Molon Labe
10-20-2007, 06:52 PM
Unfortunately we had a crash on this one, but it was fun while it lasted.
Phil (Seawolf) and I (688I) were tasked with hauling ass to a point of ocean near the GUIK Gap where a Russian SSM-heavy SAG was headed, intent on blowing away a British ASW carrier task force. Bobbyzero and Cyklop were escorting the SAG in Akula-IIs. We had a fix on the position of the SAG that was an hour old, and 2 hours to get to the point that it would be able to fire upon the Carrier group.
We started off at 2200hrs with a faint tonal on the SAG. Not wanting to be late, I went deep early and made a 10 minute sprint. A 2nd tonal showed up after that sprint, well SE of what seemed to be the PIM of the SAG. I called that a POSSUB and went deep again. After the 2nd sprint, I noticed a significant signal increase in the POSSUB while I was watching it, which indicated an increase in speed. The POSSUB became a sprinting PROSUB. At 2240 Phil and I came to comms to share our solutions; he too had the same contact off the PIM, so at this point I was pretty sure I'd spotted Cyklop sprinting in the surface duct.
At this point, it appeared that Cyklop was in pretty close to the formation... perhaps looking for me to get into something like the "sweet spot" TLAM spoke of in the Kilo guide. A collapsing defense meant I had more time to get in close, so I went deep for another sprint. Before putting the speed on, I detected a deep tonal to the north, another PROSUB, probably BobbyZero. I put out a UUV (to provide TIW alerts in case I was wrong about the collapsing D) and got ready to sprint again, but then noticed another deep tonal, also north. Oops. That guy I thought was Cyklop was just an escort. And the place Cyklop is in is not in position to block me. This changes things. I had meant to sneak in close on Cyklop and torp him, then send two torps after the SAG, forcing it to turn towards Phil at best, or at worst away from the goal line and buying us some time. But it seemed now that the "back door was open," so I could take a serious shot at the objective cruisers.
The sprint part of the plan didn't change, so I went got deep and put on the speed for a short sprint. After that sprint, we had about 45 minutes to the goal line. I was about 18nm away from that spot...not at close as I wanted to be. Active returns started lighting everything up, and the escorts were getting dangerously close to being inside of detection range. I kept a close eye on the two subs to the north and tried to stay on the opposite side of the layer. But this close to the goal line, they could afford to get slow and dangle below the layer from above, so that wasn't much of a guarantee. At 30 minutes to goal, it was time to strike. I still wasn't as close as I wanted to be; the nearest sub looked about 10-12nm out to the NNW, and the cruisers were at least 14nm NE. Both of them are far enough out to outrun the shots... but I decided to go deep and fire under the layer and hope for the best. Even if the sub just ran, he would be neutralized for the time--and would be running towards Phil, and if the SAG ran it would just be like the old plan, so that's still not bad.
The near sub crossed the layer almost immediately after I fired, so he definitely heard it. So much for surprise. I sprinted in anticipation of missile shots. I was surprised that after a few minutes, none had been fired. I slowed down and tried to keep my track on the target sub. My torps started enabling. The one on the sub wasn't finding anything, but the two fired at the crusiers were going for blood. I resteered the sub torp as best I could and preenabled. About this time, I realized I had been wrong about Cyklop again. I was now getting tonals behind me, to the west, suggesting that I had overrun him. I would have tried to think about it a bit to figure out where the correct contact would have been at the time, but now the missiles were falling, and the bearing lines on those weapons from the UUV were pointed right at me.:eek:
I set up a two decoy drop leading SE and turned north behind it, baiting the nearest torp to miss me to the right, and then turn to the right when it lost the track. Reloaded decoys, turned ENE to clear. Lost two torp wires...somebody's day just got ruined...reloaded those tubes. Re-enabled the sub torp. New torps in the water to the north, they looked a little far but not far enough. Drop shallow decoys, turned ESE. Hopefully they'll be baited shallow while I'm deep. Oh shit, I'm not deep, I'm still above the layer. Why am I still above the layer?! Dumbass! :slap: Active reports from the west show acquisition...I need more decoys. Lost the wire and the 3rd torp--guess that Akula wasn't too far after all! Reload torp, still no decoys. Check position of torps... not looking good...... and I'm hit.
And then two minutes later, DW crashes.:gdamnit:
My first two torps hit and sunk a Slava, one of the 3 objective ships. The other torp hit Bobbyzero, who was on Phil's side of the SAG, not mine. Cyklop, who was on my side, was well off on the left flank of the SAG. I had only tagged his mirror contact during my approach.:confused: Whoops. All in all, I think I had 6 SUB/ASROCs shot at me, not including what I'm guessing were 3-4 Stallions Cyklop tried to fire from above 50m. (Good to know I"m not the only player that's rusty!) It was a pair of -27s from him that were the first torps to threaten me; the first of the pair acquired me and was the one I spoofed in the beginning of the evasion sequence. This MPT-1UE completed its second circle, went through the decoy field again, and reacquired at a relatively long range, and was slowly chasing me down the whole time I was reacting to the Silexes from the Udaloy (the other TIWs) and managing my torps. So it ended up being the first of the 6 torps intended for me that ended up hitting me. Nice job, Cyklop.
The crash was at a really bad time for Phil... The SAG was coming about after failing to escape my torp salvo, and with Bobby out of Phil's way, the SAG was pretty much at his mercy. Damn DW crashes!:gdamnit:
Phil (Seawolf) and I (688I) were tasked with hauling ass to a point of ocean near the GUIK Gap where a Russian SSM-heavy SAG was headed, intent on blowing away a British ASW carrier task force. Bobbyzero and Cyklop were escorting the SAG in Akula-IIs. We had a fix on the position of the SAG that was an hour old, and 2 hours to get to the point that it would be able to fire upon the Carrier group.
We started off at 2200hrs with a faint tonal on the SAG. Not wanting to be late, I went deep early and made a 10 minute sprint. A 2nd tonal showed up after that sprint, well SE of what seemed to be the PIM of the SAG. I called that a POSSUB and went deep again. After the 2nd sprint, I noticed a significant signal increase in the POSSUB while I was watching it, which indicated an increase in speed. The POSSUB became a sprinting PROSUB. At 2240 Phil and I came to comms to share our solutions; he too had the same contact off the PIM, so at this point I was pretty sure I'd spotted Cyklop sprinting in the surface duct.
At this point, it appeared that Cyklop was in pretty close to the formation... perhaps looking for me to get into something like the "sweet spot" TLAM spoke of in the Kilo guide. A collapsing defense meant I had more time to get in close, so I went deep for another sprint. Before putting the speed on, I detected a deep tonal to the north, another PROSUB, probably BobbyZero. I put out a UUV (to provide TIW alerts in case I was wrong about the collapsing D) and got ready to sprint again, but then noticed another deep tonal, also north. Oops. That guy I thought was Cyklop was just an escort. And the place Cyklop is in is not in position to block me. This changes things. I had meant to sneak in close on Cyklop and torp him, then send two torps after the SAG, forcing it to turn towards Phil at best, or at worst away from the goal line and buying us some time. But it seemed now that the "back door was open," so I could take a serious shot at the objective cruisers.
The sprint part of the plan didn't change, so I went got deep and put on the speed for a short sprint. After that sprint, we had about 45 minutes to the goal line. I was about 18nm away from that spot...not at close as I wanted to be. Active returns started lighting everything up, and the escorts were getting dangerously close to being inside of detection range. I kept a close eye on the two subs to the north and tried to stay on the opposite side of the layer. But this close to the goal line, they could afford to get slow and dangle below the layer from above, so that wasn't much of a guarantee. At 30 minutes to goal, it was time to strike. I still wasn't as close as I wanted to be; the nearest sub looked about 10-12nm out to the NNW, and the cruisers were at least 14nm NE. Both of them are far enough out to outrun the shots... but I decided to go deep and fire under the layer and hope for the best. Even if the sub just ran, he would be neutralized for the time--and would be running towards Phil, and if the SAG ran it would just be like the old plan, so that's still not bad.
The near sub crossed the layer almost immediately after I fired, so he definitely heard it. So much for surprise. I sprinted in anticipation of missile shots. I was surprised that after a few minutes, none had been fired. I slowed down and tried to keep my track on the target sub. My torps started enabling. The one on the sub wasn't finding anything, but the two fired at the crusiers were going for blood. I resteered the sub torp as best I could and preenabled. About this time, I realized I had been wrong about Cyklop again. I was now getting tonals behind me, to the west, suggesting that I had overrun him. I would have tried to think about it a bit to figure out where the correct contact would have been at the time, but now the missiles were falling, and the bearing lines on those weapons from the UUV were pointed right at me.:eek:
I set up a two decoy drop leading SE and turned north behind it, baiting the nearest torp to miss me to the right, and then turn to the right when it lost the track. Reloaded decoys, turned ENE to clear. Lost two torp wires...somebody's day just got ruined...reloaded those tubes. Re-enabled the sub torp. New torps in the water to the north, they looked a little far but not far enough. Drop shallow decoys, turned ESE. Hopefully they'll be baited shallow while I'm deep. Oh shit, I'm not deep, I'm still above the layer. Why am I still above the layer?! Dumbass! :slap: Active reports from the west show acquisition...I need more decoys. Lost the wire and the 3rd torp--guess that Akula wasn't too far after all! Reload torp, still no decoys. Check position of torps... not looking good...... and I'm hit.
And then two minutes later, DW crashes.:gdamnit:
My first two torps hit and sunk a Slava, one of the 3 objective ships. The other torp hit Bobbyzero, who was on Phil's side of the SAG, not mine. Cyklop, who was on my side, was well off on the left flank of the SAG. I had only tagged his mirror contact during my approach.:confused: Whoops. All in all, I think I had 6 SUB/ASROCs shot at me, not including what I'm guessing were 3-4 Stallions Cyklop tried to fire from above 50m. (Good to know I"m not the only player that's rusty!) It was a pair of -27s from him that were the first torps to threaten me; the first of the pair acquired me and was the one I spoofed in the beginning of the evasion sequence. This MPT-1UE completed its second circle, went through the decoy field again, and reacquired at a relatively long range, and was slowly chasing me down the whole time I was reacting to the Silexes from the Udaloy (the other TIWs) and managing my torps. So it ended up being the first of the 6 torps intended for me that ended up hitting me. Nice job, Cyklop.
The crash was at a really bad time for Phil... The SAG was coming about after failing to escape my torp salvo, and with Bobby out of Phil's way, the SAG was pretty much at his mercy. Damn DW crashes!:gdamnit: