"The Terumbu Layang Campaign # 2 " Topic

I've posted a second report from my South China Sea campaign. link

Things are heating up near the South China Sea! Thanks for posting and looking forward to the next installment

It sounds like you are having fun. Thats certainly what the hobby is about. My group did something similar a few years ago too.

But if it is of help, here is some information on the combattants.

Malaysian ships appear relatively well maintained but nothing like the navy of Singapore where the ships look smart, well manned and capable of actually fighting with considerble efficiency! Everything works in Singapore! (They could probably sink the Malaysian and Indonesian fleets!!!)

None the less the Malaysian ones get painted regularly and carry out patrol regularly, so they do get in some sea time.
But I understand that the training level is rather poor standard.

Indonesian ships are usually in **very** poor shape. Finding some that are capable of going to sea is often a moot point and breakdowns both in machinery, electronics and weaponry very likely. Maintenance over all very much third country. And did they clear the chicken coops off the deck before going to sea etc?

I shudder to think what the state their exocets are in or if they would even still work. I suspect there would be a fairly high 'sizzler' rate.

We had fun in our game by throwing in some random arrivals. Various international ships and aircraft passing through the war zone. Fishing boats and Inter Island ferries are prolific. Usually very ever crowded. They may add some doubt into target aquisition during a game if have one or two plodding back and forth getting in the way. Especially as some are old LST or LCM type's! Its no good saying they have been warned off due to the war zone…many would not have any means of communication working….if they ever had any at all.

The numerous pirates would stay clear, but probably waiting on the side lines to pounce on any damaged ship unable to defend itself.

Have fun!

Thanks everyone. Some thought provoking and fun ideas Mal. I would love to find 1/3000 fishing trawlers somewhere. I hadn't thought of a fizzle factor for missiles. Because they are notorious for poor maintenance I reduced Indonesian radar skills. But in my games apparently the radar operators in their Kapitan Pattimura class Patrol boats all seem to be crack radar men, they are always first to detect on either side and never seem to fail a roll. :o)

Max,
For stern trawlers Navwar does the " 'Ellas" used as minesweepers in the Falklands.
For anything smaller you will have to scratchbuild but in 1:3000 that is not as difficult as many think. How much detail do you need after all?
Cheers,
Bertie

Thats great thanks Bertie. I should have asked here to start with.

You can get Junks in 1:3000 scale. For modern versions just leave off the masts! Many Asian craft look like that in small scale be they junks or not.

You need a small Ro-Ro ferry with 500 more passengers than the 250 its licensed to carry….a cargo of a petrol tanker or two, plus several tons of Kerosene, a container of matches, assorted pigs goats and live chickens, heaped up regional produce etc.

I saw some a few years ago that looked like an extreme martitme hazard…likely to be in desperate need of a rescue ship and they had not even left port yet! Safety does not seem to be a big issue. If you have ever seen pictures of trains in India, with people filling every space…that's rather a good description. Something about the size of the 1:3000 scale Hecla would be about right for the larger ferries. Just paint it white and rust.

Due to so much oil exploration there are also lots of helicopters about the place that are not naval. Old ones new ones etc. Island hopping aircraft as well.

And if your campaign gets any action in the Straits of Malacca it is quite normal to see up to five other ships in sight at any one time. I kept note of that old claim over a period of a week and its true. Big ones, little ones, super tankers, little tankers. Ships, ships, ships. They are everywhere and come in every nationality imaginable.

The Straits are also dreadful for sonar conditions. All that shipping plus a fairly muddy bottom results in cloudy brown seas that are teaming with churned up mud. The sonar sets of the world's "Blue water" navies were pretty useless there, but Australia had developed a set that worked better than most for that sort of region. There are sections right through SE Asia where muddy seabeds are churned up by passing ships and give lots of false sonar returns.

There are rarely severe storms of cyclonic size…last time I was there they said they had not had a cyclone in 80 years that actually entered the straits. But those outside the straits do effect the weather inside somewhat.

Then the way I see it working is each time a contact has been made someone, preferably a helicopter, would have to eye ball it to confirm it as a military target. Is this correct?
(New order being sent for Ferry, trawlers, containership, tanker.)
:o)

Max,
To add to Mal's info, in March this year I was on a P&O from Bali to Singapore and then up through the Malacca Straits. I was struck by the number of ships laid up at anchor both north and south of Singapore adjacent to the main shipping channel.
Such anchored ships would provide radar shadows for all sorts of things to hide in, and, depending upon your scenario, could provide mother ships for pirates or swarms of attack boats.
Tree burning in Indonesia also sometimes limits visibility severely.
With your scenarios based in Borneo you could also consider some oil production platforms. Vanderling make three different types.

Cheers,
Bertie

Indeed, if you ever fly into Singapore and have to circle while the air traffic control get things sorted out like happened to me last time you soon see the vast array of merchant traffic in the Singapore area.

Lovely stuff Dave, brings back memories of some mad mad nights of gaming.

Having flown into Singapore on a number of occasions I can confirm it is near possible to walk to the surrounding islands across moored vessels. We did see an USA carrier (unknown which, obviously pacific fleet) on one trip over and the scale of the vessel compared to the others at anchor is quite something to see from an aerial perspective.

regards
dave

Tree burning in Indonesia also sometimes limits visibility severely.

Yes, I had forgotten about that. It is so extensive that the smoke sometimes reaches Northern Australia, but it is frequently hanging around Singapore and the straits of Malacca. It can look like a brown mist.

Then the way I see it working is each time a contact has been made someone, preferably a helicopter, would have to eye ball it to confirm it as a military target. Is this correct?

In one of our games the player eyeballed it, saw it was a modern type similar to those in local naval use and shot it down just to be sure! Probably the best guide is that the really new and flash types belong to foreign oil companies. The old rusty ones to small local companies. I saw a Korean war era helicopter sitting on a barge near Phuket at it looked as if it was still being used by someone.

Mind you…I saw a couple of old battered and rusty ships that looked as if they were at anchor waiting to be scrapped, but were actually still in use and sailed about their way while I was there!

One ship being worked on near Phuket was an either late WW2 or early post war small merchant ship from its design, had more rust on it than paint, and looked stripped for scrapping. But when I enquired if anyone knew its name or origin, I was told that it was actually under refit and was an important vessel on the inter island ferry run. That was ten years ago, but it's probably still plodding on.

One amazing ship was a little coastal tanker that had one time had a mid blue hull and white upperworks. Its hull was scraped from one end to the other with rusted collision marks at about wharf height. They had to have been there for a long time because the ship now had lots of rubber tyres hanging over the side, covering the scrapes, presumably to cushion any further collisions. There were a couple of points above water where I swore there were holes in the plating. The bridge was mostly rust, but with patches of the original white. The funnel was bright yellow and the only part of the ship that looked as if it had been painted in any recent decade. The only steel lifeboat on the side I was viewing was also rusty and had marks on its lower side that suggested it had been involved in hitting something during one of the scraping along the wharf incidents. It had a Chinese name but one of the deck officers of the ship I was on said they saw it regularly in the Straits of Malacca and it carried petrol or kerosene to various islands of Indonesia.

Kerosene is a very important cargo in the area because so many cooking stoves use it. So in a wargame you should allow for any local craft hit, to burn well.

Great stuff.. inspiring me to finish building my 1:700 scale LSTs, liberties and Car Ferry… I'll make sure that there is plenty of rust on the finished models.

Have put an order in now for trawlers and Ferry. I might have to delay the campaign for a couple of weeks until they arive.
Having to ID targets will change the games completly! Thanks for the suggestions and observations.

I should add the mad mad nights were in Mals shed, fun times

Yes Paint Pig. Indeed we had some fun nights doing modern naval actions. We too seemed to have a 'lucky' Indonesian fast attack craft that did well at everything and avoided all attacks on it.
I seem to remember someone hiding behind oil rigs before coming out to attack too! Lots of little uninhabited islets here and there added to radar problems.
I kind of envy Maxshadow being able to play out his campaign as I no longer have the models to do it.