Phantom Leader PBF

Why don't you come in on it, too, Gary?

I'll be ready after the weekend.

Just bumping this up so I remember where to look.

Matt, since I'm not the forum rat I used to be. When you're ready to go, if I appear unresponsive, just shoot me an email at the address you have from any of the various ACTS games we've been in together

Okay, and we're ready to roll.

Since no-one objects we'll do USN Rolling Thunder. Our campaign map is here:
cid-0fab1e236bcb7de7.skydrive.live.com/s...Public/PL-usn-rt.jpg

It's four missions long so we'll have to be striking those high-value targets early - although if things move swiftly we can make a joint decision on extending the campaign, or if you prefer we can do the historical thing and move on to Linebacker, the next campaign.

Anyway, we need to choose some pilots. I've attached a pilot roster to this post. Remember to pick pilots from the right-hand USN column. I'm going to take the weakest two pilots, a green and a newbie and I'm going to pick Midas and Batdog.

For the rest of you, the high roller is Bullwinkle. He gets to pick 1 green and 1 skilled pilot. Dogmatix and Simon you get two average picks each.

Once you've chosen, post them here and I'll deal us our initial mission picks.

I pick:
- Easy Money (EA-6A): C0, -/+2, fast
- Taxi (A-7): C1, +0/+2, fast

I took stats from this file: www.boardgamegeek.com/file/download/5f2x..._Aircraft_Roster.pdf I hope everything is all right.

If nobody picks a good AtA pilot I would choose Knife instead of Taxi.

MattDP wrote:

For the rest of you, the high roller is Bullwinkle.

How true that is. I'm currently laid out in my suite at the Mirage, sipping Camus Jubilee off a showgirl. Pro tip: avoid naked flames.

Okay...the USN has somewhat of a limited roster of Phantoms. One the other hand, they have good ground attack capability. I'm going to take the versatile Showtime and the ground-pounding Driver.

If I might recommend, I'd suggest one of you take Buick. We'll need at least one fast pilot. Depending on plans, if someone takes Poco, it might be worthwhile to spend those 2 free SO points from Midas on an early promotion for Poco to make him fast, too, especially with his good AtA skills.

Matt, can you give us the full stats for our pilots (i.e. stress levels and changed attributes, etc.)?

I considered Buick, but from the file I got Taxi is better or equal in all regards. (Which is kind of strange, so I'm wondering whether those stats are correct.)

Schweig! wrote:

I considered Buick, but from the file I got Taxi is better or equal in all regards. (Which is kind of strange, so I'm wondering whether those stats are correct.)

There are other considerations that the file doesn't list; namely, the amount of stress the pilot can handle before becoming stressed/unfit, and the amount of experience needed for promotion. Both of those will affect the value of the pilot. Also, Taxi can't promote past Average.

The other thing is that the F-4 is better at AtA (they can carry Sparrows) and probably more versatile overall. Taxi's a great choice, though, it gives us good fast AtG for any sites we need first strike capability on, and his 1 Cool will help keep him running longer. I'm actually kind of worried about stress overall, since the USN Phantoms mostly have low Cool. That's going to be a big factor if we extend the campaign.

We're pretty heavy on AtG now. Dog, if it's okay, you should probably look at mostly AtA. A promoted Poco is looking really good right about now. If you don't want him and Buick, then we should consider promoting Showtime. We need fast AtA.

Cool is actually included in the roster if you look - it's a bit busy and confusing but it is there. Experience isn't.

I picked a pilot who isn't in a phantom which gives us a few more SO points to spend so if we feel we need to promote someone off the bat, the points are there to do it. Obviously it'd be a good idea to promote someone with a high experience requirement - and I suspect Showtime will fit that particular bill.

I'll try and scan the chosen cards and upload them once everyone has picked.

Edit: For now I'll only reserve Easy Money and see what pilots Dogmatix picks. I'm still inclined to take Taxi but would pick someone else if needed be.

Looking forward to seeing you guys play this out.

Matt, what's the amount of experience Poco needs to get promoted?

Bullwinkle wrote:

Matt, what's the amount of experience Poco needs to get promoted?

Poco needs 6 experience to get his promotion. I may have to re-pick my choices as it seems there's at least one mistake on that reference sheet: my card for Batdog says he's average, not green. I thought he looked a bit too good to be true So I can take an AtA pick instead, athough none of the pilots at that skill level are much use.

I don't really trust that sheet either, for example there are a lot of pilots "losing their cool" when promoted.

Does the game take into account that the Sparrows were rarely used in Vietnam? The leadership wanted visual confirmation before they could shoot down a plane. Visual range was typically below the minimum range for a Sparrow.

Phantoms are nice...but my favorite ground attack plane from Vietnam is the Intruder.