Overall the scenario setup is pretty good, but the actual playing experience wasn't that great.
The issues I had are as follows:
1) QE Group is only a small part:
Since this has been said elsewhere I won't say much other than that the scenario marketing does not match the actual scenario. You have to manage alot more than the Queen Elizabeth, especially since you have two larger carrier groups at your disposal. After a while I kind of forgot about the QE and her escorts.
2) Hypersonic Weapons:
It's great to finally have these in a scenario, but they ended up being useless for two different reasons
A) The HAWC onboard one of Andersen's B-52s has a nuclear warhead. With the standard No Nukes doctrine naturally in place, I can't use it at all.
B) The Carl Vinson has 3x F-35s armed with experimental Anti-Ship Hypersonic Missiles. This is great. However, when I actually used them, against Liaoning's group, they were all shot down in rather short order. Turns out these "Hypersonic" weapons only travel at a speed of 1600 knots (or Mach 2.39). Hypersonic is generally defined as Mach 5 and higher. The DB entry of these missiles needs to be updated soon as these weapons do not have performance that match their description.
3) Taiwan and Briefing/orders
There's several issues here:
A) First there's no mention of Taiwan at all in the briefing (or the Oil platforms for that matter). I have no idea what the situation is with them or what my ROE with regard to Taiwanese actions are. Pretty big omissions given their importance to the scenario.
B) Second, when Hostilities start between China and Taiwan (after a nice period of tense maneuvers) there's no situation update. I don't know how this affects my mission or what to do. I'm in the dark.
Ultimately I stayed on the sidelines for a while.
I made the call to enter the fight only after USS Oklahoma City was sunk by an ASW helo when the sub was close to Liaoning, waiting for clearance to open fire.
I only received two special messages during my entire playthrough:
A little redundant as it doesn't really say much anything different from the briefing.FM COMUKTG
CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS
SUB-SURFACE
1. UNITS ARE TO CONDUCT OVERT ASW OPERATIONS AGAINST SUB-SURFACE CONTACTS USING ALL AVAILABLE ASSETS, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORISED TO ATTACK UNLESS IN SELF DEFENCE.
SURFACE
1. UNITS ARE TO CONDUCT SURVEILANCE OF CHINESE UNITS DURING FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION OPERATIONS USING FW AND RW AND UAV ASSETS.
AIR
1. AEW ASSETS TO CONDUCT AREA SURVEILANCE WITH LAND BASED AND ORGANIC FW ASSETS PROVIDING AIR DEFENCE, FIGHTERS TO USE ARR AT RELEVENT TEXACO STATIONS.
This is very good intel to have, but since the sub left port two days ago, shouldn't this be in the Briefing?FM NORTHWOOD
1. TAIWANESE SUBMARINE LEFT HOME PORT TWO DAYS AGO AND IS BELIEVED TO BE IN THE VICINITY OF THE BATANES ISLANDS.
2. SUBMARINE IS A MOD ZWAARDVIS CLASS.
C) Taiwan's posture toward the player side needs tweaking, as I had an instance of Taiwanese fighters trying to shoot down my missiles headed toward the Shandong group.
4) Other issues
A) A minor issue: USS Georgia's patrol mission is an ASUW (Ground) Mission. Not only is this clearly a mistake, I think it should be changed to a simple patrol or support mission, as it really isn't a hunter-killer sub.
B) The stated mission of USS Gabrielle Giffords: The stated mission is to conduct surveillance of Woody Island. Great. However the No-Nav Zone around the island doesn't really seem to make this possible. I ended up successfully using her 8x NSMs against a DF-21 battery on Hainan.
C) When I did join the battle on my own initiative, the Chinese didn't seem to respond as aggressively as I thought they would, despite the fact that, by my elective decision, I had my carrier groups turn their Radars on (a calculated risk on my part due to my fear of those DF-21s.) Maybe this has to do with the fact that I entered the fight mostly on my own initiative, but this should be looked at again.
I ultimately elected to call an end to the scenario after all of my attempts to strike Liaoning failed with no hits scored (no losses to own side though). My only casualties were Oklahoma City and HMS Artful. Both from ASW helos near to Liaoning and Shandong respectively. Oklahoma City's torpedo salvo completely missed. Artful's salvo was cut in half due to a hit from the helo, but the 3x Torpedoes I did launch all struck Shandong, which succumbed to that damage and later sank.
I think this DLC could have used some more time in the oven prior to release.