Hello again and welcome to another installment of Old Gamers Never Die, the section of this blog where I talk about computer games and gaming in general. Today we return to my series of updates about my playthrough of Cold Waters' South China Sea Campaign, which depicts a hypothetical war between the People's Republic of China - which is allied with Vietnam and a Soviet Union that never vanished - and the United States in an alternate version of the year 2000.
A Mark-48 ADCAP torpedo hits home, as seen from USS Jefferson City's periscope.
An aerial view of that same ship. Note the shock wave (in the water) and the fireball as the enemy vessel's magazines explode as a result of that torpedo hit.
It is now late December 2000, and USS Jefferson City has returned to Navy Base Guam in the Marianas to repair some battle damage and reload weapons before going out on a third war patrol. That last patrol was more successful than most; we did complete three of the five missions assigned by COMSUBPAC, including:
Hunting a wolfpack of diesel-electric hunter-killer subs (SSKs) in the Sea of Japan
Destroying Chinese freighters ferrying supplies from China's vassal, the USSR, that attempted to sail from Vladivostok to China
Destroying a small battlegroup of missile-armed surface warships
A torpedo heads toward its target.
Two enemy container ships are adrift and ablaze after being struck by UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The one on the right is sinking, while the one in the center is still trying to limp away at 3 knots.
For a while, it looked as though this container ship might escape. The fire from the Harpoon hit (you can see a gaping hole on her port side) is out, and her engines were still running, though she was adrift on this heavy swell. A Mark-48 torpedo finished her off, though.
As in Red Storm Rising (1988), Cold Waters gives players glimpses at how their actions affect the outcome of the war and how the media covers this version of World War III.
USS Jefferson City has also had chance encounters with enemy antisubmarine warfare (ASW) forces during her attempts to intercept Chinese reinforcements to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. We survived these engagements, but they forced us to use weapons that could have been used for more important targets. They also detained us long enough for our assigned target groups to escape without as much as a barnacle being scratched off a ship's hull by a torpedo.
However, even though Jefferson City had more successes than failures and returned to Guam with only minimum damage from two enemy torpedo hits, the war is not going well for the United States. China has achieved most of its war goals regarding territorial gains; Taiwan, the Philippines, and several island groups, including the Spratly and Paracel Islands, are now occupied by the People's Liberation Army.
Will the United States win the South China Sea War? Right now, I can't predict an outcome beyond a technical draw. For instance, I have no idea how badly the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is hurting. In two and a half months of the war, China has lost 39 surface warships, 21 submarines, and 17 merchants for a total of 77 ships and 345,854 tons. But I don't know how many ships are in China's fleet, both military and merchant, so whether Beijing's admirals are worried...it's a mystery.
Our weapons stores are dangerously low here!
I will continue the South China Sea campaign tomorrow, so look for another update then!
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