Minefield Setup

[DanielSan]

I now have 4 enemy frigates that almost easily run through my prefab minefield.
... I blew up an entire minefield + 2 sam sites on shore with a 2k pound mine.

Can anyone tell me what a good setup for a mine field is? Which type of mines are commonly used, and how deep? In normal life how is it setup effectively, and is the 1k or 2k bomb supposed to travel towards you?

I am personally using it to buffer off a naval base.

Thanx in advance

[Molon Labe]

Mines are most useful at strategic, psychological weapons. For example, if you were to place mines randomly in an enemy harbor, and then tell CNN that one of your enemy's harbors was mined--but don't bother to say which--you'll pretty much shut down all seagoing commerce for a few days.

Their tactical applications are somewhat limited. The easiest way to get mines to make an impact in a tactical situation would be to use the minefield to slow the advance of enemy forces through a specific area. The minefield--assuming the enemy finds out about it--forces the enemy to slow down and use HF sonar when passing through or to rely on MCM ships. This in turn increases their vulnerability to your other forces and gives your side more time to respond. This sort of minefield should cover all routes of approach that you intend to deny and should be long enough that the threat persists for as long as possible.

If you're actually trying to get kills in a tactical situation, it is difficult to make mines effective. You will need to figure out where the enemy will be passing through and have enough mines to be able to form a barrier across that path. It is crucial that the mines are placed very close together so that the enemy cannot go between them. For this kind of minefield, the more concentrated, the better. It should only be as wide as it has to be to block the path, and should only be a few rows long. Pray your enemy doesn't use his HFS.

As far as depth goes, that depends on your target. Mines for skimmers should be shallow. Mines for subs should preferably be in shallow water where you don't have to worry about "missing" in the 3rd dimension. Outside of shallow water, you'll have to build the minefield in 3 dimensions instead of 2.

LW/Ami will soon feature the CAPTOR mine, which will be quite effective against subs in tactical situations. The effective range will be mainly a product of how loud the target sub is.

[SeaQueen]

Can anyone tell me what a good setup for a mine field is?

It depends on what you're trying to do.

Typically mines are laid in lines (it's just easier for whomever is laying them to do it that way. The density of the minefield is what determines it's effectiveness. The number of mines one would lay depends in part on how long you have to lay the minefield in advance and how fast you can lay them. It also depends on what the maximum effectiveness of the minefield dictated. You probably wouldn't lay any more than the maximum theoretical effectiveness. That's determined by the ratio of the diameter of the mine's sensor to the width of the chokepoint you're trying to mine. Unfortunately, DW's mission editor doesn't show you the diameter of a mine's sensor, so you have to guess based on experience. Do some tests against influence mines and make your best guess.

After placing the influence mines, I also add in some contact mines. They're significantly less effective because they require you to basically run over them. The width of their sensor is essentially the beam of your ship at the waterline. The thing is, if they do hit, they typically do much more damage.

To guard against submarines, I generally place mines between 50' and the depth at which I expect a submarine to transit. 50' corresponds to about where a ships's keel is.

Water shallower than 50' is starting to get borderline navigable to anything other than amphibious vehicles (LCACS). Unless you were trying to defend against an amphibious landing, you probably wouldn't mine those areas.


I am personally using it to buffer off a naval base.


That's one thing you can use them for. You can also use them to seal off choke points (offensively and defensively). You can place mines in an enemy's harbor and deny him the economic and military benefit of the harbor. You could use them to block off an enemy submarines's escape route to make it easier to search for him. Mines are a big deal in defending against amphibious landings. When that's the case, you mine everything starting from deep water all the way up to the surf zone, and that's where land mines take over.

Ideally you would also cover the minefield with a group of surface warships or even shore-based ASCMs. Their purpose would be to defend the minefield from attempts at clearing it and to engage any ships that made it through. You might also use submarines to defend the minefield, since they probably also had a hand in laying at least part of it.

[DanielSan]

:D Thanks for the very clear replies. I got it right now, and have some other ideas how to make use of mines. I'm looking forward (?) to the CAPTORS. Even though I fear that they will make things a bit more scary in the sub ... lol

I blocked the harbour and left a clear zigging path through it for use of the ' good ' guys.

To blow up a bad guy:

1. Place influence mines no more then 100-200 yards apart. A ship has to nearly touch it to make it go boom. You can almost slide by it without it reacting, perhaps something to adjust.
2. Zig-zag the pattern, make 5's out of it, like the 5 on a dice. Boom every time.

PS. AI is not programmable in not running into their own mines :s So .... make sure that they have orders with waypoints to sail out of port.

Thanks again for the very good replies.

[SeaQueen]

If you'd like an example of what a real contemporary minefield looked like, in Strike from the Sea by Iain Ballantyne there's a map of the Iraqi minefields in the northern Gulf and the extent of the land-based Silkworm missile coverage over them.

There's also some theoretical examples in Soviet Naval Tactics by Milan Vego.

Finally, in Submarine Warfare in the Arctic: Option or Illusion? by Mark Sakitt, there's a map showing a Soviet intelligence estimate of a planned location of a CAPTOR minefield in the GIUK gap and how it was covered by surface ships and submarines.