Once my CVBG finally got close enough, I got a number of Tomcats up to clear the skies, and set all of my forces to converge on the Soviet BBBG.

A few of the Chinese and Soviet subs got sneaky and nearly were able to sink some of my surface ships, but a few SH-60s and S-3s made short work of them.

The air war over Midway was the most intense that I've ever seen or participated in, in CMANO

I ended up playing the latest version; I used the Dallas to herd the Soviet ASuW SAG right into the guns of the Missouri and the Wisconsin, the soviet SAG was crushed between two battleships, an attack sub, and some air support.

I ended up by shear luck getting the Narwal close enough to the Amphib group to open up on it and sink most of the ships.

Portland was sunk by, and simultaneously sunk the Soviet Akula up in the north; but it also drew away the swarm of bees that is the ASW Helos.

Midway and the BBBG were under almost constant air and missile attack from the Soviet CVBG; Midway was struck a couple of times by missiles, and the Perry class in the BBBG taking a Shipwreck to the face and sinking outright; while the Long Beach took a non-critical hit after she ran out of SM-2s from shooting down tons of missiles and jets.

Finished the original version, had a lot of fun! Was finally able to destroy the Carrier group up north, so I sent the Missouri to blow the southern group to shreds. Took a look at the new version, and everything looks good there from a quick glance!

Update: In what was one of the most intense battles I've fought in C:MANO, I was able to use Midway Island's air defenses along with most of my Tomcats (that arrived just in time) to protect my BB Group from the Comintern's ASMs, while I also attacked the Amphib group with HARMs and Harpoons. Sometimes, I had the same F/A-18 shooting HARMs at the Amphib group and AMRAAMs at incoming Anti-Ship Missiles! I was able to disable all but 2 of the escorts for the LSTs, so that group shouldn't be much of an issue. However, the Carrier group continues to close on me, and I've been so far unable to disable any of the carriers. Planning to hit the Carrier group with my next strike and the amphibs with my BB group's Harpoons. This has been a really fun scenario!

at the very least, it will deplete more of the Comintern's defensive missiles

you could always try firing BOL TLAMs from the Battleships at where you think the fleet will be when the TLAMs reach that location....

Air ops changed to "Surge"

ok, makes sense. remember, if you can get the Battleships within gun range of the amphib fleet, they'll sink the entire fleet!

Back at the scenario, the Russian carrier group has absorbed waves on waves of ASMs, and the Amphib group keeps inching closer to Midway. If this next strike can't weaken the Amphib group enough, I'm going to have to thunder run my Battleship group at it, which is pretty suicidal. Guess we will have to see what happens.

When air ops are at sustained, aircraft take 20 hours to rearm, rather than 3-6 hours. This helps quicken the pace of the scenario and adds that feeling of urgency, as you can imagine crews scrambling to fix up an aircraft and get it back into the fight. Also, one can imagine that most of the aircraft are in top shape when preparing for a huge battle like this one.

What advantage would there be for changing the air ops tempo to surge from sustained?

Sounds like it was one amazing battle! yeah, Soviet ASW assets can be quite nasty.

I just updated the scenario again to move the US CVBG much much closer to midway, about 500 miles away at start, so that way they can actually get involved in the fight at some point.

Scenario ended with about even losses on both sides. I got 1 crack at the Red CVBG and sunk 1 ship, and heavily damaged 2 more. Lost 2 subs trying to get close, even with fighters sneaking in and splashing at least a dozen ASW helos. I'm going to continue past scenario end and see what damage I can do. If you want a save at this point, DM me and I'll send you a copy

Those changes sound good! I'll take a look at that one as soon as I finish the current version.


After some more gameplay, I have a couple more comments:

Also would change Air Operations tempo from "sustained" to "surge" for both sides.

For whatever mission you end up assigning your subs to, I would make sure that as well as sonars being off, radars and OECM also stay off, that way the sub's radar won't turn on if they need to snorkle

Overall, I have 5 hours of in game time left. I overextended my Battleship group and it got hammered by ASMs from the Russian group. The Long Beach took what must have been the unluckiest ARM hit in history, and lost the radar that gave it's SM-2s mid course guidance. The missiles could fire, but wouldn't track. With the loss of 80+ SM-2s this way, my group ran out of SAMs quickly, and despite the late "retreat" order to try to hide behind Midway, I lost the Long Beach and another CG. My Carrier aircraft are 600 miles away, and I'm going to try a desperate long range strike to relieve the pressure.

Update has been pushed out to the Workshop

ok, I've now enacted just about every change you've suggested. extended scenario time, Ulyanvosk carrier with more jets, additional submarines, subs not using active sonar, new patrol and prosecution areas for fighters, subs, and ASW assets


Additionally, I've added a 3rd Comintern fleet, it's a combined Russian-Chinese surface attack formation headed by a couple of Sverdlov class Cruisers; it should put additional pressure on the US forces in the area, and give the Comintern a better fighting chance. It's also positioned such that a gun duel could occur between the American Battleships and Russian Cruisers! :)

I can do all of that!

Ah, that makes more sense. Still have the scenario running in the background, and a couple more things popped up:

You might want to tweak the Comintern EMCON so sonar isn't active for everone, because I was able to detect a couple subs from their active sonar being turned on.

The starting positions of all the groups except for the battleship group are a bit far. Even at the max speed for the amphibs of the amphib group (12kts) it would take around 3 days to reach the island, when there is only 1 day of scenario time. I would either move the groups closer or extend the time of the scenario.

Well, also according to my "backstory" the Comintern was able to watch, and be present for Desert Storm and because of them seeing all the allied tactics in-action, they believe that they can counter those tactics effectively.

I actually added the Yak-44 to the Varyag and it launched fine, but adding the Ulyanovsk could be a good way to balance out the sides. Renewed Cold War or not, Midway is a huge gamble for the USSR and China, especially aganist 3 US Carriers, and maybe having the Ulyanovsk could help explain some of that overconfidence by Comintern leadership

Oh no, your tips and critisisms are very constructive and helpful in making this mission work better, and for me to make better missions in the future!

ok, I was experimenting with trying to have the Russian Akula class subs fire some land-attack missiles at Midway to whittle down it's defenses and airbase right at the beginning; but I guess that didn't work so well.

As for the Yak-44, I think the Ulyanovsk Carrier is the only one that can launch them (both IRL and in-game); I suppose I could add in the Ulyanovsk carrier for the Comientern.....

I don't want to seem rude or critisizing, I'm having a lot of fun with this scenario, being a big Wargame: RD fan myself. Just giving you a few tips as a fellow scenario author to help streamline your scenario

I added a generic ASuW patrol mission around the Island of Midway and assigned the Red subs to it, rather than having them assigned to a land strike mission like you had.

Also I created some procecution zones for the North and South CAPs, so they don't go charging into certain death. Considering you already have the Yak-141 in the scenario, I would also consider adding the Soviet prototype Hawkeye (Yak-44) so the Soviets have some AEW capacity outside of their ships

Thank you very much for your comment and critisims; I will definitely take a look and see what I can change to try and make the mission more balanced, and fix those problems you pointed out.

if there are any other problems, don't hesitate to let me know!

Been playing for a few in-game hours, here are some comments:

You might want to adjust the Red patrol zones so they don't try to engage aircraft over Midway's SAM umbrella, currently I can just bait them into my SAM trap

The Invasion Fleet doesn't have any plotted course, so it doesn't move

The ASW misson for Red definately needs to be changed, right now the ASW helicopters just run out of fuel trying to get to the patrol zone and RTB. Also, I think they would be better off patrolling around their respective groups, rather than in the middle of the ocean

From the forces I have at my disposal, I'm pretty sure this battle is going to be really one-sided. It's just a matter of waiting for my carriers to arrive, then I can just whittle down the Soviet/Chinese ships through sheer missile spam. Not sure how this could be balanced except removing a carrier or a bunch of aircraft.