Command: South China Sea Confrontation - 1

Let's play Command: Modern Operations to find out how a confrontation in the South China Sea between the USA (US Navy) and China (PLAN) could develop.

[@syndafloden]

It's a gem of a game for anyone interrested in naval warfare. Takes me back to the good old Harpoon days.

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Actually my first serious game was Harpoon in the nineties and the first scenario I remember was a Japan-China confrontation in the East China Sea. Its not just striking to see where gaming has come, but also to contrast the two Chinas I was facing then and now. Back in the nineties the PLAN consisted of some brown water fast attack craft and a handful of diesel subs. The most notable thing was the Silkworm missile. The whole scenario pitted a technologically superior Japan against an inferior but numerous China. Within less than a generation they are now one the verve of actually fielding a blue water power projection capability...

[@Salaci]

@@SeriousStrategyGamer In a decade they will have half a dozen catobar emals capable aircraft carriers

[@BooBwaa]

Maybe in a decade we have a worthy Harpoon successor with real time multiplayer. What a wonderous mess this product is.

[@Aussilightning]

Would love an updated series on this.

[@jsilva4595]

At 15:40 when you are talking about amount of missiles needed to get past a targets defences, they game has this calculated. Each unit has a missile defence value, seen in the database. For example, the Arleigh Burke has a missile defence of 20 due to the huge amount of SAMs and CIWS is has to engage incoming missiles. Units will also use a targets missile defence value when determining how many weapons to launch, as seen in a units weapons release authorization (WRA). Sticking with the Burke, an enemy ship, or combination of ships, will launch 20 missiles at a time when engaging, as these get shot down, they will launch more to fill the 20 which the game estimates it will take to overwhelm the defences and sink the ship.

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Yes, but of course it only is an approximation based on Harpoon-equivalents. There are other factors going in, e.g. the oncoming missile speed and flight characteristics. Its also not fully additive since a group of ships can partially support each other with AAMs but not with their close-in systems - and with the AAMs it strongly depends on formation, sometimes its even more than 1. So all in all it can be quite murky.

[@jsilva4595]

@@SeriousStrategyGamer Also good to note, your Fire Scout UAVs are pretty useful for detecting diesel subs, which the PLAN are using. When a diesel sub is at periscope depth, they use their snorkel to run their diesel engines to recharge their batteries. The Fire Scout has a lot of IR cameras, which are able to easily pick up the IR signature of the rising exhaust from the snorkel.

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

@@jsilva4595 Uh, I did no know that! Neat! Although I believe there was relatively low cloud cover in the scenario. Not sure how much that degrades IR.

[@reichhardbuerger1492]

Great to see you doing C:MO again! It IS a beast, but you ride it well...

[@commanderroddi7742]

LItoral combat ships are really ships for coastal patrol, some shore support, and anti-piracy. YOu can outfit them to support other missions (Landings, Special ops, surveilance, anti-mining, etc).

[@MWSin1]

Island: (exists) China: It's free real estate.

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

And obviously eternal Chinese territory:D

[@wurzelblatt9089]

Yesss :D I was hoping so hard you would do a South China Sea scenario!!! So excited

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Good to have you around for this one!

[@enifron]

Thanks for the video, we look forward to continuing👍👍👍

[@maxelsoro6292]

For me not just south china sea There is a same issue on japan island east china sea But the question is will british can defeat the sea wall tactics of chinese forces Number 2 can us defeat land base anti ship missile of chinese forces Because i am learning from your superior tactics the serious strategy gamer in my new carrier technique

[@blainesitter9110]

Game simulations seem to be a British accent dominated thing

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

:D

[@fenriders7008]

Yes, strategy games do seem to be over represented with British creators. I think it’s a genetic need to paint maps in your nations colour that they just can’t resist.

[@EnglishScripter]

@@fenriders7008 Yes, we spend all day doing that.

[@Trubripes]

Let's hope this scenario doesn't happen the way the other one did.

[@themacker894]

How exciting. It's been a while. :)

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

It has! Feels good to be back and of course have you here :)

[@HavocStylesJoe]

Could you imagine if they integrated this with DCS combined Arms in a persistent universe / Squad? NERDGAUSEISM

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Oh man that would be something! Add ARMA for ground and it’s just….

[@gonavygonavy1193]

I would've glassed the red bases as soon as they turn hostile

[@xavierbalbastre5749]

Hello. I'm happy to watch one of your Command video. But could you play the China navy for the same scenario to watch how you would destroy the US navy ?

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Hey, welcome back! Sure happy switch sides at the end. The 🇮🇷 scenario was fun!

[@AceDupuy]

It's back!

[@g4340]

I was wondering, is this just Naval Warfare or do you also command land armies, airforces, etc.? How long does it take to learn --a few days, weeks, months? I'm on Disability and spending money for me is VERY important to make sure I'm getting a very good strategy game that won't get old and boring after a few weeks of gameplay. Can you do spy stuff, like assassinations and things? Thank you for your time!

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Hi there! Command is a game nearly exclusive about air and naval aspects. Indeed the previous version was called "Command: Modern Air Naval Operations". Some scenarios contain land units and you can give them orders, but to be honest the modelling there is rudimentary at best (except for anti-air assets). It does technically include things like having a special forces teams behind lines to give you targeting data, but all of this is really taking a back seat. So if you are looking for that, I can not recommend. How long it takes to learn? Well hard to say. For me it took a couple of hours to understand the interface and what I am doing - but I still continue to learn new aspects. It's pretty straightforward to order a plane to fire a missile at another - but its for example somewhat more nuanced to understand the difference between a SARH (semi-active radiation homing) and a ARH (active radar homing missile). The former requires a continuous lock by the launch platform, which you might break if you force it into defence maneuvers... Do expect a lot of this kind of thing in this "game".

[@patricksutfin9374]

Ground warfare has been significantly improved over time the development team has over years continued to advance and support this simulation. It is still mainly focused on air and naval aspects of warfare but with logistics and scale down to individual land units it does a good job at a generic land battle simulation. Currently the main game is 50% off its normal price now 40 dollars the database alone is worth more than that. This sim has provided me with many hours of hundreds.if not thousands of hours of thoughtful entertainment over the last 7+ years. If you are into war gaming this is a must buy.

[@tropanghayop1728]

Philippinese 😆 i died! Im enjoying this content

[@themacker894]

We have a strange way of pronouncing non-blue water ships as [Li-Tor'-ul] ships (meaning coastal waters), and not littoral [lit' orul] meaning "actual or actually" as a synonym. I searched all over the Internet for the correct pronunciation and every video and website I saw got it wrong. This guy represents those same ships and did pronounce the description correctly. Might want to watch, since you'll be describing the LCS's quite often. Good luck. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2KziZaKZdaChZo

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Thanks, will take a look! (For whatever reason this comment got flagged due to unspecified flagged words. I wounder which)

[@themacker894]

@@SeriousStrategyGamer Haha! Who knows? Looking forward to an excellent series!

[@TheSkyGuy77]

The "People's Liberation Army Navy"? The PLAN? 😂

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Total Dr. Evil vibes

[@MrTheKmac]

If this was an energy war, what would the tactics look like?

[@boredsights3923]

You aren’t a fan of the LCS? smh

[@HGShurtugal]

What's the date range of this game?

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Overall the earliest scenario I have takes place in 1950 and the later ones take place in the near-future. Oldes platform I could find at a glance in the database was from around 1940. This specific scenario takes place in 2015.

[@patricksutfin9374]

Post world War 2 to near future 2030ish weapon systems in development are added as hypothetical systems. It has an editor that allows you to basically use this sim as a test bed for things like hypersonic missiles vs laser based defense systems.

[@gunstargizmo]

Cool game, but too deep to my liking.

[@oldy27]

o7

[@tims2501]

Burke DDG dated?

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

Well it's not exactly in the new class of stealth ships like the Zumwalt, Type 45 or even the Horizon or Braunschweig classes.

[@tims2501]

@@SeriousStrategyGamer Type 45 I believe strictly AAW capability and Zumwalt is a failed design relying on technology never fielded. DDG51 is all purpose DDG doing ASuW, AAW and ASW. Horizon is basically same weapons load as a Burke with fewer vertical cells. Braunschweig is a corvette and not even in same class. Plus those other classes have only a few hulls unlike DDG51.

[@SeriousStrategyGamer]

​@@tims2501 fair points, and let me say that I do not consider the Arleigh Burke to be a failed, bad or obsolete design. They are clearly still relevant and capable ships. That said, I do consider them to be fundamentally a 1990ies design.

[@VGT856]

People willing to fork out $80 for a game like that are touched in the heads!

[@Tamburello_1994]

Be ignorant. The database alone is worth that itself.