Can you both write up how the situation appears from your perspectives while the game is underway? Is there a pause button that allows for you to do that? Or will it be too balls to the wall?
Yeah we can.
It's hotseat IGO-UGO so one of use plays for X amount of time, then then other for X amount of time; control of the turn duration is given to the admin of the game (me).
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The setup so far is that both of us have a single midsized airfield with 14 aircraft (2 Martime Patrol Aircraft and 12 F/A-18Fs) and a surface action group consisting of 4 LCS, one Burke DDG and one Zumwalt DDG. I'm playing the glorious nation of Bluncovia, tasked with countering the nefarious aggression of Garnetia. Both of which are Caribbean nations; Bluncovia, which bears a strong resemblance to Florida and Garnetia which is about where Puerto Rico would be if such a nation existed.
So far there has been no action at all, which was completely expected. I sized the battle-space and set aircraft readiness so that the game wouldn't consist of us exchanging alpha-strikes right off the bat and letting RNGesus take the wheel. Instead, we're going to have to locate each other in all this civilian traffic, then ready strikes against what are certainly going to be some seriously capable surface forces. Also in order to more or less "force" us to fight instead setting sail for the Azores/Newfoundland we're using an informal, "if I blow up your airbase you lose", condition. Which means both of us have to keep the Zumwalts away from those bases.
For fairly obvious reasons I'm not gonna upload screenshots right now, but instead I'm gonna mark posts to remind myself to put pictures in later.
So, how re you dealing with the possibility that one person could start their turn in a position to launch an attack that won't be reacted to for a decent time? Is C:MANO simply not sensitive to microing in that way (enough is automated and response times are long)?
Oh man, IRL I would have been fired by now. At this point I am forced to sink more Russia ships because their SAMs are shooting at me and my PGMs. I tasked a flight of F-18Cs from the American carrier, and a flight of Super Retards from the French one to drop JSOWs and LGBs onto the remaining ships and port facilities.
Right now I'm conducting fighter sweeps. I'll have Rufus know that the first AA kills were made by my Rafales, then the Typhoons got in a few, my Hornets were the last (but they've gotten the only WVR kills). I'm taking a page out of Captain James Thatch's playbook to enforce my air superiority, namely the Big Blue Blanket. Instead of splitting my fighters into sweeps and escorts and the various CAPs I'm putting my fighters directly over the Syrian airfields, allowing my other aircraft to freely roam around leisurely.
Picture (A big blue blanket):
PS at some point I hit some civilian shipping that was in or around the port too. Fuck it right? I mean I've already screwed up enough of the politics what a few dozen merchant mariners. Also I think Israel is firing SAMs at me too, I can't really tell because I rotating between dedicated EW aircraft ATM while I work.
You say you've got the Super Retards running in against naval groups with LGBs, you've got fighter groups running air supremacy operations and there are A-10s somewhere doing something. How is this co-ordinated?
You give a tutorial later in the thread on using LGBs against shipping, where one hugs the horizon before tossing an LGB at them hopefully before you've even been seen. Do you have to set up macros (or some kind of order list of sorts) for different units? So you can tell each group what to do and let them off the lease until something goes wrong or they RTB?
Or does this require a lot of micromanagement of each unit, like you have to follow the LGB group to the ships' radar horizon range then command them to gain altitude, release, and escape while you quickly scurry off to work out why you're losing Typhoons in a supposedly clear patch of sky?
You say you've got the Super Retards running in against naval groups with LGBs, you've got fighter groups running air supremacy operations and there are A-10s somewhere doing something. How is this co-ordinated?
You give a tutorial later in the thread on using LGBs against shipping, where one hugs the horizon before tossing an LGB at them hopefully before you've even been seen. Do you have to set up macros (or some kind of order list of sorts) for different units? So you can tell each group what to do and let them off the lease until something goes wrong or they RTB?
Or does this require a lot of micromanagement of each unit, like you have to follow the LGB group to the ships' radar horizon range then command them to gain altitude, release, and escape while you quickly scurry off to work out why you're losing Typhoons in a supposedly clear patch of sky?
It's hard for me to remember the details exactly, but I was automating some of the process with missions (the fighters I had covering Syrian airbases, and my ELINT aircraft) while focusing mainly on organizing my tankers and the strike portion of my air-to-ground missions.
I don't micromanage engagements to the degree I did when figuring out how to attack (defended) ships with LGBs. That was a test to see if I could pull it off. I did it by manually changing altitude and airspeed the whole way. If forced to I could do it without as much micromanagement now (the devs added a way to better control the distribution of weapons, along with me figuring out better ways of doing the same thing). My direct participation is usually limited to tanker organization (and related functions) and managing a specific kind of air-to-air engagement. If things go bad I'm normally not in a position to salvage things, like when the unexpected SAMs attacked my Typhoons, there was really nothing I could do that they weren't already doing (running away at maximum speed). Typically by time I know something bad is happening it's already happened and I'm just waiting on the Butcher's Bill.
Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains twelve brand-new scenarios:
WEC Davos Attacked by Terrorists, 2016: The World Economic Forum (WEC) is hosted every year in Davos, Switzerland, and attended by numerous political, diplomatic and industry leaders. This year, anonymous threats of a terrorist attack on the event have prompted heavier-than-usual security measures by the local authorities, including the Swiss police and army as well as support by Austrian and NATO air forces.
Black Tiger I, 2015: The last remnants of USMC Afghanistan veterans are returning to CONUS and transiting the straits of Hormuz, along with the Carl Vinson CSG. But a covertly Russia-backed Iran is determined not to allow safe passage.
Black Tiger II, 2015: Earlier today, a section of Superhornets was forced to intercept and drive off Iranian MiGs that flew out over Gulf waters to harrass and 'thump' a maritime patrol plane. As the excitement of the morning fades and night falls, there are growing indications that fresh trouble may be brewing...
Black Tiger III, 2015: In the past two days, several incidents have increased tensions to the boiling point. Iranian fighters have harrassed U.S. maritime patrol aircraft and flown aggressively in the airspace surrounding the two naval groups. Even worse, several missile-armed gunboats fought a surface action against the 5th Fleet on the night of February 6th. Although Iran claims that the boats were manned by Al Quaeda insurgents and that they had nothing to do with the incident, intelligence sources believe the craft involved were actually Iranian naval units flying under false colors, and the diplomatic fallout hasn't stopped yet. This afternoon, Carrier Strike Group 3 will stand on station just west of the Strait of Hormuz, watching tensely as the Tarawa group makes the transit.
Black Tiger IV, 2015: In the past two days, several incidents have increased tensions to the boiling point. Today the USS Carl Vinson and her escorts plan to transit the strait behind their amphibious group, but they have no idea the horror that awaits them. For decades, it has been nothing more than a respect for the strength of the United States that has kept the Strait of Hormuz open to the world. With Iran on the brink of becoming a nuclear power and with the windfall of top line military equipment they have obtained, the time has come for the regional balance of power to shift decisively. The Iranians are planning to hand the United States Navy the most crushing defeat it has ever seen, seize control of the Persian Gulf - and hold it.
Black Tiger V, 2015: Bolstered by a new secret alliance with Russia and the influx of a wealth of modern aircraft and weapons systems, the Iranians have executed their plans to become a nuclear power and seize permanent control of the Persian Gulf region. A surprise attack on US ships transiting the Hormuz has resulted in heavy casualties and effective blocking of the straits. Iran capitalyzed on the ensuing confusion and temporary paralysis to successfully test its first nuclear weapon and declare itself a nuclear power. Now the U.S. Navy plans to carry out an operation to re-open the straits and restore freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. For this operation, a couple of USN late Cold War projects, the F-14E Tomcat 21 and the AIM-152A AAAM missile (the replacement for the Phoenix) are coming out of the mothballs.
Trans-Atlantic Convoy Duty, 1985: WWIII has broken out in Europe with the classic Soviet thrust through the Fulda Gap. Unfortunately, the Soviets have also managed to take Iceland, taking effective control of the GIUK gap and leaving the northern convoy routes exposed and vulnerable. Defend the convoy and your battle group from Soviet attack.
Facing the Bear (The War That Never Was), 1989: Northern Norway may have been the most important theater in the world if the Cold War ever went hot. US reinforcements had to be shipped across the Atlantic in convoys of slow transports vulnerable to Soviet submarines and long-range naval aviation assets. The outcomes of the titanic battles in Germany were completely dependent upon a much smaller battle that would have unfolded in a sparsely-populated, harsh Nordic environment. This scenario, playable from the Soviet side, tries to capture the first stage of that battle.
Comte De Grasse's Squadron, 1988: World War III has broken out. Limited-scale chemical and tactical-nuclear exchanges have been performed, but so far confined strictly to the Central Front and at sea. During these first few critical days of the war, one of the goals of the American navy is to secure the vital sea lanes of the Atlantic so that convoys will be able to resupply NATO forces in the coming weeks. As part of this effort, a task force centered around the American destroyer Comte de Grasse has been assigned to patrol the waters near the Azores.
Uncle Mark's Tutorials #3 - Yorktown in the Gulf of Sidra, 1985: Libya has long made the claim that the entire Gulf of Sidra is its territorial waters, as opposed to the normal 12-mile limit prescribed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The US is sending a message by deliberately moving its ships through what the rest of the world considers international waters. This time the Aegis cruiser Yorktown, damaged from a recent explosion but still battle-worthy, has drawn the lot.
Kingdom Come, 2018: Following an abortive assassination attempt on the King of Saudi Arabia, compelling links between the assassins and the Egyptian national intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, quickly came to light. In the ensuing furor, diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis between the two countries failed as each side dug in their heels. The Saudis would tolerate nothing less than having the responsible parties delivered to them immediately, while the Egyptians were still reeling from the realization that the Mukhabarat had initiated such an outrage without official sanction - but to save face would not admit so. With only hours to go before the deadline of the Saudi's ultimatum, the Egyptians came to the conclusion, under the circumstances, that war was the more tenable option. The Kingdom would oblige.
Sinking A Battlewagon, 1990: With the construction of the Kirov-class battlecruisers, the US Navy once again faces armored, large enemy combatants. This experiment, with an Iowa as the target, tests the effectiveness of submarine weapons against such targets.
@Apocal v @poaw IGOUGO match is a go as soon as he gets back.
Cleared hot for mirror match.
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I went with exact mirrors and familiar (US) equipment because this is a test run.
Scenario is missing basically any and all events (scoring, missions, etc), so it's pretty static, but it should be....elucidating.
Trans-Atlantic Convoy Duty, 1985: WWIII has broken out in Europe with the classic Soviet thrust through the Fulda Gap. Unfortunately, the Soviets have also managed to take Iceland, taking effective control of the GIUK gap and leaving the northern convoy routes exposed and vulnerable. Defend the convoy and your battle group from Soviet attack.
It went something like this:
D+0
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
"Yes, I am inside of Cuba."
I was so focused on avoiding a 3 turn mutual missile massacre that I made the battlespace waaay to big, along with hampering ISR efforts in every way I knew how. I started the scenario at night, put in a cloud layer between 20,000 and 23,000ft which would prevent ships from using IR sensors to detect/track/identify aircraft and vice versa.
Knowing I was in for a long haul I left my MPAs on the ground and saved their sorties for when I was closer and more able to deliver an attack. This part is important because during their time on station, the necessity of flying below the clouds meant they were pretty fuel inefficient and couldn't stay for more than a few hours and I didn't bother putting in tankers (I really should have).
D+7 hours
Eventually I managed to get my ships in the water, and moved towards my objective (his base). I elected to break up my SAG and mimic all the civilian traffic rather than leaving my ships in a moto-formation and giving myself away when he detected 6 surface contacts spread across about 15nmi all on the same heading and at the same speed. So I had the 3 LCS sailing around at all kinds of weird speeds that the civilian traffic was at (18kts, 12 kts, 10kts), and with the most advanced one using a civilian surface search radar (my thinking being it would be detected passively and ignored by him because it was using a civilian radar).
It looked like this:
"No one expects the south-of-Cuba Inquisition!"
My forces weren't massed to strike his ships at this point; which was fine because I hadn't even found him yet. The ship that is still grouped (the double-lined circle is the Zumwalt, the three in "front" (based on rough heading) of it are the LCS, the tail-end Charlie is my Burke (because it got stuck in Cuba longer than the rest) and the one in the middle is a lone LCS. My plan at this point was to simply meander towards his base with the 3 LCS and Zumwalt before lighting up the solo-LCS as a decoy/bait (I was planning on matching speed and heading with some commercial traffic to make it look like several of my ships moving in formation to bait out a significant attack on them), then either attacking his forces as they revealed themselves from an unexpected direction or simply sprinting passed them once he was out of AShMs and his aircraft were rearming (the Zumwalt's gun is BRUTAL on exposed aircraft) to attack and win. Sounds like a solid plan and only after getting my ass handed to me for not massing to maximize defensive firepower could a Monday morning quarterback tell me otherwise.
That did not happen.
D+9 Hours.
I'm still puttering around trying to play catch up with my defensive line (the Burke) while randomly altering my course and slowly moving my forces towards his base. There is literally nothing more than that which I am doing. I'm just moving. All of a sudden I get a detection.
Not only does this idiot have an MPA up and puttering around, he has it's radar turned on so my my southernmost LCS detects and tracks it. I use the distance tool to confirm how far away it (likely) is, and dispatch a second LCS to see if I can triangulate it. That narrows down the area of ambiuity enough for me to verify what I want to be true: it's in range for the Zumwalt to sling SM-6s at it (130nmi). So I light up ye olde raydar, get a solid track, launch and wait:
"Not with a bang, but with a whimper."
The scenario basically ended at this point for all intents and purposes. @Apocal 's patience was up shortly thereafter and agreed to end it after stalling for a few days. I would have posted this immediately but he was actually pissed off.
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
Because of my poorly made scenario part of my force of surface combatants spawn on dry land. "Whoops". Anyway they can still move so I have to drive them into the ocean and organize my forces.
