Sea Power - Surface Warfare Tutorial by former OHP FFG Sailor

[@Wolfpack345]

Great video man!

[@darthramen441]

Love seeing worlds collide :)

[@ryu1940]

Thanks man I love your content and during the pre-launch period your videos were the absolute best!

[@antikythera42]

This reminds me of a USAF fighter pilot quote "They are called missiles, not hittles, so always fire two"

[@ryu1940]

haha I love that one lol

[@FromGamingwithLove0456]

Hey “Dozer.”

[@twolmo]

former USN SWO (ASW Officer, Navigator) USS Blakely FF-1072 1986-1989... I just wanted to compliment you on your tutorials. I just found them this morning and no surprise based on your experience, they are really well done... definitely the best Sea Power videos I've seen since its "pre-release" BZ Shipmate!! I look forward to the next one. Tom-O

[@ryu1940]

Wow thanks for that shipmate! I appreciate it! My boss used to be on the Knox class frigates as a STGC/STGCS. It sounds like it was a great platform to be on. I've been trying to understand the harpoon capability in real life with the Knox class ships because we don't have that at all in the game currently. By the time you were on the Blakely did most of the Knox class ships have the Harpoon launch capability from the ASROC launcher? My boss told me by the late 70s and early 80s many Knox class ships had that feature added during a refit period. I really wish we had something like this in game.

[@twolmo]

Yes, our ASROC launcher was configured for Harpoon. When I first reported onboard we also had the capability to carry the RTDC… I had to attend two schools in Norfolk just for that capability… Nuclear Weapons Supervisor and Nuclear Weapons Safety Officer… fortunately they removed that capability shortly after… we never had the weapons onboard. Also when we carried Harpoon, we never had more that four onboard and they were always in the magazine and not the launcher. They could only be fired from the interior cells of the ASROC.

[@ryu1940]

Thank you for that clarification! I’ve seen pictures of Harpoons in the outer two portside boxes. I wonder if different ships in the class had different set ups for the specific boxes that they used for that capability. Oh well that’s just fine detail stuff, really neat thanks for sharing that!

[@twolmo]

@ it’s possible I have that backwards… I know it was one or the other… that was a while ago… I know that we never loaded them during the one deployment we had them onboard. Harpoon was a complicated weapon because back then we assumed the Russians would shoot them down if they all came from one direction so we practiced coordinated attacks with P-3’s or other ships. Timing was the challenge so all the misses would arrive at once. I play a lot of CMO and have never been able to work out how to get that to work. I remember playing Harpoon in the early days and shooting a Slava with their SA-N-6 with Harpoon seemed impossible.

[@ryu1940]

Yeah that is why the later blocks of harpoon were able to have pre programed waypoints and you can have them all come to the target from multiple bearings all at once. Dangerous Waters has a good simulation of that but I believe all the Harpoons in this game are the early blocks that didnt have that capability (I believe it started IOC later in the 80s). Harpoon was such a great game, I am happy to hear microprose is relaunching that game on steam.

[@kirkmcgill]

Can we all just take a moment to complement the developers insofar as even at this very early stage of development the game is sufficiently realistic and sophisticated that actual subject matter experts have wisdom to share to make us better players. Not that I don’t enjoy the ‘expert reacts’ videos where a subject matter expert tells me things that a film or game did right and did wrong, but those experts are rarely (if ever) giving me advice on how to actually play the game, they’re just analyzing the game from their professional perspective. There are only a handful of games out there where this level of real-world technical expertise actually helps me be a better player-and that’s awesome.

[@ryu1940]

Oh yeah I totally agree it is really cool that you could apply techniques (unclass stuff of course you could pull from published books) and the game has enough depth and realism with weapons and sensors that it just works. I love that. I think they did a great job even in early access there is a lot there that is making it my favorite game. I'm looking forward to the future of the game growing.

[@Seth90]

as a side-note: "Shooting first" becomes even more important when considering ship design. Because most of the USN vessels launch their anti-ship missiles and interceptors from the same weapons system. So if the enemy fires first , your ships may be busy with defending themselves (or others) and become incapable of returning fire effectively.

[@ryu1940]

Great point for all the USN ships that do not have the mk141 harpoon launcher!

[@logansorenssen]

@@ryu1940Or VLS, for later units that have SM6 in surface mode.

[@th3narrat0r5]

BTW, if you go to the f10 menu you can turn off the dropping tanks and have it manual only, I think it’s in tools. Granted that’s just for the combat drop, but it helps

[@ryu1940]

oh cool I didn't know you could do something like that! Thanks for that!

[@tomarmadiyer2698]

This is a literal game changer for me

[@Ketothev]

Wow, thanks for sharing this tip!

[@Corsair37]

"One Armed Bandit", "Missile Sponge", "Hellen Keller of Sonars" (that was from a previous video) - man, you're brining back some memories :) I was the Disbursing Officer on an FFG-7 in the mid 90s, so while I didn't deal with the weapons and sensor systems, I learned a thing or two during my time onboard. Even got to watch an SM-1MR launch from the bridge during an exercies - *that* was an impressive site to see in person. I'm really enjoying your videos - informative, entertaining and quick to watch. I look forward to seeing more. Happy Holidays!

[@ryu1940]

haha man I love hearing from guys like you it's awesome chatting with other FFG sailors! I've seen videos on youtube of my FFG firing off an SM-1 from the bridge point of view and that really does look amazing. I'm glad you're enjoy the videos and the nostalgia! Happy holidays to you too man take care and thanks for watching!

[@BenjaminGerfelder]

Great tutorial, short and to the point. You covered the really important details such as threat assessment and the need to keep your air defense ready, most others don't go into these.

[@advorak8529]

The problem of missile salvo size: a) you do not want to throw your missiles away and have no effect b) you do not want to send far more than needed, since they are a limited resource, though not as limited as large attack missiles. With not enough missiles, or missiles spread too much apart, you get no or minimal results. But with just a few more, or a more densely packed group of missiles, the defence gets overrun and you can have devastating results, resulting in seemingly overkill. Why is that? As some missiles are knocked out, others get closer to their targets, and once a target is destroyed/disabled, their missile defence capabilities are lost - so the following missiles have an easier job to repeat that feat, causing more damage and making it even easier for their brethren following them, leading to an exponential collapse. You want the missiles to arrive at the same time if you can, and possibly from different directions, to further split the fire. You can even mix in missiles that cannot harm the target, say TLAMs, to give them more to shoot at. If you are playing the USSR vessels, it may be a good idea to follow their doctrine and flush basically all missiles in an initial attack. Better a few extra than too few, wasting them all.

[@ryu1940]

Great stuff! A good quote about shooting large salvo sizes from Fighting the Fleet: "Shoot Large Salvos. Outcomes at the fleet level will be very unpredictable (a knife's edge of performance). Advantage in combat with such high levels of uncertainty comes from managing the complexity of the salvo interactions. The surest way to do this is to allocate to your force a pre-ponderance of offensive and defensive combat power, including staying power. Finely tune salvos between equally matched competitiors invite defeat. In Fleet Tactics, Hughes exhorts us to "fire effectively first." This is the "effective" part." I'd definitely caution players from trying to fine tune those salvos too much. We should strive for overkill with larger combatants who posses more combat power.

[@briansonnenfelt7125]

Its interesting watching this as a Sub Sonar Tech. Crazy how wildly different our tactics are.

[@ryu1940]

oh yeah I can imagine haha my dad was a submariner for 20 years, he was on the old permit class then flight one 688s.

[@jondoe6663]

Heavy opening salvos work fairly well in the other missile cruiser game, Rule the Waves 3. I have always found it best to shoot as many missiles as possible towards the enemy because sunk ships do not shoot back.

[@ryu1940]

@@jondoe6663 absolutely! I’ve been curious about trying that game but I just don’t have enough time to really get into a game like that these days sadly.

[@HarrySamit-v5p]

Very good introduction to tactics. I was a Naval Officer 1990-1999 and your gouge is on the money!

[@ryu1940]

Thanks for that feedback!

[@gluesniffingdude]

Currently reading Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations and it is exactly as you are describing

[@ryu1940]

@@gluesniffingdude Fleet Tactics is great! Fighting the Fleet is another really good one I highly recommend if you haven’t read it yet.

[@gluesniffingdude]

@ryu1940 added to reading list - thanks

[@Dcook85]

4:27 Pro-tip. You can press F10 to bring up a console. Click the "General" button on the top left portion of that console, then click the "Tools" menu. You will see a toggle for dropping or keeping fuel tanks in combat. Toggle to keep them and they won't do that anymore. I truly hope and expect this will be patched later because it's super un-realistic to drop tanks upon every weapon deployment, but this should do in the mean time. Just know you will have to do this with every new scenario you load into. F10 closes the console when you're done.

[@ryu1940]

That's a great tip someone else mentioned that as well and I will definitely be using that in the future until that gets brought into the main game outside the console.

[@julhelm1821]

These are excellent tutorials. Really nice and you explain things really well. /Nils from Triassic

[@ryu1940]

Thank you for the excellent game! I am having a blast with it and have waited eagerly for its release since I heard it was being developed years ago. It really is amazing the depth that you guys have accomplished with the various sensors and weapon systems that were proliferated in the cold war period. I am looking forward to seeing this game grow its user base and hopeful these tutorials will help.

[@ryu1940]

Yeah did you want me to ping you or DM you on discord?

[@Cris-xy2gi]

That’s crazy to think about. The harpoon is considered a ‘bad’ cruise missile with just a measly 65nmi range… but that’s still almost 3x the range of the massive 16inch guns on the iowa

[@ryu1940]

@@Cris-xy2gi Yeah and it’s about double the range of the exocet missile! I think it’s a great missile for what it is personally.

[@theflyingfish66]

​@@ryu1940 I think it's mostly people not knowing or not understanding the size difference. The Harpoon seems pitifully weak based on stats, until you see that it weighs about 1/10th what the Granit does. Those Soviet "carrier-killers" are absolutely massive and the ships carrying them had to be specifically designed to use them due to their large size.

[@logansorenssen]

@@ryu1940Depends on the Exocet - newer Exocets have similar range to Harpoon.

[@ryu1940]

yeah just talking about the game version in this case

[@owen5524]

Excellent video! I like your discussion of actual fleet tactics. It's so rewarding to see actual military theory successfully applied to a video game, and it's a credit to the developers of Sea Power that this is possible. I already have a couple copies of Fleet Tactics by Wayne Hughes and now I'm eyeing Fighting the Fleet, but it's a wee bit pricey for a 200-page book. I'll probably just bite the bullet and get it - this topic is so fascinating.

[@ryu1940]

I highly recommend picking up Fighting the Fleet! It's one of the best books on modern naval combat but it also touches on some other things like logistics and basing and how ships maneuver and mass etc. I really like it. Yeah it is super cool that the devs made such a great game where these things can work within it. Thanks for watching!

[@mcmann7149]

It's very interesting to put the stuff you've read or in your case, done, to the test in simulations.

[@ryu1940]

I think it is super neat you could apply this salvo theory into the game and it works!

[@yester8039]

You earned a new subscriber, your knowledge really shows up and you manage to digest your vast expertise in this field in a entertaining, engaging and easy to watch format, thanks!

[@ryu1940]

Wow thank you for that! I'm glad things are digestible and entertaining. I try really hard to not make these things go super long like some of the other tutorials that are out there. It is difficult though because there are a lot of things to talk about so I try to just hit the main big ones. Thank you for the feedback!

[@yester8039]

@ryu1940 honestly i would enjoy also longer content, the factor that makes this entertaining is you, not the shorter duration... Also i enjoy quite a lot those moments when you introduce us to some real world "lore" like the nicknames for the "one arm bandit" and when you share your experiences during service!

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! It is funny because that stuff was all so long ago but I can't help but remember those key nicknames so easily lol

[@advorak8529]

You can change speed, depth, altitude, use the weapons, switch on and off radars, sonars, control a towed array or a towed decoy of the selected ship - all by using the bottom status bar. Just klick on the relevant displayed info there. You can also just hover other them for ‘commanded speed/alt/…. No need to go through menus for that stuff. You also can go through your formation ships or all your ships (or aircraft) with the klick of a button - look at the key bindings in the options menu.

[@ryu1940]

Ah yeah thanks I did know about using the bar down below I personally don't like to use it just my preference. I think I'd use it more if the emcon stuff and weapons status stuff on the right side was moved to the left closer to all the other controls on the left side of the bar.

[@Gaspode_]

I believe you need to have the formation leader selected for the formation commands to work

[@ryu1940]

I just double checked in the game and you can have any unit selected in the formation and the formation orders should work. The air radars will work for the whole formation regardless of who in the formation you select BUT at least in the Hormuz mission the surface radar formation command doesn't work. It is strange.

[@jamison884]

Hello there! First, thank you for your service and also for posting these tutorials. I've subbed, and I hope to see this series continue. I don't know about others, but I'd love to hear as much as you can possibly share with us in future tutorial videos and perhaps even create your own scenarios to show us if Sea Power can properly emulate legitimate (well known/universal) naval tactics. As a caveat, of course I am only referring to any information you're able to share appropriately and nothing that would get you into trouble. I know the OHP hasn't been fully out of service for super long, so I'm not sure as to the era you served, but I'm just a super nerd when it comes to military tech and the engineering of various weapons, sensors, and equipment. I'm the type who feels very proud of the US/NATO military and the overwhelming strength serving as a deterrent. The key word there is deterrent, as I hope all of this technology and munitions never has to be fired in anger. Perhaps I can fit in a couple of general questions if you'd be interested in providing some opinions. 1. What are your general thoughts on Sea Power so far and the quality of what they've modeled in an attempt to get close to ~1985 military equipment/technology? 2. One of the common talking points is how deadly the anti-ship missiles are, and not just the large supersonic Soviet models, but also the models with smaller warheads such as the Harpoon, Penguin, and even Shrike (one Shrike can take out medium-sized missile boats and larger if lucky). I understand a lot of this is due to modeling of fires and secondary explosions, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this potentially being under/overmodeled. Thank you!

[@tiny_tex]

Awesome explanation! I have zero naval combat experience, but in my mind the easiest way to equate the "pulse warfare" you explained is a boxing match. If you throw thirty punches in the first round, even if most of them get blocked, some will get through and hurt the other guy, maybe even knock him out. Then, throwing five punches in the second round may be enough to win. If you waited until the last round because you think you're Rocky, you're gonna have a bad time!

[@ryu1940]

That is a great way to think of it!

[@andrewhopwood500]

Thank you for your valuable insight into surface warfare, firing first and firing hard. Could you perhaps upload another video of surface warfare against a more capable adversary, some of the Soviet warships are particularly tough to crack particularly when there are 2 or 3 of them working together. For example, the Udaloy in an air defence role seems to be particularly OP in game.

[@ryu1940]

Certainly! I just liked this scenario because it was an easy one to get beginners into the new idea of pulse warfare but if I come across a good one for more advanced ships like that we will certainly do that. I wanted to use the All Your Guam Belongs to Us but the scenario isn't designed too well imo. If the Alfa sub spawns it instantly tells the Kirov and you are so far out from the safe range of their SS-N-19s that your fleet gets wiped out instantly lol Actually this made me think right now I could delete that Alfa spawn in the editor and play that when I get time. Thanks for the great suggestion!

[@Ketothev]

So nice to see your take on this scenario. I botched this one a few times and the best I’ve been able to achieve was completing the scenario with one ship left and the all the merchants safe. I’m looking forward to see where I can improve. 😊 I would really be interested to see how you approach/handle air defence in your fleet. In this scenario for example I always have one or two bombers that seem to always be able to survive long enough to sink two of my ships and I wonder how I can defend better against this. I’ll definitely try to move my ships so one can be the sponge.

[@SpaceWraith131]

I played the carrier battle scenario after watching this video, the one around Hawaii, needless to say it took all day and three full flights of A6s loaded with harpoons before I was able to finally start making a dent in their ships.

[@ryu1940]

Man I want to play that scenario but I really want a save feature to dive into big scenarios like that.

[@SpaceWraith131]

@ryu1940 i kept thinking I was almost done with it and the next thing I knew, five hours had passed. It was fun to play, but I agree, they need to polish some aspects out before full release.

[@ryu1940]

@@SpaceWraith131 lol damn that is nuts

[@SpaceWraith131]

@ryu1940 given your recent topics and playthroughs, you should give the convoy escort mission a try if you haven't already.

[@ryu1940]

@ the gauntlet? I’ve played it before and I was just thinking that would be a great one to talk about the missile sponge and formation changes. Or were you talking about one of the hormuz missions?

[@rockstar7773]

Thanks for the video. Really enjoy your content man. From what I remember it is possible to keep your drops tanks. I think I saw another youtuber use the debug panel in the game to toggle the drop tank function. You should be able to access it at anytime during gameplay I believe.

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! Yeah a few people have pointed that out and now I do it all the time when I operate helicopters lol I'm hoping that makes it into the regular game in the form of a simple button for the aircraft much like the new cavitate or no cavitate orders for subs.

[@CaptainMustanG4089]

Loved the video, heaps of good info to help win some more engagements! Any tips on getting a large salvo (80+ harpoons from multiple aircraft) to evenly target ships in a formation instead of 1 or 2 ships eating 20 missiles each? Or are multiple, smaller waves better to take down 1 or 2 ships per wave instead of attempting to destroy the whole surface force in 1 salvo?

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! I think the most you can do given the older block harpoon we seem to have in game is to position your aircraft from different angles to increase the chances the missiles are spread out enough to pick up different targets. I would not try to take out an entire force in one salvo because of how the harpoons behave. Fire a good amount to do a great amount of damage certainly but temper it if you believe you're going to waste a lot of missiles going towards one destroyed hull that hasn't sunk yet.

[@Cg23sailor]

You know how Stolen Valor types can get spotted by the things they say? Your video is. Classic example of the opposite. Where one sailor can confirm that another is actually a Been-there-done-that sailor. Just by the little things you say. Not that I ever had any reason doubt you, mind. But the moment you said everyone was "radiating and rotating"... I thought to myself "Yep, He's a sailor."

[@twolmo]

yep...

[@feraxks]

My mind went instantly to the men working aloft spiel. Every 15 minutes until they came down.

[@ryu1940]

@feraxks That is exactly where that comes from. It is fried into my brain lol

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! Yeah I think it is impossible for me to not say that combo of words when I'm talking about radars from saying the working aloft word a million times over my stint in the navy.

[@feraxks]

@@ryu1940 "Fried into my brain" is exactly right!

[@havocsquad1]

If Sea Power ever gets multiplayer implemented, there will definitely be a reason for me to create a "Masterclass" involving the genre and somewhat towards the game. There's lots of how to guides with Sea Power coming on, but none that address being high tier at the craft particularly against living breathing opponents.

[@ryu1940]

I would definitely make a lot PvP videos if the game had multiplayer. Right now it is a waste of time to make videos talking about tactics against other humans when we can't do that. But for sure, given my DCS multiplayer background I am VERY interested in PvP in this game. I just don't think it will happen though :(

[@havocsquad1]

​@@ryu1940I am surprised despite all the noise of people wanting multiplayer in Sea Power in discord and Steam discussions, extremely few will attempt multiplayer in Janes/SCS Fleet Command.

[@wastelander89]

I highly recommend checking out new threat upgrade mod for this game. It gives 89 variations of some ships with vls. Pretty cool. I really enjoyed your video. Also brother Munro has a mod that adds weapons to the sea sprites

[@alexd6557]

I LOVE this game. After ten years in the army I have yet to find a naval warfare game that was sufficiently realistic while also easier to learn and understand (the army doesn’t exactly teach us how ASW works😂) while also not holding my hand. Sea power is utterly fantastic. But is anyone else having any weird performance issues? I have a 3070ti and an i9 12900KF and sometimes on certain missions I’ll get less than 1fps. I have to turn everything to its lowest setting but I feel like my pc should be able to play this with it maxed out? Any suggestions?

[@ryu1940]

hmm not sure what is causing that. I have a 4090 and 14900k and there are times with longer scenarios I start to develop a stutter every 5 or 10 seconds.

[@SpaceWraith131]

It's refreshing to see your videos given your background. Have you checked out nebulous fleet command? It has a very similar vibe to SP, only in space. Despite the setting, the tactics of using radars and missiles is largely the same, its even more in depth in some cases.

[@ryu1940]

I have looked at it. I heard the guy who makes it is a current or former SWO so it makes sense it would be detailed in that regard which is super cool. I just sadly don't have much free time for super in depth games any more and that one looks like it can take a bit of learning.

[@SpaceWraith131]

@ryu1940 im very new to the game myself. But from what I've seen, if you can get used to the concept of 3d space, the same tactics would apply. I struggle more with the movement and ui controls. If you're a fan of the expanse then you'll have a good idea how this looks and feels.

[@aBoogivogi]

Once comment regarding the pulse based comment. In the age of sail the first and second rates were important vessels. Boarding actions to seize ships was a reality of naval combat in some cases. These days that's off the table entirely.

[@ryu1940]

Yeah definitely. Basically the ships would exchange broadsides until enough gun crews died on the other side and the ship either surrendered or was boarded opposed. It is funny even with ships of the line, they still practiced firing massive salvos up front and this is why towards the end 3 deck ships were all you'd see in battle lines.

[@thomas.02]

With the Iowa class BBs I’ve also used their TLAMs as bait, sending them around the general direction of the enemy formation shortly before my TASMs arrive I’m not sure how effective the trick is but 1) it gives the enemy more things to worry about and 2) it’s not like the TLAMs are going to be useful in any other way anyway

[@ryu1940]

Oh cool! Do they react to the TLAMs?

[@thomas.02]

@@ryu1940 they do! You can try it out in the NATO scenario Volga Exercise - it's basically USS New Jersey vs Kirov. that scenario should be nice for a tutorial from you too because it involves 1) not getting sunk by Kirov's shipwrecks and 2) getting in range enough to land a tomahawk blow of your own

[@ryu1940]

Thanks for the info I'll check it out! I've been looking for a good scenario to do larger surface warfare stuff with. That does sound like a good one.

[@christopherchartier3017]

Hey, cool video. How would you approach defending against anti ship missile subs like the Oscar, which can fire from far away and lob its full arsenal of SS-N-19’s at your carrier fleet?

[@ian9601]

Dope content

[@ryu1940]

Thank you!

[@chasehale4784]

Ide like to see this in a larger scenario. Good video

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! I'm kind of hesitant to do a large scale tutorial because I truly don't want these videos taking like 40minutes to get through and see everything develop. If I do something large it'll likely just be some play hrough kind of video.

[@jamesscott2894]

@@ryu1940 For good quality vids like you make, 40 min is nothing. Sure I like 20min and shorter vids that cut out the chaff and get to the point like you do here (This is very excellent to my Army self to understand what you tin can guys are supposed to be doing lol), but when I have the time... well I did just spend an hour and a half watching Growling Sidewinder play a Sea Power mission because they're so entertaining (if not very technically good... they're more airpower guys coming over from DCS and, like me, most of their knowledge of Naval tactics comes from Red Storm Rising it seems lol... Especially since they spent half the mission trying to chase an Alfa sub and basically left an entire P-3 squadron just circling because they got caught up trying to micromanage the SH-2s instead, tho the salvo's of incoming Shipwrecks from the hostile Soviet SAG didn't help, but I digress...

[@ryu1940]

@jamesscott2894 thanks man! I think I'll probably do some longer form videos in the future. I wanted to make a surface warfare tutorial with larger ships and more capable enemies but it has been proving super hard to break the video up in cohesive chunks. So I might have to lump everything together. We shall see!

[@jamesscott2894]

@ryu1940 "Growling Sidewinder" idk why I called them that, it's the Grim Reapers lol, this is the specific longer form video I was referring to, if you're interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGKVpGeVltt9nrcsi=KTkkq23vLLyFuZT_

[@mindfield8572]

Is it good to tighten the formation to defend against a missile attack? I tried it, and it seems to work, because the ships can help each other to shoot them down. I also changed course so that my broadsides point towards the attack to have a clear line of fire. But are there drawbacks to consider? And thanks for all your videos so far.

[@ryu1940]

Thank you for the great question! It is kind of a double edged sword but you want to have your broadside towards the threat because you'll have most of your defensive capabilities free to fire. I say it is a double edged sword because unfortunately this produces the largest radar cross section for enemy weapon systems. You can try to go stern aspect to an incoming barrage to lower your radar cross section (imagine looking at the boat from the back instead of the side, there is less area to detect) but the downside to that tactic is you often lose a lot of your defensive weapons ability to shoot back at the threat. Formation wise, I generally like to do what I discussed here, putting a lesser capable ship ahead and biased towards any side the threat might come from. For instance in the gauntlet scenario I move the Knox class frigate to the starboard side of the formation ahead of the OHP FFG to face any threats before the civilian merchants are exposed to enemy fire. It is great if you can keep the shooters in your formation close enough to support each other but there is a trade off where if the missile misses one ship, your formation is so tight the missed shots reacquire new targets. I guess this is a long way to say it depends! That is okay, that is what makes the game fun imo.

[@mindfield8572]

@@ryu1940 Many thanks for the answer. :)

[@ryu1940]

my pleasure!

[@TheMartieno]

Airplanes that carry fuel tanks drop their tanks as soon as you give them an order, so if you can you should to wait giving your orders with planes that carry fuel tanks until they used the tanks. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the game actually simulates the aircraft using the tanks up first. Or that instead, the game just gives the plane a boost in range.

[@ryu1940]

I found thanks to some other tips in the comments here on this video that you can actually hit f10 and in the tools option there is a button to click that forces them to keep their tanks on in combat so now they wont drop the tanks when they VID and I am quite happy with that.

[@TheMartieno]

@ Oh wow thanks for letting me know. That’s very useful indeed!

[@ryu1940]

@@TheMartieno no problem! yeah it’s a cool tip I am glad people pointed that out.

[@stannnXD]

how do I make my vehicles have mro epoints for navigation like what you did with the helicopter earlly

[@ryu1940]

@@stannnXD good question, hold shift and right click to add more waypoints.

[@stannnXD]

@@ryu1940 thank you bossman look forward to see more content

[@ryu1940]

@ no problem man thanks!

[@thebonedss]

Another quick question after downloading and subcribing missions from the library how do you find and load them for game play? After subscribing I'd assume I seem them in mission editor under load

[@ryu1940]

Excellent question! You have to go to the mod manager first then enable the mod after you subscribe to missions in the workshop. Sometimes it will be obvious what they are in their description it will have the name of the scenarios, other times it might be a string of numbers if the creator didn't create some sort of info file for it. Once you enable the mod in the game then you can see the missions in the scenarios list.

[@landongrace1264]

Thanks for the tips Ryu. Now the Coontz artificial reef exhibits finally get closed. 😂

[@ryu1940]

haha thanks!

[@tomarmadiyer2698]

*sees the right click - unit reference* Mindsplosion

[@ryu1940]

@@tomarmadiyer2698 it’s super useful!

[@robcarpenter8465]

Just subscribed. What do you click on to have a pattern for aircraft? All I know is left click to move them to one position. Thanks!

[@overworlder]

Shift-click for way points

[@ryu1940]

Like @overworlder said you can do shift click for multiple waypoints of drop points of weapons or buoys. Also from the manual these following commands work for aircraft that can drop sonobuoys (planes and helicopters): "you can queue a preset drop of 9 sonar buoys using Crtl+Right Click for a tight pattern (with weapon selected), or use Alt+Right Click for a wider square pattern. 16 can also be dropped using Crtl+Alt+Right click"

[@dougroberts3840]

Love the video, but I was wondering, you said you want to fire first, I totally get that, but what if your orders for ROE (Rules of Engagement) are not to fire unless your fired upon first?

[@ryu1940]

Great question! Yeah if your ROE says you can't fire you'll have to respect that if you want to roleplay to what the scenario is asking to do. I do follow the ROE in the EMCON tutorial where we were not allowed to fire unless fired upon so we only fired after the OSA had fired silkworms at us. In most scenarios if it is modeling an open war that has begun you won't have to worry about that ROE because it'll be free. Also, COs have the right to defend themselves if they feel an imminent threat to the safety of their unit so you can argue firing at jets coming at you in an attack profile within weapons engagement ranges or if you are locked up by a ship/sub fire control radar prior to a missile launch etc. Does that stuff happen in the game? I don't believe so but if you wanted to roleplay stuff like that is plausible.

[@dougroberts3840]

@@ryu1940 Thanks

[@ryu1940]

@ no problem!

[@thebonedss]

Hi, I liked your video , where can you download missions created by the players? sea power is pretty good game, already mastered this mission, but still it has many bugs, mostly I can't sometimes can't see enemy vessels during a harpoon attack until after they hit..

[@ryu1940]

You can download missions from the Steam Workshop. If you select the Sea Power game from your steam library you will see a button that says workshop. If you click on it you can see all the addons that people have made. You just click subscribe on them and then launch the game. In the game you'll need to go to the mod section and enable it. To see enemy ships there is an option in the settings where it says "Hide Unidentified in 3D", make sure that is checked off.

[@lrmunro]

Yeah - if you don’t have a positive ID the default is you can’t see the vessel on the 3d map.

[@briansmithwins]

An even better example of pulses of attack is the carrier battles in the Pacific in WWII. Just replace the torpedo & dive bombers from WWII with their robot kamikaze equivalent - ASMs

[@ryu1940]

Oh yeah definitely a great example of this. In fact Fleet Tactics discusses the carrier battle pulses in the Pacific in great detail it is a really cool read!

[@briansmithwins]

@ yes it is!

[@kennethschlegel870]

Former tico cruiser radar ET here, im wondering in real life how you actually know when an enemy is dead when a game isnt telling you "target destroyed" and its beyond visual range. especially since disabled ships may stay afloat for a long time and still give a radar return. Is it when their speed drops to 0 or all their emissions drop off. How do you keep from pumping misssiles into a ship thats already done.

[@MJHemmer]

Cool cool!

[@ryu1940]

Thank you!

[@IRLBemused]

Really enjoying your videos. Q: does the range at which anti-ship missiles are fired effect the probability of hitting? The Russian missiles have insane range but if I close before launch (while staying out of range of NATO missiles) is there a better probability of a kill? Interested in your opinion both in relation to real life and the game.

[@ryu1940]

Thanks! Afaik, you don't get any better probability of a kill so it is best to try and stay out of the range of enemy missile systems and employ your missiles. Some things you can do to help your missiles be successful and I'll try to show that in the next video is analyze the enemy air defenses and try to find the weakest point of entry into the formation of ships and then maneuver yourself to fire from that axis.

[@IRLBemused]

@@ryu1940 Thanks for the reply. I am playing a cold-war boardgame with anti-ship missiles which have decreasing probability to hit/cause damage with range. The designer explained: 1. Guidance Accuracy The Harpoon missile relies on active radar homing to acquire and lock onto its target in the terminal phase. Longer flight distances mean more time for errors in the missile's inertial navigation system (INS) or GPS to accumulate, potentially reducing the accuracy of its final targeting. 2. Environmental Factors Over long distances, environmental conditions such as weather, sea clutter, and electronic countermeasures (ECM) can degrade the effectiveness of the missile's radar seeker. These factors may become more pronounced over extended ranges. 3. Target Evasion Longer flight times give the target ship more opportunity to take evasive actions, deploy decoys, or use active defenses like electronic jamming or close-in weapon systems (CIWS). 4. Fuel and Energy Limitations The Harpoon's turbojet engine allows it to cover significant distances (up to 124 km for early variants, and over 240 km for Block II+). However, its performance is optimized for specific profiles, and at extreme ranges, the missile's energy might limit complex maneuvers or adjustments during the terminal phase. 5. Defense Countermeasures Ships equipped with layered defenses (e.g., point-defense systems and jamming equipment) have more time to detect, track, and neutralize a missile approaching from a longer range. 6. Flight Path Complexity The Harpoon often uses a sea-skimming flight profile to evade detection. While effective, this profile can be challenging to maintain over long distances due to navigation errors, terrain effects, or atmospheric conditions. Does this seem reasonable to you?

[@ryu1940]

Not really but I'm sure that person has made that game to fit in the balance of the game they've created.

[@ericworst]

That's the easy part - it's when 21 plus F4 Phantoms come in at wave hight that gets me - you can't control enough missiles to hit them and you can't even see all of them on radar.

[@ryu1940]

Yeah I didn't show that part because I just wanted to focus on the things about surface warfare and this was an easy set up to have ships fighting each other for demonstration purposes. When I actually did play this through I was able to detect the F-4s coming in over Oman and shot them all down. Do you set your air defense orders to free fire?

[@ericworst]

@@ryu1940 There are I think 3 similar scenarios for this scenario but explain how to win Don't mess with Texas without gaming the outcome.

[@lrmunro]

I got surprised by F4s coming from Oman. I expected (probably naively in hindsight) that Iranian planes wouldn’t be able to use Oman’s airspace. Guessing that’s not modelled.

[@ryu1940]

@lrmunro yeah Oman should have some SAMs to enforce their sovereignty over an Iranian incursion like that

[@lrmunro]

Great video. I played through the easier version of this (working my way up the star ratings). I was picking up no emissions from any hostile radar so I figured likely enemy didn’t have a clear fix on my position, so used EMCON and helos for scouting. Ended up being surprised by flights of F4s coming from unexpected directions. Not really sure when to assume they know where I am. Also, do you know why the dual anti air/anti surface missile on these ships has much longer anti-air range?

[@ryu1940]

Thank you! If you keep your air search radar on you'll start to see the F-4s going around the other side of Oman trying to flank you which could help you get ready to engage them as the pop over for their final attack runs. I think in terms of a strait transit like the hormuz one you should assume you'll be found out eventually just because that waterway is so narrow so it is best to just operate like you've already been found out and bang away with your radars. Use the helicopters to keep the real danger detected early (enemy ships with harpoons) before they can see your radar transmissions. I believe for the surface mode you still need semi active homing which means you would need the ship to have a line of sight to the contact to fire at it which means the range is going to be severely limited. This is why you can engage targets in the air way out there.

[@yankeelongshoreman9113]

Ryu already answered your first question, but I have more to add to the second. It's about the radar horizon. The curvature of the earth puts a hard limit on how far these types of radar can see. The height of the radar and the target affect how far away something can be before the curvature of the earth gets in the way. So the higher up something is, the further away it can be seen. And yes, you can use this information to get aircraft pretty damn close to ships before they get detected.

[@logansorenssen]

For further clarification, in case you're not familiar with the various radar guidance modes - semi-active radar homing means that the missile homes in on radar reflecting from the target, but the target is illuminated by a radar on the ship. This is unlike Harpoon or modern SM-6, where there is a radar on the missile, so the launching ship doesn't need line of sight to the target. The radar horizon, thus, means that the effective range of a semi-active missile gets shorter as the radar horizon shrinks. Until recently, this constrained SAMs in surface mode to a secondary use, as a sort of backup weapon. Newer active SAMs like SM-6 and Aster, however, can be used over the horizon against surface or low-altitude targets.

[@jaysmith4302]

Did the Navy have long range missiles like the Soviets and if not, why not?

[@ryu1940]

No they did not until the anti ship version of the tomahawk came out in 1983. The RGM-109B has a range of 40-243nm in the game. Prior to that the Harpoon was deemed good enough because of how the US fought at sea. While we balk at the 65nm range vs some other Soviet missiles it is important to remember the Harpoon had a really small footprint on ships so they could be proliferated cheaply and installed on many vessel types. I believe the air launched version was made first and then Admiral Zumwalt wanted this missile to make its way to ships quickly. The US way of fighting would have been using carrier airwings to destroy the Soviet surface fleet so the extension of range would come from carrier launched aviation potentially hitting ships 500nm plus from a carrier battle group.

[@briansmithwins]

Should you turn all the radars on on all the ships? As opposed to having the lead and trail ships radiate and everything else stay EMCON. The combo of radars emitting on each ship tells an enemy which ships are which. If I were running the Iranian side I’d know that all the ships w/o air search radars are the tankers and focus on those. I’m assuming the AI isn’t that smart but a human could be.

[@ryu1940]

Yeah the AI wouldn't know but yes if I were playing against a human player I would do things very differently. For one the major give away even being at mixed EMCON is the formation being a trail like that definitely would warrant investigating. For the game I don't really do the mixed EMCON thing because I don't believe the AI is making any sort of threat assessment and reacting to that in its behavior unfortunately. Even if a human player was my opponent, the moment they see an ESM contact they are going to investigate regardless of others hiding their transmissions or not so I believe it would be better to bang away with your senors so you have the best air picture to employ your SM2s at range.

[@briansmithwins]

@@ryu1940 At some point yes, they are going to know which is what from your emissions. My own preference is to complicate the enemy’s recon and I’d phase as much as possible by only radiating with a minimal number of common radars from a few units. I’ve also used a small salvo to get an enemy formation to emit so I can figure out the high value targets for the real attack

[@michaelferriss4594]

I just see people spamming every missile at once than running out of missiles

[@ryu1940]

When we get the dynamic campaign I really hope they can integrate logistics and supply requirements because yes when you have a decisive naval battle at sea you're going to kick out a lot of missiles and need a reload quickly to get back into the fight and hold what you've started to control.

[@julhelm1821]

@@ryu1940 Absolutely we want to integrate logistics as a core part of the campaign. It is the reason we have many auxiliariy ships modelled, to have UNREP be a thing during the campaign. And of course having certain weapons not being replenishable at all while underway, and would require going back to port to rearm those. The challenge is to make it entertaining and not frustratingly micromanagey.

[@ryu1940]

I am so happy to hear you guys are going to integrate that stuff into the campaign. Thanks for the insight! Definitely a challenge to not make it frustrating but it is really cool that you guys will model the ability to do unreps and also, importantly, show players that ships back then couldn't just magically rearm all these missiles at sea. The USN just demonstrated VLS reloading at sea from an unrep ship only two months ago so I think players are going to have a rough time realizing spamming weapons has strategic consequences if not kept in check because ships back then did not have this capability. www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3935108/navy-demonstrates-first-at-sea-reloading-of-vertical-launching-system/ cool press release on the monumental occasion for the navy.

[@kimchapman9198]

You need to do more "parts" to this video, so that players can analyse their tactics better

[@eatleadcobra]

I heard that comment about the Harpoon 😈

[@ryu1940]

I should have preceded that with "in the court of incorrect public opinion"

[@mohammadsab4478]

I was playing this mission, and I was like: :"what do we Iranians got during war to hit Americans? Hehe nothing". sent 2 ships forward and held 1 back. Mid mission I encountered one hell of a kamikaze attack and lost a ship. I was very wrong

[@testi2025]

Since you had air assets, you could easily had them scout any threats. Even though they don’t have air search, they have Mk2 Eyeballs. You can defend in emcon.

[@ryu1940]

You can defend in EMCON but I pushback on that tactic because by the time the eyeballs of the SH2 crew see the F-4 or F-5 aircraft they are already in sidewinder missile range and will be shot down before my air defense units could react.

[@briansmithwins]

@@testi2025 staying EMCON in the straits of Hormuz is a fool’s errand. It’s a tiny bottle neck that can be scouted out by a couple of rowboats, not to mention every dhow within the visual horizon is probably reporting your position, ship number, and how many guys are on deck to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on their cell phones on speed dial

[@NuclearFalcon146]

@@briansmithwins I doubt they had widespread proliferation of cell phones in the early 1980's but they certainly had their radios.