I have played this scen a couple of times. Its presents a real world situation which has to be managed in a real world way. The premise is that the People Republic of China has sent a SAG into the Spratly's to show the flag and practice some intimidation by way of some missile test firings. Most of the other countries which have claims on this area also have vessels in the area including a Taiwanese SAG. The scen is playable from the PRC and Taiwanese sides. I have played from the ROC side only. My orders are to observe the PRC missile tests. With five vessels embarking a total five helos this sounds like a relatively simple task.
First task is to launch a pair of my helos to scout out the situation. The PRC target drone is located quickly as is the likely location of the PRC SAG. Information also comes in from ROC merchant vessels in the area. My first time out with this scenario I set a course for my SAG to approach the PRC target area to perform my "spying" function. Bad Idea!!. Apparently the PRC command had orders to engage any Taiwanese vessels that are encountered. As soon as the PRC gets a sniff of my ships there are missiles in the air. Boy are there a lot of them. My FFG tries valiantly but there is only so much one Mk13 launcher can do. My return salvo is off before I start taking hits and I hope for big things, this is only the PLA-N after all. Apparently though their Air Defense has been significantly improved and not one of my SSMs gets through. My entire SAG is destroyed however.
After this emphatic lesson on how not to fulfill a mission I decide to keep my SAG well out of reach and do all my observing by way of my helos. So now I am faced with maintaining standing patrols to observe both the PRC SAG and their intended target. As I said earlier this seems to me to be a real world task and just like the real world it involves a large amount of tedium. I was able to successfully achieve a victory by keeping my ships alive and in the patrol area while observing the PRC missile tests. One day I might try again to get victory by sinking the a pair of PRC DDGs.
