Greetings fellow commanders. Ive been asked to write this AAR describing a play-through of the first few missions of the Russian Federation Campaign. This short AAR will be written as a factual recounting of the gameplay experienced with thoughts, assumptions and actions highlighted as the situation changes from minute to minute.
My primary aim will be to describe how to play the game. I also hope to show the thought processes behind each decision made. Especially in terms of any mistakes made or alterations required to the initialplan of action.
Disclaimer:
Just a quick note. If you want to enjoy the game without any spoilers then it is best you avoid this AAR until you have beaten the first few missions, at least of this campaign. If you do not mind spoiling what surprises await you or do not have the game and are possibily interested in what sort gameplay you may encounter, then please read on.
Any questions, points of view, input and alternative strategies are welcome. As are corrections to any mistakes made in my use of naval parlance.
01- Mission Briefing
Mission Sypnosis:
Campaign Mission: Arctic War
Played as: Russian Federation
Difficulty:Normal
Mission:#1 - Swarm
Date of Action: 2030 July, 2
Commander Profile
Name:2Coats
Rank:Damp Squib
Trait:Celebrated Land Lubber
Previous Commands: Battleship, Fleet Command, Silent Service 1 & 2, Carriers At War + Silent War
02– Understanding the Mission
Any commander needs to know three basic things in order to achieve success. Firstly, what are the mission goals. Both those requiredto achieve success and those to avoid, which will result in defeat. Next is what military assets we have at our disposal. Their starting locations, capabilities and limitations. Also what enemy forces arearrayed against achieving success.
For this mission, the known objectives are:
- Destroy at least 2 enemy spy ships
- Do not lose 3 aircraft
- Do not attack neutral units
Since one of the mission goals is not to lose more than two aircraft, our precious aircraft will need protection from any other aircraft able to perform the AIR SUPERIORITY mission. So essentially we have a key decision to make; do we attempt to find our targets by guile and stealth (by passive radar) or will we attempt to ping the whole area with radar signals in order to engage at range and deliver the killer blows (active radar). For tipping our hand to the enemy to early will increase the chances of them finding us, and will undoubtedly raise the likelihood that our mission will fail before we are able achieve our goals.
03– Knowing the forces involved
Our next step is to catalogue our starting forces and those the enemy already has in the theatre of operations. Once we know these we can better prepare a plan of action and understand which units are likely to be needed. We need to know this in terms of: preparing for action - both reactively, to counter what plan the enemy puts into action, and also proactively, on those occasions when our side will take the initiative.
In order to do this we move the mouse-over the units on map, or we can access the DETECTIONS PANEL and see what our units see, in more detail. This lets know that the following elements are in play.
Starting Detections & Active Assets
The following is a list of known assets that are present at the start of actions in the theatre of operations:
Foes (Red)
- Oil Rig
- Boeing P-8A Posedion FSA (Multi-mission maritime aircraft) @ alt. 10,500 m
- Frijdtjof Nasen
- Banak Air Station
- Boeing767, Aeroflot Flight 331 @ alt. 10,500 m
- OrlanyaAir Base
- BerievA-50U Shmel
- Su35-E 'Flanker' (Air Superiority)
These assets are available from the Orlanya Air Base:
- 4xSu 27-SM (Air Superiority)
- 2x(+2) Su 35-E 'Flanker' (Naval Strike)
- 2xBeriev A-50U Shmel
Last edited: