War in the Gulf! - AAR

[NefariousKoel]

(Note: Screenshots have been reduced to 60% of original size. You old folks won't have any problems squinting at the real game.)

Beaming with confidence after my first "Great" result on Normal difficulty in Syria '00, I decided to start off a War Campaign in the Gulf '91.


It will undoubtedly be much more difficult due to very restricted amounts of smart and standoff weapons available to me (compared to my previous campaign in 2000). At least I have those lovely HARMs readily available.

Note the S.O. cost of the GBUs and my beloved AGM-84 SLAM. The quantities on the right represent the maximum available per mission.

*Pilot Selection*

I always start at the bottom and work my way up when selecting pilots for my campaigns.

Wraith is a nice, balanced, choice for Veteran and the biggest reason I took him is for his Cool rating of 2 which means he'll lose more Stress Points between missions and thus be able to fly more of them. For skilled pilots I went with a balanced choice of Banzai and Wedge. They're each specialized in their respective air/ground roles and most importantly they are "Fast" pilots which lets them fire each turn before the enemy does. The best defense = good offense. [;)]

For Average pilots I chose Eightball and Bullseye due to their Fast rating. Next comes Fox, Griffin, and Cowboy. I chose Cowboy over Topo because he only needs 6 Exp to level up compared to Topo's 8.

For Green and Newbies I went with Dino, Hammer, and Lime (due to his Exp 2).

[NefariousKoel]

*Target Selection*
Hrmmm.. We have a Research Lab and a WMD facility to choose from.

Being my first mission, I don't have any campaign bonuses built up, so I'll go with the easier Research Lab. It'll help future missions because it will also advance my campaign marker by 2 in Intel and 1 in Radar.

[NefariousKoel]

I check the effects on future missions if I succeed with this one on the Campaign Track. It looks like I'd be fighting 1 less SAM site and 1 less Bandit in the target area in the future if all goes well.

[NefariousKoel]

*Prep Screen*

On the prep screen, I need to choose 6 pilots for the mission. The first thing I do is hit the "View Target Area" button to get some intel on enemy defenses.

There are likely long ranged, high level SAMs on the west and south approaches. There is also low level defenses on the north and east. Finally, 2 Hi/Low 37mm guns and a Low level SAM at the target itself.

I need to achieve 5 hits on the target itself to succeed at the mission.

Enemy aircraft are not displayed on your intel report so I look at the 'Bandits: App-2 Target-3 notation. There can be 2 bandits in each approach route and 3 at the target. Each of those has a 50% chance of actually showing up to the party. I'm gonna estimate it to be around 6 that I'd be likely to see in the area (half the total rounded up). Quite an air defense!

Note the weight penalty of -3. This means, due to the distance of the target area, I only have 5 available Load points to use on each Hornet compared to the fully loaded 8 maximum.

[NefariousKoel]

*Pilot Selection*

I prefer to choose my pilots for missions in a specific order regarding their upcoming mission roles. Air-to-Air, SEAD, and Strike in that order.

I choose Wedge and Bullseye for AtA. Wraith for SEAD. Banazai, Griffin, and Cowboy for Strike.

[NefariousKoel]

*Weapon Selection*

Due to the quite large enemy air presence, I decide to buy a couple AIM-120 AMRAAMs at 1 S.O. each so my pilots can hopefully down any pesky advanced fighters right off the bat.

My loadouts are as follows:
AtA:
Wedge&Bullseye(AtA)- AIM-120, AIM-7, 3xAIM-9
Wraith(SEAD)- 2xAGM-88, AGM-65, Mk20
Banzai(Strike)- AGM-65, Mk20, Mk84
Griffin(Strike)- 2xMk84, Mk20
Cowboy(Strike)- 2xMk83, Mk20

[NefariousKoel]

*Target-Bound Event*

Luck! Oh, joy, oh rapture. F-14s reduce the amount of air opposition I'll face by half!

Things are looking up.

[NefariousKoel]

*Initial Placement*

Having premeditated my plan of attack throughout the mission planning process, I will now set up for the knock-down.

My AtA and SEAD will come in from the southeast so they can more easily cover anything to the East or South approaches. The Strikers will come in directly from the south keeping them only adjacent to enemies in the southern approaches. All are at High altitude.

Though they are all within range and altitude parameters for the SA-2 to fire on them, I have faith in Wraith feeding it a HARM due to his Fast ability and the HARM's 70% chance of striking before even adding Wraith's AtG bonus.

[NefariousKoel]

*Target Event*

Ruh roh Scoob! It turns out our Intel didn't tell us about the extra Air Defense sites on the approaches. Worrisome, but I still have confidence.

(Note: The map to the right is just a small movie with pieces moving to show what phase it is - not what's there.)

[NefariousKoel]

*Mission Start*

My high altitude threats on the south side just doubled. My biggest threats right now are the 2 SAMs on the south approaches and the MiG-23 in the east. My Fast pilots will deal with them before they can shoot.

[NefariousKoel]

Wedge fires his AMRAAM at the MiG-23 and splashes him with a modified roll of 8. Just like Beggar's Canyon back home.

[NefariousKoel]

Bullseye takes out the other MiG-23 the same way since he's only armed with AtA weapons. Wraith destroys the SA-11 with a HARM. Banzai fires a Maverick at the SA-2 but misses. Someone is gonna be taking fire from that SA-2 soon.

[NefariousKoel]

Sure enough, Banzai is getting fired upon for his trouble.

Wraith has only 1 HARM left with which to suppress the firing SA-2 with. Since we're going to drop down to low level and move to the southern approach later this turn (under the SA-2's firing envelope), I'll go ahead and use the HARM to suppress the site since I can only fire it while at high altitude.

It misses! While not exceptionally deadly, the SA-2 might get lucky so Banzai will try to Evade.

He avoids the attack by rolling a 4 and a 3 (4 is discarded). He gains 1 stress point for using the Evade option.

[NefariousKoel]

Next the slow pilots would normally attack a target, however Griffin and Cowboy are only loaded with bombs and thus out of range of any threats needing a fiery death.

All pilots move to the South Approach and dive down to low altitude where the SA-2 cannot target them.

[NefariousKoel]

During Bandit Movement the distant MiG-21 moves in to intercept.

-Turn 2-
I need to take out those MiG-21s. At such a close range they can be quite effective. My fast AtA boys are goin' after them.

Since they're the last 2 Bandits and my pilots have plenty AIMs left, they're getting 2 apiece. Wedge fires 2 AIM-9 Sidewinders. One misses but the other hits. Bullseye does likewise on the last MiG.

[NefariousKoel]

Wraith fires our last Maverick at the low-level capable SA-8 in the target area and turns it into camel spit.

Wraith, Banzai, Griffin, and Cowboy move in for their low-level attack run on the objective.

[NefariousKoel]

Those 37mm guns are training their guns right at my pilots above them. Luckily Wraith and Banzai each have a Mk20 Rockeye and the fast initiative to use them before the guns start firing.

The both hit!

Griffin and Cowboy drop their bombs on the target. Since I still had turn 4 left for a second attempt, I heald a few back in case something came up on the trip home. It paid off as that was enough to destroy the objective! Success!


*Home-Bound Event*
After clicking through the last turn in relative safety, my RTB event pops up. "No Event". Nothing is better than something bad! I'll take that any day!

[NefariousKoel]

*Mission Summary*

Overall, a very successful mission.

The pilot Stress levels are quite good and those Campaign Track markers are moved up! I'll need all I can get in the future as this mission was a cakewalk compared to most. I may not be so lucky next time.

[NefariousKoel]

My missing Campaign Pilot Selection screen from the first post:

[Dan Verssen]

Nicely written and very exciting!
 
You did a great job handling the unexpected SAMs to the south. That could have turned ugly really quickly.