Operation Chunky Bandit

[Just Jack]

Darby – Thanks man, and thanks for the feedback on the pipe cleaners, I figured that would go over well.  And regarding the Phantoms, things are tough all over, just wait…

Kyote-John – Just messing with ya, Old Man 😉

Thomaston – Regarding the pilot ratings, it’s not so bad.  It’s easy to remember my own pilots, and I’ve been keeping the enemy pilots all the same.  I figure I can add in an ace to the enemy force every now and again and keep the rest regulars, which shouldn’t be too rough.  In any case, I always have a roster to hand to doublecheck.

Regarding the Rookie hovering, well, he’s still moving at least 1 square, so not actually hovering, and while that can sometimes work out very luckily for him, more often than not it’s going to be a bad thing, so I can live with it.  Not to mention, the same thing happens to everyone else, albeit everyone else will go a little bit farther (a Regular or Veteran rolling a ‘1’ will add his aircraft’s modifier, so he’ll move two, an Ace or NBK 3).

Yeah, the 25-30 kills for an “NBK” might seem a bit ambitious, but really I wanted that way, it’s SUPER powerful.  So he’s going to have to have skill, plus a whole lot of luck to get to that level, but once he’s there he should stay there awhile.  But never say never…

“How about getting rid of that 5+ front aspect shot as well?”
Maybe 😉  I suppose if I’m going to get rid of the head-on I should get rid of that as well.  We’ll see.

““a MiG-21 and F-4 have +1 to maneuver roll and firing range of 1. MiG-23 and F-16 have +2 to maneuver roll and firing range of 2. MiG-29 and F-15 have +3 to maneuver roll and firing range of 3.”
Nope! I’m not getting baited into that. Aircraft and missile performance is a never ending can of worms.”
Yes, indeed, exactly!  My experience is that it’s really easy to throw stuff in and complicate rules, the art is in simplifying them, and nothing gets more wonky than debating the characteristics/capabilities of weapons systems.

“Here’s an idea, feel free to shoot it down. Add a radar guided missile phase before the first turn, every plane with RGM can take a shot.”
Hmmm…  How does it work exactly?  My initial inclination is to not like it; why?  Because everyone on the table has RGMs, and now it’s no longer a dogfighting game, now it’s a BVR, over-the horizon game.  And then you definitely have to take into account differing acquisition, tracking, ECM, countermeasures, and weapons capabilities.  But maybe I’m not understanding it properly, so if you don’t mind, please flesh it out a bit for me.

Always good talking gaming with ya!  And I certainly miss your aerial mercenaries (especially Cold Cash) 😉

V/R,
Jack

[irishserb]

Hey Jack,

I thought the pipe cleaners were brilliant, I’m just trying to figure out if I can steal the idea for my games.  I use 1/300 models, so the jets might move too far for the pipe cleaner to work.  Also, really enjoyed the report, that was a great fight.

[Just Jack]

Hey Brian, thanks! By all means, steal away 😉

You can get much longer pipe cleaners at Walmart, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby, and I think they’re light enough that they’d work with your models, despite their length. And I don’t think you need them long enough to show the model’s entire movement, just long enough to give a reasonable depiction of what the model is doing.

Looking forward to seeing your F-5s back in action!

V/R,

Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

irishserb wrote:

Hey Jack, I thought the pipe cleaners were brilliant, I’m just trying to figure out if I can steal the idea for my games. I use 1/300 models, so the jets might move too far for the pipe cleaner to work. Also, really enjoyed the report, that was a great fight.

I get what you mean, but I think it is still viable to show in photos which aircraft moved without having to show really how far.  Unless you’re wanting to show the whole move?  Might need some really long pipecleaners for that,or maybe multiple shorter ones to set the whole track.

Just Jack wrote:

My initial inclination is to not like it; why?  Because everyone on the table has RGMs, and now it’s no longer a dogfighting game, now it’s a BVR, over-the horizon game.  And then you definitely have to take into account differing acquisition, tracking, ECM, countermeasures, and weapons capabilities

  Oh ya, reeeeal can of worms.  Maybe make it super easy? I don’t know the rules but you could try something like: The geographic area being tropical could play havoc with missile reliability just like it did in Vietnam and India, so planes would ripplefire their RGMs to get better kill chance.  So, if a plane is carrying RGMs they only get 2 shots, and if it is carrying RGM and HSM then they only get 1 shot of each.  RGM could have a range of 3, whereas HSM have a range of 1 (is that what you’re currently using?).  At the start of each turn each pilot rolls some number to see if they have a lock against an aircraft within range 5 but can only fire when they get within 3.  Better odds of hitting at side aspect, worse for front aspect (maybe 0 for rear, +1 for side, -1 for head on).  HSM can still be any aspect (and unlimited) but give a -1 to front aspect. You can also differentiate planes without guns (like some Mig-21 and 23 models) from those that have them (amazing the number of planes that still don’t have guns!) by attacks at range 1 being -1 when you aren’t using both guns and HSM.  Thus the game can still be a dogfight game with a small BVRish element and allow a small differentiation between aircraft without getting out of control.

YMMV!

edit:  Oh, and having a RIO should account for something, ya?  Maybe make it harder for RGM to lock on or negative to hit?  Maybe better initiative?

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

Darby,

Thanks man, those are some cool ideas, but I really want to keep these as simple as possible, and while those aren’t too complex, it adds in some additional steps and some more stuff I’d have to track.  The coolness with these rules is that I’m able to put 16 planes on the table, be done in an hour, and have a great, non-brain cramping time.

My justification for all the dogfighting vice BVR is that the skies are crowded (FSNL, SLA, and Cuban warbirds, civilian airliners, moving at jet speeds means a steady course for a few minutes could have you crossing international borders), so everyone is looking to make visual ID rather than risk a friendly fire, civilian, or international incident (and risk bringing another country into the war).

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

All,

It’s 1015 on 24 July 1990 in the country of South Leon. We are with the Cuban Air Force’s 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to South Leon several months ago. So far there hasn’t been much to do, just some routine Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and close air support missions every now and again for the grunts, but no air-to air engagements to date. The squadron, also known as “The Flying Boxcars,” is led by Major “Viper” Culero, a former US Navy fighter pilot that earned himself four kills and the Estrella de Bronce (Bronze Star with ‘V’) during the Cuban War of Liberation. He normally keeps a two-ship CAP up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but this morning he had bumped it up to four on account of a bunch of chatter about something major going on up North.

What the good Major then found out is that the Communist Army from Federation Socialiste Nationale de Leon (FSNL), South Leon’s malignant neighbor to the north, launched an all out invasion of South Leon, and they are rapidly rolling towards that nations capital. Accompanying them is an all out blitz by FSNL’s Air Force, and the Flying Boxcars are now involved in some of the most intense aerial action since WWII.

To kick off their offensive, the FSNL Air Force put 6 x MiG-21s in the air on a classic fighter sweep, looking to clear the skies for follow on strike aircraft, while the Cubans answered with four F-4 Phantoms of their own. The results were indecisive, with the Communists losing three MiGs and the Cubans losing two Phantoms.

The enemy returned to base and, several hours later, have launched a strike force with fighter escort. Major Culero sent two flights up to meet them.

The fight gets nice and confusing, real quick, a knife fight in a telephone booth.

Boxcar 06 charges headlong into the enemy strike formation.

Boxcar 09 pulls an Immelman to go head to head with Silver 02, like two gunfighters at the OK Corral.

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2019/07/operation-chunky-bandit-18-air.html?m=1

This is the second of the three fights I played Saturday morning, working on the last batrep, stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

[kyoteblue]

About half of the pictures didn’t work. Good thing I read the text…

[Darkest Star Games]

Just Jack wrote:

The coolness with these rules is that I’m able to put 16 planes on the table, be done in an hour, and have a great, non-brain cramping time.

Sounds like you’ve got the rules just right then! I always over-complicate things as I do enjoy some crunch, but not too much.  And of course having fun is the name of the game!

Just Jack wrote:

My justification for all the dogfighting vice BVR is that the skies are crowded (FSNL, SLA, and Cuban warbirds, civilian airliners, moving at jet speeds means a steady course for a few minutes could have you crossing international borders), so everyone is looking to make visual ID rather than risk a friendly fire, civilian, or international incident (and risk bringing another country into the war).

  Makes a ton of sense.  THey had the Visual ID issue in Vietnam too due to crowded skies, and of course we all know what happened in the IRan/Iraq dust-up in the 80’s with that civilian airliner…

Very glad the good guys had a much better showing this time out!  Kills galore and no friendly crew casualties!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[kyoteblue]

And now all the pictures are working.

[Deleted User]

Had to go back and reread the whole thing and follow Boxcar 8 and Green 1.
So many “the force is strong with this one!” moments with Green 1.
Make him an Ace next time, PLEASE!!!

My thought was a single roll before actual combat, at initial setup. Kind of a last minute RGM shot before they merge so during the game it’s all IRM and guns. It was pretty much specific to the F-4 vs MiG-21 fight and maybe MiG-23 vs F-16 fight (in my world AMRAAM doesn’t exist) or when F-14s comes into play. But it does feel a tad too random.

I wonder how the game would play if missiles have longer range though. Say at range 2-3 IRM are used and you either shoot straight on hth or the rear aspect, no high aspect shots. At range 1, guns are used and it’s as original rules. It might be too complex for the size of game you’re playing though. Not the shooting itself but it takes more planning for each movement not to expose the planes to easy missile shot.

Worst if friendly planes block line of sight then noone will get to shoot.

[Just Jack]

John – Glad the photos are working for ya, I got worried there for a minute! 😉

Darby – Yeah man, I think the rules are right where I want them, but I encourage others to do whatever suits them, and even if I’m not necessarily changing my ways (though I do remain open to new ideas), I absolutely love talking about game mechanics.

And I like some crunch in my games, too, I just don’t want too much, so I focused on the pilot skills, rather than separate air combat rules.  The visual ID seems to work as good as anything else to explain the dogfighting 😉

Thomaston – Green 01 an Ace??? Whose side are you on here? 😉  Can’t do the next one, I’ve already played the next four games (just have to get them written up), and from that standpoint, Green 01 is not the same pilot from game to game, they’re a squadron just like the Boxcars, I just haven’t given them separate identifiers.  I certainly will when I get to the Battle of Britain.  It’s enough work to track the Cubans that I don’t really want to track the FSNL, so I’ll probably come up with a table to roll on prior to each fight to determine enemy pilot skills.  So if I roll up an Ace for the bad guys, that could be this fight’s Green 01 showing up again.  Kinda abstract, but saves me some work and accomplishes the same thing (that Green 01 wouldn’t fly in every fight, just like none of the Cubans do).

I think a single RGM missile wave prior to the merge sounds cool, but it’s a little too much ‘hand of God’ for me, especially in a campaign context.  So you play several fights and you surface a hero who goes from Rookie to Ace, he’s in the next fight and you can’t wait to see how he does, then the RGM phase happens and WHAM! He’s gone, never got to do anything.  It sucks bad enough when you lose one of those guys, even worse if he wasn’t even in the fight!  It feels like rolling between fights to see if someone got sent home for malaria, or died when they’re plane cracked up on a training flight.  Extremely realistic, not a lot of fun 😉

I’m actually still thinking about making missiles longer range, and I don’t think that’s too complex.  I think missiles could look like this:

6        4+       6

6   4+    6

6 4+ 6

–  –   –       –   –    –

4+ 3+ 4+

4+    3+   4+

4+      3+     4+

My only issue would be that it seems like it could make racking up kills too easy, whereas right now it’s a decent amount of work (the attrition rates not withstanding) and a whole lot of fun trying to jockey the plane into position one square away to be able to engage.

I suppose it doesn’t bother me playing the way I am because, in my mind’s eye, playing the  WWII games means a square is 300 yards across, while in the jet games it’s 5 km across.

————————————————-

Alright, you swine, that’s the last

batrep out of me for this week.  I’ve got a very ambitious plan to paint, play some more games, and finish up some batreps this weekend, will post the next one in Monday come hell or high water.

V/R,

Jack

*I can’t get the damn formatting correct, but hopefully you can piece together what I’m getting at.

[kyoteblue]

Sounds good, Jack!!

[Just Jack]

All,

It’s 1715 on 24 July 1990 in the country of South Leon. We are with the Cuban Air Force’s 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to South Leon several months ago. So far there hasn’t been much to do, just some routine Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and close air support missions every now and again for the grunts, but no air-to air engagements to date. The squadron, also known as “The Flying Boxcars,” is led by Major “Viper” Culero, a former US Navy fighter pilot that earned himself four kills and the Estrella de Bronce (Bronze Star with ‘V’) during the Cuban War of Liberation. He normally keeps a two-ship CAP up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but this morning he had bumped it up to four on account of a bunch of chatter about something major going on up North.

What the good Major then found out is that the Communist Army from Federation Socialiste Nationale de Leon (FSNL), South Leon’s malignant neighbor to the north, launched an all out invasion of South Leon, and they are rapidly rolling towards that nations capital. Accompanying them is an all out blitz by FSNL’s Air Force, and the Flying Boxcars are now involved in some of the most intense aerial action since WWII.

To kick off their offensive, the FSNL Air Force put 6 x MiG-21s in the air on a classic fighter sweep, looking to clear the skies for follow on strike aircraft, while the Cubans answered with four F-4 Phantoms of their own. The results were indecisive, with the Communists losing three MiGs and the Cubans losing two Phantoms.

The enemy returned to base and launched a strike force with fighter escort a couple hours later. Major Culero sent two flights up to meet them. The Cuban fighter pilots did well, downing three MiG-21s and five Su-22s to only one lost Phantom, but they did allow one enemy bomber through. The Su-22 bombed the SLA HQ in the nation’s capital, causing substantial damage (10/30).

It’s a few hours later and the bad guys are keeping up the pressure. The Cubans scrambled two more flights to meet the enemy strike force.

F-4 Phantoms close on the enemy strike element.

And begin feasting!

Some fun dogfighting.

But not all is peachy in South Leon.

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2019/07/operation-chunky-bandit-19-air.html?m=1

That’s it for the batreps this week, gotta hold you guys to two or ya start getting too demanding 😉 But I’ll post some recent paintings stuff (WWII 6mm) in a couple days, then post the next batrep on Monday. This weekend I plan on playing another KG Klink (WWII Fall of France in 10mm, if you’re not familiar), then some more of these dogfights. I also have a hankering to play some Vietnam skirmish action, thanks to my buddy Joe Legan over at the Platoon Forward blog.

V/R,
Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

Wow, that one had planes being splashed all over the place!  Bummer on the MIA though.  Perhaps he’s just taking a break with a Mojito at a beachfront cabina for a bit.

Me thinks that the Cubans may need a new strategy in order to get those bombers early or their HQ is in big trouble!  But it’s a good thing you don’t have your sprout flying for the bad guys or might end a game with no Cubans left in the sky.  😉

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

Darby,

Yeah man, it’s not looking good for the Cubans, both the tactical situation and writ large.  Regarding the MIA, maybe I can pull off some sort of rescue mission later, we’ll see.

Unfortunately, the sprout’s mind and time have been elsewhere recently; our baby boy is old enough now that the two are spending most of their time running around together, having good enough time that he doesn’t think about my game’s too much, and even when he does, it’s tough because the little one definitely isn’t able to play with us yet.

V/R,

Jack

[kyoteblue]

Good one Jack, It’s summer and little guys get distracted.

[Deleted User]

A sad day for the communist. I was rooting for Green 1 to be red MVP again 🙁

[Just Jack]

Thanks, John, and yes, absolutely!

Thomaston – You are killing me!  I can now officially add you to the roster of guys actively rooting against me.  How come all my online wargaming buddies are Communists?  😉

V/R,

Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

I root for the guys with names, so it was a bummer to see one get blasted last go-round!  I get invested in characters, it’s part of the reason when I run Vietnam games I have the players name their troops, so they’ll get attached to them and be less likely to “throw away their lives”, imaginary or not.

So, as long as you have recurring characters whose actions I like I’m with you Jack!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Darkest Star Games]

BTW, have you thought about what the flags and various insignia of your combatants look like?

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

Amen, thanks Darby, it’s good to have at least one person on my side! 😉

Yeah, as you’ve seen, the campaign approach, with named characters, is the only way to game for me.

And negative, I’ve never really thought of flags or insignia.  Part of that is the fact I can’t really see painting up any of my minis in ‘Free Cuban’ colors, that’s really not what the blog is about.  Free Cuba was simply a way to come up  with a cool backstory that would allow me to play any kind of post-WWII game I wanted, using whatever minis I wanted, in whatever location I wanted (to include my made up African ‘South Leon’ and Balkan ‘Cronistria’).  I mean, look at South Leon, where I’ve played a ton of Vietnam-era gaming (USMC vs VC, US SF vs VC, ARVN vs NVA, with US SF advisers, F-4s vs MiG-21s), then sprinkled in ultramodern (Tears of the Sun, the airborne drop, the paras vs insurgents using Ambush Alley, SF searching for the air defense stuff, soon bringing in F-14s and F-16s) to the story.  It’s wargaming freedom 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Rod Robertson]

Just Jack wrote:

Thomaston – You are killing me! I can now officially add you to the roster of guys actively rooting against me. How come all my online wargaming buddies are Communists? 😉

I don’t know Jack. Maybe it’s something you do?

Cheers and good gaming.

Comrade Evilroddy.

[Just Jack]

Perhaps.

Certainly not putting much weight to that though, considering the source is the first Commie to come out actively against me!

Hope all is well, old man 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Deleted User]

Well the day the good guys fly MiG-21s I’ll be willing to switch side.

[kyoteblue]

Question Jack, why don’t the Good Guys go for the bombers first instead of the fighter escorts?? Yes, I know but it bugs me.

[Just Jack]

Thomaston- The MiG-21s are about to go bye-bye, the bad guys will be getting stepped up to MiG-23s… and MiG-28s 😉

Kyote- So, if I’ve got this figured correctly, your strategy:

On land is to charge your reserve in as soon as possible.

On sea is to ignore the escorts and charge into the cargo/troop ships.

In the air is to ignore the escorts and charge into the bombers.

And I thought I was aggressive! ;

To answer your question, because I don’t want to lose six fighters to the enemy escorts when I ignore them to go shoot down the 2-3 bombers I can get at before I get wiped out.

What bothers you so much about the good guys maneuvering to tie up the enemy escorts while looking for a gap to exploit to get at the enemy bombers?

V/R,

Jack

[kyoteblue]

I’m more aggressive than you are Jack.  Ok, my thought you have 6 fighters they have 4 escort fighters and 6 bombers, you send 4 fighters after the escort fighters and 2 fighters against the 6 bombers.

[Just Jack]

I dunno man; if you look, that’s exactly what I do, sometimes even break off three to get after the bombers, leaving one good guy fighter to tie up two enemy fighters.

HOWEVER, what you have to pay attention to is how many good guy fighters are in the fight, and what’s going on.  The bad guys had a 6 vs 4 advantage in the first fight, and after that, they had four fighters for every single strike mission, but the good guys don’t always have six fighters.

Edit: I just looked; we haven’t gotten to the ‘less than 6’ fights yet, but look at the pics I posted above: 4 Phantoms stuck with the MiGs, the other two went after the Su-22s, and then Cuban fighters shift back and forth as the fight progresses.

V/R,

Jack

[kyoteblue]

Um. I can see the silver bad guys but the camo bad guys blend in with the camo good guys… I’m old and my near vision is not so good anymore. Maybe if you did 3 flights of 2 instead of 2 flights of 3.

 

[Just Jack]

John,

No sweat man! But, there are no camo bad guys, the camo is all good guy F-4 Phantoms.  The bad guys have silver fighters and gray bombers (fighter bombers, but whatever).

I really thought about doing the good guys in pairs, rather than threes, as it’s more realistic, but the problem is that attrition is very high and I don’t think a 12-plane squadron would cut it when I’m already having a hard time with an 18-plane squadron.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

All,

It’s 0815 on 25 July 1990 in the country of South Leon.  We are with the Cuban Air Force’s 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to South Leon several months ago.  So far there hasn’t been much to do, just some routine Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and close air support missions every now and again for the grunts, but no air-to air engagements to date.  The squadron, also known as “The Flying Boxcars,” is led by Major “Viper” Culero, a former US Navy fighter pilot that earned himself four kills and the Estrella de Bronce (Bronze Star with ‘V’) during the Cuban War of Liberation.  He normally keeps a two-ship CAP up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but this morning he had bumped it up to four on account of a bunch of chatter about something major going on up North.

What the good Major then found out is that the Communist Army from Federation Socialiste Nationale de Leon (FSNL), South Leon’s malignant neighbor to the north, launched an all out invasion of South Leon, and they are rapidly rolling towards that nations capital.  Accompanying them is an all out blitz by FSNL’s Air Force, and the Flying Boxcars are now involved in some of the most intense aerial action since WWII.

To kick off their offensive, the FSNL Air Force put 6 x MiG-21s in the air on a classic fighter sweep, looking to clear the skies for follow on strike aircraft, while the Cubans answered with four F-4 Phantoms of their own.  The results were indecisive, with the Communists losing three MiGs and the Cubans losing two Phantoms.

The enemy returned to base and launched a strike force with fighter escort a couple hours later.  Major Culero sent two flights up to meet them.  The Cuban fighter pilots did well, downing three MiG-21s and five Su-22s to only one lost Phantom, but they did allow one enemy bomber through.  The Su-22 bombed the SLA HQ in the nation’s capital, causing substantial damage (10/30).

A few hours later the bad guys are back in force.  The Cubans scrambled two more flights to meet the enemy strike force.  It was a helluva fracas: the Communists lost a total of three MiG-21s and five Su-22s, while the Cubans lost four of their six F-4s committed.  More importantly, they lost a pilot MIA, and another for about a month due to wounds.  But Boxcar 14 was on fire, racking up four kills and being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  The one enemy bomber that made it through made a successful bombing run on the SLA HQ, again causing substantial damage (19/30).
Now it’s the next day, and the bad guys are keeping up the pressure.  The Cubans scrambled two more flights to meet the enemy strike force.

The Squadron Commander, “Viper,” is up, but he’s only got two Phantoms with him.

Against all that…

The Commie pilots definitely ate their Wheaties this morning.

But the F-4s get some licks in, too.

To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
https://cubalibrewargame.blogspot.com/2019/07/operation-chunky-bandit-20-air.html

This is the first of the next three fights I played.  I’m playing and posting more as soon as I can, stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

[Whirlwind]

Great stuff, thanks Jack.  There seemed to be lots of whiffed manouevre rolls in that…

How do you explain the lower kill totals in this game compared to the others?

[kyoteblue]

I finally spotted what was messing me up, the MIG’s have Green and Silver flights, the Green ones look camo like the Phantoms!!! You need to send the Cubans back to flight school NO BOMBERS shot down!!!!!

[Deleted User]

Through perseverance our comrads will lead us to victory in glorious MiG-21s and Su-22s.

[Just Jack]

Whirlwind John – Yes, maneuver rolls were definitely sucking, which leads to lower kills because all the pilot can do is remain defensive, he’s unable to get into position for a shot.

Also, the Cuban interceptors we’re actually outnumbered by the FSNL escorts, so that makes it a bit easier to tie them up and keep them off the bombers.

The only real chance for the Cubans was for Viper to go on that killing spree BEFORE his wingmen got shot down, freeing them up to get some bombers.  Alas…

Kyote John – Well there ya go, all figured out.  Yeah, the Cubans have callsigns like Boxcar and Bonesaw, the enemy is Green, Silver, and Bomber.  And I can’t send them back to Flight School, we’re in the middle of a fight!  The problem isn’t needing to go to Flight School anyway, the problem is that so many of them are Rookies that just left Flight School!

Thomaston – As you can tell, things are definitely going the Commies’ way this set, but we shall see.  Having said that, this whole campaign (air/land/sea) is known as “The Fall of South Leon”…

V/R,

Jack

[Whirlwind]

Just Jack wrote:

the Cuban interceptors we’re actually outnumbered by the FSNL escorts, so that makes it a bit easier to tie them up and keep them off the bombers.

This seemed pretty key on the read throughs of the various games.  Whoever has the inferior numbers of fighters seems to have much trickier dilemmas on which targets to choose.

 

[Darkest Star Games]

Wow, that was a mess.  I’m amazed that all of the bombers got through, the dice gods truly were not with the the defenders this go ’round.  I”m glad that Viper survived though, now that they have an ace perhaps the phantoms will start to do more damage.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

No doubt, John. As Kyote loves to point out, in that situation you can still go straight for the bombers, but ignoring the escorts is a great way to end up a smoking hole in the ground. Hell, and maybe even if you don’t you still end up a smoking hole in the ground!

And, of course, I messed up above: the two wingmen didn’t get shot down, they just didn’t get in the fight.  Sorry, I was thinking of a different game (I’ve actually played another four games already, just have to write the batreps).

Darby- Indeed it was.  I knew it was going to be tough; of course the Cubans were supposed to have a total of six Phantoms in the air, but when I rolled up the forces Viper’s flight got brigaded with another flight that had already seen action… and had all its aircraft shot down, leaving the Cubans short-handed in this fight, a snowball effect.

I’m happy Viper survived, too, but having lost his aircraft, he’s out of the fight until reinforcements are brought in (which occurs after seven fights).  The terrible thing is, soon you’ll see a fight where Viper’s two surviving Rookies have to go up against the bad guys without him (though, if I recall correctly, I made one of them a Regular); I seriously considered ‘cheating’ in that fight, having Viper ground the Rookie and take his aircraft, but I stuck with my integrity and let the chips fall where they may.

I won’t say it was a success (as Commie bombs continue to pound SLA targets into dust), but it was kind of a cool fight.  It’s either the next one or the one after.

V/R,

Jack

[Deleted User]

Fiction internet armchair generals will be debating the performance of aircraft and pilots in this conflict for decades.

My count is the Cubans lost 9 planes already, I think you mentioned it’s an 18 plane squadron. 50% attrition so far.

Communists lost 21 planes (11 MiG-21s and 10 Su-22) for a roughly 2:1 ration in favor of the Cubans. How many planes does the communits have?

MiG-21 vs F-4 is pretty much 1:1 😀

[Just Jack]

Thomaston,

Exactly! Fictional Air Marshals are being summoned to fictional Defense Ministers and fictional Presidents as we speak! The heat is on Viper, though I think it’s a bit unfair because…

To answer your question about numbers of aircraft, for this seven fight series (number 17 through 23) the Cubans have 18 Phantoms, but the Communists have ‘unlimited’ aircraft, which is to say that they have four fighters and six bombers for every single fight in this series.  But they’re taking heavy casualties and this level of commitment is not sustainable.

Your kill tally seems about right; I have been keeping track, and I’ll put it at the end of fight #23, before we start the next seven fights.

”MiG-21 vs F-4 is pretty much 1”

That’s because they’v had superior numbers and the Cubans have to worry about the bombers, too!

V/R,

Jack

[Author]

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