Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

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Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

So while watching season 1 of You on Netfilx (which has sucked me in and I give it a hardy recommendation) I was clipping the counter corners of my Hornet Leader Carrier Air Operations game (yeah I'll own my nerdiness! Suck it! :P ) and I was stricken with an itch to actually bring it to the table. This was the first board game I bought after a many years long board gaming hiatus (various RPGs, Ambush, Afrika Corps, NATO:The Next War among others in my youth). Little did I know it was going to lead me down a dark and winding expensive rabbit hole.

Due to current events I decided to play the Iran 2014 scenario. It's based on Iran successfully detonating an atomic bomb but I figured it could substitute for a current carrier operation against Iran brought about by recent circumstances that you can read about in the news.

It will be a short campaign because I also have the urge to bring Thunderbolt Apache Leader to the table to simulate A-10 and Apache support of ground operations in Iran, again due to recent circumstances that you can read about in the news. I figure I'll be simulating the carrier portion of the attack first which will pave the way for air support of troops on the ground (which I pray will never come to pass in the real world).

Because I've really fallen hard for Imgur :wub: I'll be happy to throw in all sorts of pictures to document my gameplay. And if anyone is interested I'll be happy to pair 8 volunteers with a multi-million fighter plane and they could watch their fates unfold in this thread. I'm kind of bummed that in 2014 the F-14 and A-6 Intruder were already phased out. The A-6 was great as a U-Haul for bombs and who doesn't like to listen to Danger Zone playing in the background? Various flavors of F-18s and one F-35 will be used in this operation. Haven't used the F-35 before so that will be interesting.

I'll start up the bookkeeping, draw targets and plan target packages and once I get 8 brave pilots I'll get this party started!

Oh, I tried using a random military operation name generator and there were some nice combos but I like the absurdity of a Righteous Ferret. Fear the Ferret!

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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Blackhawk »

Since I am sitting in reserve for another conflict, I'd might as well put in for a transfer.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by NickAragua »

Totally in. I kept wanting to do one of these via tabletop simulator, but never found the time. I always pick random fighters for the extra so points since my picks are about as effective usually.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by TheMix »

I'm already taking part in the other one, but will happily fill in here as well if there is a need. We'll consider it my grandson, great-grandson, something...

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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Isgrimnur »

I’m game.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

NickAragua wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:33 pm Totally in. I kept wanting to do one of these via tabletop simulator, but never found the time. I always pick random fighters for the extra so points since my picks are about as effective usually.
I usually enjoy picking my pilots but that can get a bit time consuming so I left it up to chance. Drew the F-35 but I also got some old F-18s and I wish I drew 1 or 2 F-18Gs for their electronic warfare capability. Oh well we’ll go to battle with what we have. And the extra SO points are always handy.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by dbt1949 »

I have this game on PC but can't really figure out how to get it to work. Maybe following this thread will help.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

dbt1949 wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:02 pm I have this game on PC but can't really figure out how to get it to work. Maybe following this thread will help.
Happy as always to answer questions as I go along! Say, any interest in being a fighter jock?
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by gbasden »

I'd love to fly a fighter jet!
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

gbasden wrote:I'd love to fly a fighter jet!
With you we now have 5 and if Dbt goes from spectator to participant we'll be up to 6. In the meantime I've drawn three targets to choose from. I will probably post them tomorrow and ask for some input before making a choice. There's one that I think will make a good target and another which is a "secondary" target meaning that it can be flown as an additional mission for the day. There's some risk involved with that mission however and I would have to split the squadron to fly both missions.


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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by dbt1949 »

I'm game.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Archinerd »

These things pretty much fly themselves right?
If so, count me in if you still need another. If not, no worries.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Blackhawk »

Archinerd wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:48 am These things pretty much fly themselves right?
As long as you can think in Russian.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by WYBaugh »

I'm in if you are still in need of fly boys
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

Hi everybody! So I'm going to post the campaign map with three possible targets and the target cards for discussion on what we should bomb on day one. All images can be clicked on to embiggen them. I'll go through various details to help guide the decision making process. Being the CAG for this game :wink: , I'll make the final call of course.

The campaign map:

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So the three targets that came up in the selection draw have been circled on the map. We are playing a short campaign which will last 5 game days and to get at least an adequate evaluation we need to earn at least 9 victory points (VP). We have been assigned 36 Special Option (SO) points which were used to purchase pilots of varying skills and abilities and will be used to buy special weapons when needed, send pilots for R&R to reduce stress levels which is important to maintain peak pilot performance, request tanker support so we can avoid weight penalties for longer distance targets, etc. Other than any targets or other circumstances which can give us bonus SO points we need to make our 36 points last through the campaign. With the bonus for doing random pilot selection and spending SO points for pilots we now have 28 SO points.

The map is divided into four areas and a numbered target can be found in one of those four areas. The area at the bottom of the map is the closest to the carrier so the amount of stress you get after flying the mission and the weight point (WP) penalty which reduces the amount of payload you can carry is the smallest while targets at the top portion of the map have a -4 WP penalty and you get 3 stress points after flying that mission. However you also get an additional experience point for flying the mission.

Below the map there are three tracks, "Recon", "Intel" and "Infra" (infrastructure). As targets are destroyed those values may change to give us some advantages. Right now with a Recon of 3, we can draw up to 3 targets in a day to choose from. Our Intel level shows the enemy having an additional AA site in the center of the tactical map where we'll be flying so it would be good to shift that down as much as we can. With the Infra at -0 hits it just means we have to inflict the number of bomb hits listed on the target card. As Iran's infrastructure is degraded, we can get to the point where we need to inflict less hits to destroy the target. Now to the targets themselves!

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"Command" has given us three targets to choose from for today's mission. We usually fly against just one target in a day but if a target card has the "secondary" keyword then we have the option to fly against a second target as well, but we would need to use different pilots for each mission.

The first target is "Target 55: Underground Complex" which can be found in the second (from the bottom) target band. There's a -2 WP penalty and 2 stress points. The weight point penalty for any target band can be waved if you spend 1 SO point per plane for tanker support. Can be worth it to insure you have a full target package but if you decide to fly, let's say a 6 plane mission that's 6 SO points you'll need to spend. Listed in the middle left box are the number of AA sites, bandits and hits needed to destroy the target. The disposition of opposing forces will become clear later when I post the tactical map but the target itself will have 2 AA sites and 2 bandits (all drawn from random unless stated on the card). It will take 11 hits to destroy this target. The center value in yellow is the number of planes that can be assigned to this mission which is up to 6. In the right hand box are our glorious rewards which are 3 VPs, shifting the infra track 2 towards the right and the intel track one to the right. Also the campaign map says that this target is worth an additional +1VP if destroyed. However, let me draw your attention to the bottom of the card which has the words "Small" "Hardened" and "Fixed.

The "small" and "hardened" keywords mean that you subtract one hit for every hit inflicted. Since this target has both keywords we would be subtracting 2 from our hit result which makes sense since it's an underground complex. The "fixed" keyword has no relevance for us in the 2014 (2020 for our purposes) time period.

Target 54: Command Post. This is in the third (from the bottom) target band. It will take 13 hits to destroy and I would probably spend SO points for tanker support so we can carry enough of a payload to destroy the target. We would get 3VP and shift the infra track 2. Again the "fixed" keyword isn't relevant but if we destroy this target we can get an additional 4 SO points which can certainly come in handy later. Up to 6 planes can be used in this mission.

Target 8: SAM sites. This target is in the furthest target band. It has the "secondary" keyword so we can select this target along with one of the other targets above if we want to fly two missions. High risk but you do get and additional XP point if you complete the mission. Your pilots can accumulate XP points with every successful mission they fly and can level up in ability. The one thing however is that we are only operational for 5 days so I wonder if a pilot will accumulate enough points to level up within that time span (I'll post pilot cards later which will have XP amts needed to level up. The amount varies from pilot to pilot). Only 4 hits to destroy but there's a catch. The keyword "Objective: 3 SA-10s" means that you have to also destroy the three SA-10 counters in the target along with inflicting 4 hits. SA-10s are nasty radar guided SAM sites with a long range of 3. We can use anti-radar ordinance (AGM-88s) to attack from a longer distance carried perhaps by the F-35 with it's magic stealth juju. Also the card has the keyword "vehicle" and there's ordinance that has some bonuses against vehicular targets. Unfortunately, the keyword "stress +2" is also listed meaning you'll have a total of 5 stress points after flying this mission so only the more experienced pilots should be assigned. Up to 4 planes can be assigned to this target.

My thoughts: I'm tending towards only flying one mission and passing on the SAM sites because that target is pretty far and with the accumulation of post mission stress points any pilot flying that mission might need to be rested the next day. Also, the F-35 which would be ideal for this mission is flown by newbie pilot and actually 5 stress points will make him unfit to fly when he comes back. Yikes.

As for the remaining two missions, I'm leaning towards the command post. I'd spend the SO points for tanker support but I'm attracted by the bonus SO points we'd get for destroying the target. The underground complex has that VP bonus which could come in handy in getting a good eval in a short campaign but it's really well protected and again I'd definitely spend SO points for tanker support. The campaign map does say that for "Special Weapons" the first 8 SO points spent on them are actually free and there's some special bunker busting bombs in the special weapons category we can purchase. The weight points aren't waived though so they'll take up space on a plane.

For both missions I'm tempted to fly the full 6 planes allowed to insure air superiority and have enough of a payload. Gentlemen, thoughts?
(and thanks for indulging this longish post!)

Edit: And with WYbaugh we have 8 so I'll start working on posting the pilot cards soon (or tomorrow). The game will go a lot quicker once all the preliminary stuff is posted and explained!
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by WYBaugh »

I agree with your assessment for target selection. Was pondering the underground bunker since it's closest to the carrier but the command post would be best without the penalties for a hardened bunker.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

Using sophisticated randomizing technology I've assigned you to your planes! I'll go over in detail what all the info means in the first card so everyone can hopefully understand what's going on.

America! Meet your pilots!

WYbaugh callsign-PYRO
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So Pyro is the newbie of the bunch as seen in the upper right corner. The number 3 is the number of XP points he needs to earn to level up to the next skill level. The "SA" value below the skill level stands for "situational awareness". For every SA point you have you can spend it once in a turn to have an extra attack during the attack phase. The attack phase has the following order: Fast pilots attack-> bandits and AA sites attack-> slow pilots attack. If you're a slow pilot and have a SA point you can spend that point and attack in the fast and slow attack rounds. If you're a fast pilot and can spend a SA point, you also get to attack in the slow attack round.

To the left of the plane is the model, years of service and the SO point costs. For the short campaign this pilot/plane cost 3 pts.

From left to right in the bottom portion you have the "C" value which stands for "Cool". This means that at the end of a mission when stress points are assigned, the stress points are reduced by the number of cool points you have. The cool value also provides a reduction bonus if you're on R&R or didn't fly that day since both situations also reduce stress.

The verbage in the middle are your skills. For Pyro if your stress levels are between 0-2 your status is "okay" and you can use the attack speed and air-to-air (AtA) and air-to-ground (AtG) bonuses listed on that row. As you go up in skill level the stress range, speed and attack bonuses can change. If Pyro accumulates 3-4 stress points then his status is now "shaken" and the the attack speed doesn't change but there's a big negative hit to AtA and AtG rolls. If you accumulate more than 4 stress points during a mission you are considered unfit and all ordinance you are carrying is dropped from the plane. The yellow verbage are the weapons that plane is allowed to carry. For the F-35, it has stealth capability which in the game means that bandits and AA sites that are 1 or more spaces away from you ignore you. If you are in the same space as a bandit or AA site you can roll a d10 for stealth and a roll of 8 or more means they don't see you.

On the bottom right under the W are your weight points. Each bomb/missile/rocket you carry has a weight point value assigned to it. Pyro can carry up to 7 weight points worth of stuff which isn't much so you need to choose carefully. At the bottom is the gun attack value for the plane and to hit a target using guns you need to roll a 10 and be in the same space as the target.

Blackhawk callsign-SHEPHERD

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You are in a F-18E with a decent WP value of 10. You're a fast pilot and may be more suited to a ground attack role since the negative modifier for your AtG attacks is less than the AtA modifer.

Isgrimnur callsign-PANTHER

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You are in an old F-18C which entered service in 1983 which is why it didn't cost any SO points to purchase. Your speed is slow but you don't have any negative attack modifiers so you can fulfill either attack role in a mission. You have a cool value of one which makes you lucky with the ladies! Suck it, Maverick.

Dbt callsign-BOSTON

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F-18E for you. Good stats with a fast attack speed and a +1 AtG bonus. You'll be well suited for ground attacks, especially with your WP value of 10.

Archnerd callsign-DODGER

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F-18E for you and you also have a cool value of 1. Children and small dogs adore you! And you have an AtA bonus so you probably would be good in an air superiority role.

TheMix callsign-TOON

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F-18F for you. You are very aware of your surroundings as shown by your SA value of 1 and you're cool like Fonzie as well. More of an AtG pilot than AtA I think.

Gbadsen callsign-RAIDER

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An old F-18C but while it may be old and slow you take the time to notice what's going on around you as shown in the two SA points you have, allowing you to take advantage of that skill twice.

NickAragua callsign-SCOUT

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An F-18E and you have the highest sklll level in the bunch. You're too cool for school and have some nice bonuses in AtA and AtG attacks. Leaning more toward an AtG role but can certainly pitch in and dogfight as needed.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by WYBaugh »

Pyro...like it!
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Isgrimnur »

$iljanus wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:36 pm Isgrimnur callsign-PANTHER

Enlarge Image

You are in an old F-18C which entered service in 1983 which is why it didn't cost any SO points to purchase. Your speed is slow but you don't have any negative attack modifiers so you can fulfill either attack role in a mission. You have a cool value of one which makes you lucky with the ladies! Suck it, Maverick.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

WYBaugh wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:01 pm I agree with your assessment for target selection. Was pondering the underground bunker since it's closest to the carrier but the command post would be best without the penalties for a hardened bunker.
As I take a longer look, taking into account the two penalties for the hardened and small keywords the bunker will need the same number of hits to destroy as the command post. The bunker will also have less bandits and AA sites around it as well. Now I’m trying to weigh the additional VP for the bunker vs the extra SO points for the command post. Hmmm... :think:

Isgrimnur, I am both uncomfortable and in admiration of that picture...
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Isgrimnur »

:D
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by NickAragua »

Scout is so cool he wears sunglasses indoors.

It's too bad we didn't draw an AWACS, those things are solid gold.

As for the targets, I'd say go for the command center. It can have *up to* 4 bandits and 4 sites more than the complex, and looks like it takes a couple more hits, but the hardened thing really screws with the number of bombs you need to bring. Plus, from what I remember, each bandit/site counter has a pretty good chance of being a blank or crap that we can ignore. The extra SO points will let us be a little bit more free with special weapons.

Too bad our stand-off air-to-air missiles (AIM-120) require SO points.

Definitely skip the SAM sites, they don't stick around and the stress they'll inflict on our pilots is basically another mission's worth of stress.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

So in this campaign, the first 8 SO points spent in a day for special weapons are free so we can make some nice purchases. At one WP a piece we load up on a couple of AMRAAMs.

The one thing I’m certain about is that SAM site. Targeting that is madness.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by TheMix »

I'm down for the Command Post as well.

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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

Will expand more later but for right now I wanted to post two things.

The RED CUP of DOOM! The cup that many an ill fate has been drawn from...

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And after careful analysis the target of the day is the command post. Intel has given us the disposition of AA sites around the target. The most problematic are two long range SAM launchers, one in the northern approach and one in the southern approach. There's also a SA-10 battery in the target area that has a long reach.

Enlarge Image

Oops, I forgot to add an extra AA site to the target zone.Will do that tomorrow. I think this will be a bit of a tough nut to crack.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by NickAragua »

Good thing about those SA-11s is that they're radar-guided, so you can use AGM-88s to take them down. For safety's sake, I prefer to get two per target.

SA-2's go down to a single AGM-88 automatically as I recall, which means you need another 2x to take down the SA-10 in the center.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

NickAragua wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 11:48 pm Good thing about those SA-11s is that they're radar-guided, so you can use AGM-88s to take them down. For safety's sake, I prefer to get two per target.

SA-2's go down to a single AGM-88 automatically as I recall, which means you need another 2x to take down the SA-10 in the center.
The reason why I liked using the A-6 Intruder is because they’re bomb trucks. Load one of them up with AGM-88s and have some space for some more conventional bombs if needed. Unfortunately they were phased out by 2014. Luckily the AGM-88s are only 1 WP apiece. Also everyone (except the F-35 which isn’t eligible to carry it) is getting an ECM pod to improve their surviability.

Can also avoid the two batteries in the eastern approach altogether if we fly through there at high altitude. Probably take the F-35 along to take out a lot of the radar batteries partnered up with a fast pilot to help out. Much to think about...
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Blackhawk »

Hornet. I can work with that. You should have seen the last plane I was assigned to - hell, the windows didn't even close most of the time. Drafty!
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

Hmmm, Pyro can't carry AGM-88s so perhaps we should just load him up with more conventional ordinance and have him concentrate his efforts on the target while the F-18s take out some key SAM sites? Due to his low WP value we'll need another plane or two to hit the target as well. Will be interesting to see what bandits show up once we're in the air.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by dbt1949 »

Red solo cup I fill you up
Let's have a party let's have a party
I love you red solo cup I lift you up
Proceed to party proceed to party
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Archinerd »

I have nothing constructive to add, just point me in the right direction and I'll attempt to roll high or low as needed.

Speaking of rolls, I've been brushing up on my skills in the simulator.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

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Preliminary strike plan:

Except for Pyro in the F-35 I'm thinking of staging the rest of the planes in the south. There's a lot of long range SAM batteries that can reach into the standoff attack areas. I've marked those SAM batteries with a yellow arrow. In the south we're exposed to the two batteries in the center target, the SA-11 in the southern approach area and a SA-2 in the west. The SA-2 is an easier target to hit with a +2 to hit DRM. By staging in the south we avoid the SA-10 in the north for the moment. All the sites targeted use radar so they're vulnerable to the long ranged AGM-88 and they're also soft targets so we can also use a AGM-154 which has a +3 to hit DRM vs soft targets.

There are two SAM launchers which are particularly nasty at short range which I've marked in green. They will have to be dealt with after taking out the longer ranged SAMs and they are harder to hit with a -1 to hit DRM, probably because they're smaller and mobile. They might be good candidates for AGM-154 strikes to take advantage of their usefulness vs soft targets and they have a range of 3 so we can engage from a safe distance. I'll task the fast pilots and those with SA points with the first strike so we can hopefully remove those pesky SAMs before they can launch. Out of our 6 planes I'm going to assign 4 for ground attack and they'll have mostly air to ground ordinance and 2 for air superiority. But even the air superiority fighters might carry an iron bomb or two just in case they're needed due to the 13 hits we'll need to destroy the target. All planes will be at high altitude to avoid AA sites that can only engage at low altitude.

Pyro in his sneaky F-35 will approach at high altitude from the east. The two AA sites in the east can only engage at low altitude so he'll safely fly over them. The two AA sites in the target area that can engage at both altitudes will hopefully be destroyed by the time he's over the target and Pyro can safely ignore the S-60 which is limited to low altitude targets. He should also be safe from any SAMs around the target area that may be left standing due to unlucky dice rolls.

Bummer, all the cheap iron bombs need to be dropped at low altitude so I guess that S-60 AA gun needs to be eliminated if I'm using old fashioned iron bombs.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by El Guapo »

$iljanus wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:47 pm
Because I've really fallen hard for Imgur :wub:
At first I read this as "for Isgrimnur". I was like hey, I'm happy for those two.
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$iljanus
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 4:14 pm
$iljanus wrote: Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:47 pm
Because I've really fallen hard for Imgur :wub:
At first I read this as "for Isgrimnur". I was like hey, I'm happy for those two.
It’s the sex panther pic. It has an effect.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Isgrimnur »

:banana-ninja:
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by NickAragua »

Yeah, gotta nail those SA-11s, 10 and 2 right away with fast pilots and situational awareness. If you do that, then you've basically got clear skies until the next turn. One school of thought (which I kind of subscribe to) says that unless you've got an auto-hit, you bring two AtG missiles per target, just in case one misses. Of course, that means you'll need to blow 14 weight points on AGM-88s (less if you've got auto-hits).

If you're planning on dropping iron bombs (requiring low altitude), then you also have to take out or suppress the S-60, but you can do that with a single rocket. Otherwise, you just coast in from high altitude and drop the bombs on turn 3. For 13 hits, you need ~20 points of bombs (I remember doing the math on those iron bombs a while back, but not the results. But the expected value was ~1.5 bombs per point ignoring any modifiers).

Also expect to face up to 10 fighters. Although in practice it'll be more like 5 (you gotta draw *some* blanks eventually!)

So: 6 fighters, 73 weight points (assuming you use SOs for refueling). Subtract 6 for ECM (a worthwhile investment usually). Subtract 14 for AGMs. Subtract 20 for AIMs conservatively. That leaves you with 33 wp for bombs, which is pretty doable. Maybe do 30 WP of bombs and 3 rocket pods to help handle BS event cards or unexpected suppression.
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by $iljanus »

So after some perseveration which is easy to do since you can spend a lot of time analyzing the optimal payload and approach I've outfitted the planes and have done all the steps to start turn 1 shortly.

Here's the plane loadout:

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So Archnerd/DODGER is going to be our primary air superiority fighter with Gbadsen/RAIDER as a backup. There's a penalty on air to air (AtA) attacks if you are carrying more than a certain weight of air to ground (AtG) ordinance but once Gbadsen launches his AGM-88s he should drop below the penalty threshold and be able to back up Archnerd. I've given most of the other planes an AIM-9 or AIM-7 just in case they need to pick up the slack. NickAragua/SCOUT is the most skilled of the bunch and has great attack stats, especially in AtG attacks so hopefully he'll be able to one shot his SAM targets. Threw in one rocket for Dbt/BOSTON since it's cheap against soft targets and we can burn it if we need suppression fire or an adverse event card pops up where you can drop certain ordinance to mitigate or cancel it's effects. With 8 SO points to spend for free for special weapons I threw in a bunch of AIM-120s which can be launched in a group and engage independent targets from a distance like the Phoenix missiles of old along with a GBU-16 to stack the chances of multiple hits on target and an AGM-154 to use on the S-60 site for the heck of it in case we need to burn the rocket on something else. You can always wonder if you made the right call but then you'll never get to play the game so I'm sticking with this. I wished I had faster pilots to get the jump on fighters but those SAMs are a bigger threat for the moment. Since 6 planes are the most we can take, Isgrimnur/PANTHER and Blackhawk/SHEPHERD are staying on the carrier to welcome the pilots home.

Target bound event card:

Event cards are drawn at three points in the day. Before we place our outfitted planes on the board (target bound event), right after all counters (us and the hostiles) are placed on the board (over the target event) and after we leave the target area (home bound event). They can represent good fortune like a fortuitous cruise missile strike that has taken out some SAMs before we attack or bad fortune like bandits jumping us en route to the target or we get attacked on our way home. The event en route to the target is (located on the top of the card)...

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Ahh, shit some AAA. I don't feel like stressing the pilots at the get go or taking a chance someone will be damaged before the mission really gets underway so I'm expending a rocket from Dbt/BOSTON and a Mk-82 from NickAragua/SCOUT.

Aircraft and bandit placement:

This is the part when you place the aircraft on the board, then you draw from the RED CUP of DOOM for bandits to place on the board. Here's the pic of our final counter placement.

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Had some good luck with the no bandit draws but we're in range of two fighters from the start, the MiG-25 in the west and the MiG-23 in the south. Hopefully our ECM pods will be up to the task and can bail us out of trouble. That underground bunker which could be stashing the Ayatollah's porn stash for all I know is looking better and better. But if you think too much about the choices you can make in the game you'll never get to play.

The pieces are set and the planes are in the air. Let Operation Righteous Ferret commence!

Now time to draw an over the target event (relevant text in middle of card):

Oh motherfu*...

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That kind of sucks. But the CUP OF DOOM is with us because I draw a no bandit counter and we dodge that bullet (or missile). Takes a closer look at the card..."Draw 1 bandit for a random pre-approach area at the start of EACH turn." Motherfucker!
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Blackhawk »

View's nice from the boat. :ninja:
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by Archinerd »

Woah, that's a lotta missiles.
:shock:
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Re: Operation Righteous Ferret (Hornet Leader:CAO)

Post by NickAragua »

"Dodger, wake up and take those Migs out, now. Save the Mirages for later. Toon, Boston, target SAM sites as planned."

[looks like we gotta blow our situational awareness points to clear the air a bit, otherwise we're going to be taking a lot of fire. I'd suggest giving Scout's SA point to Dodger (that's what the flight leader can do as I recall) so he can fire off those AIM-120s early and take out the MIGs, as they're pretty nasty]
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