Command: Showcase Feedback

Command Showcase is a series of scenarios that will put you in command of the most significant weapons sensors and units in the modern era with new and hypothetical theaters of war.

Moderator: MOD_Command

Post Reply
User avatar
HalfLifeExpert
Posts: 1161
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:39 pm
Location: California, United States

Command: Showcase Feedback

Post by HalfLifeExpert »

I've completed my first attempt at Command: Showcase, and I must say that I have mixed feelings about it:

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:
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.
A little redundant as it doesn't really say much anything different from 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.
This is very good intel to have, but since the sub left port two days ago, shouldn't this be in the Briefing?

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.
bsmithwins
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:18 pm

Re: Command: Showcase Feedback

Post by bsmithwins »

To add on to the above, with minor spoilers:

1) The 4xF-35Bs reinforcements that fly in from Brunei to the QE TF are configured so they can't actually use any of the munitions on the QE''s magazines, so one they have refueled and fly one sortie with the weapons they come with they are useless.

2) The JSDF strike package based at Naha is at the very end of its strike range by the time the PLAN starts shooting.

3) The escorts come stuffed full of Tomahawks but I've got seclusion zones around all the PLAN bases and radars. What I don't have is ASMs even though it's a very target rich environment.

Can these and the other problems be fixed with the scenario editor? Yes. Would this be ok for a scenario someone posted to the workshop? Also yes.

These type of problems should have been found and fixed during play testing. It's rather annoying to need to fix immersion breaking problems like this before a paid scenario plays right.

BSW
tylerblakebrandon
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon May 11, 2020 5:16 pm

Re: Command: Showcase Feedback

Post by tylerblakebrandon »

bsmithwins wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:57 pm
3) The escorts come stuffed full of Tomahawks but I've got seclusion zones around all the PLAN bases and radars. What I don't have is ASMs even though it's a very target rich environment.
I don't see this as an issue. It's a realistic constraint that blue would have to deal with at the time the scenario is set.
Vulcan607
Posts: 105
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2018 2:05 pm

Re: Command: Showcase Feedback

Post by Vulcan607 »

Went to reply the scenario after the update and there are no weapons in Brunei and got a message about not enough hanger space on a frigate
Post Reply

Return to “Command: Showcase”