In the last game of my solo Indonesian Confrontation 'What If?' series, the Royal Navy once again suffered a bloody nose from the Indonesians with the loss of HMS Oberon, despite sinking two Riga class frigates and almost sinking a third. In both scenarios that I've played, the Royal Navy has had its hands tied for political reasons, as Her Majesty's government don't want to escalate the conflict and would prefer to contain the Indonesian expansionist military threat. However, with the loss of a submarine and the soon to follow air attack on the frigates sent to search for her, the gloves are finally going to come off.
I've decided to have a go at an inshore naval bombardment of Indonesian military targets on Sebatik Island, as a punitive measure to put the regime back in its box, but also as a means of setting back the build up of logistical support for cross border incursions into Sabah in North East Borneo. The Royal Navy will deploy a taskforce for this night operation, consisting of the cruiser HMS Tiger supported by an escort of three ASW frigates, as Indonesian Whisky class submarines are known to patrol the area. In fact, the scenario probably won't include any submarines but will feature a Skory class destroyer on patrol, which has been rushed to the scene to investigate.
Anyway, the rules in Naval Command for shore bomdardment look fairly straightforward and will be another aspect of the system that I can try out. The four heavy 6'' guns of HMS Tiger will be used to attack a series of previously detected targets along a stretch of coastline, including fuel and ammunition dumps, forming up areas and communication sites, all of which must be heavily damaged or destroyed in a set time limit. The arrival of an Indonesian naval patrol will complicate things a bit but I'm hoping it will give the Royal Navy a chance to even the odds, after a couple of games where they were outnumbered and outgunned?
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