New Scenario for Testing Med Fury 10 - Convoy Ho, 1994

[Gunner98]

Hello all

Just getting back into CMO after a while so thought I'd pump out a relatively simple scenario to get back into the swing of things.


Mediterranean Fury 10, Convoy Ho!

04 March, 1994, 0500 MST, 0200 Zulu, 0400 Local

Well into the third week of the war and you have now been at sea for 52 days since departing Zapadnaya Litsa naval base on the Kola peninsula.

You command the newest member of the older generation of sub, a Project 671RTMK Shchuka. NATO call this a Victor III but this boat should be quieter than normal. Since an exiting transit of the Gibraltar Straights, you have met up with an SSK and been in contact with some Spetsnaz.

NATO is sending a major convoy through the Mediterranean to unload in France and it is your job to stop it.

Any comments or critiques welcome

[maverick3320]

Awesome, can't wait - especially since it's from the Soviet side!

Just to confirm - Med Fury 7, 8, and 9 are still in the works, correct?

[Nikel]

Thanks for the scenario.

There is a second file besides the .scen.

Should it be the .ini?

[Gunner98]

MF #7 is out there already: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... e#p5079460

MF# 8 us largely done but it was a while back. MF# 9 is concept only at this stage but on the table to get done. Just need to get back into it.

@Nikel - yes the 2nd file is supposed to be the .ini, did I mess that up?

B

[Nikel]

The second file has no extension, it is not a .ini file, besides its size seems bigger with respect to other .ini files.

[maverick3320]

MF #7 is out there already: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... e#p5079460

MF# 8 us largely done but it was a while back. MF# 9 is concept only at this stage but on the table to get done. Just need to get back into it.

@Nikel - yes the 2nd file is supposed to be the .ini, did I mess that up?

B

How could I forget - I actually played MF #7 and really enjoyed it.

[Gunner98]

Anything on this one guys?

B

[Fido81]

I think the balance might benefit from an air or space ISR asset (maybe 1 IMINT or ELINT satellite?).
Hiding from MPAs in an SSK while searching for a convoy certainly sounds realistic, but does not make for consistently awesome gameplay.

[Ilya78]

I made a stupid mistake and missed the entire convoy. I detected the radar signal of a Lynx helicopter by the Kilo at periscope depth, but I didn't turn the submarines towards it. When a fishing boat detected the HMS Scylla, I was very far from them. I must restart, but I feel I will fail miserably...

[Gunner98]

Thanks guys

OK I'll put some more ISR in.

Storyline rules out satellites, all of the effective ISR ones were taken down early in the conflict. Amazingly the US only had a handful in the early 90's, ESA, Japan or anyone besides the Soviets- none. The GPS cluster is in a much lower orbit so did not get taken out by the space debris from both the Soviet and US recon satellites. Skylab had re-entered earth orbit almost 15 years before the scenario, ISS was not on the books because of the altered history and wouldn't be available for another 4 years anyway, and Mir had been canceled to fund conventional forces.

Maybe I can put the old favorite, an AN-2 which AndrewJ described as - like a UAV but slower.

The fishing boats were supposed to do the job but I'll add something else.

B

[Ilya78]

What is the role of the two Spetsnaz teams? The northern team saw some MPAs departing from or arriving to Souda Bay (these were detected by the fishing boats anyway), but the southern one?

[Gunner98]

I was thinking of adding random paths to the convoy and they were there to detect anything coming close to the coast, they are pretty high and can see about 50nmi in daylight.

B

[FrangibleCover]

MF#10 Notes

Briefing corrections:
First paragraph, ‘Persian Gulf in on or around’
First paragraph, Tulon > Toulon
The briefing says that I am to get a Paltus, the pumpjet Kilo, but the one I have is just a perfectly normal Kilo.

So, an interesting set up, especially for someone who is bad at submarines, as I am. My immediate instinct was to ignore my orders and just try to murder the Jeanne d’Arc group, which is significantly worse escorted, but the note on scoring makes it clear that that isn’t going to get me enough points for a Triumph. Depending on how hard the scenario is, this might be a viable approach, but for playtesting purposes I’m going to go for all the marbles.

The Run

From the very start there are MPAs crawling all over me, forcing me to stay underwater and quiet, rather than sticking a mast up and trying to get some cheeky ESM hits. One passes right between my subs and must get a sniff of the Victor, because the fishing boats spot it turn around. I go as deep as I can and hope, but it passes back over me and then over my Kilo before flying off. I’m not enjoying the tension here! My fishing boats are all migrating west, so I decide to follow them. Suddenly, I see a huge pile of helicopters turn up, two Seahawks and a Lynx! They seem to have gotten a little cut on the Victor but have lost it by the time they took off and tried to attack.The Lynx is out of fuel pretty quickly and proceeds away down about 128 degrees - A Lynx can carry enough fuel for 110-140nmi of strike radius, so that gets me my first cut on the convoy. Significantly south of where I thought it was. I had better get going.

One Seahawk stays a lot longer than the other, and then a Lynx turns up. My Victor is creeping away towards a very much guessed intercept point and if they want to waste sorties on this, that suits me. What worries me now is making the intercept, with all of my fishermen running rapidly out of position and my boats too far north. I cruise both boats south as fast as I dare, and am rewarded. The Kilo picks up a Leander just to its north. It’s sprinting and it’s exactly the wrong sort of close, not near enough that I could torpedo it and not be heard but near enough that it might well hear me when it slows down. I try to bypass it and hope to be in its baffles by the time it slows back down, while slightly to the west the Victor runs north to get out of its damn way.

I think I’ve done it, and the Kilo appears to be in. Then, slap in front of me, a DD contact appears. This has to be the Nicholson and how it hasn’t detected me I don’t know. Again I try to slip past and reposition the Victor to have a better chance. I wonder if I should just try to kill the Spruance with the Kilo and run… but I hold my nerve. The Kilo has a basically perfect approach through sheer luck and I don’t want to screw it up, I type as the torpedo contact notification appears. The Kilo twists and turns and takes a non-fatal hit from what I assume was Nicholson firing an ASROC. I chuck two torpedoes at the Aliseo, the only thing plausibly in range, and try to flee. Aliseo eats it as the second ASROC misses. I freeze the Kilo, completely still, silent. Maybe this will work? It appears to and it turns out I’ve reloaded. Another pair of torpedoes shoot out from the Kilo, aiming for a VLCC on the south side of the formation, then another pair for a Capesize freighter. The Kilo’s wracked hull springs open and the crew are forced to the surface. A quick-thinking officer scrambles to the bridge and begins screaming the relative bearings and distances of all the merchants he can see as the torpedo crews, already knee deep in water, slam another pair of fish into the two tubes that aren’t bent out of shape. From far in front, 5” shells take flight, but they are beaten to the punch by a pair of Harpoons. The entire fin of B-947 is blown to smithereens and she rolls over. Those last two torpedoes continue to run though, and while one goes stupid after losing its wire the other slams into another helpless VLCC. I don’t appear to have sunk anything except the Aliseo, which is what gave me the space to launch those other six torpedoes, but I’ve certainly caused visible damage, flooding and fires.

The next challenge is what to do with the Victor. I think the answer is to take the option I didn’t take last time: Kill the Nicholson and attack in the confusion. Unfortunately, the confusion is started for me by an Orion overhead, which either drops a torpedo on me or calls in an ASROC. Again, I put some torpedoes in the water and start running. There appears to have been a change to the autoevasion procedures which causes the Victor to put itself on the roof and slow right down, but I take manual command and chuck another two giant wake homers at the FFG Coventry. The enemy torpedo hits and I lose my torpedo reloads, but I’m still technically afloat, or at least not dead. The last of my torpedos are thrown into a ULCC and I settle down to perform damage control at 400m of depth. The performance of the crew in what must be nightmarish conditions is superb and they arrest the flooding, put out the fires and permit the submarine to wait, crippled, for the enemy to pass. Sadly, while the main convoy is evaded, one last NEARTIP finishes the job and I am wiped out.

The scenario continues to run, however, which is excellent because the hit ships are presumably still taking water. Sadly, the scenario ends in a disaster, with both of my submarines sunk and very little to show for it. The Aliseo and Coventry both sank, but the Nicholson managed to shrug off a hit from one of the wake homers and despite hitting and immobilising the Ro-Ro, a VLCC and a bulk carrier none of them actually sank. Another VLCC and the ULCC took hits, but the convoy kept pace with them, presumably because the ULCC is the lead ship?

The Other Run

Purely for testing purposes, I decide to go back to a save I made at the decision point against Nicholson. This time I throw a pair of torpedoes right at her and start sprinting to clear datum. Both torpedoes land hits, although they both need a reattack as the Nixie proves its worth again. The Kilo slows back down in time to hear the counterfire arrive, presumably another ASROC. I run away but eat the torpedo, as you’d expect from an SSK, and end up in basically the same situation as before but with Nicholson sunk and Aliseo active. Unfortunately, this time I’m not near enough to the convoy and can only bearing-only what I have in the tubes as a second torpedo closes in on me.

The Victor, following in to the DDG shaped hole, ends up with a ULCC running right at it. I hit it with two wake-homers, hoping for the big warheads to have an effect, then as she passes by apparently unhurt I follow up with two of the general purpose weapons. She slows but still does not sink. Two more and she’s still going. I try for another ULCC and then decide to cut my losses. The last of my loaded torpedoes go for the Leygues and the JdA, which have turned up to my south, and I order the sub away. The Var pops up within range and I flatten her, then save my very last torpedo for an emergency. I don’t have many good directions to go and I’m hoping for the chaos and the engine noises of the convoy to let me break contact to the east, but instead I detect another torpedo. This one must be from an MPA or heli, there aren’t any ships near me and it drops right on me. It hits, as does the second, and again I am wiped out.

That one went a lot better, although there was some odd convoy behaviour caused by stopping but not sinking the lead ship. I get a minor victory, having sunk one ULCC, the Var, the JdA, a Leygues and a Spruance in return for both my subs. That feels fair to me, although the ULCC I hit with six torpedoes didn’t sink and the one I hit with merely four did. The Kilo also got a blind hit on a VLCC.

Thoughts

Overall, a really fun scenario, and small enough for an evening of play. My main takeaway is again that I cannot be trusted with submarines until I stop treating them like self-propelled minefields. I think I was pretty lucky with the ISR situation, I would have been totally bypassed if I hadn’t followed the Lynx home and the odds of getting a sortie from the helicopters that you can track but doesn’t then subsequently sink a sub must be pretty long. The placement and routing of the fishing boats might well be random, but my submarines were more or less at the eastern end of the boat patrol area, where I would have no time to pick up the route of the convoy even if a boat had spotted them, while the other boats were mostly just picking up MPAs in areas I wasn’t in. If the subs were at the western end of the group I think the player would have a much better chance. Another fairly small change would be to add little I band commercial radars to the fishing boats, something that almost all trawlers carry in real life. I’m not sure if these would actually increase the detection potential of the fishermen, the binoculars were doing a pretty good job for me, but it at least gives you a bunch of rings that can help you judge distances and gaps in coverage.

The other matter is scoring damaged units, always a difficult thing to do in Command. I think a points trigger on damaging a high value unit would be too simple and would result in fires aboard shooting your VPs into the thousands, but I also think that getting nothing for crippling a target is wrong. The ULCCs take an incredible amount of sinking! Honestly I think they’re probably not worth shooting at all, you can get three to four times as many points per torpedo against the smaller ships.

[Gunner98]

Great AAR, thank you for your thoughts.

I'll adjust the starting location and try to adjust the boats so they aren't herding in the same direction, I'll put an I-band radar on them as well. Might adjust some other bits.

Thanks

[cosmos3110]

First time writing one of these up, been playing enough of the Fury's I figured I would try and help a bit:

I kept both the Kilo and the Victor patrolling north to south, slowly inching eastward as well. The Kilo patrolled further south and the Victor further north, with their combined patrol area covering 20 nmi squarely between Crete and Libya. I was concerned about moving anything too far north or south for fear of missing the convoy, and I knew I would have the fishing boats to call out the convoy when spotted. Both subs remained deep trying their best to avoid the Orion's patrolling overhead that were occasionally being reported in by my fishing boats.

Finally, contact on the convoy, and the Kilo was in position to engage quickly, while the Victor which was further north at the time moved southwest to try and intercept whatever remained for a followup. I fired a spread into the merchants. My fishing boats were not reporting any helos in the air at the time, so I remained and was able to fire all of my torpedoes into the convoy. I scored multiple hits, and sunk two vessels before going deep and heading quietly north. Meanwhile, the Victor was positioning for a followup on the confused convoy. I was able to get a handful of torpedoes out and score more hits (but no kills) before being swarmed by ASW helos and sunk.

The Kilo survived, but I was only able to sink two vessels and scored a minor victory. Despite this I heavily damaged several other vessels. I stopped 2x VLCC, 1x ULCC, 1x MV, and 1x LR2 dead in the water and crippled another VLCC and ULCC which slowed them to a creep. Submarine scenarios are not my strong suit, so in hindsight I should have kept the Victor in position to sink any vessels that the initial Kilo attack was able to after the escorts left them behind- oh well. I would agree with the comment above that damage to these vessels should garner some type of points, especially the tankers. They may remain afloat, though I imagine that crude oil they are carrying would likely spill, meaning that even if they were recovered, their cargo wouldn't be usable. Exxon Valdez spilled when it hit a reef, so I would hate to imagine what one or two torpedoes would do.

One other small note- looking around in editor afterwards it seems that the NATO Convoy Close ASW mission does not have relative reference points, so it was left behind at the start of the scenario. Perhaps this contributed to the Kilos ability to survive unharassed by ASW helos? This also appears to have caused the two NATO helos to have crashed due to fuel exhaustion

Overall a fun and quick little scenario, and a nice change of pace for me after playing most of the bigger Fury scenarios the past few months- especially from chasing Sov subs in Longest Night. Looking forward to more to come. Thanks for this one.

SIDE: Warsaw Pact
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x PLA-671RTMK Victor III [Shchuka]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
12x 53-65K WH
6x Generic Acoustic Decoy
6x USET-80K
4x 65-76 Kit WH



SIDE: NATO
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x AB.212 ASW [SH-212A]
1x Commercial Container Vessel - Panamax [4,500 TEU, 65,000t DWT]
1x Commercial Tanker - Very Large Crude Carrier [300,000t DWT]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
411x AN/SSQ-53B DIFAR
289x AN/SSQ-77A VLAD
280x BIT-3 LOFAR
318x AN/SSQ-62B DICASS
59x SSQ-963A CAMBS III
95x AN/SSQ-47 Julie Active Range-Only
3x Mk46 NEARTIP Mod 5

[Gunner98]

Thanks for the report, much appreciated.

B