"Operation Chunky Bandit #18 (Air)" Topic

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:
link

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

V/R,
Jack

Great stuff Jack! Love the special effects!

What amendments did you make to the rules to make them suitable for jets and missiles?

Thanks, Jim, glad you liked it, I figured the pipe cleaners would make it easier to follow the action.

Regarding amendments, the short answer is, I didn't. While I did change the rules, I didn't do anything to move them from WWII to jets. Heresy, I know, but I'm already seven fights in and I'm having a blast.

I did change some things, to reflect my style of play. Here they are:

-When a plane is hit, instead of it being destroyed, I added a roll to decide if it was damaged or destroyed. Different aircraft use different modifiers, and can take differing amounts of damage, but for the most part it's a D6 roll, 1-3=destroyed, 4-6=damaged, and most planes can take one damage before being knocked out.
-I added pilot quality in:
Rookie, -1 to maneuver roll (new pilot)
Regular, no modifier (becomes Regular as soon as he survives a combat mission, so long as he was actually an active participant, not skating off in the corner)
Veteran, +1 to firing (becomes Veteran after five missions -not counting missions he got shot down- OR two+ kills in one fight OR three kills total
Ace, +1 to firing and +1 to maneuver roll (becomes Ace after five kills)
Natural Born Killer, +2 to firing, +1 to maneuver roll, -1 to be hit (become NBK somewhere in the 25-30 kill range)
-I added shot down pilot survival roll:
1=KIA
2=MIA (he could turn up again at some point in the future, maybe not, depending on circumstances and campaign)
3-4=WIA (roll D6, the number of pips is the number of days x 10 he's out of action)
5-6=GTG (Good to Go, he parachuted to safety, made his way back to friendly lines, and is ready and able to get back in the cockpit)
-I added an 'Immelman' maneuver for 5 points

Hope that helps.

V/R,
Jack

Good to see you back Jack!

Joe

Thanks buddy, good to be back, and was wondering when you were going to show up. Good to see ya, Joe, now post some batreps! ;)

Hope all is well.

V/R,
Jack

Just finished a riverine mission that I will post featuring some jarheads. All is not right with my new platoon. In vietnam was a squad commanded by a Sgt ( E-5)? Fireteams commanded by Cpls or LCpls? E4s and E-3s?
Hope things are well with you. Real life is getting in the way of my gaming.

Joe

PS I am not sure how much Air Force stuff you should be doing. I know your brain can only take so much higher level thought!

Joe,

First, eat a @#$%!!! ;)

Second, hurry up with the posting.

Third, by T/O, Marine squads in Vietnam were led by Sergeants, with Corporals as Fireteam leaders. HOWEVER, you can read plenty of stories where it didn't take too much time in the field before you had Staff Sergeants and even Sergeants leading platoons, with Lance Corporals as Squad Leaders! And a squad was supposed to be three four-man fireteams plus a Sergeant and Grenadier (M-79), but that didn't last long in the bush, either.

When I read "Operation Buffalo," I was struck by how many platoons were being led by NCOs; it regularly referenced rifle companies with only one Lieutenant as a platoon commander, the other two were led by Staff Sergeants, or even Sergeants.

I also got to meet General Frank Libutti, who was mentioned in the book for a very interesting story as a Lieutenant. I actually asked him about it and he dodged!

Things are going well, finally back in the saddle and pumping batreps out again. Feels good, so you need to quit screwing around with 'real life' and get back to it!

Higher level thought, eh? Killing me…

V/R,
Jack