Sea Power Naval Combat in the Missile Age

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

near total victory.  Poor helicopter.

Wow - that’s awesome - well done SDR

I’m guessing you identified the tanker before sinking it? Unless I sank something else - the biggest danger of going weapons free...

Yeah, I used the helicopter to scout.  I went zero emissions for all ships and sent the helo out about 20 km off the beam, then had it pop up and use the surface search radar for a few seconds.  Once I got a fix on all the ships, I'd turn off the radar and have it drop down to the deck and fly in a different direction.  I kept repeating this while edging closer until I could get close enough to get a positive visual ID.  Then I moved my ships north east of the hostiles and focussed fire on the northernmost enemy which was the Adams.  Once I'd sunk that, their ability to intercept incoming missiles diminished quite a bit and I was able to saturate the remaining two escorts with missiles. Then the tanker went down to missiles quite easily.  I was hoping to finish it off with gunfire but my missiles had other ideas.

I was surprised that my helo got taken out by an AIM-54.  No idea where that came from.

[Undercovergeek]

near total victory.  Poor helicopter.

Wow - that’s awesome - well done SDR

I’m guessing you identified the tanker before sinking it? Unless I sank something else - the biggest danger of going weapons free...

Yeah, I used the helicopter to scout.  I went zero emissions for all ships and sent the helo out about 20 km off the beam, then had it pop up and use the surface search radar for a few seconds.  Once I got a fix on all the ships, I'd turn off the radar and have it drop down to the deck and fly in a different direction.  I kept repeating this while edging closer until I could get close enough to get a positive visual ID.  Then I moved my ships north east of the hostiles and focussed fire on the northernmost enemy which was the Adams.  Once I'd sunk that, their ability to intercept incoming missiles diminished quite a bit and I was able to saturate the remaining two escorts with missiles. Then the tanker went down to missiles quite easily.  I was hoping to finish it off with gunfire but my missiles had other ideas.

I was surprised that my helo got taken out by an AIM-54.  No idea where that came from.

I’ve seen this mentioned in the forums - if it’s an aim54 purchase to be an F14 and there’s rumours there’s one operating of a base in the Faroe Islands far south

Did you overcome the salvo issue?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I think so.

[Undercovergeek]

Not suffering from it myself but there is a memory leak reported - this is fixed in a new beta patch - instructions in steam forum if you need it

[Undercovergeek]

Tomcat porn

Operation Desert Spear: destroy Iraqi air force and navy with TF70

Worth the entrance fee alone 



Four F14s are launched to intercept incoming MIGs



and they form up at 10k feet



Inbound MIGs



AIM-54s are launched at distance



Im unsure yet how to designate multiple targets amongst a formation without splitting up the formation and handling each plane seperately - consequently all the AIMs head for the same MIG



With that said, i switch the formation to weapons free and they can do their own thing - engaging the MIGs with sidewinders and sparrows



After a couple of casualties I launch fast eagle 7 - 4 more F14s



and they find 3 inbound bombers - TU16s



Theyre destroyed and the skies are clear



RTB -





Next on the launch pad are A6s loaded with harpoons to head out to the first wave of incoming Iraqi warships - but sadly ive run out of time and theres still no properly working save function

[JudgeDredd]

That

looks

amazing 

[Gusington]

^Does definitely look amazing...photorealistic.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I downloaded a user-created 5 mission mini campaign called Pacific Strike '85 from the Steam Workshop.  The Chinese launch a series of attacks from Okinawa to Singapore to spread out western-aligned forces, thereby weakening the defences around Taiwan.

I'm 3 missions in and, so far, it's a really well-put together series of missions.  The second mission in particular was very tense.  So many missiles were flying back and forth between surface groups, planes, and even some sub-launched ones that it was hard to keep track.  I managed to severely weaken the Chinese surface groups but ended up running out of missiles and torpedoes as did the remaining enemy units.  It ended up as a close range gun duel.  Lots of fun!

[Undercovergeek]

Same guy did both scenarios

[JudgeDredd]

Same guy did both scenarios

I guess that's why I couldn't find the scenario in the list 

I'm going to leave this for the moment until an in game save is available - just because I don't have the time to play most of the scenarios and I really hate to leave them unfinished.

I hope at some point there's a plan to provide more information for scenarios so you have an idea of length and scale. The scenarios give you very basic information.

Great looking game though. I love it.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I finished the last mission of the Pacific mini campaign last night after 3 failed attempts.  Man, that was a tough one to beat.  That Soviet surface group focused around the Kirov had insanely capable anti-missile defences.  After getting my ass handed to me via SSN-19 missles, I was finally able to crack their defences and sink the entire battle group with the loss of 2 F-4 Phantoms (and several billion dollars worth of missiles and torpedoes) on my side.  I likely could have beat the mission without losing the Phantoms but I wanted to see if strafing runs from their 20mm gun pods would have any noticeable effect on the Soviet ships.  I don't think the guns did any real direct damage, but the remnants of the surface group were in such a state of confusion that their AA guns scored a lot of friendly fire hits on one another's superstructure.  I saw the radar systems on two boats get knocked out as a result.

Very fun campaign overall.  I'm hoping to see the addition of airbases so planes can land, rearm, and refuel.  I'd also like to see data on unit speed on the AEGIS type display.  I was trying to get my sub into intercept position but it was hard to figure out the best course because I had no idea how fast the surface group was travelling. 

I'd also be nice to see the speed of air contacts prior to ID.  Makes it easier to discern if a radar contact is a high speed jet or a lumbering prop driven monstrosity.