Herman Hum
03 Mar 05, 17:44
Tried this one as the British side first. After examining all of the assets available to me, I realized that the dearth of fighters was going to present a major problem but what’s a commander to do…
Right from the beginning, the SCUDs from Syria were detected by Akrotiri. Luckily, they only hit one runway so did not impede air operations in the slightest from Cyprus. That was to prove providential in the upcoming fight.
I ordered all of my already airborne platforms to perform reconnaissance on the mass of unidentified ships in the Eastern Mediterranean. I was very worried that some PTMs might have been able to get within missile range without being detected. Once hostile vessels had been identified, I assigned the bombers that were already aloft to attack and destroy them. I had great respect for their SSMs capabilities after examining my woefully weak SAM defences.
Things were going well, initially. However, the French were having a difficult time. Their CAPs were unable to prevent them from being classified and then attacked with Kelt missiles. CV Clemenceau was sunk and, without air cover, the Egyptians kept piling on. The attacks sank 2 Kersaint, 3 Surcouf, and 1 Normand vessel. A diesel submarine also managed to fire and destroy one vessel before being pounced upon and sunk by ASW assets. All that I could think about at the moment was, “Better him than me.” As fate would have it, my turn would be coming very soon…
I tried to keep the AI as blind as possible by killing his recon assets but there simply were not enough missiles on my CAP to do the job and, eventually, a Beagle managed to identify the Victorious Strike group and the CL bombardment force. My fighters were drawn southward in an attempt to protect the SAG from the Fagots that had launched to attack her. Doing so opened the CV up for attack and 2 waves of AS-Kelts were detected inbound. All missiles tracked on the Fife and blew her clean out of the water with few survivors. However, the CVG was spared the full lethality of these potent ASMs as Fife was the only victim.
My ASW screens did not go unchallenged. At least 3 encounters with submarines were registered but I suffered no losses while putting paid to all three sea wolves. The number of false contacts did do a nice job of diverting some of my available ASW assets to attack them. Luckily, I had sufficient assets in reserve to successfully prosecute all of the attackers.
I was learning just how limited my aerial assets were. The Javelins operating out of Cyprus barely had the legs to intercept stationary targets much less perform CAP missions. Their 6 hour readiness cycles meant that I had to use them very judiciously indeed or else suffer the fate of the Victorious group; a sitting duck without defences. To their credit, they managed to close and silence many of the EW aircraft and permit the AEW assets to perform adequately.
After culling some of the enemy AAW missions, I decided to gamble and launched my mailed fist; the Vulcan, Canberra, and Buccaneer bombers. The phenomenal range of the bombers gave me plenty of flexibility. I decided on a very long round-about route to the targets. This decision paid off handsomely as my Cypriot units made their ingress over Eastern Egypt without any opposition. Their first mission was to silence Cairo, where all the heavy bombers were suspected of being based.
They were wildly successful in dropping all the hangars before turning their attention to Jiyanklis and Al Mansurah. Both of those bases were also incapacitated without a single SAM being fired in their defence. I was very concerned about the IADS but penetrated at low altitude and, I later found out, around the SAM belts. Whew.
The Buccaneers from the CV Victorious strike group also took a circuitous route towards their target, Mersa Matruh air base. Unfortunately, not circuitous enough! They overflew a SA-6 site and only managed to escape loss by pure luck before proceeding to shut down that airfield, too. After silencing the Egyptian military, it was simply a long transit mission to Port Said to fulfill the victory conditions.
A very enjoyable scenario. Thank you for putting it together.
Cheers,
Herman
Get the scenario here (http://www.harpoonhq.com/harpoon3/colonialwars/).
Right from the beginning, the SCUDs from Syria were detected by Akrotiri. Luckily, they only hit one runway so did not impede air operations in the slightest from Cyprus. That was to prove providential in the upcoming fight.
I ordered all of my already airborne platforms to perform reconnaissance on the mass of unidentified ships in the Eastern Mediterranean. I was very worried that some PTMs might have been able to get within missile range without being detected. Once hostile vessels had been identified, I assigned the bombers that were already aloft to attack and destroy them. I had great respect for their SSMs capabilities after examining my woefully weak SAM defences.
Things were going well, initially. However, the French were having a difficult time. Their CAPs were unable to prevent them from being classified and then attacked with Kelt missiles. CV Clemenceau was sunk and, without air cover, the Egyptians kept piling on. The attacks sank 2 Kersaint, 3 Surcouf, and 1 Normand vessel. A diesel submarine also managed to fire and destroy one vessel before being pounced upon and sunk by ASW assets. All that I could think about at the moment was, “Better him than me.” As fate would have it, my turn would be coming very soon…
I tried to keep the AI as blind as possible by killing his recon assets but there simply were not enough missiles on my CAP to do the job and, eventually, a Beagle managed to identify the Victorious Strike group and the CL bombardment force. My fighters were drawn southward in an attempt to protect the SAG from the Fagots that had launched to attack her. Doing so opened the CV up for attack and 2 waves of AS-Kelts were detected inbound. All missiles tracked on the Fife and blew her clean out of the water with few survivors. However, the CVG was spared the full lethality of these potent ASMs as Fife was the only victim.
My ASW screens did not go unchallenged. At least 3 encounters with submarines were registered but I suffered no losses while putting paid to all three sea wolves. The number of false contacts did do a nice job of diverting some of my available ASW assets to attack them. Luckily, I had sufficient assets in reserve to successfully prosecute all of the attackers.
I was learning just how limited my aerial assets were. The Javelins operating out of Cyprus barely had the legs to intercept stationary targets much less perform CAP missions. Their 6 hour readiness cycles meant that I had to use them very judiciously indeed or else suffer the fate of the Victorious group; a sitting duck without defences. To their credit, they managed to close and silence many of the EW aircraft and permit the AEW assets to perform adequately.
After culling some of the enemy AAW missions, I decided to gamble and launched my mailed fist; the Vulcan, Canberra, and Buccaneer bombers. The phenomenal range of the bombers gave me plenty of flexibility. I decided on a very long round-about route to the targets. This decision paid off handsomely as my Cypriot units made their ingress over Eastern Egypt without any opposition. Their first mission was to silence Cairo, where all the heavy bombers were suspected of being based.
They were wildly successful in dropping all the hangars before turning their attention to Jiyanklis and Al Mansurah. Both of those bases were also incapacitated without a single SAM being fired in their defence. I was very concerned about the IADS but penetrated at low altitude and, I later found out, around the SAM belts. Whew.
The Buccaneers from the CV Victorious strike group also took a circuitous route towards their target, Mersa Matruh air base. Unfortunately, not circuitous enough! They overflew a SA-6 site and only managed to escape loss by pure luck before proceeding to shut down that airfield, too. After silencing the Egyptian military, it was simply a long transit mission to Port Said to fulfill the victory conditions.
A very enjoyable scenario. Thank you for putting it together.
Cheers,
Herman
Get the scenario here (http://www.harpoonhq.com/harpoon3/colonialwars/).