Phantom Leader PBF

No, wait a minute. Napalm gets +2 against soft targets. It's a guaranteed hit for Showtime.

Bullwinkle wrote:

I'm confused...isn't my miss chance higher with the Mk. 82s?

It is. But they only cost 1 weight point and the BLU-1 costs 2, so you can drop 2 Mk.82s instead of 1 BLU-1.

Mk.82s hit on 6+, or 5+ with Showtime. I.e. he misses on a roll of 1, 2, 3 or 4 -> a 0.4 chance. Missing with both bombs would be 0.4 * 0.4 = 0.16 = 16%.

BLU-1s hit on 3+, or 2+ with Showtime. I.e. he misses on a roll 1 -> a 0.1 chance = 10%.

Bullwinkle wrote:

No, wait a minute. Napalm gets +2 against soft targets. It's a guaranteed hit for Showtime.

Oh right. I thought that was a modifier for suppression attacks, but that's only the case with rockets. D'oh!

Edit: But still ... unlike BLU-1s Easy Money can equip CBUs. With AtG +2 dropping two CBUs off-target is only a chance of 0.01%. I'd rather take that chance than spending a politics point. But of course Easy Money only has 3 WPs and has to carry rockets, too.

P.S. I totally get why the army is structured hierarchically now. If Bullwinkle and I had to wage a war we'd be sitting here for a year arguing.

haha, I don't even know the rules and that looks like a nasty target.

Gary Sax wrote:

haha, I don't even know the rules and that looks like a nasty target.

It's not the target. It's the AAA sites next door

I think we should still discuss Tanker Priority. Even when Driver and Gringo are loaded with 3 Mk.84s each that's only an average 9 hits. How many bombs are the other planes carrying?

Pilot card scans here:
cid-0fab1e236bcb7de7.skydrive.live.com/s...ic/PL-usn-pilots.jpg

Do you guys have any Wild Weasels?

I suggest giving all the planes as many cannons as possible and shooting your way out of this one.

MattDP wrote:

Pilot card scans here:
cid-0fab1e236bcb7de7.skydrive.live.com/s...ic/PL-usn-pilots.jpg

Cheers!

mikoyan wrote:

Do you guys have any Wild Weasels?

Nah, we're Navy boys. Edit: Well, the USAF F-105 is called Wild Weasel in the game, but you're probably referring to the tactic. Yeah, my A6-AE would be capable of knocking out the SA-2s with radar emission seeking missiles, but it's only possible to attack one site at once and I could only carry 3 Shrikes anyway.

Gary Sax wrote:

I suggest giving all the planes as many cannons as possible and shooting your way out of this one.

Well, I'm flying an A6 and an EA-A6, so my planes don't carry cannons and can't equip gun pods either.

Schweig! wrote:

Mk.82s hit on 6+, or 5+ with Showtime. I.e. he misses on a roll of 1, 2, 3 or 4 -> a 0.4 chance. Missing with both bombs would be 0.4 * 0.4 = 0.16 = 16%.

BLU-1s hit on 3+, or 2+ with Showtime. I.e. he misses on a roll 1 -> a 0.1 chance = 10%.

Right. So the better shot is to take the napalm, not the Mk. 82s. That's what I'm saying. I have a higher chance of missing with the Mk. 82s. I'd take that extra 600 basis points for the Politics hit, because of the danger in missing. Anyway, the point is moot, since the soft target bonus makes it automatic.

With AtG +2 dropping two CBUs off-target is only a chance of 0.01%. I'd rather take that chance than spending a politics point.

Agreed.

P.S. I totally get with the army is structured hierarchically now. If Bullwinkle and I had to wage a war we'd be sitting here for a year arguing.

I'm sure we'd both agree that this is the time for a nuclear strike.

And I totally agree with you, we need the tanker option. (I've actually been assuming that that's what we were going to do, and that the bombers are carrying Mk. 82s/84s.)

For Dog's loadout, I recommend 4 AIM-7 and 2 AIM-9 for Poco and 2 AIM-7 and 4 AIM-9 for Buick. Poco and Buick can both fire turn 1 at bandits 2 zones away, and Poco can suppress 2 more in case there are bandits remaining that can fire from 2 zones away. Buick can handle suppression up close. (Or Barbarian can.)

Following Bullwinkle's original approach I would suggest that we enter from the eastern map-edge, with Showtime and Easy Money firing two rockets each at the two AAA sites in the Eastern approach zone. Midas or Barbarian could carry some rockets in reserve in case the attacks fail.

Then we move on either dropping CBUs if one of AAA sites is still alive, or continuing the process above with the two range-firing AAA sites in the target zone.

Finally in the target zone, Easy Money and Showtime either drop CBUs or fire more rockets at remaining soft targets, while the A6s and other planes drop their bomb loads.

Damn, I just noticed that only Midas can and does carry cannons.

MattDP wrote:

Pilot card scans here:
cid-0fab1e236bcb7de7.skydrive.live.com/s...ic/PL-usn-pilots.jpg

Thanks Matt. Bullwinkle's suggested loadout for my pair makes sense to me.

Have fun flying into all that GtA fire folks. We'll be sure to mark your chutes before we sprint back to the water

For my pair I suggest:
Easy Money: 2 rockets (for KS-19), 1 rocket (for S-60), 2 CBUs (AAA or factory)
Gringo: 4 Mk.84s

I think in total we should drop at least 10 Mk.84s on the factory.

Does the factory really require 16 hits? Because the card scan on BGG says 13: www.boardgamegeek.com/image/531070/phantom-leader
(Well, it also says 3 sites in each approach zone, so that might equal itself out.)