Fleet Command Single Mission 05

Macho Madness is the fifth single player mission in the standalone scenario set that is apart from the campaigns available in the game, in which Brazil and Argentina fight over fishing rights. The mission tasking for the player (Brazil) is to seek out and destroy Argentine military units operating in a battlespace defined as being within 25 nautical miles of grid reference 36-30 S/051-20 W. The friendly units on hand are the frigates Dodsworth and (if available) the Bosisio. We are cleared to engage and destroy Argentinian frigates but to avoid casualties to any civilian craft.

This specific scenario is not static in that it can start out with a varying configuration that not only affects placement of units and proximity to enemy contact, but also whether or not the second Brazilian frigate is available. Typically if the friendly force player only has one surface combatant, the enemy AI will tend to have just one as well (I have not gone into battle yet one ship against two).

I start the mission with the Dodsworth FFG-47 under my command, which has two attached Super Lynx helicopters, as well as the following weapon systems:

• ESSM SAM (6)
• Exocet (4)
• Sting Ray Torpedo (6)
• Cannon (320)

The ship is on a course heading of 020 at 15 knots with standard patrol orders.

As soon as the scenario begins I am immediately alerted to the presence of an Argentinian frigate directly off my port side. Sometimes this scenario ends up being a cat and mouse hunt, but this time the dynamic mission design is throwing the enemy directly in my face from go.

The close proximity of the Espora FFG-41 is a visual contact to which I immediately launch the two helicopters to assist in prosecuting the track.

The Argentinian frigate had an advantageous starting position, already aligned to fire an Exocet missile at my ship which I responded to with an ESSM SAM (the first would miss requiring a second bird to be launched).

Finally properly orientated for a firing solution I engage the enemy ship with an Exocet missile.

The Espora takes a direct hit but damage is only 55% at this point, requiring another anti-ship missile to be launched.

Fearing for the safety of my own ship (the sole platform at my disposal) I launch a surface-to-air missile at an enemy helicopter (an SA-319 Alouette) closing on my position. Track 0032 in the middle of the action is the second Exocet fired at the Espora.

Twice the Argentinian vessel’s countermeasures could not defeat the incoming ASM, and this time it is sunk by direct hit which ends the mission.

After-action Report

I ended the scenario with a Mission Effectiveness rating of 100%, which is actually an accomplishment for a one star “easy” rated mission that is deceptively tough to score well on (frequently when drawing a two on two engagement, I lose one or both ships).

Post Mortem

I uninstalled the game from my Windows 7 machine in order to run it on my reborn Windows XP machine, however it lagged horribly with the NVidia GPU (with updated drivers) and the water effect in the 3D views was flat and without texture. I reinstalled it in W7 where I have an AMD GPU and it looks and runs better in that environment (which is very surprising considering it is a game from 1999).