AAR-MP Advance Guard

FreekS

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AAR for Advanced Guard
Herman Humm vs Jeronimo (AoA)
Scenario and AAR by Freek Schepers

I joint in the second session as observer. The essence of this scen is that both UK and Argentine players have very similar OOBs and both only have radar-less helicopters. This makes Reccon the hardest and most vital task of the scen.

Herman played UK and had to bring his Support ships to a secret location 'TRALA' around the Falklands, then he had to find AoA's Argentinian convoy that was out to reinforce the islands. AoA needed to escort his ships to Port Stanley and find and kill the UK support ships.

When I joint both players were well on their way to fulfill their primary mission - bring their HVU's to their destination. Both were aware of the presence of submarines (which were not under any players control) and kept their helo's close by rather than do long range Recce.

Herman ran into the SS San Luis first. He had his SAG ahead of the Support ships and when San Luis fired on one of the screening Destroyers, it gave away its position and was quickly found and killed by the Wasps. Hermans 30 knots Destroyer easily outran the 35 knot torpedo.

Some hours later Herman plotted a path for his escorts to thoroughly sanitise TRALA, the area his support ships had to occupy.

AoA had moved his convoy into Port Stanley waters and his SAG was not far behind. However it was being stalked by HMS Sceptre. Sceptre made a perfect intercept (at 5 knots) and fired 3 Mk8 torpedoes, one at each of AoA's type 42s and one at Drummond.
The Type 42's outran the 40 knots Mk8s, but Drummonds back was broken by the third Mk8. AoA turned his ships around and fired some torpedoes, one of which caused Sceptre to race north to avade, and caused 33% damage when it hit the Nuke.

At this time Herman played one of his famous 'tricks'. Seeing the time compression at 1:1 he deduced that AoA had run into a sub and he enquired: "having a little sub trouble?" to AoA, who therefore thought Herman was aware of his location. Later Herman got a bearing on the racing Sceptre; and therefore knew the general direction of the Argentine fleet.

AoA's second helo dropped another torpedo (I believe blind) which somehow ran north and picked up the racing SSN and killed it. Unaware that the SSN had died, AoA kept firing ship- and air dropped torps at the general location of Sceptre before retiring to Port Stanley.

Both players had now killed a sub, and fulfilled their primary mission. They started reorganising their groups to start to hunt for the other players HVUs.

Herman left both his support ships unescorted in TRALA and moved his 5 ships to Port Stanley at speed. Just as he left, two more Argentine subs were aproaching the support ships. SS Santiago del Estero made a nice approach at 5 knots; and with only 33% battery charge remaining fired a single torp which killed one of Hermans vital support ships. Herman never picked up the torp and quickly moved the other support ship to a corner of TRALA, while his 5 ships raced back to hunt for the sub. However the skipper of SS Santiago del Estero, with little battery remaining, retired and moved out of the TRALA box just as Herman started aggressive patrols there.

At this point the 24 hour game time was over and both players had experienced the adage "The presence of a submarine is only confirmed when you start losing ships". Moreover, both had reacted by keeping their escorts close to their HVU's and therefore were incapable of fulfilling the second part of their mission - find and kill the enemy!

At the end of the game they were still 170nm apart!

Freek (observer)
 

Herman Hum

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That's a nice AAR.

I remember it much the same way, but I wasn't able to watch it from all sides like you did. :)



I had only a few escorts for too many missions. I used my SAG as a screen/sweep force for the support ships. They swept in front of the SAG and were soon 'rewarded' with a sub contact. Unfortunately, that sub contact came with a torpedo launch!



My Type 42 DDGs really didn't have much for a sonar system so I had to rely on FF Plymouth. Once the torpedo was detected, the DDG ran for her life. Luckily, the torpedo only had a 5 knot advantage and soon exhausted its fuel.



Once the ships were safe, it was time for payback. Sadly, the Wasp helos carried aboard the ships did not have any sensor system and would only be able to act upon cues from the host ship. The frigates and destroyers all closed on the last known position of the sub.

One after another, Mk46 torpedoes were dropped into the water. Many malfunctioned and began chasing after the British ships, but one got lucky and hit the sub's engine room thereby sinking her.

The rest of the sweep into the holding station for the support ships was uneventful. After conducting a further sweep of the station, I detached all escorts to engage the Argentines that I now knew were near Port Stanley.

It was a calculated risk as it would leave my ships defenceless, but I did not think that I had sufficient striking power to accomplish the mission, otherwise. It was a gamble that I ultimately lost.

As my striking ships made turns for Port Stanley, another Argentine sub stole into the zone and slammed a torpedo into the AOL Rover. :( She broke in two and sank while the other ship fled for her life. The loss of oiler incensed me and I recalled the frigates for a desperate, but eventually fruitless, search. However, since neither of us had achieved our Victory conditions, the game turned into a draw.

Good scenario. Very challenging.
 
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