New scenario for testing PF#4, I come from a land Down Under

[Gunner98]

Here is the next offering in the Pacific theatre.

Pacific Fury 4, I Come from a Land Down Under, 1994

You are Commander of the newly formed Combined Task Force 165 (CTF-165). Your TF consists of mostly Australian and New Zealand assets but there are also American, Pilipino, Bruneian and British forces assigned to you. Your primary task is the reinforcement of Brunei, a small British aligned Sultanate rich in oil and natural gas on the Northwest coast of Borneo.

The main opposition is from the Soviet base at Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam but based on events of the past few days you should be prepared for anything.

As always your thoughts, comments and critiques are welcome.

Enjoy

Edit: Ver 1.3 uploaded - final

[BDukes]

Still haven't tried a Vegimite Sandwich...

Looks awesome Gunner!

Mike

[AndrewJ]

Dang, that's a lot of tiny little straits to get stuck in. Perfect SS hunting grounds. [:(]

Edit: Lord help me if they've decided to mine them.

[Fido81]

This is...complicated.

Most of the orders pass a sanity check, but it's less than obvious how to get the Hueys from Darwin to Brunei. A 240-mile ferry range is insufficient to reach TG Endeavour, which is the nearest friendly site with available parking for A/C of that size at the start. I suppose we'll see if that changes as the scenario progresses.

Because of the 'be prepared for anything' mindset the briefing called for, I was too cautious in my initial deployments - I didn't have any MPA airborne when the first sub strikes happened, which was on me. But I looked at the OOB and there really was nothing I could have done about the initial bomber strikes (or really any until I could deploy the NZ forces).

About 3 hours in, I checked the path of TG Endeavour - it looks like even if it maintains flank speed, it can't get to the Brunei RPs before the scenario end time.

Approximately 6 hours in, it happened that HMS Chatham was unable to transit the Sunda Strait, even when I plotted the course, and was required to go the long way around Indonesia.

A few hours after that, I discovered I was unable to rebase aircraft to El Tari (though this more than any other play issue may have been PEBCAK).

I forgot to turn on autosave, and lost my progress when windows picked this moment to force an update. [:(]

[Gunner98]

This is...complicated.

Yes[8D]

You may want to consider the Pilipino F-5s in your initial defence of Brunei. In many ways the early phase is a case of shadow boxing around Brunei, you cannot do very much, but neither can they. I do like watching the MiG-25s bomb from 60000 feet and miss by several hundred meters through [:D]

I believe that TG Endeavour can --just -- make it in time, but I'll need playtesters to advise me on that.

HMS Chatham can make it through the Sunda Strait, although I ran into the same pathing issue. Plotting a detailed course is needed to assist the pathing algorithm though

?PEBCAK? El Tari should be able to take your DH-4s - once you have landing authority

There are a few more complications waiting for you.

[AndrewJ]

What's the relationship like between the Philippines and Brunei? Could their F-5's stop in for a cup of tea and a biscuit, without causing an international crisis?

[Gunner98]

ORIGINAL: AndrewJ

What's the relationship like between the Philippines and Brunei? Could their F-5's stop in for a cup of tea and a biscuit, without causing an international crisis?

Yes, but there is no ammo waiting for them there. I do understand that the tea is rather nice.

[AndrewJ]

Found the convoy at ~ 0600 Hrs on the morning of the 15th, but it's stopped, with a manually set speed of zero. Is there an event which should set it going at a specific time, or should I give it a nudge?

[Gunner98]

Very strange - should have a manual set speed of 12 knts

Best you give it a nudge

Also can you send me a PM with the lat/long. With distances the way they are it needs to get south a bit before you can use some of your assets.

Tx

[HalfLifeExpert]

I've loaded it up, but I've encountered pretty frustrating lag on realtime mode.

[Gunner98]

Didn't get that, there are a lot of No-nav zones however. The AU count is fairly low.

Not sure why that might be happening

B

[AndrewJ]

<Knocks on door of diplomatic liaison staff.> So, no armed MPA in the Philippines. What about tankers? Completely unarmed, absolutely harmless, the cleanest and cuddliest planes you could imagine. Purely a goodwill visit, honest!

[Gunner98]

Well if you recall the last scenario - there is a bit of a security issue there [8D]

So after the debacle (not so bad for you as it is in our story) of Cubi Point, the USAF is not keen on parking any more of their shiny big jets here...[X(] Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore - those are political issues, the Philippians is security.

Sorry [;)]

[AndrewJ]

Ah yes, the rebellion, I'd not considered that. Mortar shells make for uncomfortable airfields.


There are 72 Harpoons at Guam. Were these intended to be there for the P-3s to use? Or are they left over from another scenario?


EDIT: Nevermind! Now I see what they're for. [:D]

[AndrewJ]

The Convoy 3 attack order mentions both B-52s at Guam and F-111s at Amberley, but the Lua action does not create the F-111s.

Should I add them, or have they been removed from the scenario?

[Gunner98]

The F-111s should be there, that Lua action was working. I'll have to take another look

6x F-111 and 2x RF-111

[HalfLifeExpert]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98

Didn't get that, there are a lot of No-nav zones however. The AU count is fairly low.

Not sure why that might be happening

B

Yeah, it's not at scenario outset, but it seems to start up within a few minutes of realtime play. All I really do is add some additional course legs to guide my vessels through Indonesia, and a ferry mission to start redeploying RNZAF aircraft toward Brunei (first leg from NZ to Townsville).

Additionally, the lag also seems to coincide with the Malaysians launching their aircraft patrols.

Within 5-10 minutes it starts to stutter to the point of not really being playable.

Yesterday I tried to overcome it by moving the CMO install to my main OS SSD Drive (a handy feature Steam offers) and there was no change. There's really no save to post as this consistently happens on loading the scenario fresh.

Additionally, the groups of off-short oil rigs off Brunei seem to keep flashing between group and unit view.

[Gunner98]

Additionally, the groups of off-short oil rigs off Brunei seem to keep flashing between group and unit view

I noticed this as well, something to do with detections. I could make them allied but thought that would give too much info to the players.

I did not notice the lag, played through the first day + on 5/15/fire speed and it sailed along really quick. Some of the pathing solutions were really weird and went in and fixed it with a detailed course but it didn't slow down too much.

Perhaps as a test if you cold disable all the No-nav zones and see if that makes a difference?

B

[HalfLifeExpert]

Sure I'll have a look at the No Nav zones

[AndrewJ]

Just got the request from New Guinea. Their bases are legitimate places to land aircraft, yes?

Although I don't know how to get a helicopter there. The closest ones at Darwin don't have remotely enough range to get there, even ferrying base to base. Was there supposed to be some sort of long-ranged helicopter at Sherger, or something like that?