Saturday Shipwreck

     We ran through another game of Shipwreck last evening. We sort of  cranked things up from the previous game - the Libyans got more planes and a sub, while the Americans replaced their Kidd-class DDG with a Ticonderoga CG. We decided that if the player who got the choice between the Kidd and Tico chose the Tico, I would publicly admonish him for being a big ol' wuss, so Dennis, you are a big wussy for taking the Ticonderoga.
     I ended up driving the entire Libyan force, my son bailed on us early into the game. Ziggy got the Spruance DD.

The setup was identical to the previous game - this is still a learning experience for we, the novice sea captains of south Georgia. The Americans cross the line of death, Libyan greeting party comes out to say "hello" and all hell breaks loose.

First up was two flights of Su-22s. I brought them in at sea-skimming height to limit their exposure, although the helo picked them up anyway. One actually made it past the RIM7s and gunfire but its 4 bombs missed the ship.

I got two flights of MiG-21s next. I picked an AA loadout with the flight on the left and sent them after the fecking helo. The other two MiGs with 500lb bombs went for the Spruance. Only two of my boats managed to get a passive detection on Zig's Spruance. The US Navy had active detections, courtesy of the Seasprite, to all of my boats. Each American ship loosed four Harpoons. 

The two Nanuchkas with passive detections emptied their tubes sending 12 missiles towards the USS Caron. It didn't look like there wouldn't be another opportunity.The MiGs downed the helicopter easily enough. One of the MiGs bearing down on the ship was shot down by the 5 inch guns. The other MiG missed its mark on its attack run. The SAMs on the Libyan boats took care of three of the incoming cruise missiles. Boat 416 on the far right managed to distract both of its vampires with chaff onto its neighbor.

The grisly aftermath of the US salvo. Every single missile missed its mark. 8s, 9s and 10s were flowing like wine. Many a tuna lost his life. The US captains were stunned, or should I say FURIOUS! I had a LOT of internal laughter going on.

On the other hand, the Libyan missiles streaked towards the Caron which took care of a handful of the twelve. The Ticonderoga had just launched a second salvo towards the Libyan ships.

Three SS-N-9s made it past the defenses and smack into the Caron, scoring a Crippled, Light and Sunk result on the chart. It is a sad day for the US Navy.

The Nanuchkas turn tail and head for port, the Harpoons bearing down on them.

And sanity is restored.

Some time later, the sub finally closed the gap on the US ship and terrorized the Ticonderoga a about 30 minutes before a torpedo from a Seasprite found its quarry and sent the Foxtrot to the sea floor.

It was a very entertaining game involving some simply miserable dice rolls. Ziggy was not happy about his ship getting lit up the way it did. In this scenario, the Spruance really needs to stay within 25 miles of the Tico or Kidd to be covered by its medium-range SAMs. The Libyan boats had a real bugger of a time getting targets but that's sort of to be expected. Five Harpoons missing their targets is just classic. Someone at McDonnell-Douglas has some 'splainin' to do.

Good gaming!