AAR-MP: Gauntlet

FreekS

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AAR-MP: Gauntlet
Players: Herman Hum (USSR), Freek Schepers (NATO)
DB: PlayersDB

I played NATO and my mission was to escort two large (and noisy) freighters to Narvik. The escort consisted of one Perry-type and one UK Type 22 frigate.
I set up a sonarbouy patrol, about 15nm ahead of the convoy, the Type 22 on sprint-drift and the Perry close to the convoy for air defense.

The speed of advance needed to be 20 knots (max convoy speed) and I set up a slight zig-zag.

Narvik detected a Flogger before its radar was destroyed. I would be blind from now on.

I sent out occasional helo patrols on ship-recce mission (but manually controlled of course), to search up to about 90nm away (about the max Russian SSM-armed ships I was expecting). This was fairly hairy and I had to withdraw the helo''s regularly as the Flogger came close. By this time I was sure the Flogger or a sub would have found the convoy so I switched on the Perry's radar. The Flogger stayed just out of missile range but as it reached bingo I could send out another helo patrol far North.

Then I got a passive sonar contact from Perry on an unknown ship north - probably in the second or third CZ! I closed the Helo to get a classification and a firm target for my harpoons.

At that moment a sub was detected firing its torpedoes, my ASW helo was out of position. I deduced it was a nuclear sub by the old addage "if its a modern sub, he won't stop shooting". My convoy turned as the helo's rose to intercept. Some of the torpedoes were doing only 24 knots, but some were 50 knot long range monsters! Out of 8 torps fired, two hit to kill of my supply ships and the Perry, but not before the Perry had fired its 4 harpoons on the two Nanushka's racing south at 32 knots that my helo had just classified. The sub turned out to be a Victor and sank after the third torp had been dropped on it. I saw the Nanushka contacts drop off the screen, and hoped I'd killed them with the harpoons.

I hoped for a draw but minutes later my remaining ships were both hit (I think by Siren missiles) that the Nanuskha's must have just fired before dying. Thus Herman won the game!

I lost two merchants and two escorts, with my helo's aloft heading for Norway. Herman lost 2 Nanushka's and a Victor.

Great game, pretty quick, a little surprising to get a sonar contact on the Nanushka in maybe the 3rd CZ.
Well done!

Freek
 

Herman Hum

Composite Warfare Command
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Freek Schepers and I met to try out Gauntlet, made with the community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

The Soviets will attempt to seize Norwegian bases in any all-out war. This will be done by physically seizing some bases and cutting off others from the rest of NATO. NATO must re-supply these bases using naval convoys. The success or failure of the convoys will be of paramount importance to both NATO and Soviet commanders.

This scenario is a re-make of a Harpoon Classic scenario from the original GIUK battleset and has yet been released. It is available only from the ANW MP server.​



I detected the convoy from the Victor SSN and moved to intercept at creep speed. I knew that she was quite vulnerable to helos so I tried to keep a Flogger on station to intercept any snoopers. Also, my Nanuchka missile boats could ill-afford to be detected since their missile systems had far less range than the American Harpoons.

Things were going well, except I mis-calculated the endurance of my Flogger. The CAP ran out of gas and the relief was too far away. The enemy got a glimpse of my ships and promptly replied with a Harpoon salvo. The relief Flogger arrived to engage, but missed and all it took was two missiles to slip through to kill each of the missile boats. In an act of desperation, I salvoed their missiles on Bearing-Only-Launch.

The Victor was just about to launch, when the convoy decided to 'zag'. I didn't know if I had been detected, but assumed that I had, so I launched torpedoes from maximum range. The Flogger that was supposed to be keeping the helos off my back had been occupied trying to fight off the Harpoons so the sub was fairly quickly prosecuted. However, her torpedoes did manage to find suitable targets at the end of a long chase and victory was awarded.

Thanks to Freek for the great game and to HarpGamer for hosting it.

Anyone looking for an MP game can drop a line here or look for us on HarpGamer pHp chat room or the HG mIRC chat room.

 
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