OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

All discussions regarding Board, Card, and RPG Gaming, including industry discussion, that don't belong in one of the other gaming forums.

Moderators: The Preacher, $iljanus, Zaxxon

User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

Wow you were able to fit 3 of me on Mullet's plane. I'm impressed. Im sure they wont fly straight as Im usually drunk so Im guessing they are too :)

Sitting in the OpCen drinking my coffee while listening to my buds give'm what for. Others around me are cheering after the first hit and I smile knowing that my fellow F-14 driver Bison has both eyes closed and one hand behind his back so as not to make the enemy run at first sight of him. Lulling them into false hope is so mean of him...but so funny at the same time. After the miss though I'm starting to think he better open one eye at least.

I need more coffee and a bathroom break. Can't wait to see what the other guys do to the ground targets.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by LawBeefaroni »

$iljanus wrote: But with a last minute hard bank and dive is able to avoid the missile and starts toward our planes, bent on revenge and survival
Uh oh, sorry boys. Guess we're going to have to do a bit of dancing on this one...
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

Turn 1:

Fast pilots attack
The surviving MiG-29 is out of Bison's/Lawbeef's range and Duke's/El Guapo's range if he wanted to spend a SA point to attack during this phase so no attacks.

Bandits/sites attack
The MiG sees he's outnumbered and decides to just go for Mullet since he's carrying the weapons that would threaten the ground troops and may be an easier target than the others. He fires an AtA missile. Mullet's cockpit is pierced by a loud tone but his ECM pod kicks in and the missile goes astray.

(Mullet made his ECM roll).

Slow pilots attack
Duke preps an AGM-88 and fires it at the mobile SAM site in the target area

Needs a 2 to hit with bonuses and rolls a 10!

The target disappears in an explosion of flames and smoke.

All planes except Mullet move forward to the next area to try and take care of the MiG. The bandit moves one area closer. Next turn begins.

Turn 2:

Image


Fast pilots attack
Bison is finally in range and with a declaration of "Fox Two" launches a Sidewinder at the MiG

Needs to roll a 4 and makes it with an 8.

A fireball engulfs the brave MiG pilot. The skies are now cleared of bandits.

Bandits/sites attack
Nothing in range so no hostile attacks

Slow pilots attack
Duke calls out his target which is a flak site and launches a Maverick

Image

Duke needs a 5 after bonuses and gets...a 7

The missile slams into the gun, knocking it out and clearing the area for close air support. Mullet and Duke signal that they are ready to make their attack run

Turn 3:

Image

All planes are now on the South Approach just outside the target area. To avoid the SA-13 site the planes decide to stay at high altitude and launch their AGM-65s. I decide that Mullet should be the one to do it since he has the higher AtG bonus and we want to minimize the chance of friendly fire.

Mullet coordinates with the forward air controller and launches a brace of Mavericks. Two score good hits and he sees secondary explosions but to his horror one starts to go wide and he radios "Missile wide, missile wide! Take cover!"

Mullet needs at least a 4 for one hit, 7 for two hits. He makes 10s on two missiles resulting in two hits each but rolls a sad little 2 on the third. One stress point will be added to his tally at the end of the mission.

Turn 4:

Image

Mullet and Duke descend for their bombing run. Mullet tries to redeem himself and lets loose four cluster bombs that glide toward their target releasing little baseball sized bomblets over the enemy. Secondary explosions rise up from the ground and the Forward Air Controller says you've got 'em! A Swedish officer throws in his thanks and even though Mullet doesn't understand a word being said the gratitude came through clearly. The planes now high tail it out of there for home.

Since with the various bonuses we have due to Mullet's AtG +2, the extra +1 from the event card and that nice +5 against soft targets, any Mk20 dropped by Mullet is an automatic hit and since the target already had 4 hits from the previous Maverick strike it is considered destroyed! Note: Due to note taking and picture taking I forgot that it takes one additional hit to destroy the target so I should have dropped another Mk 20. You'd think that wouldn't make a difference but...

Homeward bound event

Time to pick the last event card of the mission and we've drawn...

Image

It's the bottom third that applies to us.

As the people in the CIC start to relax a bit they hear "Missile launch, missile launch" over the speakers. Hidden SAM sites open up on the squadron on their way back. Duke and Mullet launch and drop the last of their ordinance to hopefully shake off the radar operators that are trying to guide their missiles onto them and they succeed, a noticeable sigh of relief filling the room.

So with this event, any AtG counters you have left can be used to reduce the attack rolls made against you. Now I should have been short a bomb due to the additional hit needed against the target as I described above. But it was late and with the note taking and pic optimizing that got lost in the wash. I'm sure down the line fate is going to screw us over but in this case everyone just picked up an additional XP point for their trouble and lived to tell about it!

Good job boys! Not a difficult mission to start off with but I think we're gonna pick up some harder targets down the line so I'll take it!

Hey this one's for all of you!

I'll post a post-mission summary in a bit and start getting ready for the next mission.
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by raydude »

Hey Siljanus,

Great AAR and great beginning! I don't mean to tell you how to play but I do have a question about a few things that happened on this first mission. I don't have the current Hornet Leader but I did own the first version, and the rules for the current one are available for download from DVG games.

First, the MiG attacking Mullet did so at random right? I believe the rules state that bandits always attack the closest planet, and roll randomly if there is more than 1 closest plane. I attribute the real-world effect of this based on the fact that the MiG probably fired at beyond visual range on Turn 1, so he couldn't tell from the radar return which plane had air-to-ground munitions. Then for attacks in visual range there's probably too little time to pick out the "juicy target" so bandits will go for the quickest kill possible. This will at least give the pilots on 'ground attack' duty some more chance at surviving when in formation with a flight of escorts.

Second, I think the rules state that bandits with targets in range don't move. Probable real-world translation is the bandit knows he has good standoff weapons and doesn't want to get in a dogfight with US pilots. So turn 2 the bandit didn't have to move. As well the rule for bandits attacking the closest target gives Mullet even more cover if the US pilots happen to miss on turn 2 - since the bandit would shoot at the closer escorts first.

That said, you should play the game however you want. I'm really liking the AAR and if you want I'll not say anything more about the rules :).
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

I lived! I made it!...Wait I was on the carrier the whole time. Damnit!

Welcome back guys. Nice splashes. Did they have good loot? Wait that may be video games.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

raydude wrote:Hey Siljanus,

Great AAR and great beginning! I don't mean to tell you how to play but I do have a question about a few things that happened on this first mission. I don't have the current Hornet Leader but I did own the first version, and the rules for the current one are available for download from DVG games.

First, the MiG attacking Mullet did so at random right? I believe the rules state that bandits always attack the closest planet, and roll randomly if there is more than 1 closest plane. I attribute the real-world effect of this based on the fact that the MiG probably fired at beyond visual range on Turn 1, so he couldn't tell from the radar return which plane had air-to-ground munitions. Then for attacks in visual range there's probably too little time to pick out the "juicy target" so bandits will go for the quickest kill possible. This will at least give the pilots on 'ground attack' duty some more chance at surviving when in formation with a flight of escorts.

Second, I think the rules state that bandits with targets in range don't move. Probable real-world translation is the bandit knows he has good standoff weapons and doesn't want to get in a dogfight with US pilots. So turn 2 the bandit didn't have to move. As well the rule for bandits attacking the closest target gives Mullet even more cover if the US pilots happen to miss on turn 2 - since the bandit would shoot at the closer escorts first.

That said, you should play the game however you want. I'm really liking the AAR and if you want I'll not say anything more about the rules :).
Hi raydude!

Of course you can comment on the rules! I certainly won't take offense and keep rolling till you go down in flames :P This is the first time I've done an AAR and there are so many other things going on beyond playing the game like explaining the rules to an unfamiliar audience and taking pictures, making sure that pertinent info makes it through. I've playing the game alot slower due to the other considerations and now and then I have a brain freeze and forget some things. I'm all about disclosure so I listed the things I forgot about and I always appreciate if someone points out anything else I've forgotten about. Since I'm doing this among forum friends I'm not bent out of shape by any critical comments or suggestions. :D

Now Mullet was chosen by random as per the rules. I usually like to list any die rolls but happened to leave it out. Thanks for pointing out probable pilot behavior when targeting at long range and the lack of aircraft detail at that range. This was more a "creative" conceit on my part and I actually did wonder if a pilot could have distinguished between the plane models at that range. Point is well taken.

Your right about bandits not having to move if there are targets in range. I think as the AAR goes on things will settle and I'll be making less errors. I'm having fun doing it though and I'm glad you're enjoying it as well. Keep on bringing up any rule issues, observations and suggestions!
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

I was left home because I ma green nutso. but I wont gain exp that way :)
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

Ha. Nice and easy. Like a friggin Russkie is going to shot me out of the sky.










I need a drink.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

Day one mission summary

Duke/El Guapo: 1 SAM site, 1 Zu23-2 flak site

Bison/Lawbeefaroni: 1 MiG-21, 1 MiG25, 1 MiG-29

Mullet/Remus West: 1 target miss but the rest of his bombs fall on target taking it out

Hunter/Fretmute: Just glad to be alive

+3XP for all pilots, 3 VP earned for mission.
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

The second day

In the CIC a radar operator notices a group of fast moving vessels heading toward the battle group. He calls the watch commander over and confirms that a missile boat fleet of fast moving corvettes is approaching the carrier. A hastily put together strike mission is prepped and launched to engage the threat.

Image

So I had drawn another target (which I forget but it didn't have "secondary" on it so I couldn't do that mission as well as one primary mission for the day) followed by this card which has "scramble" on it. This unfortunately means that I can't draw any more cards for that day and this mission is the primary mission of the day, due to it being an imminent threat to the carrier. I figure it only takes 5 hits (4+1 for the pesky infrastructure penalty I'm still incurring) so I may keep the number of planes to a minimum to conserve SO points. It's a small target so there's a -1 AtG penalty and it's dispersed so I'm gonna be loading up on AGM-65s again. I decide on three pilots and will spend the 3 SO for priority refueling so I can carry a full payload. The three lucky aviators are...

Image

Loadout

Mullet: ECM, 5xAGM-65, 1xRocket
Duke/Flight Leader: ECM, 4xAGM-88, 2xAIM-7, 1xAIM9
Maverick: ECM, 5xAIM-7, 1xAIM-9

Mullet/Remus West and Duke/El Guapo were out already and it's a bit of a chance, both having a stress of 3. But I wanted Mullet's +2 AtG and Duke had a +1 AtG bonus as well. I figured it was a good mission for Maverick/Daehawk to go on to build his experience a bit. The rest of the pilots I wanted to keep nice and fresh for the next mission. In order to stretch my SO points even further I didn't buy any Phoenix missiles since I just needed to fly one area in, launch my AGM-65s and get the hell out.

On the south approach there's a SA-10 battery (there are no unique naval counters for targets at sea so land based counters do double duty. The BGG forum folks have a good justification for this, saying that these missiles/or AA guns are just being carried by ships. Fine by me. :) ) with a range of 3 and another SA-10 battery in the center area. Those are my biggest threats because of their range with the one in the center being able to launch against my planes in the first turn. So I figured I'd come in from the north, take out the center SA-10, fly to the next area and take out the second battery and the target. Nice and straightforward.

The three planes were loaded and sent off to meet the threat. Unfortunately the North Atlantic can be a bit fickle this time of year and the flight flew into...

Target bound draw (upper third of card applies):

Image

Well since I was relying on my AGM-88s to take out those SAM batteries and they need to be launched at high altitude so that really sucks. The AGM-65s can be launched at low altitude so no worries there.

Once everyone was placed on the board I did the bandit placement:

Image

Damn, there's a nasty MiG-29 and Su-27 that's gonna try to pick us off starting on turn one. This is going to be a hot mission and I regret not buying at least 2 Phoenix missiles. :(

Over target card (middle of card applies)

Image

Hmm how bad can it be. Oh son of a... (Note: I was sick the day I was running this mission so I rotated the sites clockwise it turned out. I'll blame it on the "human factor" but the outcome was the same).

Image

Damn, now the second SA-10 now has us in range and turn one has the potential to be a real nasty mess.

This is CIC to flight. Be advised that a missile corvette to the west has a revised position report and there is strong probability that it will have you in range of its missiles on your current approach. Proceed with caution into the...
danger zone!


Had to work the song in sometime...

To be continued...
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Daehawk wrote:I was left home because I ma green nutso. but I wont gain exp that way :)
File this mission under "be careful what you wish for." :shock:
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

Just stay steady boys and lets do our jobs. Think of it as a turkey shoot. And Mav, since this is your first time out, I'm buying ya a shot of good Russian vodka for each one of those commie bastards you take down.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

*Tells Goose to strap his helmet on tight cause he wants some Vodka tonight!*

"What tha!?"

*Taps his target radar*

"That can't be right"

*Reaches for the Depends*

*Pushes play on the Iron Eagle music*

"Ready"
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
El Guapo
Posts: 41247
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:01 pm
Location: Boston

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by El Guapo »

Team, this might appear problematic, but don't forget that I am leading this mission (I'm leading this one too, right?), and I am awesome. Everything is under control.
Black Lives Matter.
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

El Guapo wrote:Team, this might appear problematic, but don't forget that I am leading this mission (I'm leading this one too, right?), and I am awesome. Everything is under control.

You're The Duke of OO! You're A-Number One!
Last edited by $iljanus on Tue Sep 25, 2012 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82094
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Isgrimnur »

$iljanus wrote:On the south approach there's a SA-10 battery (there are no unique naval counters for targets at sea so land based counters do double duty. The BGG forum folks have a good justification for this, saying that these missiles/or AA guns are just being carried by ships. Fine by me. ) with a range of 3 and another SA-10 battery in the center area.
SA-10 (S-300 family):
The S-300F Fort (Russian С-300Ф Форт, DoD designation SA-N-6, F suffix for Flot, Russian for fleet) was introduced in 1984 as the original ship-based (naval) version of the S-300P
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

Isgrimnur wrote:
$iljanus wrote:On the south approach there's a SA-10 battery (there are no unique naval counters for targets at sea so land based counters do double duty. The BGG forum folks have a good justification for this, saying that these missiles/or AA guns are just being carried by ships. Fine by me. ) with a range of 3 and another SA-10 battery in the center area.
SA-10 (S-300 family):
The S-300F Fort (Russian С-300Ф Форт, DoD designation SA-N-6, F suffix for Flot, Russian for fleet) was introduced in 1984 as the original ship-based (naval) version of the S-300P

Thanks Isgrimnur and Wikipedia!
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by raydude »

El Guapo wrote:Team, this might appear problematic, but don't forget that I am leading this mission (I'm leading this one too, right?), and I am awesome. Everything is under control.
That may be but you're depending on Daehawk to be the shit hot gunfighter on this go 'round.
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by LawBeefaroni »

I have total faith in you guys to protect the CVBG. Total. Faith. Now get out there and give 'em hell!







Pssst, Bear, where are those lifeboats again?
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
Isgrimnur
Posts: 82094
Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:29 am
Location: Chookity pok
Contact:

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Isgrimnur »

Clinging to the starboard bow.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
User avatar
El Guapo
Posts: 41247
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:01 pm
Location: Boston

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by El Guapo »

I activate my cloaking device.
Black Lives Matter.
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

El Guapo wrote:I activate my cloaking device.
I fly behind him so when they shoot at me he will act as a shield. The added WTF from them when the invisible jet in front of me goes down is just a bonus. :ninja:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

Day 2 continues Turn 1:

Fast pilots attack

Even as the weather gets worse, Duke gets a bead on that pesky missile ship to the far west and launches a pair of AGM-88s toward it hoping to take it out.

Image

So hoping to at least take out one threat early on, I spend Duke's SA point so he can attack during the fast attack phase. With the -2 to hit penalty and Duke's +1 bonus I need a five to hit...a 2 and a 1 just don't quite cut it.

The Soviet captain laughs as the missiles fall wide of their target. I want that plane, Alexi.
(And as it so happened they did get a crack at Duke. The dice randomizer is not kind.)

The Soviet ship fires at Duke and the ECM pod doesn't seem to deter it. He breaks hard to the left, just evading the missile but the explosion is close enough to rattle both the plane and the pilot.

ECM roll not made so I do an evade maneuver which means I take the lower of two dice rolls against me. With an ECM pod the evade attempt only adds 1 instead of 2 stress points. SA-10 rolls a 3 and a 5. Close enough to rattle Duke but no hit. Stress added is 2 for a total of 5 for The Duke. He's now shaken and has penalties to his rolls.

The MiG-29 closest to the main fleet fires at Mullet. The "electronic hamsters" that do their ECM magic as Mullet likes to joke seem to be working overtime as the missile fly harmlessly past. A SU-27 takes a shot at Maverick and his jamming system takes care of the threat and another SA-10 launch is against Duke who manages to avoid it.

Slow pilots attack

Duke tries to recover his composure and lines up a shot at one of the SA-10 firing ships, launching his last pair of AGM-88s.

Image

So I try to clear the center SA-10, thinking I can shift my planes to the east and try to approach from there. With the center SA-10 gone I can at least be out of range of the western SA-10 battery if I shift east, that is until I go for my attack run. And of course those pesky MiGs are going to be an ongoing threat.

With various penalties Duke needs a 7 to hit and one of his rolls does, putting that ship out of action.

Aircraft move/Bandits move

Taking advantage of the small window that Duke was able to make, the planes change course and approach from the east. Duke drops in altitude to join Mullet in case he needs to drop his Mk-82. Maverick stays at high altitude to engage enemy fighters. The Soviet pilots rush in to engage.

Image

Turn 2

Fast pilots attack

Since Duke burned his SA point, everyone is slow slow slow.

Bandits/Sites attack

A MiG-21 gets close and fires at Maverick. With some effective jamming the missile flies by harmlessly. Two other planes engage Maverick as well. A MiG-23 threatens Maverick and Maverick quickly fires off a Sparrow missile to try and throw him off which seems to work. Another MiG launches at Maverick and with some quick maneuvers he leaves the explosion in his afterburners

So Maverick got lit up by three MiGs. He made the first ECM roll but misses the second. So in that instance you have the option to suppress the attack which means any plane that has a weapon that can be legitimately launched at a target can be used to suppress or cancel the enemy's attack if the to hit roll is made. Maverick can use his AIM-7 since it has the range. Duke could have also tried to suppress but since he's shaken I didn't want him to try. Maverick needs a 4 (+1 from MiG, +1 from Mav's AtA bonus) and makes his roll easily. After missing his ECM roll for the third attack, I have him evade. I could have had Duke try to suppress but wanted to save his AtA missiles for the nearby bandits. Maverick does his evasion rolls and gets a 5 and a 1, only incurring 2 stress points for his trouble.

Of course we're not quite done...

A nearby MiG-23 fires at Duke but his ECM pod comes through and he is unscathed. From a distance a Su-27 takes a shot at Mullet. His luck with jamming has run out and with a full bomb load he tries to avoid the missile. It isn't pretty but with explosions bracketing his plane he comes through the attack, shaken up but alive. An SA-10 battery opens up against Duke (again!) but the ECM is effective and he comes through okay.

So that damn Su-27 is sitting pretty at a distance and with its long attack range he can keep taking pot shots at us and not get touched from our current position. Mullet unfortunately was his target which worried the heck out of me because if he went down our AGM-65s go with him. Luckily he makes a good set of evasion rolls, with the low number being a 2. Unfortunately he also incurs 2 stress points and he's now shaken. He's not a basket case but his nice +2 AtG bonus is now gone.

Slow pilots attack

Maverick yells Fox Two and fires a Sidewinder up the tailpipe of the nearest MiG, Sending it into the cold Atlantic. Duke yells out Fox One, fires a pair of Sparrows and sends a MiG-23 down in flames as well. Making some headway against their opposition the pilots gun it toward their target, hoping to get close enough for Mullet to do his thing and get the hell out of there.

Everybody moves

Image

Turn 3

Fast pilot attack

None

Bandits/Sites attack

The last MiG-23 tries to get revenge for his fallen comrades and takes on Mullet, but his ECM pod comes through and the missiles fly harmlessly past him. The Su-27 fires at Duke but he's able to shake them off with the use of jamming. The MiG-29 engages Maverick and the missile gets by his jamming system. He lets loose an AIM-7, throwing off the MiG and suppressing the attack.

The troublesome SA-10 battery in the west sets its sights on Maverick...

Maverick's RIO yells that there's a missile lock on them. The missile burns past their ECM and the RIO tells Maverick to do some of that fancy flying shit or they're gonna get lit up. Maverick jukes as best he can...

I roll Maverick's evasion roll. Hmm, an 8 isn't very good. Takes the second roll...

Uh oh...
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

Talk to me Goose....Goose talk to me.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

I'll pour some out for our homies when we get back.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by LawBeefaroni »

*has beach volleyball montage flashback*

*storms the control tower in Tony Scott choreographed melodramatic scene*

"What the hell were you thinking sending that kid out there? We had no idea what was out there! It should have been me....it should have been mmmmeeeeeee...!!!

*Runs out on to the flight deck, narrowly avoids death, climbs into the cockpit of a Tomcat and...is removed by two Marines and taken to the brig to cool down*
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
Fretmute
Posts: 8513
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 7:05 pm
Location: On a hillside, desolate

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Fretmute »

At least he got one before he bought it. No one wants to die a virgin.

/willprobablydieavirgin
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by raydude »

If they don't take care of that SAG then you and me both will.

(die virgins I mean)
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

Day 2 Turn 3 concluded

Slow pilots attack

Duke: Mullet! Mullet! Maverick got hit. Did he punch out? Mullet: Couldn't tell. Too much smoke and rain. Duke: Flight to CIC, Maverick is down. Didn't see chutes but weather made it difficult to see for sure. Proceeding to target.

Mullet gets a lock on his targets and launches all his AGM-65s. Duke hopes that he won't be needed to go over the target. With bonuses and penalties, Mullet needs a 5 for one hit and an 8 for two hits.

Rolls are...7,5,1,8,10. Six hits scored, target destroyed.

Let's get the hell out of here...

Home bound card

Image

Yea, shore leave! Now being that we're fighting World War Three, shore leave might be a little difficult to pull off but luckily a cruise ship wandered into the warzone and our pilots get a nice 8 hours on the Pacific Princess.

Search and Rescue roll

So this is where I roll to see if Maverick is rescued or missing in action. A roll of 9+ has a quick recovery result where the pilot gets only 3 stress points added to whatever he incurred and still gets XP. 6-8, is recovered under fire and 5 stress points is added but he still gets XP. 5 or less means he is MIA. The pilot is declared unfit (due to being missing) and is removed from the campaign. If he is rescued by an event card then his stress is reset to 3 and he gets XP for the mission he was shot down in.

Some modifiers to the roll:

Weight point penalty for the mission is subtracted, even if the tanker option was taken. Add 1 for each weight point of AtG weapon that you have left and wish to use for the roll. We have one Mk82 and one rocket so we'll be adding 2 to the roll. Add 2 to the roll if shot down during the target bound step or +1 if shot down during the home bound step. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to Maverick.

So the die is cast and...

With a meager 3+2=5, Maverick and his RIO are missing in action.

Tally for this mission

Duke: 1 x SA-10 battery, 1 x MiG-23, 8 stress points total
Mullet: 6 hits on target, target destroyed, 7 stress points total
Maverick: 1 x MiG-21, shot down by SA-10 battery, MIA

3VP but subtract 1 for Maverick being shot down and if not rescued before the end of the campaign subtract another VP. Recon marker moves 2 to the right, infrastructure one to the right.

Damn, this mission was costly. But on the other hand...SHORE LEAVE!
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

We knew how it would end when it began. I was too green. Perhaps Im floating out there somewhere Beyond the Sea
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

Keep swimming Mav. We'll find you.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by raydude »

Meanwhile, at the Pacific Princess, in the Lahaina Lounge and Bar:

A young girl stands next to Wolf at the bar. "Mind if I sit down?"
"No ma'am." He does a double-take, 'Wow."
"Excuse me?"
"Oh sorry. I..just..." he searches for something to say, "you're gorgeous."
"Thanks. I'm Carolyn."
"Same name as my sister," he says as he shakes her hand.
"Thanks, I think." she replies. She gives him a half-quizzical look, wondering what he'll say next.
"I'm Newbie." He grimaces. "I mean Wolf. The guys call me Wolf. As you can tell, its kind of ironic since I'm not good at this."
She laughs. "I like newbie better." Wolf smiles sheepishly. Fretmute comes in and spoils the moment. "Wolf, come on. The CAG wants us back to brief us on the SAR ops."
Wolf turns to her, "Look I just met you, and I know there's a war starting."
"I know, crazy right?"
He scribbles on the bar napkin and hands it to her. "Here's my number. Call me maybe?"
User avatar
Remus West
Posts: 33592
Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 5:39 pm
Location: Not in Westland

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Remus West »

Mullett throws his drink back, stands up, and whacks Wolf in the back of the head as he strolls past and out onto the deck.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” - H.L. Mencken
User avatar
$iljanus
Forum Moderator
Posts: 13676
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:46 pm
Location: New England...or under your bed

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by $iljanus »

The Third Day

Squadron briefing: As you were gentlemen. Search and rescue operations are still continuing for Maverick. There's a break in the weather so we hope that will help us find him safe. As of 0400 this morning a new front has opened up in the war. Soviet airborne units have dropped into Fairbanks and Prudhoe Bay in an attempt to cut the Alaskan Pipeline. There is an ongoing naval battle in the Bering Sea and a Marine Expeditionary Force has deployed to Anchorage to link up with Alaskan National Guard units engaged with the enemy. Our Canadian neighbors to the north have joined the fight and are also sending troops into Alaska. We think the Soviets may have overextended themselves since their West Coast strikes weren't as effective as their East Coast strikes and we were able to preserve a large portion of our Pacific fleet for combat operations.

The situation in Europe continues to be grim. In Northern Germany Hamburg has fallen and British troops along with some Dutch armor and West German units are making their stand at Bremen. In the South our defenses have held the line at the Danube River and we are trying to solidify our defenses in Stuttgart to prevent our forces in the South from being flanked. Their main effort seems to be directed towards Mainz and the airfields at Ramstein, Sembach and Hahn. If they are able to cross the Rhine in force at any point, NATO command has granted authorization for the use of tactical nuclear weapons. I believe at that point the door to hell will be thrown open and all bets are off. Against all odds, the garrison in Berlin is still holding out and they've taken to calling themselves "The Bastards of Berlin." The Air Force has tried opening an air corridor to them for resupply but not much has gotten through. There have been general strikes in various Warsaw Pact countries and a few cities have even revolted. But Soviet air units and internal security troops have been dispatched to these cities and we are getting reports of Warsaw being under heavy bombardment along with Prague and various cities in Lithuania.

Now we have been handed a strategic bombing target from NATO command. Outside the city of Novodvinsk is a vehicle production plant that is a major repair and supply center for Soviet forces occupying Sweden, Norway and Finland. The Warsaw Pact has a lot of tanks but they don't seem to be the most durable pieces of equipment so destroying this target will put a real dent in their repair and resupply efforts in that region. There's also a carrier fleet in our vicinity so we're going to have to do some maneuvering to avoid them since we don't enough planes to mount a strike at the moment. It's a long flight into Russia so you'll get some refueling along the way.

Oh and a Miss McCoy from the Pacific Princess left a pair of these with a number and a thank you written on them. (holds up a clear baggie with a pair of non-Navy regulation undergarments in it) The lucky aviator can claim them when he gets back.

Good luck and good hunting.


Image

So I picked two target cards. The first was the Carrier Fleet which under other circumstances would have been a nice target being close to the carrier with only 1 stress point after the mission. Unfortunately, with Mullet needing to recover I only have one A-6 and since the target needs 17 hits to take it out I didn't think I had enough planes to do it. Duke also needs to rest so I'd end up sending only 5 planes. That target also has an improvement penalty which states that all my targets will have an additional weight penalty of 1 until it is destroyed and every turn it will generate one bandit in the center area to simulate planes taking off from the carrier to defend it. I was resigned to taking the penalty until I had a better force to send against it when I picked the second card which has a bonus of being able to discard 1 improvement card if it's destroyed meaning the Carrier Fleet is out of play if I take the Vehicle Production target out. Now it's pretty far from the carrier so I'd have to burn some SO points to negate the weight penalties but it only needs 13 hits and there are a tad less sites and bandits. I decided not to push my luck and draw a third card.


Image

Around the plant itself there are a pair of long range SAM sites that have a range of 3, effective at both high and low altitude. (Note: there was also an additional center site but I didn't have that picture, see below for explanation why there's one less site) To the north there's a flak gun and nasty SA-15 with a 1 area reach and a -1 to hit modifier. I think I'll be going in from the west because you have one SAM site and a mobile radar guided flak vehicle that's only effective at low altitude targets. I'll come in high and have a lot of AGM-88's with me. There's a couple of sites that have good overlapping coverage of the target but with the AGM-88s I can target them outside their range with the exception of those center sites that I'll need to take out quick.

Pilot loadout

Image

I'm having Wolf help out Bison with establishing air superiority, giving him Sparrows and Sidewinders. Also his AtG modifiers suck so hopefully he'll be a better shot at targets in the air.

Hunter also has a negative AtG modifier but I'm reserving Bear's nice +2 AtG bonus for bombs used against the target. I'm hoping that Hunter's AGM-88s will hit at least some of the radar sites and I gave him a pair of Sparrows.

I've loaded Bear up with some old fashioned iron bombs, taking advantage of his +2 AtG bonus. The Mk83s are heavier but more opportunities for multiple hits. But because they're heavy I rounded it out with some Mk82s.

Image

Bison will be my primary air superiority asset. Unlike the last mission I'm spending 3 SO points to buy some Phoenix missiles to help clear the sky. His fast speed rating will get the jump on any other bandits in range.

Extra has a mix of air to ground ordinance. There are a lot of long range sites around our target so I gave him some AGM-88s and hopefully with his +1 to hit bonus he actually will take some out. Thanks to the large payload I gave him a bunch of Mk83s so between him and Bear I'm hoping it will be enough to take out the target.

The 3 SO points for the Phoenix missiles and 5 SO points for priority refueling won't leave me much for day 4 or 5, but I say live for the moment! Also, I need to take out that target to negate the Carrier target improvement card so I'm not left with many options.

Target bound event card

Image

As the aircraft fly toward their target they get a message that one of the sites was destroyed through local sabotage!

You go saboteurs! (I like the thought of saboteurs doing the deed). Unfortunately since it was a random choice, it wasn't the longest range SAM sites that were taken out but I'll take what I can get. (Note: noticed that the SAM placement pic above didn't have the third center site. I believe it was a radar site with a range of 1 but I just can't find the pic) This what the situation looks like after the bandit draw.

Image

The SU-27 has the longest reach so that's definitely being targeted during the Phoenix missile phase. We're out of range of everyone else so I think I'll clear out the Su-27 and MiG-23 in the center and try to hit that MiG in the north as well. Bison can attack that close bandit to the west in the fast pilot phase.

To be continued...
Black lives matter!

Wise words of warning from Smoove B: Oh, how you all laughed when I warned you about the semen. Well, who's laughing now?
User avatar
Fretmute
Posts: 8513
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 7:05 pm
Location: On a hillside, desolate

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Fretmute »

"Break out the SAM site stencil, boys. I'm feeling lucky."
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Soviet boots on US soil? Those bastards.

By God, I WILL be eating at a Burger King in Red Square by springtime.

:horse:
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by raydude »

Alright Bison! You tag 'em, I'll bag 'em.
User avatar
El Guapo
Posts: 41247
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:01 pm
Location: Boston

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by El Guapo »

Godspeed boys. I know it's tough to be out there without my brilliant leadership, but I have confidence that you'll get through just fine.
Black Lives Matter.
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63530
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by Daehawk »

Ummm guys? Hello? Stuff is starting to shrink up out here in this cold water. I could use some KFC. Bob says you're not looking for me. Bob can be funny like that.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
El Guapo
Posts: 41247
Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:01 pm
Location: Boston

Re: OO goes to war! A Hornet Leader AAR: North Atlantic '86

Post by El Guapo »

Daehawk wrote:
I can't find Maverick anywhere.
Black Lives Matter.
Post Reply