I will always be partial to Cold-War-Gone-Hot wargames for the simple reason that it was this genre that got me hooked on computer games way back when 8-bit machines roamed the land. Titles such as SSI's Reforger '88 laid the foundation for a lifelong love affair with this historic period. And as the technology of home computers improved, so did the sophistication of the wargames. One of the best of the subsequent 16-bit period was Microprose's Red Storm Rising. Based on the classic NATO vs. Warsaw Pact war novel of the same name, the game did a banger of a job capturing the essence of modern submarine warfare.
RSR was just one of many such wargames I enjoyed back in the day.
Largely due to the end of the actual Cold War, wargames that focused on a conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact became as scarce as, well, finding the Soviet Union on a map! Sadly, it was a long drought as the Cold War faded into memory.
Over the last few years, particularly the last two for the obvious reason of contemporary events, there has been a resurgence of gaming titles exploring what a hot war circa 1980-1989 might have looked like. One such title from 2017 is Killerfish Games' Cold Waters. Inspired by classics like Red Storm Rising, it is an engrossing sub-sim that explores what war in the North Atlantic might have looked like had "the balloon gone up" circa 1984. Since its original release, the devs have moved on to their next title (albeit, under a different development house) called Sea Power. Happily, the ever-capable PC modding community has stepped in to keep the game fresh with new content, particularly new vessels and campaigns. Feeling that the Cold-War-Gone-Hot bug has bitten me again, I thought now was a good time to re-install Cold Waters along with the popular DotMod. With the help of my excellent Spotify playlist, The Final Countdown: The 1980s, I was good to go!
These are the voyages of the SSN-604,
USS Haddo, a Permit-class boat.
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| A picture of the actual USS Haddo |
On the opening day of World War Three, my orders were simple: find and sink as many Soviet subs as I could as they attempted to flood into the North Atlantic shipping lanes. My boat was soon positioned in sector Green 013, just north of Denmark.
My, those are a lot of Soviet subs heading out of Murmansk!
We didn't have long to wait until we had some targets.
My crew quickly identified three potential targets. With some careful maneuvering and the use of the towed array (now depicted by DotMod!) I had identified them as a Charlie II, a Victor III, and a loud Golf-class boat (I was wrong on this last identification. It would later be identified as just a noisy trawler.) I ordered our boat to go deep and increase speed to 11 knots to the close with the Charlie class that was powering along at 10 knots. I wanted to reduce the distance to be within 4 KM.
Without warning, it pinged our position with active sonar. Somehow, the Charlie class detected us despite our caution.
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| We've been pinged! |
Naturally, torpedoes soon left their tubes. I believe the Charlie sent three in my direction, while we launched four: two at Sierra 1 (the Charlie II) and two at Sierra 3 (the Victor III).
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| Torpedoes in the water! |
Unfortunately for us, one torpedo materialized right next to us! I am assuming its approach was hidden by the noise of Haddo maneuvering at high speed. Whatever the reason, it homed in on us.
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| The red teardrop is the Soviet torpedo searching for us |
No matter what I did, no matter how many decoys I dropped, the darn thing had us in its sights and wouldn't let go!
We were hit in the stern! Water flooded our engine room and our rudder and planes, along with a torpedo tube, were damaged.
Haddo began to sink!
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| A large gash can be seen along the hull |
For a bit there, I thought we were doomed to crush like an egg under the weight of the deep ocean. Fortunately, damage control got a handle on the situation and restored control of the submarine after a few minutes of desperation.
I examined the tactical plot. The two subs were still out there - the third contact, the mistakenly identified "Golf", was now properly identified as a harmless trawler - but so were my torpedoes, hunting away. Just to add to the chaos, I fired another torpedo at the Charlie that had scored a hit on us with its own torpedo. The wounds of Haddo will be avenged!
The next few minutes were chaotic for the Soviets. One of my torpedoes - I am not sure which as the chaos of the battle had me entirely focused on the knife fight with the Charlie II - found the Victor III and sunk it! Huzzah! Even better, my most recently fired torpedo was still under wire-guided control so I was able to constantly adjust its course to close with the remarkably slippery Charlie.
It took some doing, but we finally got a hit!
And a kill!
It was a two-to-one fight, but Haddo came out on top, albeit bruised.
Mission accomplished! We eliminated both Soviet subs and got a "job well done" from COMSUBLANT
We even made the papers!
Unfortunately, Haddo has been banged up quite a bit. Hopefully, we will be able to return for repairs before our next...oh.
Stay tuned for the continuing wartime adventures of USS Haddo!
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