claim a couple, much to my delight. The incoming flight of Su-24s, presumably trying to bomb, are shot down, and I manage to wing one of the ARM carriers (making them drop their loadout and RTB), so the frigate finally manages to take a couple of shots. In the end it's desperately close, but I manage to keep the enemy from firing on my ships, although some of my fighters are damaged or lost in the process.
Shortly before 10:00 my heavy SEAD strike begins, bringing in essentially everything I have, and attacking from the north and south simultaneously. First shots are taken by my TALD-carrying F-14s, but the Cubans show their contempt for the decoys by shooting at the planes instead! Once again their tactics are rendering my decoys useless. Heavy strikes by HARMs and Shrikes manage to shut down the big radar-guided SAMs. Enemy fighters popping up are a real problem, shooting before I can get a shot off at them, but fortunately they spend most of their missiles trying to hit my ARMs. This time I have plenty of Phoenixes waiting for them, so they don't manage to land in one piece. With the major high-altitude SAMs destroyed, Maverick carrying planes move in to deal with SHORADs and the numerous MANPADs that ring the combat zone, as well as swarms of AAA in my immediate target areas. This allows my planes with iron bombs (and I have a lot of them) to inflict heavy damage on soft targets and troop concentrations in the area of operations. When the raid departs, around noon, I'm confident I've cleared the air defenses around the targets. I've not attacked the airfields directly though, so if they've got anything more lurking in the hardened shelters, then that could be a problem.
The afternoon is mostly spent preparing for upcoming activities. C-130s load paratroops, extraction helicopters forward deploy south to Key West, and my C-130 tankers move in to MacDill to reduce flight time. I'm concerned about Guantanamo, especially as there looks to be heavy activity near the 62nd Division barracks, so I ferry some of my conventional attack planes from Key west and Homestead over to Nassau. They won't be making attacks in the dark, so they can rest overnight and be ready to defend Guantanamo Bay if it is attacked in the morning. The Commando Solo (with escort!) flies to the Havana coast and starts broadcasting reruns of 'I Love Lucy', to demonstrate how well America understands the common Cuban man.
At sea, the Soviet AGI has been spotted along the south coast, so a flight of F-18s take care of it with Harpoons. Further east, the cruiser group gets a hard sonar contact on something near the Haitian coast, and patrolling helicopters are sent to investigate. They find and sink a Foxtrot, which makes everyone on board breathe easier. (Fortunately the water's too deep for it to have been laying mines in the straits.) North of Havana, the Trepang gets an intermittent contact on an SS some distance away, as it comes in through the first CZ, but the contact is difficult to hold, and it's lost as the Trepang maneuvers to close. If it changes course there's the very real possibility that I could inadvertently put it in my baffles before I can re-establish a direct path contact, which could be fatal. The commander chickens out and calls for help, and an S-3 is sent to cut across Cuba west of Mariel. It makes the risky journey, joins the hunt for the SS, and finds and sinks another Foxtrot.
NIGHT 1
Just before evening another strike is sent into the Havana area. Heavily loaded with Shrikes, it concentrates on destroying all remaining radars in the area. These are mostly AAA radars, but I want them dead anyway, so the skies are radar dark for my night-time raid. My iron bombers stay home (it's too dark for most of them to see), but LGB carriers wreck the remains of the naval base at Mariel, and start working on the missile supply depot. The soft structures there are quickly destroyed, but the bunkers take an enormous pounding. I eventually use up all my BLU-109s and still don't destroy them all. No fighters come up to oppose me, so things are looking hopeful for the SOF raid.
A couple of hours later the paratroopers arrive, jumping accurately on target. They've got fighter cover, a TARPS bird overhead, and the AC-130 inbound. I've already bombed and destroyed the troop concentrations in the region, so I'm expecting local militia resistance, if anything. Probably light infantry, and a few soft vehicles. What I get is a mechanized infantry quick response force in quick lightly armoured BTR-60s! Uh-oh... Fortunately they're some distance away in the hills, so I've got a bit of time. I scramble night-vision equipped F-18s from the Kennedy and Key West, while the AC-130 bores in. Unfortunately, that turns out to be a rather clumsy thing to operate, nowhere nearly as nimble as the fighters I've been using here. It manages to severely damage some of the first attackers, but its wide turning circle takes it too close to one of the remaining Grouse gunners, who manages to blow the 40mm cannon out of the side of the aircraft with a well-aimed shot. Fortunately my F-18s arrive before much longer, and between strings of well-aimed 1,000 lb bombs, night-vision Mavericks, and shots from the damaged AC-130, they manage to break up the attack. (I should really have had those overhead before the raid...)
There is no further resistance to the raid, and the helicopters manage to fly in and recover their troops. The MH-60s need some refueling to make it to Blanding, but the big MH-53s can make the flight directly, and they all make it back to their destination, with bundles of intelligence materials for the spooks to pore over.
In the small hours of the morning a few Tomahawks are used to strike isolated TV transmitters. (I haven't used any up to this point, wanting to preserve my limited supply.) The ones directed at the station near Bayamo prompt a Mig-23 to lift off out of Holguin, so there's definitely resistance there.
DAY 2
When morning comes, and they can see again, some of my attack planes with iron bombs strike the three locations I raided overnight, flattening the buildings unopposed. (I suppose I could have taken some saboteurs along to do this during the raid, but at the time I was more concerned with having anti-infantry firepower, so I had taken nothing but line troops.) While that's happening, fighter probes towards Holguin prompt several more MiG-23s to lift off and get shot down. Reconnaissance along the coast near Santiago de Cuba reveals that the SA-10 there is too close to the escarpment, and I can actually pop up over the ridge and get within its minimum range before it can react! F-14s manage to strafe it and put it out of commission, which gives me much more freedom of maneuver. (Post-war analysis was later to reveal that this battery was actually out of ammunition, and only serving a surveillance function. The F-14s were strafing empty missile tubes...)
This is all preparatory to another major strike, intended to destroy the 62nd Division barracks, vehicle parks, and air defences, and prevent them from attacking Guantanamo Bay. This time I do use my TLAMs, in a combined attack with HARMs and SLAMs from both sides, and Shrikes from the north. The attack focuses on the SA-10, which is overwhelmed and succumbs, and then the other major SAMs are dealt with in sequence. Fortunately this is enough to take down the entire high altitude air defence, which allows the Maverick shooters, LGBs, and Bombers to tackle the remaining targets in sequence. It was a major tanker operation to get all these planes here at once, and it is gratifying when they all manage to make it home.
Once the attacks are recovered, the carrier turns and heads for the rendezvous area, moving at a brisk 20 knots, until it is the same distance out as the cruiser group, at which point it slows down to match its 15 knot speed.
NIGHT 2
The Suribachi group is the first to arrive in the rendezvous area, followed by the carrier group and the cruiser group. The sudden appearance of an enemy sub in the zone, picked up on long range active sonar, is cause for a brief flurry of action, which is a bit more surprising because it turns out to be a Victor, not another SS. After that, patrolling in the zone continues uneventfully as the carrier UNREPs in preparation for moving south.
(Various technical bits to follow in a later post.)
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Thanks Andrew, looks like you trounced the bad guys again. Well done! I look forward to the technical bits.
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Play Observations
I really enjoyed this one. There’s a lot of different objectives to achieve, which require a good amount of planning and coordination of different types of units to achieve good results. Immersion is excellent, and it really feels like stepping into a live environment, with planes already coming and going about their business, some part-way through their fuel loads, etc, and spotting reports already in place at enemy airbases. Details like that really make a difference. Seeing some mission objectives that aren’t just military units (in this case the civil broadcasting net) and taking steps to influence the population (the Commando Solo broadcasts) was interesting too.
As a micro-manager, I probably had a more power than I really needed, and I could concentrate a lot of land-based aircraft to batter my way through the enemy soft target list with optimized strikes. (Especially with the tell-all SR-71 giving away most of the enemy positions in advance.) Players purely using missions will find it more challenging, I think, especially if they try and rush it in a series of small strikes, instead of coordinating a big one. Having a secondary objective (62nd division) was great for keeping the action going on day 2.
Those Grouse gunners are a real hazard for low-level work. I had to punch holes in the ring around the Havana zone (I never did get them all) for freedom of low-level operation in specific areas. Fortunately, the TARPS birds can see them from above their launch envelope, so once I had found them I could use PGMs to engage them safely. If the weather had been bad it would have been a very different story. And those SA-5s may seem obsolete antiques, but they can be a real hassle, messing up all sorts of ingress and surveillance plans.
I never did find the final Foxtrot near Florida. He’s going to be an unpleasant surprise for ships transiting the ‘safe’ area.
Technical Items
A message indicating the Commando Solo has started broadcasting successfully might be a helpful piece of information when it enters the zone.
The Hazes at Mariel are on an ASuW strike, not an ASW strike, although they are loaded with ASW torpedoes.
The eastern SA-10 is vulnerably close to a coastal terrain obstacle, so it might benefit from some close defense (maybe just an AAA unit or two?) to give it some close-range backup against pop-up attacks. It also has no missiles at all. (Perhaps intentionally, having fired them all earlier?)
Striking the 62nd Division barracks fires the 'Lourdes Key Building Destroyed' events, since the trigger is set for any Cuban barracks. This will mean that if any 62nd Division barracks are destroyed before the SOF raid finishes at Lourdes, then they will incur the 25 point penalty
The 'SOF complete at Lourdes' event does not include the 'Lua - Lourdes Building VP change' action. The same is true of the 'SOF Complete at Punto Cero' event.
The 'SOF arrive at Punto Cero' event does not include the LUA action to generate additional QRF troops, so I had fewer incoming troops than I should have.
The QRF troops for Lourdes and Punto Cero do not get assigned to their mission, so they remain motionless in their teleport location.
The QRF missions send their BTR-60s off in odd directions that are not towards the landed paratroopers. I think this is because they are set to investigate contacts outside the patrol area, so they are trying to investigate things like my airbases on the mainland. It generates some very weird courses.
A prosecution area works to limit misbehaviour, but still allow engagement of troops screening the objective.
The mission 'Havana Ship Strike' is set weapons tight, which meant the Su-24s with Kazoo could not fire at maximum range. Since I managed to kill the other planes before they could get a visual ID on my ships, the Su-24s had to keep closing in, giving me the time to shoot them down before they could launch. If they had launched I expect I would have shot down some of their missiles, but taken a few hits, and been less able to tackle enemy fighters.
The side briefing mentions tasks for ‘the next 36 hours’, and implies the Kennedy should be ready for operations against Central America to occur on night 2. However, the scenario is 48 hours long. I think this is because the scenario current time is 11:00 AM at the beginning, but the scenario is set to start 12 hours later at 11:00 PM, and to last for 1 day 12 hours. In effect we're given 12 extra hours before the scenario should start (according to current settings).
I'm not sure why, but I never got the message to attack the 62nd Division. (You mentioned it on the forum, which gave me the clue I needed). The trigger setting seems correct, but I have not been able to get it to work in tests afterwards either. Did anyone else see it? (Perhaps the problem's related to the time issue above??)
Typos, briefings, and whatnot
Side briefing: took some damage to some of their plains;
Side briefing: Support SOF operations against three sights
Side briefing: Note: Although it is theoretically possible in COMANO
Side briefing: Exfiltration: Aviation assets to exfilarate directly back to Camp Blanding
Side briefing: Holmstead AFB has a larger but just as diverse…
Message: The Special Forces team at Lourdes is ready for extraction. They have several prisoners and about a ton of intelligence material. The debriefing team at Camp Blanding will be egger to dig into that!
The side briefing says one of the coast guard patrol boats in port at Key West is damaged, but they are all fully operational.
The side briefing says Heavy Marine Helicopter (HMH) Squadron 772 with 7x CH-53D is to do the pickup, but the units in the game are the 20th SOS Pony Express with 12 MH-53J.
Could the Suribachi, and her mission to get to the rendezvous zone, be mentioned in the side briefing? At the moment it’s not mentioned, so the player has to make an estimate of what to do with the ship.
I really enjoyed this one. There’s a lot of different objectives to achieve, which require a good amount of planning and coordination of different types of units to achieve good results. Immersion is excellent, and it really feels like stepping into a live environment, with planes already coming and going about their business, some part-way through their fuel loads, etc, and spotting reports already in place at enemy airbases. Details like that really make a difference. Seeing some mission objectives that aren’t just military units (in this case the civil broadcasting net) and taking steps to influence the population (the Commando Solo broadcasts) was interesting too.
As a micro-manager, I probably had a more power than I really needed, and I could concentrate a lot of land-based aircraft to batter my way through the enemy soft target list with optimized strikes. (Especially with the tell-all SR-71 giving away most of the enemy positions in advance.) Players purely using missions will find it more challenging, I think, especially if they try and rush it in a series of small strikes, instead of coordinating a big one. Having a secondary objective (62nd division) was great for keeping the action going on day 2.
Those Grouse gunners are a real hazard for low-level work. I had to punch holes in the ring around the Havana zone (I never did get them all) for freedom of low-level operation in specific areas. Fortunately, the TARPS birds can see them from above their launch envelope, so once I had found them I could use PGMs to engage them safely. If the weather had been bad it would have been a very different story. And those SA-5s may seem obsolete antiques, but they can be a real hassle, messing up all sorts of ingress and surveillance plans.
I never did find the final Foxtrot near Florida. He’s going to be an unpleasant surprise for ships transiting the ‘safe’ area.
Technical Items
A message indicating the Commando Solo has started broadcasting successfully might be a helpful piece of information when it enters the zone.
The Hazes at Mariel are on an ASuW strike, not an ASW strike, although they are loaded with ASW torpedoes.
The eastern SA-10 is vulnerably close to a coastal terrain obstacle, so it might benefit from some close defense (maybe just an AAA unit or two?) to give it some close-range backup against pop-up attacks. It also has no missiles at all. (Perhaps intentionally, having fired them all earlier?)
Striking the 62nd Division barracks fires the 'Lourdes Key Building Destroyed' events, since the trigger is set for any Cuban barracks. This will mean that if any 62nd Division barracks are destroyed before the SOF raid finishes at Lourdes, then they will incur the 25 point penalty
The 'SOF complete at Lourdes' event does not include the 'Lua - Lourdes Building VP change' action. The same is true of the 'SOF Complete at Punto Cero' event.
The 'SOF arrive at Punto Cero' event does not include the LUA action to generate additional QRF troops, so I had fewer incoming troops than I should have.
The QRF troops for Lourdes and Punto Cero do not get assigned to their mission, so they remain motionless in their teleport location.
The QRF missions send their BTR-60s off in odd directions that are not towards the landed paratroopers. I think this is because they are set to investigate contacts outside the patrol area, so they are trying to investigate things like my airbases on the mainland. It generates some very weird courses.
A prosecution area works to limit misbehaviour, but still allow engagement of troops screening the objective.
The mission 'Havana Ship Strike' is set weapons tight, which meant the Su-24s with Kazoo could not fire at maximum range. Since I managed to kill the other planes before they could get a visual ID on my ships, the Su-24s had to keep closing in, giving me the time to shoot them down before they could launch. If they had launched I expect I would have shot down some of their missiles, but taken a few hits, and been less able to tackle enemy fighters.
The side briefing mentions tasks for ‘the next 36 hours’, and implies the Kennedy should be ready for operations against Central America to occur on night 2. However, the scenario is 48 hours long. I think this is because the scenario current time is 11:00 AM at the beginning, but the scenario is set to start 12 hours later at 11:00 PM, and to last for 1 day 12 hours. In effect we're given 12 extra hours before the scenario should start (according to current settings).
I'm not sure why, but I never got the message to attack the 62nd Division. (You mentioned it on the forum, which gave me the clue I needed). The trigger setting seems correct, but I have not been able to get it to work in tests afterwards either. Did anyone else see it? (Perhaps the problem's related to the time issue above??)
Typos, briefings, and whatnot
Side briefing: took some damage to some of their plains;
Side briefing: Support SOF operations against three sights
Side briefing: Note: Although it is theoretically possible in COMANO
Side briefing: Exfiltration: Aviation assets to exfilarate directly back to Camp Blanding
Side briefing: Holmstead AFB has a larger but just as diverse…
Message: The Special Forces team at Lourdes is ready for extraction. They have several prisoners and about a ton of intelligence material. The debriefing team at Camp Blanding will be egger to dig into that!
The side briefing says one of the coast guard patrol boats in port at Key West is damaged, but they are all fully operational.
The side briefing says Heavy Marine Helicopter (HMH) Squadron 772 with 7x CH-53D is to do the pickup, but the units in the game are the 20th SOS Pony Express with 12 MH-53J.
Could the Suribachi, and her mission to get to the rendezvous zone, be mentioned in the side briefing? At the moment it’s not mentioned, so the player has to make an estimate of what to do with the ship.
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Thanks Andrew
All good points - will fix.
Cheers
B
All good points - will fix.
Cheers
B
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
-
- Posts: 330
- Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:04 am
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Gunner, after reaing AndrewJ's AAR (great piece by the way). I remembered an unresolved (and perhaps unresolvable) issue with the air launched decoys, that probably caused the conduct reported by AndrewJ when he tried to use MALDs.
Simply put, the decoys are seen by the enemy as unidentified contacs, which are NEVER identified (even when they are overflying on top of their heads on a sunny day, I have tried). That means any SAM on a weapons tight WRA will NEVER fire at them rendering them useless.
This issue was found in the Shifting Sands DLC (last scenario makes heavy use of air launched decoys against a weapons tight IADS) and I haven't seen anything in the release notes suggesting It has been fixed.
Obvious solution is setting them in weapons free, but at a minimum, that risks blue-on-blue (or should it be red-on-red?) incidents with returning damaged NOCOMM planes. And in a more complex scenario can wreck it totally.
Perhaps you could put on weapons free but with severe range restrictions against unidentified contacs? I think it would be a sensible conduct in a war zone to fire at an unidentified that comes too close, and that would solve the issue at hand.
Hope this helps you somewhat, and keep the great job!
Ancalagon
Simply put, the decoys are seen by the enemy as unidentified contacs, which are NEVER identified (even when they are overflying on top of their heads on a sunny day, I have tried). That means any SAM on a weapons tight WRA will NEVER fire at them rendering them useless.
This issue was found in the Shifting Sands DLC (last scenario makes heavy use of air launched decoys against a weapons tight IADS) and I haven't seen anything in the release notes suggesting It has been fixed.
Obvious solution is setting them in weapons free, but at a minimum, that risks blue-on-blue (or should it be red-on-red?) incidents with returning damaged NOCOMM planes. And in a more complex scenario can wreck it totally.
Perhaps you could put on weapons free but with severe range restrictions against unidentified contacs? I think it would be a sensible conduct in a war zone to fire at an unidentified that comes too close, and that would solve the issue at hand.
Hope this helps you somewhat, and keep the great job!
Ancalagon
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
That's a really good point. Will do.
Thanks
B
Thanks
B
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
OK guys here is version 1.2
Quite a few fixes - key ones are:
-SR-71 path
-QRFs working now
-Time fixed, it should be 36 hrs
-Cuba is essentially Wpns Free for both air and surface targets
-One or two minor surprises
Would appreciate confirmation that things are all working. Thanks for the help so far.
B
Quite a few fixes - key ones are:
-SR-71 path
-QRFs working now
-Time fixed, it should be 36 hrs
-Cuba is essentially Wpns Free for both air and surface targets
-One or two minor surprises
Would appreciate confirmation that things are all working. Thanks for the help so far.
B
- Attachments
-
- Caribbean..ionV1.2.zip
- (690 KiB) Downloaded 17 times
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
A ?, driven by this scenario.
Is there some way to set up an air mission and specify a hard floor for weapons use?
For example, the F-4 loaded with LGB can easily release from 25K feet, well out of manpad and AAA range - yet they descend to 12K on the release run if not micromanaged. Ideas?
RAS
Is there some way to set up an air mission and specify a hard floor for weapons use?
For example, the F-4 loaded with LGB can easily release from 25K feet, well out of manpad and AAA range - yet they descend to 12K on the release run if not micromanaged. Ideas?
RAS
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
The SR-71 is still being shot down by the SA-5 near Havana.
- Attachments
-
- Capture.jpg (28.11 KiB) Viewed 134 times
Certa Cito
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
I also just noticed (thanks to one of your surprises!) that the Kennedy Close ASW mission is set to 'Investigate contacts outside the patrol area' but there is no prosecution are defined.
Certa Cito
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
OK thanks
I'll move the SR-71 out a bit further and remove the investigate option for that mission.
Cheers
I'll move the SR-71 out a bit further and remove the investigate option for that mission.
Cheers
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Anything else on this one guys?
B
B
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Hi,
Isn't this the desired effect though? "Weapons tight WRA" effectively translates to "a cautious, educated crew who knows decoys are a thing and will not be easily lured into shooting".
The "never positively ID'ed" issue notwithstanding, this would seem to be the author's intent.
ORIGINAL: Ancalagon451
Gunner, after reaing AndrewJ's AAR (great piece by the way). I remembered an unresolved (and perhaps unresolvable) issue with the air launched decoys, that probably caused the conduct reported by AndrewJ when he tried to use MALDs.
Simply put, the decoys are seen by the enemy as unidentified contacs, which are NEVER identified (even when they are overflying on top of their heads on a sunny day, I have tried). That means any SAM on a weapons tight WRA will NEVER fire at them rendering them useless.
This issue was found in the Shifting Sands DLC (last scenario makes heavy use of air launched decoys against a weapons tight IADS) and I haven't seen anything in the release notes suggesting It has been fixed.
Isn't this the desired effect though? "Weapons tight WRA" effectively translates to "a cautious, educated crew who knows decoys are a thing and will not be easily lured into shooting".
The "never positively ID'ed" issue notwithstanding, this would seem to be the author's intent.
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
this would seem to be the author's intent.
Although true in most instances, I didn't fully grasp the issue and failed to compensate. The IADS in this scenario are definitely lacking in the 'I' and the 'S' category after being subjected to 2 1/2 days of continuous attack. So a weapons free WRA is more appropriate, and that's what I have switched it to.
The risk from a Cuban point of view is shooting down an unidentified civilian but the US has been steering them away, or shooting down an 'out of comms' friendly, a small risk as most AC they send up aren't coming home anyway. Considering the number of incoming attackers I think they would shoot first and sort out the details later.
A lone sentry in the dark: 'HALT!' - Bang - 'Who went there?'
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
you can use exclusion zones to get SAMs to target incoming decoy waves.
i agree though in that "vampires" are auto-ID'ed and decoys should probably be included in that category, or at least until they are positively ID'ed as a decoy.
i agree though in that "vampires" are auto-ID'ed and decoys should probably be included in that category, or at least until they are positively ID'ed as a decoy.
-
- Posts: 330
- Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:04 am
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
this would seem to be the author's intent
I tend to assume any designer that puts ALDs in their scenario wants them to work at luring missile shots. When is not the case, most of them don't bother adding them to base stores.
It would be an interesting exercise putting them in a weapons tight scenario, along with a clear but unobtrusive advertence in the briefing about enemy IADS training and competence.
Then see how many people heard the warning and left the decoys in the stores, and how many waste a big chunk of their strikers launching literally useless munitions; but I've never seen that done.
Ancalagon
RE: New Scenario for testing - Caribbean Fury 2 - Retribution!
Ok Here's the final version. Going up on the community thread.
Thanks for your help
Thanks for your help
- Attachments
-
- Caribbean..on1994.zip
- (667.8 KiB) Downloaded 28 times
Check out our novel, Northern Fury: H-Hour!: http://northernfury.us/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/
And our blog: http://northernfury.us/blog/post2/
Twitter: @NorthernFury94 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/northernfury/