The "Uber" Command: Modern Air/Naval Ops Thread

[MengJiao]

youre preaching to the faithful Kushan.

Nefaro, dont make me not like you.

this is what an F-14 is:



if you aint man enough I cant help ya.

   Isn't that the Radar engineer from Byzantium 1908?

[Dimitris]

No, he's much prettier.

[Dimitris]

Following the release of the massive v1.06 update, and concurrent with the ongoing Matrix and Steam holiday sales, Miguel Molina has delivered the final Christmas gift: A new revision of the Command community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains sixteen brand-new scenarios:     

Old Feuds Have Now returned, 2014 : Instead of a vote for unity, the Scottish have voted for independence. Then the real troubles began. The rise in oil prices was just an illusion, a short one driven by jitters after the Oman-Pakistan war rather than any serious change in supply and demand. Both countries' economies sank after the messy, calamitous split. The pro-UK Shetland Islands held a referendum of their own, and since maritime boundaries determined who could control the resources, this was a problem. Warships were sent, the first shots were fired, and wars between the English and Scots have come back.    

Sink The Nautica, 1977 : The Canadian naval forces in the mid-70s have seen some very lean years. All but four of the major surface warships are based upon designs more than two-decades old, the venerable CS-2F Trackers have lost their ASW capabilities and the CP-107 Argus LRMP's are now long in the tooth and overdue for replacement. A Canadian version of the P-3 Orion is on order but delivery of the CP-140 Aurora is still some years away. However, even with the material shortcomings the personnel are well trained and the available "O" Class submarines are worked up and ready. Now there's a general war against the Warsaw Pact and protecting Canadian waters has to compete with NATO tasks for scarce ships and planes. Into this unsatisfactory defensive situation sails an aggressive Soviet submarine.    

Operation Charming Truth, 1985 : A coup in Sudan has led to widespread chaos and violence in that country. The Sudanese government believes that some American civilians are organizing anti-government protests, and prepares to crack down – hard. The United States has decided to evacuate Americans from Sudan.    

Operation Lawful Destroyer, 1985 : This scenario assumes that a coup has taken place in Tanzania in the early 1980s and that the new government is hostile to Western allies like Kenya. The Constellation carrier group is ordered to neutralize Tanzanian forces by striking at Ngerengere airbase and any targets of opportunity.    

Operation Lawful Avenger, 1985 : A variation on Lawful Destroyer, with different weather conditions and enemy compositions & strengths.    

Raid on Bir Morghein, 2020 : This scenario assumes that in the near future tensions have increased between Morocco and Mauritania.  The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that China has recently sold military aircraft to Mauritania, giving it for the first time in many years a way to control the skies over the disputed area of the Western Sahara.    

Terrorists In Anjar, 1984 : An operation that might have been conducted during the war that took place between Israel and Lebanon in the early 1980s. Available IAF air assets at Ramat David AB are tasked with striking at terrorist militia cells deep inside Lebanon, while evading Syrian air defences.    

The Escort Division, 1962 : A US Navy Escort Division composed of old WWII Destroyer Escorts manned by hastily recalled reservists brings a supply convoy to an isolated Iceland. Designed as a light ASW/minesweeper mission inspired by the 1962-1963 Jane's Fighting Ships edition. Also designed for maximum replayability with random starting positions for most forces.    

Incident at Le Perouse Strait, 2014 : The islands in North of Japan have been always a matter of conflict between Russia and Japan. The Russian Pacific Fleet is deployed near Le Perouse Strait in a exercise which is closely monitored by Japanese submarines. This kind of situations could develop in serious incidents. The scenario features the new Japanese 'Carrier' destroyers with a complement of F-35s against the new Russian naval units.    

The Soviet Test, 1964 : The Soviet Union, looking to expand the reach of its naval fleet, has drawn ire from its recent close approaches to the Philippines, Guam and now the Hawaiian Islands. Fearing that the Soviets may uncover the recent nuclear testing at Johnston Atoll, the US places CTF75 in the region to detect and deter the Soviets from encroaching the region and possibly testing their capability of a first strike on the Hawaiian Islands.    

Air Battle over Beraf-Kucove, 2020 : A civil war erupts in Albania in 2020.  After several months of ferocious fighting, the two sides have drifted into an uneasy cease fire.  However, North Albania has used the lull in the fighting to negotiate arms deals with Serbia and Russia.  Concerned with the direction the war was taking, and its implications for the region, Greece has sold a number of older Mirage fighters and other military equipment to South Albania.    

Those Who Hunt Goblins, 1973 : The Yom Kippur war is in full swing. Both the USN and Red Banner Fleets have rushed naval reinforcements into the Med and with the two navies operating at close proximity, the possibility for accident or opportunity sneak attack is considered very great. For the first time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis the US has set DEFCON-3. The only significant naval force to protect the Eastern Seaboard of the United States is the Intrepid Battle Group with her hybrid air group and ad hoc collection of escorts.  This would not normally be an issue but the crisis in the Med has siphoned off most of the SSNs that normally track and trail the Soviet SSBNs operating in the Western Atlantic. The plots for at least two Soviet Yankee-class ballistic missile submarines operating near the American coast have been lost. Can the Intrepid group re-acquire the boomers and keep tabs on them without further escalating the standoff into a possible WW3?    

Red Flag, 2017 : Red Flag is a world famous exercise held multiple times per year at Nellis AFB, Nevada. It is the "mother of all Flags" and features everything a fighter pilot can wish for in an exercise: dedicated adversary fighters, lots of SAM transmitters, good airspace, and plenty of live bombing targets. It focuses primarily on fighter aircraft working together in COMAO packages to accomplish challenging objectives. Two missions (one day, one night) are flown each day for two weeks, with various assignments, such as Defensive Counter Air, Air Interdiction, Escort, Dynamic Targeting, combinations of the above and more.    

DCA Mini-EX, 2012 : A joint air-defence exercise pits the combined USAFE / Danish AF forces against OPFOR invaders from the Scandinavian north.    

Death of the Belgrano, 1982 : After following the ARA General Belgrano task group for one day and four hours, the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror receives permission from the Royal Navy Command to intercept and sink the Argentine cruiser. If possible, his escorts too. The green signal was given.    

The Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment, 1987 : You are the regimental commander of the 236th APIB, an elite Soviet MiG-27K regiment stationed in Hradcany-Mimon Air Base, Czechoslovakia. You have just been given your top-secret orders: War has abruptly broken out, without prior warning. According to established warplans, your assigned targets are a range of high-priority NATO installations. You have one hour to prepare your first airstrike of the war. 

Many of the new scenarios, as well as some rebuilt versions of existing ones, make extensive use of the new v1.06 features.

As always, the community scenario pack is available for download at the WarfareSims download section: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

With the new scenario pack release, the total number of released Command scenarios is now 219!

[Con]

OK picked this game up liking it a lot but still learning the ropes and my biggest one right now is bombing accuracy

Played through the air tutorial a couple of times and I am trying to find out if there is anyway to increase accuracy when bombing with iron bombs specifically the MK82 500lbs.  I have tried several things but got inconclusive results, havent found a specific action on the FAQs which addresses this and after getting over 20 pages deep on the boards just decided I needed to add this question to them.

How do I improve bombing accuracy esp with older type LDGP Iron bombs?

Does having your radars on help?
Is there a better altitude (ie low very low etc)
Will my accuracy go up if I go slow (loiter) vs Cruise or Max speed
If I come in with a straight flight patch long way out from the target does that improve my bombing?
Should I put a way point over the target and do it manually or is it better to designate a target and then check ignore waypoints and let the AI take over (does it do better than manual?)
Does attacking one target at a time work better than attacking a couple of different targets spaced together

Thanks for any help

Con

[Dimitris]

Hello, thank you for your purchase and welcome!

How do I improve bombing accuracy esp with older type LDGP Iron bombs?

As a general rule, if you are micromanaging the attack it is recommended to "step back" during the bomb run (ie. disable any manual throttle/altitude overrides) and let the AI crews do their thing. The AI knows the speed & altitude release envelope for each weapon (so right off the bat you avoid all "out of envelope" problems) and tries its best to maximize the effectiveness of the employed weapon. If you set its "auto-evade" doctrine option to YES it will even automatically evade missile fire (though this may be undesirable in the bomb run itself).

Does having your radars on help?

It helps against mobile target but in this case you're dropping on known fixed targets so it doesn't help.

Is there a better altitude (ie low very low etc)

Yes, the lower you go the less the bombs will drift off the intended aimpoints.

Will my accuracy go up if I go slow (loiter) vs Cruise or Max speed

If I come in with a straight flight patch long way out from the target does that improve my bombing?

No, it makes no difference.

Should I put a way point over the target and do it manually or is it better to designate a target and then check ignore waypoints and let the AI take over (does it do better than manual?)

See above.

Does attacking one target at a time work better than attacking a couple of different targets spaced together

When using unguided weapons (primarily bombs but also rockets, guns etc.) against closely-spaced targets you can often get lucky with collateral hits, e.g. a bomb impacts well-off intended target-1 but close enough to nearby target-2 to damage/destroy it. To really see this in action try an "Arc Light" B-52D attack against massed infantry units. This is one of the reasons why Mk82 loadouts used to be a lot more popular than Mk83/Mk84 loadouts of equivalent weight (greater number of bombs => higher chance of shotgun effect), at least when attacking area targets or soft targets. (Against hard targets you really want a "point" max-yield explosion with high accuracy)

Let us know how we can further help you.

Thanks!

[Con]

Thanks Dimitris for the reply and tips

Using this I managed to get a major victory now in the Air tutorial and my pilots planted a lot more bombs on target

Now on to the naval surface tutorial

Con

[Dimitris]

Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the Command community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains several scenario updates plus six brand-new scenarios:     

Boston's Battle, 1963 : This is an "alternate" scenario to Boston's Brawl, 1963. The assumption is that the American Surface Action Group centered around the Boston is on patrol off the coast of West Africa, instead of being in the South Atlantic, and is called upon to destroy a Soviet Surface Action Group.    

One Final Old-fashioned Banana War, 1947 : An economic slump in Mexico following the end of the WWII commodity boom leads to political unrest in the country, and thus the US military finds itself heading south once again, this time at the request of the Mexican government.    

Best of the West, Worst of the East, 1982 : Thanks to recently-declassified documents we now know that, had the Cold War escalated to a superpower conflict, the Soviet Navy would preferably keep its modern nuclear submarines in close escort to their all-important strategic missile subs in their bastions, and instead send their modern diesel subs to interdict NATO resupply lines. So as the turbulent early 80s spin up to a bonafide crisis, the Red Banner Northern Fleet's diesel sub force puts out to sea to challenge NATO's awesome anti-submarine screens..... and you are in command.    

Rollback - The First of Many, 1998 : The US military attempts to get rid of Saddam Hussain's regime via a number of active measures, first and foremost being a series of carrier-launched strategic strikes. This hypothetical scen features the A/F-117 "Seahawk", a carrier-suitable variant of the F-117 that was nearly adopted by the US Navy in the late 90s.    

Rollback - Hoisting the Net, 1998 : In addition to airstrikes, the US Navy took other measures to isolate the Hussain regime, one such being the identification and interdiction of supplies headed for Iraq. The USS Denton has been tasked to identify and seize a large container ship enroute to the port of Latakia. Will this be a run-of-mill call?    

Birmingham Strikes, 1992 : Sierra Leone has plunged into a brutal civil war with the deaths of tens of thousands. The rebels, known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were infamous because of the atrocities they committed. The RUF captured a large number of weapons from Sierra Leone (and later from some of the UN peacekeepers dispatched to the area), but received further assistance and material from outside countries such as Libya. In this not-so-hypothetical scenario a small British task group centered on the destroyer HMS Birmingham is tasked to disrupt RUF operation in its vicinity. 


As always, the community scenario pack is available for download at the WarfareSims download section: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

With the new scenario pack release, the total number of released Command scenarios is now 225!

[jomni]

What aircraft is that?  Front looks like a Nighthawk but why does it have stabilizers?

[Baloogan]

Hey guys,

Coiler12 has written a few articles about Command on my site, and I just realized I've been terribly remiss in not urling to them here!

Without further ado I have the pleasure of presenting Thoughts on Command Scenario Design by Coiler12.

Of all the excellent features in Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations, the scenario editor stands out. Both comprehensive and easy to use, it allows a vast amount of scenario creation and experimentation. In fact, it's so fluid that many of my "scenario plans" have turned into nothing but me fooling around in the editor, seeing how a flight of Corsairs do against a moderately defended fuel depot instead of making the Preah Vihear escalation I'd really wanted to do.

Having made many scenarios and played many more, I've formed many opinions on scenario design, what makes a good scenario, and what my favorite types of scenarios are. ]Now I finally hope to share those opinions.

Future articles to come as well!

[Dimitris]

What aircraft is that?  Front looks like a Nighthawk but why does it have stabilizers?

That's the A/F-117, which the USN was strongly interested in after the A-12's collapse but eventually did not adopt. If it had been acquired the RN would probably also have bought it.

[Dimitris]

Miguel Molina has posted a new revision of the Command community scenario pack, the compendium of Command scenarios crafted by the user community. The new release contains several scenario updates plus ten brand-new scenarios:     

Caribbean March 21st, 2022: Venezuela has attacked the islands of Curacao and Aruba and occupied them. The Dutch government has launched a counter-offensive to retake the islands. You are in command of the Dutch TF and the Air Force Base at St. Maarten, stocked with new F-35s. But Venezuelan forces are similarly upgraded with fresh Chinese equipment. Can you take the islands back?    

Carrier Battle Group ASW Test, 1984: It has been said that a carrier's biggest threat is not aircraft, but submarines. Time to put this theory to test. Multiple Soviet submarine threats are expected in the path of a CVBG. The CVBG needs to transit the area and defend itself at all times.    

Etendards in Her Majesty's Face, 1982: The Falklands conflict has gone on longer than it did historically. Having run out of Exocet missiles, the Argentines now prepare their Super Etendards for an attack on the British task force using conventional bombs.    

The Irish-Spanish Fish War, 2015: Tensions have increased between Ireland and Spain.  Ireland has responded by closing its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to Spanish fishing boats.  However, there have been reports of Spanish trawlers continuing to fish in Irish waters, and that Spain has even sent military vessels to make sure its fishing boats are not harassed.  Ireland, not surprisingly, considers this a breach of international law and a gross provocation.    

Mission of the Ile De Sein, 2015: The waters surrounding Île de Sein are part of a protected seascape lying within France's 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The responsibilities the French navy include protecting these natural resources from poaching, illegal dumping of chemicals, and other threats. This authority is now being challenged by Russian organized crime.    

Regulus, 1961: The Berlin Crisis is smoldering. Sneak a Regulus missile submarine through the Kurils and be prepared to conduct a nuclear strike on the industrial sites in Komsomolsk-na-amur. Naturally, Soviet forces in the area are on high alert.    

The Battle of Mitu, 1995: This scenario assumes that violence from the FARC conflict with Colombia has spilled over into Brazil.  Brazilian citizens have been kidnapped and killed. Among other crimes, FARC is blamed for the brutal murders of a Brazilian police captain and his family. FARC currently occupies the Colombian town of Mitú, close to the Colombia-Brazilian border. Brazil has decided to raid this FARC stronghold.    

The Battle of Seogeom-Ri, 2015: South Korean and North Korean forces are clashing again.  At stake is the South Korean island of Seogeom-ri, which lies close to the border between the two countries.    

The Five Powers, 2020: China has been aggressively pushing it's territorial claims in the South China Sea for over a decade, by the late 2010s it has begun to push those claims ever farther to the south and east. In response the Malaysia activates the Five Powers Defense Agreement; with Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand immediately retasking forces to the assistance of Malaysia, and the UK promising support as soon as possible. Can the Five Powers stem back the Red Tide? (NOTE: A highly entertaining AAR of this scenario can be found here)    

The Moheli Crisis, 1999: A bloodless coup took place in Comoros in 1999. This scenario assumes the coup was more violent and chaotic. Rebels have seized control of the island of Mohéli.  French nationals living on the island have been taken hostage and the rebels are threatening to kill them unless their demands are met--the rebels believe that France will pressure other factions in the Comoros in order to protect their citizens. As might be expected, France has taken a dim view of these actions and is mobilizing. 

As always, the community scenario pack is available for download at the WarfareSims download section: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

[Huw the Poo]

Have you made a decision whether to support Linux yet, Dimitris?

[Dimitris]

Not yet, Poo. When we have news on that be sure we'll let everyone know.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Caribbean March 21st, 2022: Venezuela has attacked the islands of Curacao and Aruba and occupied them. The Dutch government has launched a counter-offensive to retake the islands. You are in command of the Dutch TF and the Air Force Base at St. Maarten, stocked with new F-35s. But Venezuelan forces are similarly upgraded with fresh Chinese equipment. Can you take the islands back?    

I don't know why, but I am all geeked out to play this one.

[Huw the Poo]

Not yet, Poo. When we have news on that be sure we'll let everyone know.

Fair enough mate.  I appreciate you're keeping an open mind, at least. :)