Battleset 'Falklands' for PDB is now complete

[FreekS]

Hi friends,

Happy New Year!

Over the past few months I've built my version of the 1982 Falklands war.

With the publication of 'San Carlos'; a scen where YOU can play and oppose the actual landings the battleset is complete. It consists of:

Vulcan 607: The bombing of the runway at Port Stanley by a Vulcan bomber with all the refuel missions needed (modeled to the excellent book by Rowland White)

Belgrano - Everyone knows this event; the moment at which the awsome power of nuclear subs became reality

May Day: The moment when Argentine and UK forces started fighting in earnest

San Carlos: the landings and the suicidal bravery of the Argentine Air Force.

All have been tested for ANW (3.8.0) and MayDay and San Carlos should be exciting for Multiplay as well.

Thanks to Herman who as always provided me with the necessary platforms and endless testing - and thanks to all players!

Oh, of course this is not the first Fallands battleset; there are at least two other versions out there for several DBs. I researched the OOB and the actual missions in depth and while I have played the existing Falklands scens, any similarity is due to all designers trying to model the existing events as well as they can!

Freek

 

[FreekS]

OK, Latest news is that there will be another addition to this Battleset; I'm building PEBBLE ISLAND; a scen about the SAS-operation during the Falkland-war; but actually made specifically as a scen that will be best in Multiplayer mode; relatively small, smallish map and I really tried to get the OOB balanced so players could MP it over and over again. Whether its any good needs deciding through testing; head over to ScenShare where version-4 (after testing by a few players) is available for download in the files section. Once ready it will become part of the PlayersDB scenario library.

Freek

 

[Herman Hum]

Jerome (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) and I tried out this hypothetical carrier battle between Argentina and Britain. TonyE watched us from the sidelines. Jerome took his usual side, Argentina.

We both started off cautiously as we didn't have many forces on hand. I think that both sides were trying to blind each other because we went after one another's recon assets right away. AoA got off to a good start by shooting down one of the helos I was using for reconnaissance and, to add to my humiliation, he also bagged the two Harriers I sent to avenge it! (I still don't know how he did it.)

I evened up the score by downing a pair of Super Etendards. It was a beautiful ambush as I had him nicely sandwiched between two flights of Harriers.

Other helos survived long enough to get a good idea where his carrier was so I launched my meagre strike assets. I only had 6 Harriers configured for bombing. As I know that I had not shot down all of his fighters, the appearance of a single Etendard or Skyhawk could easily shoot my strike force to ribbons so I had to detach 2 of my four surviving Harriers as escorts. It would prove to be a wise decision.

I took a long circuitous route to the target. The cost in fuel was, hopefully, going to be recouped in avoiding detection and opposition. I was successful on both accounts. Only when I was within 30 nm of the target was I detected and, by then, it was almost too late. However, one interceptor did manage to close on the escorts before exchanging missiles. Both Harrier and Argentine plane went down. However, the escort fulfilled his duty and freed up the strikers for a clear run to the target.

They quickly identified the carrier and lofted their 454kg bombs from maximum range and dove to the deck to evade. Black puffs filled the sky from the anti-aircraft fire, but no planes were lost. However, as they made their way back towards the carrier, they were jumped by another Argentine plane and one was blown from the sky before anyone knew the enemy was even around. The Harrier escort avenged him with a single Sidewinder and the rest of the trip home was uneventful.

The Veinticinco de Mayo flooded and sank on her own and I was awarded victory. A really superb game. The limited number of forces really demands that a player maximize his assets. The loss of even a few could mean the loss of the game.

 

[Angle of Attack]

Great Scenario! Pebble Island is really fun. Simple, short enough for just a one nighter, but complex enough for plenty of different strategies.

In total, I managed to kill about 8 Harriers, at the expenses of 8 SkyHawks and 4 SupEts. I lost 2 SuperEtendards just for not taking care of them and let them orbit without supervision until enemy missiles took them out of the sky.

I was really hoping the Puke-aras (as renamed by Herman) where going to be ready for a naval attack, since my first attempt was partially successful in dmaging the ships, but the Hermes was untouched and the fleet of bomber SkyHawks was destroyed during the attack.

I am looking forward to play it again, just as it is. Maybe a couple of aermacchi with some kind of rockets/bombs from Pebble?

Thanks Freek!
Jerome

 

[Herman Hum]

AoA and I like this one so much, that we decided to try it, again!

Now that we had an idea of each others Order of Battle, we were more cautious. I sent my helos up early and found him in the same location as last time, the SW quadrant. As I had not bombers ready, I went back to trying to blind my enemy by shooting down his Trackers and helos.

One was caught easily in the NW, and another one chased in the SE when I stumbled upon Super Etendards. Two were quickly dispatched with Sidewinders, but a pair of A-4 Skyhawks were also present. These aircraft also carried Sidewinders just like my Harriers. I accidentally blundered into one of them and lost a Harrier.

I was incensed by the loss and chased his surviving Skyhawk all over Pebble Island with 3 Harriers. His Sidewinders kept me from closing and he couldn't break past his 3 pursuers to make it home to his carrier. The one to first run out of gas would lose the contest. Unfortunately, that happened to be me!

I don't know if it was intentional or accidental, but AoA had reversed my 'Sandwich attack' and now had caught my Harriers returning to base and low on fuel and nearly out of AAMs. He took full advantage of it and shot down all three while only losing a single Super Etendard. Damn, he used my own trick against me!

To add insult to injury, he shot down one of the two additional Harriers I hd sent to 'rescue' the embattled group. Now, out of 6 Harriers for CAP, I only had one survivor. The situation looked dire as my bombers became ready for operations.

I gambled and sent them to attack his carrier. It was a long-shot. He had many surviving fighters and I expected them to maul my strikers, but, as the SAS goes, "Who Dares, Wins". I immediately launched the bombers and sent them in at low altitude to evade radar. The range was only 70nm so they put the pedal to the metal in hopes of catching the Skyhawks still re-arming on the deck.

With visions of Midway in their heads, my pilots screamed in just above the wavetops. One Super Etendard was detected to the North, but, hopefully, it would not be able to make the interception before I released my bombs.

It was going to be a damned close race. Only one of the bombers was shot down on Ingress. The other five lofted their bombs and ran for their lives. The Super Etendard did make the interception and shot one more down before they escaped. Now, if I could hold on, victory was mine. However, AoA had plans of his own.

He had sent his own planes for a little payback. They had taken a circuitous route to my CVHG, but had been detected at maximum SAM range. SeaSlugs immediately took them under fire and did very well. Luckily, the ECM was keeping my ships' position hidden from him so the SeaSlugs, SeaCats, and SeaWolves ravaged his formations.

For a moment, it looked as though the attack had been beaten off. It was a false hope as AoA was only using the lull to bring in more Recon assets to localize my ships. Through great handling, he eventually closed to bomb range and let loose on two escorts, Alacrity and Broadsword. Both were severely damaged. It was small consolation to shoot down the rest of his strike because there was no way that either side could now win.

One the bombers were expended from both sides, we decided to call the game a draw since neither side could fulfill their ViConds. A superbly fought battle. I recommend that nothing be changed for this scenario. It is fun and challenging exactly as it currently is.

A really superb scenario. Thanks for a great game, AoA.

 

[Herman Hum]

H3 Multiplayer Server up Again

Frans Koenz (a.k.a. Taitennek) and I decided to give Pebble Island a try.

This time, I took the Argentine side while Frans played the UK.

The first part of any battle is reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance. Both Frans and I took tried to hunt down and blind each other. Several engagements were fought from sporadic radar contacts. However, not all battles were clear-cut affairs. Often, I would move in to intercept his Harriers and hope to ambush them when they would suddenly turn around and send Sidewinders right down my throat.

A furball quickly ensued over the South Atlantic involving Harriers, Skyhawks, and Super Etendards. It was a total mess. In the end, 4 Harriers had been shot down for the loss of 3 Skyhawks/Etendards. It could very easily have been the reverse.

Frans kept trying to hunt down my helos. A pair of Etendard were sent to deal with this persistent pest. As they were coming up on his six o'clock position, the 'prey' suddenly turned around and unleashed a volley of Sidewinders at the ambushers. Final score, 1 Harrier down for the price of another Etendard.

After re-arming my Skyhawks with 1000lb bombs, I still had no definitive position on my elusive target. A radar contact had been spotted 3 hours earlier, but, since then, not a peep from the British task group. So, I surrounded the area with helicopters and Trackers and kept them hovering at low altitude until the bombers arrived on the scene. I fully expected him to shoot down a few of my recon assets, but I was willing to pay the price if it won me the intelligence I so badly needed.

As soon as one of the helos turned on his radar, the British carrier was found 40nm away from where I originally projected it would be. My six Skyhawks dove in from the stoop and made their ingress on the deck.

They popped just in time to release their 1000lb bombs on the Hermes. However, even their low level daring did not prevent the lost of one bomber as it was hit by a SAM. The other 15 bombs flew through the air and several hits were registered on the carrier as the Skyhawks turned to flee for their lives. SAMs would claim two more before they escaped. Unfortunately, one Harrier remained between them and the safety of their own carrier.

Two Etendard were already hunting for her and it soon turned into a case of the hunter himself being hunted. [The image that comes to mind is the cartoon of a small fish being pursued by a bigger fish who is, in turn, pursued by yet a bigger fish ]

Before the Harrier could kill my surviving Skyhawks, he was caught unsuspecting from behind by my Etendard and shot into the sea by Magic 2 missiles. As the Skyhawks returned to the carrier, the Hermes flooded and sank and victory was awarded.

Thanks to Frans for a really great game and to Freek for another fun scenario.

 

[Herman Hum]

Jerome (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) will play any scenario that has his Argentine homeland in it so we tried out "Mayday", a re-creation of the Falklands affair. Jerome took his usual side, Argentina.

Keeping with the historical record, I sent DDG Glamorgan and frigates Alacrity and Arrow to bombard the Argentine positions at Port Stanley. As their naval guns outranged the shore batteries, they were able to pummel the invaders with impunity. However, this also meant that there were under observation from the defenders, too.

Harriers armed with bombs and cluster munitions closed on Goose Green to shut down the airfield. As they made their ingress at 30m off the deck, Pucara and other strike aircraft were just rising off from the field. A pair of Harriers tasked to the Offensive Counter-Air managed to whittle them down and suppress them long enough for the strike groups to release their ordnance and flatten the airfield. Unfortunately, like in real life, I lost track of the Pucara and only reacted when she was already within bomb range of the Glamorgan. Engagement by SeaCat and SeaSlug were sufficient to bring her down, but not before Glamorgan sustained nearly 40% damage. Argggh.

With their bombardment mission complete, the trio hurried back to defend the carrier group while the Harriers re-armed. There was quite a bit of 'phony war' going on for awhile. Ghostly images appeared on radar screens only to disappear soon afterwards. I knew that AoA hadhis recon aircraft snooping around, but they were hard to pin down and destroy.

Then, things began to happen in very rapid succession. Contacts started appearing all around the task force. Soon, it looked like a USN 'wagon wheel' attack with planes coming in from every direction. Had I not been sitting on the bull's-eye, I would have considered it quite pretty. My ordnancemen were feverishly servicing the Harriers in hopes of getting them back into action. It was going to be fiendishly close race.

With only 2 flights of Harriers to defend the task force, there was no way the pilots could do it themselvs. As the strikers neared, the task group went radar active to engage at maximum range with SAMs. However, the Argentines had their own playbook and dove down to 30m to reduce their exposure. This meant that they could only be engaged at approximately 30nm and a jet covers that distance very, very quickly at 400kts+.

SAMs and Sidewinders took their toll as the Skyhawks drove in. However, they tried to evade the SAMs and only prolonged their agony. Not only that, their evasive manoeuvres took time and allowed the SAM batteries to re-load and re-engage. As well, it bought time for the crews re-arming the Harriers on the deck.

The race was won by the sailors of the RN. They just as the bombers were making the final runs to their release points, the Harriers finished re-arming and launched immediately. A barrage of Sidewinders knocked the final Skyhawks from the air tantalizing near their targets. Nearly every SAM in the formation had been expended in its defense. Luckily, not a single bomb was dropped on them.

With no further offensive assets available, AoA conceded. This horserace was won by a nose.

Another phenomenal scenario from Freek Schepers. Thanks for a great match, AoA, and thanks to HarpGamer for hosting it on their server.

 

[Angle of Attack]

But Herman! You failed to mention that all of my aircraft were flying at 400kts during the attack, and not at 600kts, due to a BUG (programming horror)! I think we have to try again this scenario and see if the chances are more in my favor coming in at 600... and of course, I will take you tactic recommendations this time!
The other unexpected issue (due to my inexperience) was the fact that all aircraft started to split from their groups, climb and head home as they reached bingo fuel, instead of continuing to the objective to later get refueled by the KC-130s.
That was a major screw up...

 

[Herman Hum]

The other unexpected issue (due to my inexperience) was the fact that all aircraft started to split from their groups, climb and head home as they reached bingo fuel, instead of continuing to the objective to later get refueled by the KC-130s.
That was a major screw up...

Looks like another case of "Piss-poor Planning" resulting in Poor execution... :laugh:

 

[Herman Hum]

For a third time, Jerome (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) and I checked out "Pebble Island", a hypothetical carrier battle between Argentina and Britain. Jerome took his usual side, Argentina.

Since we'd played this scenario before, I decided to "switch things up" as we were both fairly familiar with the OoB and each other's capabilities. I elected to conduct a shore bombardment mission with my task group in order to silence his base on Pebble Island. It wasn't a great threat, but it did have a radar installation that supported his southern flank with early warning capability.

I picked up radar emissions to the West and felt that there was still sufficient time for me to smash his base before turning to deal with his carrier. I tried to shoot down some of his Trackers, but he handled his Super Etendards adeptly and killed two of my Harriers for no loss of his own!

After that, I decided to only operate under radar support from my own ships and ordered Alacrity to go active along with her jamming gear. My ships reached Pebble Island and quickly silenced the base.

Afterwards, it was somewhat of a Mexican stand-off. His planes would loiter just out of radar and SAM range while mine stayed under radar coverage of my ships. With the base out of commission, the task group headed off to intercept his CV. Since we both knew that the other side had planes configured with bombs, I decided to change the rules. Instead of conducting a bomb raid with Harriers, I re-armed all my planes for AAW and planned to engage his ships with Exocet and then gunfire.

AoA conducted a magnificently timed raid on my task group. He fired Exocet from a lone frigate and followed in behind them. It was superb. My planes expended their Sidewinders on the missiles and could not properly concentrate on the bombers. Two Harriers were lost to bomber defensive fire in this way. However, I had 6 additional Harriers that had been re-configured with Sidewinders and these made all the difference. Not a striker survived and all the Exocet were brought down without incident.

And then it was my turn. Exocets from Alacrity, Broadsword, and Glamorgan overwhelmed his escorts and killed them all while 3 struck Veinticinco de Mayo, herself. Having achieved the minimal 10% damage on the CV, Victory was awarded.

 

[FreekS]

Bloody Hell! You guys are playing the scenario in ways I had not foreseen! Coming in with air strikes behind Exocets and rearming strikerd for AAW - well done!!

Thanks for AARs!

Freek

 

[Angle of Attack]

It was such a great game! What a fantastic scenario. I would play it over and over again... I think the Exocet/follower Skyhawk combination is awesome, just as it was during the war.
This is proof of the simulation fidelity at certain levels.
Great scenario Freek! By the way, there was never a radar in Pebble, confirmed.
Cheers!

 

[Herman Hum]

It was such a great game! What a fantastic scenario. I would play it over and over again...

I promise to do my part and sink you as many times as you deem necessary...

 

[Herman Hum]

"Pebble Island", a hypothetical carrier battle between Argentina and Britain, has been so popular that Freek decided to make a variant for it so that players could enjoy it even more. Jerome (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) and I decided to try it out. Jerome took his usual side, Argentina.

As the UK, my ViConds were, IMO, quite onerous. I had to:

1) Destroy the base on Pebble Island
2) Damage the enemy carrier by at least 10%
3) Protect two ships from 5% damage

It's like being told to go off to war and be sure not to get hurt! :laugh:

The only way to destroy the base effectively would be with naval gunfire. So, I sent the DDG Glamorgan and FF Alacrity racing in towards Pebble Island. Hopefully, they could accomplish their mission before the enemy could respond.

They went about their mission demolishing one installation after another when the enemy appeared. The Argentines appeared to be surprised by the presence of the Glamorgan as she managed to quickly bring down one Super Etendard with her Sea Slugs while Harriers shot down another along with two Sky Hawks.

The only surviving enemy aircraft were the helicopters. The Harriers began to chase them down. As they were approaching one fleeing helo, a thought suddenly dawned upon me. What if the enemy was leading me into a trap? The last time my Harriers were in hot pursuit of an 'easy target' over Pebble Island, I ended up losing 3 of them to an ambush! Just then, I lost contact with an enemy plane and decided to retire rather than risk 33% of my fighter force.

After successfully pounding the daylights out of the base, the enemy was finally discovered in the northwest quadrant. I immediately sent my bombers out to fulfill the second ViCond. I assigned a ForCAP of 2 Harriers to deal with any unpleasant surprises they might encounter. I also ordered two Sea King helos to turn on their active radar in hopes of luring the CAP away from the ships. This worked exceptionally well as no fighters were encountered on the ingress.

The strike force crept in at 30m altitude and managed to evade detection until the very last moment. They flew a dog-leg course in hopes of staying hidden from DDG Hercules for as long as possible and focused on what they thought was the carrier, the central ship of the formation.

As they made their run in, they soon realized that the ship they were aiming for was actually the Hercules, herself! The one ship they wanted to avoid and they were flying right at it. The accompanying fighters pressed the attack to draw the fire from the mission-essential bombers. One bomber and one fighter quickly went down to her SAMs.

Flak and SAMs got three more. Only three bombers survived to loft their 3x 454kg bombs towards the carrier and riddle her with gunfire before diving back to the deck for their egress. All three were shot down. There were no survivors. This was the most costly day for the Royal Fleet Air Arm since Korea.

The Argentines were still operational and decided to try their luck on the offensive. The enemy flew a brilliant evasive course and came in behind my AAW ships! (Damn, they pulled my own trick on me!) As the ships scrambled in vain to re-position themselves for the new threat, the SAMs started bringing down the strikers. Luckily, there were two Harriers on CAP and their 8 Sidewinders made all the difference. One exceptionally brave Skyhawk aviator nearly got into bomb release range before a final volley of Sea Wolf missiles blew him out of the air. It was all too damned close.

Althought the enemy was damaged, the ViConds had not been fulfilled. With no surviving air strike assets, the only thing to be done was put in an old-fashioned surface attack. Both sides were armed with Exocet SSMs so it was an evenly matched affair.

As TF Hermes approached, the enemy ships launched their SSMs at maximum range. My four Harriers had since re-armed and were flying CAP. Their Sidewinders once again made an invaluable contribution to shooting down all the inbound SSMs. However, after they landed to re-arm, one final volley from the enemy managed to get through and two struck Alacrity.

The UK riposte was quick in coming and British SSMs sank the Hercules, two other frigates, and damaged the CV. The British ships closed to gunfire range and sent her to the bottom to seal the victory.

 

[FreekS]

OK, I admit it, this battleset is not finished yet!!

I just added a new scen at the front of the battleset; 'Advance Guards'

It postulates that some British surface ships who left directly from Gibraltar to the Falklands when hostilities broke out found themselves pitted against Argentine surface forces in weather unsuitable for support from the air force.

Now remember that both Argentina and UK had type 42 destroyers, both had ship-based exocets, their biggest guns were similar and they had similar radars - this results a very even OOB which is especially suited to Multiplayer.

Three players have tested this scen and sent in AARs -- all were very excited about the level of challenge!

Enjoy!

 

[Herman Hum]

Jerome (a.k.a. AngleOfAttack) was determined to find a way for his beloved Argentine homeland to win in the "Pebble Island - variant", a hypothetical carrier battle between Argentina and Britain, so we decided to try it, again. Jerome took his usual side, Argentina.

This scenario has a number of alternative starting points for all units involved and, this time, my carrier group was separated from her escorts (but not by a wide margin). I elected to put in a bombardment mission on the Pebble Island base as this was the most effective way to suppress it.

Enroute to the base, a SeaKing detected a small task group of two ships. I guess that if my ships were separated at the start of the scenario, the same might have happened to AoA! I changed plans and decided to attack this isolated group in hopes of overwhelming it before the enemy could congregate.

My DD Glamorgan and FF Alacrity sped towards the enemy at flank speed.and managed to intercept under the cover of the Harriers. The enemy tried to stymie my attack with a barrage of Exocets, but these were easily taken care of by the Harriers on patrol.

Once in range, both ships lofted their Exocets. It was a tricky fire mission as I had to ensure that the SSMs would not strike the Hercules escort. I needed for them to lock onto the carrier so I set a Pre-planned Activation Point that was behind the escort, but in front of the carrier. The attack was wildly successful as 5 out of 8 Exocets struck the carrier. Now, it was time to get out of Dodge City. The escorts turned tail and raced back towards the Hermes to await the Argentine response.

I thought that I was sitting in a good position with numerous Harriers on Combat Air Patrol with lots of Sidewinders to defend the Hermes when the Sea Darts started arriving. I had totally forgotten that the enemy had SAMs in addition to his SSMs. Soon, the Sea Darts had pretty much exhausted my supply of Sidewinders and Alacrity took a hit that damaged her by 17%. So long as a second ship didn't suffer the same damage, I could still win the game.

The Argentine carrier was still operational so she launched her Skyhawks and Super Etendard. Their attack was well coordinated and nearly overwhelming. However, I had just enough Sidewinders left aboard to finish the job. All strikers were killed inbound before they got to bomb release range. I had only 4 Sidewinders left in the magazine!

Although he still had some significant firepower remaining with his 2 other ships, they were too far away to prevent the bombardment of Pebble Island. Once the base was smashed, I was granted victory.

 

[FreekS]

OK Gentlemen,

The new scenario BLUFF COVE in the Battleset has been released and is included in the currect downloads.

It replicates the last major naval battle in the Falklands. Researching it it seemes there was quite some inter service rivalry involved. It was a challenge to model this, eventually I decided to have the two Landing ships move from San Carlos to Bluff Cove under AI control; with a UK side trying to protect them and the Argentine side attacking.

This was a bad decision; as it showed me just how 'limited' the navigator really is; it had to have two ships move from secluded waters around the Falklands using multiple starting points and multiple routes. I think I have 40 non-functioning saved scenario versions before a brainstorm with Herman finally yielded a working version.

I really hope 3.9 is released shortly as I tested this scen in 3.6, 3.8 and 3.9 and the navigator worked differently every time.
In the end I got there and thanks to several players who helped tremendously with AARs on Scenshare pointing out my errors!!

Enjoy,

Freek

 

[FreekS]

OK all,

Now released what I think may be the last scenario in the Falklands Battleset. It revolves around my very free interpretation of a real incident that took place which resulted in a burnt-out UK Sea King being found in Chile; near the border with Argentina.

This scen explores help that Chile (non-playable side) may have given to UK in the Falklands war and how Argentina can start to find itself between two fires.

The scen has been tested for 3.9.1 and functions well; it is suitble for both solitaire and multiplayer work.

With thanks again to Herman both for including a number of new Chilean and UK platforms in The playersDB and for testing!

Freek