(Originally posted by Martin via the Shipwreck Yahoo Group)

Wargamers know a lot about the hardware of war. They know which are the weapons to fire, the planes to fly, and the ships to sail.

Unfortunately, real war is never so tidy. No commander ever goes into battle with all of the forces that he would like, and in many cases he is lumbered with whatever can be scared up.

This scenario is designed as a training aid for gamers unused to the niceties of modern naval warfare. It features an opposed transiting of a small convoy, escorted by a naval task group that is not, shall we say, ideally what one would wish for.


Setup.

Lay out a table 140" by 50". Along one long side depict land to a depth of 4-5". At about 45" along, place a small estuary about 4-5" wide. At 70" along, place three oil rig platforms, each at least 2" apart, about 10" off the shoreline. The convoy starts no further than 10" in on the side nearest the estuary, and with no vessel in it no more than 15 miles off shore. Its objective is to get at least three of its merchants off the opposite side of the board.

The convoy consists of one small 2000 tonne coastal freighter, three 4000 tonne merchants (one of which is a tanker) and two 8000 tonne large merchants (one of which is a tanker). None of the merchants are armed or equipped with any electronics beyond basic (-2) navigation radar. None can go faster than 3", even if hostile elements are detected. They are, essentially, targets.

The escort group also consists of six ships. They are:
HMS Argus, an aviation support vessel.
HMS Monmouth, a type 23 frigate.
HMS Manchester, a type 42 batch III destroyer.
HMS Walney, a Hunt class minehunter.
HMS Leeds Castle, a Castle class patrol ship.
HMS Shetland, an Island class patrol ship.

All the ships are as depicted on downloads from the Vandering Publications website. The one exception is Leeds Castle, which is carrying a Lynx type helicopter and has had its standard 40mm cannon upgraded to an Oto Melara 76mm compact. Leeds Castle can refuel but not rearm helicopters.

Argus can only launch or land two aircraft per turn. She has no flight deck so Sea Harriers can only be lightly loaded for air-to-air operations (30mm cannon and 4 x Sidewinder). There are no aircraft airborne at the start of the scenario.
Monmouth and Manchester both have torpedo decoys available.
Monmouth cannot trail a decoy and its towed array sonar at the same
time.

The opposition.

The attacking player has four strike forces.

An air strike of 4 x Backfire Bombers, each armed with 2 x AS-6 missiles. The attacking player must secretly record on which turn they will appear. They come on table from any direction except the landward side and start at Very Long range. They fly towards the convoy but have no detections of individual ships, unless other elements can pass on the information beforehand.

6 x Osa IIb fast attack craft, each armed with four of the improved SS-N-2C "Styx" missiles. These are deployed anywhere in the estuary, OR under the oil rigs (two per rig), as the attacking player prefers. In either case they are impervious to radar detection and do not need to be put down on table. As soon as they move, or if any British unit comes within 3 miles of them, they must be placed down on table. They count the modifier of -2 to detection if close to land if they are in the estuary.

Four submarines, an Echo I, and Echo II, a Juliet and a Kilo. All have standard loadouts and start at "Long" range from a specified target ship. The Echo II and the Juliett must surface to fire their missiles.

A minefield of four mines, which activates as soon as any ship in the convoy moves past the half way mark. The mines start off at "Medium" range to the first four ships that pass the half way mark, one mine to each. They "close" as per the standard rules. The Hunt class minehunter can attempt to "close" on them and will destroy a mine at "Very Short" range on a roll of "6" or under.

It can be seen that the best option for the attacker is to try and coordinate their attacks, otherwise they risk each being defeated in detail.

The Game.

The attacking player chose to deploy his FAC's under the oil rigs. By juggling the projected speed of the convoy, the position of the oil rigs, and liberal scrawlings on a small napkin, he calculated that the appearance of his air strike at turn 20 would coincide nicely with the oil rig ambush. Apparently the factor of the convoy escorts checking the oil rigs out beforehand was not considered. Accordingly the convoy set off. On turn one every ship able to launch helicopters sent them off in all directions, but for some strange reason, an AEW sea King was not amongst them. No radar was turned on, so the convoy effectively sailed blind. The attacking submarines sprinted, but failed to close.

Next turn more helicopters were launched, setting up a defensive line about 20 miles ahead of the convoy. The Kilo submarine managed to close to "Medium", and avoided detection. Over the next few turns, the submarines continued to sprint, and the convoy maintained its line of helicopters, although belatedly a couple of Harriers were placed on CAP.
On turn five the Juliett managed to close to Medium too, but a freaky fluctuation in the thermocline (otherwise known as a lucky dice roll) enabled the convoy to detect the Echo II at Long range, in fact some 70 miles ahead. On turn seven - momentous events! The Kilo got to within Very Short range and attempted to detect its primary target, the Argus. Fortunately for the convoy, it failed, but it did spot Manchester as she laboured alongside. The submarine changed its target and fired a single wire guided torpedo at the destroyer, giving away its position and attracting hordes of helicopters. At the same time, the attacking player decided to surface the Echo II and prepare to fire missiles. There was still no AEW helicopter up, or indeed any of the escorts with radar on, so nothing could be done.

In spite of the numerous anti-sub torpedoes dropped by the helicopters the Kilo kept its nerve and its torpedo slammed into Manchester. Only a light damage was inflicted, but alas it jammed the Sea Dart missile system, causing a tremendous flurry of trepidation amongst the convoy players, and fevered debate as to whether to put more CAP up. In the end, the lure of the submarine was too much, and helicopters were launched instead. It did them no good. The quietly formidable Kilo gave them all the slip. The convoy continued its course while the helicopters continued to circle the last position of the elusive diesel boat. Two turns later the Kilo got another firing solution on Manchester and loosed another torpedo, and with its typical luck this struck and critically damaged the destroyer. The helicopters descended and a frantic chase began, during which the Kilo launched another torpedo at Argus. This just missed, and at long last the Kilos luck ran out and two of the anti-sub torpedoes found their mark. It went down with all hands. It was followed soon after by Manchester, which failed its critical recovery roll.

By now the convoy was nearing the oil rigs. No investigation had been made and when two Osa's popped out from the first one it was a complete shock to the convoy players. Switching radar on one got a fix on Argus and loosed a salvo. None of the escorts had radar on but fortunately for the convoy the path of the missiles took them over Monmouth, and her autonomous VLS Sea Wolf system promptly took two of them out. Argus had no time to fire chaff and her weak EW did nothing to stop the remaining two missiles. Fortunately one of the missiles did no damage (obviously a dud or a close miss) and the other only managed a light damage, but took out the ships most effective missile defence, its chaff launchers.

Next turn the British, for some bizarre reason, sailed serenely on, while two more missile boats appeared and the others closed and indulged in a gun duel with HMS Walney. Walney's first shots destroyed a twin 30mm cannon on one of the Osa's, but she was still heavily outgunned and in the furious exchange of fire that followed she was badly shot up. A lynx helicopter that intervened failed to hit anything with her Sea Skua missiles.

The Osa that had spotted Argus radioed her location to the surfaced Echo II, which promptly fired a full salvo of eight SS-N-3's! Simultaneously one of the two new Osa's got a lock on Monmouth and fired four SS-N-2C's at her. Monmouth, without radar, did not spot the missiles in time to fire chaff, but was able to take out two with Sea Wolf. The convoy players were confident Monmouth's excellent EW would protect her, but even needing a "2" or less, one missile landed, found the frigates magazines, and blew her up in one strike. Argus was facing only the old inaccurate Shaddock, but without any effective defences three found their target, turning the makeshift carrier into a riddled, burning wreck.

It was now obvious the convoy was doomed, and when the attacking player announced that next turn his air strike was due, the convoy players conceded.

All in all, it was an exciting if one-sided engagement. The attacking player was lucky but poor play on the part of the convoy was more responsible for their downfall. Very instructive though, as I was able to explain the tenets of modern naval warfare very easily as illustrated by the mistakes that they made.

Variants

I have worked out some variations for this scenario:

For an Italian covering force, use:

Audace (Audace class destoyer)
Crotone (Lerici class minehunter)
Eruo (Maestrale class frigate)
Fenice (Minerva class corvette)
San Giorgio (San Giorgio class)
Vega (Cassiopea class patrol vessel)
The Italians also have a permanent land based CAP of 2 x Tornado.

For a French covering force, use:

Cassard (Cassard class frigate)
Commandant Birot (D'Estienne D'Orves class frigate)
Jeanne D'Arc (Jeanne D'Arc helicopter cruiser)
La Rieuse (L'audacieuse class patrol boat)
Orion (Tripartite class minehunter).
Ventose (Floreal class frigate)
The French also have a permanent land based CAP of 2 x Etendard.

Enjoy!

Martin Bourne