Dan Verssen's Thunderbolt Apache Leader AAR

JudgeDredd · December 15, 2012, 12:53:57 PM

Campaign Setup

Select Campaign Card
First thing to do is select a campaign. There are 8 campaigns to choose from with varying difficulties

Iraq 1991 (Introductory)
Libya 1984 (Standard)
Libya 2011 (Standard)
Pakistan 2013 (Standard)
Iran 2014 (Standard)
Israel 2001 (Advanced)
North Korea 2001 (Advanced)
WWIII North Atlantic 1986 (Expert)

I choose the Iraq 1991 Introductory Campaign

The campaign card had the following information
1. Name, year and difficulty
2. Evaluation chart
3. Set Up - Total number of Battalion Victory points
4. Terrain tiles to use
5. Special Notes

Select Situational Card
Next is the Situational card to select. There are 6 options
Show of Force (2 days)
Surge (3 days)
Rapid Deployment (4 days)
Cut Off (5 days)
Holding Action (6 days)
General War (8 days)

I choose SURGE.

The situation card displays the following information
1. Name
2. SO points assigned at the start
3. Length of the campaign (days)
4. Daily SO points
5. Tactical ruleset
6. Description

Battalion Cards
Choose the Battalion cards you will face in the campaign where the victory value of the cards meets or exceds the Total Number of Victory points specified on the Campaign card (in my selected campaign that is 26). You choose battalion cards (blindly) by separating them into their 3 categories (Command, Support and Assault) and drawing cards in the following order:
Assault
Assault
Support
Command
And do so until you meet or exceed the SetUp value on the Campaign card.

The ones I am assigned are:
Scout Force (Assault - 2VPs)
Mechanised (Assault - 3VPs)
Bombardment (Support - 4VPs)
Scout Group (Command - 3VPs)
Fast Assult (Assault - 3VPs)
Mixed Force (Assault - 3VPs)
Engineer Unit (Support - 2VPs)
Forward Base (Command - 3VPs)
Air Defence Unit (Assault - 4VPs)
giving a total of 27VPs - more than the Set Up value of 26 required - so I stop choosing battalions

These are the cards

The info supplied is:
1. Battalion Name
2. Battalion Designation
3. Enemy Units in battalion
4. Victory Point Value
5. Half and Destroyed values - the battalion is reduced to Half Strength if the value of the units remaining is reduced to the first number or less but more than the second number. The battalion is destroyed if the value of the units remaining is reduced to the second number or less.
6. Special Notes

I place the battallions on the top right section of the Tactical Display. Generallt, Assault Battalions are placed in the Front Line section, Support Battalions are placed in the Enemy Transit section and Command Battalions are placed in the Enemy Rear section.

As you can see 6C which is a Command Battalion is placed in the Friendly Transit section...that's because it states on the 6C card in the Special Notes section that it should be placed there.

Buy Aircraft
The next phase of the Campaign Setup is to buy your aircraft. You use your SOs here to buy aircraft. They are expensive, so pickings can be slim because you have to keep SOs for weapons, repairs and Scouts. Unlike Hornet Leader, weapons DO NOT cost their weight in SOs - each weapon has an individual SO cost. Scouts cost 1 SO each.

This is only a three day campaign - so I'm going to buy
1xF-16 @ 5 SOs
1xA-10A @ 8 SOs
1xAH-64A @ 4 SOs
1xAH-1 @ 2 SOs

The values displayed are
1. Airframe number and Type
2. Canon Rating
3. Year and SO cost
4. Hits to Crash
5. Weapon availability
6. Weight Points

Buy Scout Counters
Scout counters allow your aircraft to Loiter over the battlefield longer. They cost 1xSO each. I buy 2

Select Pilots
Pilots have 3 cards with a total of 6 skill values. You choose 1 Average pilot for each airframe and 1 extra pilot for each airframe type. Having 4 different aircraft types, that means I select 8 Average pilots (1 for each airframe and 1 extra for each airframe type)

You can upgrade a pilot's skill by downgrading another pilot by an equal amount...I do not do so and leave all pilots as Average. You could also spend 1xSO and upgrade a pilot without downgrading another pilot. Again I choose not to.

The pilots I choose are
A-10A - REBEL
A-10A - VIPER
AH-64 - SHADOW
AH-64 - MONTANA
F-16 - MOHAWK
F-16 - DART
AH-1 - GATOR
AH-1 - SCUTTLE

The values displayed are
1. Callsign, Skill rating and XP to promotion
2. Airframe to pilot
3. Speed of pilot
4. Canon/Strike modifier (same hex)
5. Standoff modifier (outside current hex)
6. Cool value
7. Evasive modifier
8. Shaken/Unfit Status

bayonetbrant · December 15, 2012, 04:37:29 PM

How many Cobras did we actually fly in Gulf I?

JudgeDredd · December 15, 2012, 04:47:07 PM

I don't know...but they are mentioned in Wiki

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_air_campaign

DanVerssen · December 17, 2012, 10:45:20 PM

From what I remember, the Cobra's were used a lot by the Marines.

Great photos and AAR!

JudgeDredd · December 18, 2012, 02:17:57 AM

Thanks Dan.

This is definitely my last one. They take so long and I really just want to play through a campaign :)

JudgeDredd · December 22, 2012, 09:46:58 AM

Start of Day

Special Condition
I pick a Special Condition card Increased Enemy Air Cover. This card instructs me that I either pay 2 SOs to ignore the card or I place 1 helicopter popup counter during the Place Enemy Units step for each mission for the day.

This card is unclear to me - I do not know if I draw a popup counter as normal, or if I specifically select a helicopter popup card. I take it to mean I actually select a helicopter popup instead of a chance draw.

I do not pay the SO's and will draw the extra helicopter chit at the Place Enemy Units step as instructed.
NOTE - the above point - I forgot to pull the chit at the Place Enemy Units step - so I will pay the SOs at the end.

Special Condition cards stay for the entire day and apply to all missions for the day unless otherwise instructed.

Allocate Pilots and Aircraft
This step sees you select the battalions you are going to attack and select pilots and aircraft.

I opt to attack the Engineer Battalion 6S in the Enemy Transit zone and Forward Base 6C in the Friendly Transit area.

I'll be sending my A-10 flown by VIPER to attack 6S

6C is better defended so I will be attacking it with an F-16 flown by DART, an AH-64 flown by SHADOW and my AH-1 flown by SCUTTLE.

Allocate Scouts
I allocate both my scouts to the targets for the day. Scouts give you a chance of a longer Loiter time and could also reduce stress.

bayonetbrant · December 22, 2012, 10:07:49 AM

nice AAR, enjoying it so far

mirth · December 22, 2012, 10:45:13 AM

Quote from: bayonetbrant on December 22, 2012, 10:07:49 AM
nice AAR, enjoying it so far

+1 Another great AAR, Judge!

JudgeDredd · December 22, 2012, 10:46:34 AM

Mission 1 Resolution

Abort Mission
You can elect to abort the mission at this point.

Arm Aircraft
VIPER is in the A-10. It has a WP of 14 but the target is in the Enemy Transit Area and therefore there is a -2 WP.

I load the A-10 up with

1xECM Pod
2xAGM-114
4xMK-83
3xMK-82

The ECM and the AGM-114's have a Ordinance Point cost of 1 each. Because I've used 3 Ordinance Points, I have to pay 1 SO. 1 SO (as very kindly pointed out by Barthheart) allows you to spend upto 10 Ordinance Points, 2 SOs will get you 20 OPs etc

Fueling Priority
You can buy the Fuelling Priority for 1 SO - and I do so...meaning the A-10 can carry a full load of weapons

Target Bound Mission Event
I draw a Mission Event card and obey the top portion (Target Bound)...Creative Navigation - I gain +1 Loiter turn over the battlefield

Engine Damage Checks
This step lets you check to see if any engine damage results in a crash

Place Terrain Hexes
Shuffle the hexes and then place them top left to bottom right on the Tactical Display.

Place Enemy Units
You place enemy units by rolling a dice for each unit and placing it in that hex. The hexes number from 1-10 from top left to bottom right.

JudgeDredd · December 22, 2012, 10:47:21 AM

Thank you both.

mirth · December 22, 2012, 12:58:44 PM

Thank you for the time and effort you put into these. When the budget allows, I'm going to pick one of the Leader games and it will be due to the excellent, detailed AARs you've put together. You've really stoked my interest in the series.

JudgeDredd · December 22, 2012, 01:08:29 PM

Well thank you very much Mirth...it's nice to know my writings are read and appreciated

Arctic Blast · December 22, 2012, 07:07:18 PM

You really do a great job with these, JD. And you've made me sufficiently guilty at not having played my copy. I will remedy that tonight. ;D

Barthheart · December 22, 2012, 11:50:18 PM

Great read JD as always. Thanks for taking the time... I know they take awhile to do properly.

JD, you should re-read the section on page 9 about Ordinance Point Cost. For your A-10 above you should have only spent 1 SO for the 3 OP's you used. Each SO will buy you up to 10 OP's.

I have a question for you: Are there any weapons that can't be used against buildings? OR not used against vehciles? I don't understand the unit type rule on page 11 otherwise. I only see 2 weapons marked with VB and none marked with only a V or a B.

This game is a blast. I'm half way through Day 2 of the Iraq intro campaign. My wife has been calling me a "lonely Geek" all day for playing a game that is made for only one player! ;D

JudgeDredd · December 23, 2012, 03:03:13 AM

You are absolutely right Barthheart - thanks for pointing that out. I have read, re-read and re-read the manual again - unfortunately nothing sticks in my head anymore. I'm even using the manual as I do this because alot of it (obviously) has escaped me! But as I play more and more I move to skim reading - and miss bits like this.

I'll edit the post so that it's not misleading! I could change my loadout with that revalation - but I'll stick to what I've picked.

For your question - I've always taken it to determine from a weapon point of view rather from a target point of view. In other words it's to distinguish between weapons that are limited to target type. So the fact that there aren't weapons with V or B on it doesn't mean those weapons can't attack vehicles or buildings - but rather the ones with V or B can only attack vehicles or buildings. So simply limiting the use of the AGM-114 and the AGM-65.

So if a target doesn't have a V or a B, then you can't use these two weapons on those targets.

I'm not sure if I've explained that well at all. I know Dan looks around here from time to time, so maybe he might speak up.

I mentioned it to one of the guys at work - he said "You know why they're solitaire? 'cos no-one else wants to f****ng play 'em!". Clearly that isn't true - the Leader games are great solitaire games and play well - but I did think what he said was pretty funny!