Danger Zones and Dogfights: A Hornet Leader AAR (Mission 1 Complete!)

[BanzaiCat]

Day Two (continued)
Mission One
Part Two: Over Target V

Turn 5 (of 6) dawns. We're getting down to the wire. Ogre spends one of his Situational Awareness points to attack in both phases and drops his GBU-16 on the target here in the Fast Pilot Attack phase. I roll a 9 for him, but his -2 AtG reduces that to a 7. Still, that's three hits! That's one big reason why the GBU-16 is well worth the one SO point it costs.

The Naval Base now has 11 hits total.

The S-60 site, largely ignored in favor of the Naval Base's facilities, swings left and right to find a low-flying target. It finally zeroes in on Wash's Corsair. I have Wash evade, giving him +1 Stress (and again, no ECM Pod roll, dammit). The SA-60 rolls a 9 and a 4. I choose the 4, making it a miss. Whew.

Unfortunately, I realize at this point that the Infra (Infrastructure) track on the Campaign Card indicates there is +1 Hits to any Target cards. Great. So, we need six more hits, not five. :(

Of the remaining Slow pilots, only Shifty has AtG munitions. We need 6 more hits to eliminate it. No point in sweating it now, we're balls deep into this mission. Shifty drops a Mk83 on the target, rolling a 9. With his +1 AtG rating, that's a 10 - and THREE HITS!

That leaves three hits left. But that's it, no more attacks this turn.

There's no Bandits and everyone stays in the Target card's space, so the Turn marker moves to the last space. This is it.

In the Fast Pilot Attack phase, nobody can attack. No Situational Awareness points remain, so I have to let this slip by. It all comes down to our 'Slow' pilots. 8)

The S-60 site now targets Wash, whom I have evade, giving him +1 Stress. (And yes, I forget once again.) I roll two dice, getting a 5 and a 10. The 5 causes an additional +1 Stress to Wash, but that's better than a 10, which would have destroyed him.

Now it comes down to this. Shifty, or Dammit Carl!, in his A-6 Intruder, spots a large repair facility that had been missed earlier on the other side of the base. He gets down to rooftop level, heading out into the bay and swinging back in from the sea.



His last Mk83 hangs from the wing, and targets the Naval Base.

I roll a 9. That's three hits. The Mk83 hits precisely where it needs to and the Naval Base is in the throes of destruction as secondary explosions and fires race through the few undamaged parts. Soviet fire teams, those few that survived anyway, try to fight the blazes but fail to contain the destruction. Before long, the Naval Base is completely obliterated - though it was a very near-run thing, and resulted from a LOT of very lucky rolls (and in spite of me forgetting to roll for ECM Pod attack negations).



The strike returns to base, this being the last Turn. They leave utter destruction in their wake, so this mission was a HUGE success.

Next: Mission 2 of Day 2.

[BanzaiCat]

Writing this up took a lot longer than I thought, so I'll have to wait until this weekend to write up the remaining mission.

Also, I have to go out of town for a few days next week, so I'll be unable to write up or play further Missions until next weekend. I'll get this last secondary mission posted by Sunday, though, and yes Brant I will have the review to you by then. :)

[Barthheart]

Good stuff B_C! Can't get much closer to a blown mission than that...  O0

[mirth]

The stress is getting to me.

[MikeGER]

i really like the AAR and the style it is done, the story told   O0

[Dammit Carl!]

That I'm called "Shifty," is amusing; my wife is more than happy to call me that, as well as "Shady," when I stray a wee bit into the grayer side of things.  She says that I get that from my Dad, and while admitting to that, I do have to remind her that (supposedly) Clyde Barrow is a relative of some sort.  Stuff comes naturally to me  ;)

[BanzaiCat]

I'm in Dallas for a few days and won't be home until Thursday evening this week, so I won't be able to update with the second mission of Day 2 until Friday or so. Sorry for the delay, but thanks for reading.

We've been very, very, very lucky thus far with the die rolls, ESPECIALLY considering I completely forgot to roll for ECM Pod attack evasions. Mission 2 was a little more of a close call...that's all I'll say for now on it. :)