AAR Colombian Hat Dance H3

[CapitanPiluso]

Playing Mexico side.

Caribbean Hat Dance is not in rhythm today, so CapitanPiluso will try
to give these guys a "Caribbean Night Fever" dance.

My OOB is:

TF Azueta:
DE Azueta, FF Allende (1 Puma loaded with paratroopers),FSG Tormenta
(1 Iroquois with paratroopers and nice Gabrielle misls) ,FSG Huracan
(1 Fennec Helo) and FF Victoria(1 puma on board with paratroopers)

Tocumen base:
1 KC 135 Stratocaster and one Global Hawk

Tapachula base:
1 E2, 1 Emb-145h and 10 F5-E AAW equipped.

Today´s task:
Find and destroy a terrorist coastal base SW Juancacho city.

My TF begins some 150 nm East from the coast,and the approach will be
to move my entire force towards the enemy base.
Meanwhile will launch the Stratocaster course South with intermitent emissions
to see what´s going on around.
For sure my TF will encounter some trouble ahead, but this is what
I came for.:freak:
Soon the Stratocaster finds several skunks ( 12 or 15) classified as merchants and
two boogies are flying near the coast,may be they are ready to
attack when my ships get near.

Clicking and studying each surface contact reveals that two of them
are radiating with fire control emissions,so I clasify them as hostiles,
they are 35 nm NE from my TF.One of them is probably an FF Padilla class,
this is a bad news since she may carry Exocets,but once I get closer
I spent all of my sweet Harpoons and some minutes later one of them
is sinking and the other is badly damaged.

One boogie appears flying South but I note it too late,my FSG Tormenta is
sinking....a load of sea Sparrows sends this bad guy down to the sea.
My TF goes on at cruise speed, we are getting near when I hear the voice
that really hate :"This is alpha X ray, new torpedo contact"...damm
I can´t even rest for a while and now a sub wants to kill me??
Flank speed with a 90 degrees course change,but let´s fire 4 NT-37 torps
before...a nice booom sounds two minutes later and I am happy again.
The road seems to be clear now, so go ahead and launch the helos with
the paratroopers,ordered to attack but two are killed and only one succeeds.
(I must have suppressed the coastal radar first)

The TF is near and now I can fire and make some damage,but will not
reach the VC because I loose a ship and probably killed some civilians.
So this scen will need a second try to save my honour the right way.

This scen is interesting,also you can not attack with the F5 because
they will run out of fuel before they reach the patrol zone,they can
land and refuel at Tocumen but must return to Mexico and this condition
adds some more difficulty,then you ´ll have to face enemy planes only
with AAW guns and CIWS s as a last (and not always effective) option.

Thanks to M.Gellis and Herman for this scen, really a good one.

 

[Herman Hum]

Thanks for another entertaining AAR. I think that you can launch the F-5s from Tapachula and they can reach the ships. However, they probably need to land at Tocumen. Then, they must return to Tapachula before they are allowed to return to the skies over Colombia. This extra step really causes patrol problems (as it was meant to do so). Glad you enjoyed the scenario. Mark comes up with some interesting situations. Sad to see that his talent is currently wasted. (

 

[Herman Hum]

I liked the way you used your "Stratocaster" as a scouting element. (A Stratocaster is a type of guitar.)

 

[CapitanPiluso]

I liked the way you used your "Stratocaster" as a scouting element. (A Stratocaster is a type of guitar.)

All of my equipment belongs to the "top of the line" range ; I command Stratocaster scouting planes, Fender A4B CAS planes, Yamaha FFG´classes and of course Gibson Les Paul DDG ships.:smoke:
Many more are also under my orders but since they are secret units I am not allowed to reveal their names or types.:bandrum:

 

[Herman Hum]

You have motivated me to try my own scenario.

I also lost to the Colombian AI. I was unable to maintain constant CAP coverage over my task force and the bombers claimed the Huracan and prevented me from achieving victory.

 

[CapitanPiluso]

The fact is that F-5E stationed at Tapachula base have an estimated combat radius of 600nm and they should patrol Colombian coast some 900 nm away from that base.And if they even refuel at Tucumen they must return to Tapachula,then I don´t fully understand their use in this scen.
The threat axis obviously is ahead the TF East bearing,my Hawkeye couldn´t find a single contact in southern Panama waters.

 

[Herman Hum]

You are correct about the range. An F-5 that launches from Tapachula cannot even reach the Task Force. It automatically wants to return to base before it arrives over the ships. As a player, you must stop it from automatically returning to the Tapachula base on its own. When it hits tries to auto-RtB, you can select the plane and Unassign it from the RtB mission with the U-hotkey. Then, you can manually fly it onwards until it reaches the ships or Colombia.

Tucumen is much closer than Tapachula. You can fly the F-5 off the coast of Colombia for approximately 60 minutes before it must fly towards Tucumen to re-fuel. There is no auto-function to calculate for this. You must simply pay attention to the remaining fuel aboard the F-5. (I lost an F-5 because it loitered too long over the ships and could not reach Tucumen.) Once the planes land at Tucumen, they will re-fuel. You must then launch them and fly around the Nav zone and land in Tapachula where they can begin the cycle, again.

This is quite a laborious process and, IMO, simulates the incredible difficulty in operating short-ranged fighter aircraft at extreme ranges. It is too bad that Harpoon is unable to simulate things like cumulative crew fatigue well as the long flight times for the F-5 would probably severely reduce the pilot's performance in real life.

 

[CapitanPiluso]

When it hits tries to auto-RtB, you can select the plane and Unassign it from the RtB mission with the U-hotkey. Then, you can manually fly it onwards until it reaches the ships or Colombia.

Well,I considered and discarded this because seems a cheat, the orders are quite clear about this topic.

 

[Herman Hum]

No, this isn't a game exploit. There are many things that a player can do that the AI simply cannot. A good example is air-to-air re-fueling. The AI cannot accomplish this legitimate function. Another example is the players' ability to change the weapons loadout for his aircraft. Again, the AI is unable to perform this regular player function.

This scenario was deliberately written to require the human player as Mexico to use his fighters in this manner. This is also why the scenario is specifically noted as, "Unplayable in solitaire mode" within the Colombian orders.

 

[CapitanPiluso]

BTW, I noticed that when the F-5 run out of fuel, they automatically return to base flying over nav zone over Panama which should be avoided.
May be the AI has certain rights that we don´t.

 

[Herman Hum]

A plane returning to base automatically ignores all Nav Zones. This is a known game behaviour and applies to all sides. It is a game limitation and expected. All you can do as a player is try to obey your orders and fly around the nav zone so that you do not violate it when the planes try to land.