Another busy day for Harpoon ANW, PlayersDB, and the HarpGamer server. Three separate sessions were played with five different people.

Misha1971 came aboard hoping to continue our saved game of Sea Okhotsk. Unfortunately, we had to abandon it due to the server constantly dropping me out of the session from scenario size. It was a real shame since it was developing quite nicely.

Instead, we chose to play another PlayersDB scenario, Save the Queen. We barely got started, but it seems to be turning into a real barn-burner. I took the UK side while Misha commanded his motherland's forces. My orders were to defend the UK from Russian attack.

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I had a pair of E-3D Sentry aircraft at my disposal so I decided to make the best use of them. Soon after launch, they picked up emissions from the approaching Russian task force. They took up position NE and NW of my CVH group and were accompanied by 4 Tornado fighters, each, as a Combat Air Patrol.

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After the radar picture firmed up and, without much other activity, I decided to send my CAP on an offensive sweep to cull some of the enemy's CAP and AEW aircraft. Bad idea.

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Four fighters, two AEW helos, and 2 ASW helos were confirmed. Both CAP flights crept in at Medium altitude to avoid radar detection. Once close enough to the enemy CAP, they let loose with AIM-120 AMRAAM and targeted 4 on each fighter with a pair on each AEW helo. Three were shot down along with the two helos. While preparing a second volley for the surviving fighter, my planes started disappearing! Apparently, Misha had deployed his BCGN and Slava cruisers (prime AAW defense platforms) far in front of his ASW screen!

What I thought were harmless ASW frigates turned out to be deadly SAM-spewing cruisers. They quickly blew 7 of the 8 Tornadoes out of the sky. Their loss was bad enough, but now there was nothing standing between the surviving fighter and my AEW aircraft! Son of a B...

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As I desperately tried to scramble more fighters, his survivor got close enough to blast one Sentry and another group closed on the second Sentry. My surviving Tornado managed to get three of the Fulcrum interceptors, but the last one closed and loosed a single AA-10 Alamo that incinerated the AEW platform. Damn, and double-damn. Curse all sneaky Russians.

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Now, I was essentially blind. I still had AEW helos from the CVH, but they were very limited in capability. Even so, Misha tried to punch out all my AEW with more Fulcrum flights. Luckily, a second flight of Tornadoes arrived in time to kill the Fulcrum. I am going to miss the Sentry coverage, though.

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To make matters worse, Misha ordered his nuclear submarines to attack. He said that he was trying something with them and wondered if I had detected them. However, I am not someone who gives my opponents Free Intelligence during a game, so he can check this thread after we finish the match. I did detect his Akula and Victor (?) subs as they moved.

We saved the game at this point and will pick it up, tomorrow.

Great opening session, Misha. Curse all sneaky Russian bastages, though. Thanks to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

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TracyV came back for his second ANW game right afterwards. This time, we chose to play Airlane Gambit, made with the community's favourite ANW database, the PlayersDB.

I commanded the NATO defenders of Lajes while Tracy controlled a Russian amphibious invasion force.

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With my two Sentry aircraft, I was quickly able to locate the approaching task group and it certainly looked impressive with BCGN Frunze, CG Slava, and CG Azov as escorts. However, there were only two DDG Soveremenny-class destroyers as escorts, so I would play my ace-in-the-hole, SSN Seawolf.

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With such impressive AAW ships, the matching ECM capabilities were awesome, too. Once they were activated, my radar picture was severely reduced.

To help in the penetration by the Seawolf, I launched an ASuW strike with my 8 available P-3 MPA [Maritime Patrol Aircraft]. They targeted both with 16 Harpoon missiles, each. Against such SAM defences, I thought I might have a 50% chance of killing both. As it turned out, one kill was all I got . Thankfully, it was on the side that the Seawolf was already making its approach.

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The Seawolf was able to sneak in past the thin ASW screen and made her way past the Slava and Sovremennyy. She wanted the heavy amphibious ships. She timed her approach and attack to coincide with a second strike from Lajes airfield. 10 A-6E Intruders armed with 4 AGM-84 Harpoons each launched everything they had at the Slava along with 2 frigates firing 8 Harpoons each. As the missiles flew over the Seawolf, she added 8 more from her torpedo tubes. She hoped that the Russians would not realize that there was a submarine in their midst when they saw the Harpoons. Although 64 missiles might appear impressive, they were easily swatted from the sky by the defences. In retaliation, the Russians obliterated my two frigates with Shipwreck missiles.

As Seawolf vainly tried to re-load with torpedoes for her second assault, the computer kept re-loading with Tomahawks. After a number of tries, 6 tubes were re-loaded with Mk 48 torpedoes. This would have to suffice.

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Once into the heart of the convoy, she aimed 3 torpedoes at the BCGN Frunze and one each at Ivan Rogov-class LPDs and support ships. The BCGN exploded in a thunderous explosion from a combined force of nearly 1500lb of explosives under her keel. along with the amphibious ships. Now, it was a race between the torpedo re-loading teams and the enemy torpedo crews.

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Once again, the AI would only allow me to re-load one tube at a time with Mk 48 torpedoes. CG Azov managed to drop a torpedo right behind Seawolf. For all their surprise, the Russians reacted quickly and efficiently. Only a Mk3 decoy saved the Seawolf. In response, she fired her first torpedo back at the Azov when she turned on her engines and ran at flank speed. Her torpedo killed the Azov. Now that the escorts were out of the way, she took her leisurely time dispatching the survivors.

Once done, Tracy conceded defeat as he could no longer fulfill his Victory Conditions.

With the exception of the torpedo re-loading bug, it was a really fun time by both sides. Thanks for the game, Tracy, and HarpGamer for the use of the server.

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Misha1971 and I tried to finish our game of Save the Queen, made with the PlayersDB. It was another spell-binding engagement.

After slaughtering a good portion of my fighter cover, we settled into an uneasy "phony war". Neither side ventured forth with both just protecting their surviving assets. The situation could not last forever.



I tried to approach the Russian battlegroup for a submarine attack, but, evidently, one was detected as a swarm of ASW helicopters was detected in the vicinity of one. The RAF commander could not allow the RN to take such a heavy blow if the SSN were lost. One CAP flight was detailed to eliminate the hunters. From my previous experience with the phenomenal Russian SAMs, I ordered a dog-leg approach to minimize exposure to them.



Meanwhile, my other SSN also had an uninvited guest in the form of an Akula SSN. Once his general position was identified, a pair of Spearfish torpedoes was launched from a range of 15nm. It was going to be a long shot, but I felt that the 70kt torpedoes would be able to catch him. When they were half-way to the target, they must have been detected as he kicked his sub into high gear and ran at 35kts. However, he was unable to evade the Spearfish and they caught him at the end of their run.



Returning back to the other SSN, the Tornadoes were able to 'scratch the fleas' off its back. Hopefully, that would give him sufficient room to manoeuvre clear.



After the helos went down, the Sierra Strike consisting of Tornado GR.1B, Sea Harrier, and Nimrods made their ingress. The Tornado and Nimrods were able to successfully release their 64 combined Harpoons and Sea Eagles, but the Nimrods detected SAM emissions just as the last weapons fell off their racks...

We saved the game for future completion. I wonder which of my planes will survive.

Another great session, Misha, and thanks to HarpGamer for playing the gracious host.

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Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) tried to finish off our scenario with Flight of the Governor, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

Having shot down the bulk of his Su-30s, the only thing left for me to do was evacuate the embassy personnel aboard the Maersk Explorer and the frigate, Van #%&*$#. However, AoA wasn't giving up without a fight!



As the little rag-tag evacuation force made its way to St. Maarten, a submarine contact was detected



Normally, this would not present much of a problem. I ordered my SH-14D Lynx helicopter aloft to prosecute the contact. Luckily, I had kept my eye on the radar screen because coming out of the SE was another Flanker! (Just how many of those things did Hugo buy!?)

There was no way that my Lynx was going to survive an encounter with a Flanker, so I quickly ordered it back to the ship. So, another Mexican Standoff ensued. I could not prosecute the contact because it was protected by the fighter and the fighter lacked the ability to attack my ships.



Something had to give. As my orders directed me to make St. Maartens best possible speed, I would just have to close with the submarine and engage the old fashioned way, with a broadside torpedo launch.

I ordered the Van #%&*$# to make flank speed towards the sub contact in hopes of screening my merchants from retaliatory attack. However, AoA had his own ideas. Once he knew that had been detected, he sent a lone torpedo towards my ships and hope that he could break contact while my ships evaded the diversionary attack.

It was a beautiful idea since it screwed up my plans and might just prevent me from achieving my Victory Conditions as I had to get my ships as close to St. Maarten as possible. My ships turned to run until the torpedo ran out of fuel. This burned both fuel (and Time!), since I was headed in the wrong direction.

In 'retaliation', I hinted to Jerome that I had a sub in the Aruba area waiting to return the favour.

In fact, I had no sub at my disposal, but it was entertaining to watch AoA pound the waters with his sonar searching in vain for a sub that wasn't there. This was probably as close to a real life situation as we could get. Just the mere hint of a submarine's presence can cause a frenzy of activity in one's enemy.

At this point, we decided to call it a night and saved the game for completion tomorrow, hopefully.

Thanks, AoA, for making this game so realistic and to HarpGamer for the use of their server. We crashed it three times, but it always came back up. Bravo

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Tonight, Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) and I were determined to finish off our scenario with Flight of the Governor, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

After evading the lone torpedo salvo, the evacuation ships quickly returned to their course for St. Maartens. There was another sub out there and no clue to it's location.



As usual, when it rains, it pours. Once again, a submarine was detected. However, soon afterwards, a second was detected, too. Free from the Su-30 threat at last, I launched the Lynx to prosecute the sub contact that lay astride our path. It was a calculated risk. Hopefully, the sub in the aft quarter was too distant to be a threat.



Soon after launch, the Lynx dipped her sonar and localized the sub about 11nm from the frigate and closed to point blank range before releasing her Mk46 torpedo. She didn't want to give the sub any time to fire a final barrage of torpedoes before her death. The plan worked and no torpedoes were detected from that quarter.



The stern quarter was another matter. 12 torpedoes were detected, but they were only running at 28kts while the ships were fleeing at 23kts. They soon ran out of fuel.

This was near the 12 hour game limit. The scenario expired and I think that I won, but can't be sure due to the ever-present Victory Condition bug.

Thanks, AoA, for making truly realistic and challenging game and to HarpGamer hosting it.

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Here's another superb AAR from Ralf [re-printed with permission]




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For those folks interested, here's the AAR from Ralf's HC run [re-printed with permission]:


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INVASION OF ANTILLES
Harpoon ANW scenario for the PlayersDB
Author: Freek Schepers

Jerome (a.k.a. Angle of Attack) came looking to try another scenario from Freek Scheper's Hugo's Folly battleset, made with ANW's most functional database, the PlayersDB. Having played the first one, we chose the second one in the series, "Invasion of Antilles" with Jerome continuing in his role of S. American aggressor.





With my successful escape from hordes of Venezuelan Flankers, now I was charged with the defense of St. Maartens. Any hope of a successful liberation of the ABC Islands would require use of St. Maartens as a springboard.

I ordered all my ships to flank speed to hurry back to the island and bolster her defences. There were reports of a paratroop drop on St. Eustatius with possible re-inforcements arriving by sea, air, or sub. As I had no idea what AoA intended, I launched my Maritime Fokker patrol planes out to eyeball the situation.

A quick flight over St. Eustatius was enough to confirm the presence of enemy paratroops on the island. I ordered the FFG van #%&*$# to make a slight detour in order to smash the invaders with her naval guns. The Fokker continued on her way to classify and identify the shipping in the area. The last thing I wanted to find was a follow-on amphibious force. Suddenly, she detected more Flanker radar! (Just how many of the damned things did Hugo buy?!) She dove to the deck and shut down her radar all the while running back for the safety of St. Maartens. Unfortunately, she only made 278kts and was caught over 100nm away and shot down.



Soon enough, the Venezuelans discovered the FFG van #%&*$# and sent in their Exocet-armed Mirage to attack. There were four Mirage, but they failed to execute a combined attack. Three Exocet were fired and then a final one followed minutes later. The frigate's Sea Sparrow easily defeated them. However, there were a finite number of missiles in the launcher.



Having failed to destroy the target, AoA ordered his bomb-laden F-16 Falcons to attack. (AoA is an ex-Argentine army pilot, so he remembered all the tales of bravado and daring from the Malvinas conflict.) He separated his Falcons and each came in on afterburner at low level from a different vector. The approach would have been called 'beautiful' if it were not for the fact that he was running down my throat! The van #%&*$# got one of the attackers with her 76mm gun, but another managed to lay her stick of bombs right across the bow of the frigate. Unlike in the Falklands conflict, there were no fuzing errors and little warship blew up in a tremendous explosion.



The remaining strikers tried to suppress St. Maartens airport and only left it damaged after one of their number was shot down on the approach. At this time, we decided the game was a draw since neither side could achieve its Victory Conditions. My loss of the frigate and the destruction of AoA's paratroops meant that the game could only end in a draw.

AoA, you did the Aerea Fuerza Argentina proud, tonight. Thanks for a great game and thanks to HarpGamer for hosting the server.

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Misha loves to play the Russians in all our engagements. Unfortunately, most of the scenarios invariably end in crashes due to their size. After crashing The Merge, Okhotsk, Linchpin from size, we chose 2nd Battle of Tsushima Strait, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

Misha commanded a force of surface ships desperately trying to return home to Vladivostok via the Tsushima Strait while I controlled the Japanese squadron detailed to close that very same Strait.



I didn't know what Misha had up his sleeve. I ordered the P-3 Orion and F-15J Eagle fighters aloft to ascertain the situation. The moment they detected MiG-31 Foxhound radar, they fled the scene and landed. There was no way that the Eagles could begin to challenge for aerial superiority with the Foxhounds and I wasn't intent on simply sacrificing them. Misha then launched his Bear recon aircraft and it just sat there outside of range of my destroyer flotilla; reporting its every move to headquarters. There would be a day of reckoning, my friend, but, until that time, I would simply have to grin and bear this snooper.



Further south, I suspected that his surface strike group must be close to the Tsushima Strait so I decided to try a surprise attack on the group with my AGM-130-armed Eagles in hopes of possibly killing one ship before he realized that he had been detected. They crept in at low altitude and were not detected until they rose to minimum release altitude for their weapons (1000m). At that point, they quickly energized their radar, shot down a Ka-29 Helix surveillance helo, and released their AGM-130 missiles. As they turned to flee, they dove to the deck and lit their afterburners. Their speed managed to save half of them from destruction as they were chased all the way home by the Foxhounds.



At this point, I decided that there was no way I could win under the current conditions. I could not challenge the Foxhounds since their AA-9 Amos missiles had more than double my own AIM-7 Sparrow range. So long as they and the Bears were present, I could not attack the Russian fleet as it bristled with over 30 long-ranged Sandbox and Shipwreck missiles, each with a range of over 300nm. My own Harpoons were a pitiful 75nm in range.

There was only one choice -- close down Vladivostok. I ordered the Escort flotilla northward for an old-fashioned bombardment mission. Under the protective SAM umbrella provided by the AEgis destroyer Kongo, they were molested by MiG-29 fighter-bombers, but were undamaged as they entered the bay. 30 minutes of naval artillery fire was sufficient to smash the hangars and revetments of the base along with several batteries of SA-12 SAMs.

Once the protective air cover was gone, it was an easy mission to shoot down the Recon Bears. At that point, I ordered the destroyers to shut down their radar in hopes of Russians losing them in the background noise. This would be my only chance of delivering a successful SSM strike before being annihilated by the return fire.



Meanwhile, the surviving Strike Eagles had re-armed and launched to try and pick off a ship from the Russians. Even if they were not successful, it was hoped that the AGM-130s would at least force the Russians to expend more of their SAMs. I was facing very long odds and I had to play every card I had.



The Eagles managed to make their ingress undetected. Once again, when they rose to 40nm, they were engaged. With a pair of Sparrows aimed at each of the two hovering helicopters and all AGM-130 released towards the DD Udaloy, they turned to flee the scene of the crime. This time, they took no losses, but inflicted none, either. The SAM defences of a Russian battlefleet are simply awesome.

At this time, we decided to call it a night. A superb game, Misha. Looking forward to its completion, soon. Thanks to HarpGamer for the user of their server.

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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Misha and I met up in hopes of finishing the 2nd Battle of Tsushima Strait, made with the Harpoon community's favourite database, the PlayersDB.

With Vladvistok in flames, I denied Misha any aerial reconnaissance. I positioned flights of Eagles near his SAG and shot down every helo that tried to rise from his decks. With him essentially blinded, I order my Destroyer Flotilla to make their approach.



What I didn't realize was the number of submarines that Misha still had in his Order of Battle. A Victor II-class boat was detected on the towed array sonar from the oncoming strike fleet. A nearby P-3 Orion was ordered to intercept and destroy it. Hopefully, it would not have counter-detected my own ships. I immediately ordered the ships to a dead stop.

The Orion successfully destroyed the submarine, but the question remained in my mind: Had I been counter-detected? Was there a cloud of Shipwreck and Sandbox SSMs on their way? I decided to re-position my Eagles as a stop-gap measure between my ships and the Russian fleet. This would prove to be fortuitous.



Not long afterwards, another submarine was detected. Before the Orions could pounce on her, sonar reported "Transient, Transient! Missile tube firing!" I was too late. My position had been revealed. Sure enough, a second barrage of Shipwreck and Sandbox SSMs were detected rising from the Russian fleet. Damn. A multi-axis attack is truly a beautiful sight (except if you happen to be sitting on the bullseye!)

The Eagle flights managed to get a few. Thank goodness for that. The DDG Kongo then engaged with her SAMs and got the rest. Unfortunately, she used up her entire SAM magazine in the defense, but it allowed the flotilla to survive the onslaught. The fact that the Soviets had attacked in 3 separate waves also allowed the flotilla to escape without loss. I would not make the same mistake. I would engage with one massive strike.

After soaking up my defensive SAMs, the Charlie had outlived her purpose and the Orion obligingly terminated her with a Mk 46 torpedo. Now, I had the Soviet fleet hemmed in against the coast near Kyoto. However, as everyone knows, a cornered animal is the most dangerous kind, of all. This Bear still had Sunburn SSMs on his DDG Sovremennyy and a ton of SA-6 Grumbles that would be effective anti-ship weapons, too.



At this time, we called it a night. Another superb session. Looking forward to its completion this weekend. Many thanks to HarpGamer for the use of their server.

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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