Operation Goldfish Game Report

In this scenario, the Royal Navy Amphion class submarine HMS Alliance was tasked with dropping an SBS commando surveillance team, while attempting to evade detection by the Indonesian Navy Riga class frigate KRI Jos Soedarso. The submarine was using the hidden movement rules in Naval Command by which she could 'leapfrog' between ten contact markers which acted as stepping stones from deep water to the shallows offshore. The frigate had to eliminate the markers by active sonar detection in order to pinpoint and attack the submarine.

In Turn 1 HMS Alliance redeployed from Contact Marker 1 to Contact Marker 2, while KRI Jos Soedarso moved toward Contact Marker 3, which she successfully detected by sonar and eliminated. In Turn 2 HMS Alliance skipped to Contact Marker 8, while the frigate steered for Contact Marker 4, which was the closest to her position, successfully detecting and eliminating it as a false contact. In Turn 3, HMS Alliance moved to Contact Marker 7 and successfully identified KRI Jos Soedarso using her passive sonar but the frigate failed in her attempt to detect the submarine an intermediate range.

In Turn 4, HMS Alliance moved to Contact Marker 6, which meant running at shallow depth. The frigate moved toward the now vacant Contact Marker 7 and successfully detected it as a false contact. The net was closing on the submarine but in Turn 5 HMS Alliance moved to Contact Marker 9, which placed her in position to land the SBS team next turn. KRI Jos Soesdarso moved toward Contact Marker 8, which was the nearest one but failed to detect it. 

In Turn 6 HMS Alliance stayed put to drop the SBS team which swam ashore underwater. The frigate meanwhile headed in the opposiite direction to Contact Marker 8, which was successfully detected. This meant that the extraction route for the submarine was compromised and that whichever direction she decided to take would mean moving as a Contact Marker rather than using a stepping stone approach. In Turn 7, HMS Alliance moved to Contact Marker 5, which now became her own marker, while KRI Jos Soedarso steered for Contact Marker 2, which she failed to detect or eliminate.

In Turn 8 and Turn 9, the submarine began to move as Contact Marker 5, with a top speed of only 4cm per turn submerged. It was clear that to escape the frigate, she would probably have to attack with torpedoes before she could be detected, in order to eliminate the warship and prevent the mission being compromised. The frigate was moving ever closer and in Turn 10 managed to detect and eliminate Contact Marker 2, which made her next detection target Contact Marker 1, the last before the actual position of the submarine at Contact Marker 5.

In Turn 11 the frigate failed to detect Contact Marker 1 while HMS Alliance slipped into deep water. However, rather than going deep she decided to stay at shallow depth so that she could target the frigate and, if necessary, make a pre-emptive strike with torpedoes. In Turn 12 KRI Jos Soedarso, succesfully detected Contact Marker 1, which left no contact markers in the deep area of the table for HMS Alliance to hop over to, even if she had been within 30cm hidden movement range. The two warships now turned onto a converging head on track.

In Turn 13, HMS Alliance prepared to attack, expecting to be identified by the frigate and hoping to strike before she could react. In the detection phase, KRI Jos Soedarso finally achieved a successful active sonar detection of the submarine, which immediately launched a full salvo of six Mark 8 unguided heavy torpedoes at almost maximum range. Two of these hit home, causing a heavy damage, a light damage and a fire, knocking out the sonar in the process. This was just not enough to prevent the frigate from launching her own attack, firing two heavy guided torpedoes at the sonar contact. Only one of these hit but it caused terminal damage, destroying the torpedo room, causing heavy damage and starting a catastrophic flood.

In the following damage control phase, HMS Alliance fluffed her damage roll and the flooding spread to result in yet another heavy damage counter and the submarine effectively sinking. The frigate also failed the damage control attempt, with the fire spreading to cause additional light damage. I decided the scenario was a minor victory for the Indonesians, as despite sinking the submarine, the SBS team had been successfully landed and was still undetected, while the KRI Jos Soedarso was critically damaged. I also decided that the frigate would not make it back to port, running into two RAN Daring class destroyers on patrol and being swiftly despatched by torpedo and gunfire.

In retrospect, I realised that I should have been using unguided torpedoes for the frigate which may well have swung the game in the Royal Navy's favour. It was bad luck that of the six torpedoes fired by HMS Alliance, only two hit the target, as even one or two more would have probably sunk the frigate leaving the submarine a clear escape route. It was good fun, nonetheless, and the next scenario has not been compromised by the loss of the submarine.  I like the rules for hidden movement and the counter 'stepping stones' worked well. I may well replay the game again at some point, perhaps with a few more contact markers and with the torpedoes downgraded to see what happens?