Origins 91 Air Strike Tourney

Combat Summaries: Round Two

by J.D. Webster

Table 1:

This time ifs Hollywood and Woof as the Iraqis with Dragon, Bald Eagle, Wahoo and Redneck as the attacking force. Both of the attack teams were on defense before so they have their choice of aircraft and as if by some mystical call of the universe ... elect FA-18s. Dragon and baldy are the strikers and roll up the warehouse district as their target. Woof and Hollywood get MiG-21s, the SA-8s, and S-60s for the defense.

The Hornets enter play at the MIL level and immediately draw the attention of the MiGs and SA-8s whose operators ignore the radar mode and go for optics. Wahoo gets a quick lock-on against Hollywood's MG and fires two AIM-7s, one of which fails. In the next turn, Baldy locks up the other MG and fires two AIM-7s as well, one of which also fails.

At the same time an SA-8 optically locks up Redneck and fires one missile at short range which misses. On turn three Hollywood's MiG takes a direct hit from the AIM-7 and dies. Shortly thereafter Woofs MiG is hit and vaporized by the other AIM-7 that Baldy launched. Redneck quickly comes under the fire of two more SA-8 missiles, this time radar guided, both of which he fends off while retaliating with a HARM. The offending SA-8 vehicle takes a direct hit and blows up just as Wahoo begins a series of attacks which suppresses the S-60 gun site for two turns in a row. Redneck meanwhile lays two cluster bombs on the second SA-8 which is also blown up. The two Strike Hornets, relatively unmolested up to this point commence their attacks on the warehouse district each achieving K results against different hexes. AAA fire except for the suppressed S-60 is heavy but inaccurate as they pull off target.

With the target hexes successfully destroyed, two SAMs knocked out, and two MiGs blasted, the Hornet players happily race for the map edge and safety. Dragon, the tail end charlie of the footrace to safety suffers a shock though when the S-60 site, which recovers from suppression just before he gets out of range, hits and cripples his FA18; this being the only hit the defenses achieved.

This game like that of Top Wop's team in round one was one where the Hornets were well coordinated and they pretty much steam-rollered Woof and Hollywood's defenses aside (if you disregard the S-60's lucky parting shot). They all got Air Medals and accolades while Woof and Hollywood were executed by a republican guards firing squad.

Table 2:

My notes don't tell me much more than the fact that the defenders were Soleman and Maddog and that the attackers were Raider Red, Z-man, Quickdraw and Iceman-II who substituted for Nitro after he dropped out to attend another event. RR and Z-man were the designated strikers and were tasked with hitting the Waterloo city airport. Thedefenses: had SA-11s, Olk-35 guns, and MG-23s.The attackers chose F-16s.

From what little my notes have, it is appparant that the MiGs were ineffective but they stayed alive. The brunt of the defending fell on the SA-11s which expended a fair number of missiles, most of them at Quickdraw who ended up crippled. Iceman-II managed to kill one SA-11 and suppress another with HARMs while Z-man, who bravely provided his own Iron Hand effort, eliminated an Olk-35 battery and an SA- 11 vehicle by strafmg before going to hit the airfield with runway cratering bombs and doing 5D worth of damage to runways. Raider Red nimbly evaded the MGs and also struck the airfield getting a K on the runway intersection but took Light damage from AAA on the way out. All F-16s then managed to exit safely.

In this game, the F-16s lack of long range missiles kept them from bagging any Floggers while the Flogger's poor maneuverability prevented them from tagging any Falcons. The S AMs were effective but only for a short while due to Iceman-II's HARM shots. The raid was successful with Madddog and Soleman being banished to a trench in Southern Kuwait.

Table 3:

Egad! Californians and Canucks teamed together as the attackers! This table pitted Top Wop, Slather, Zee and Madman in Tornados against Slick and Grossman with MiG21s, SA-8s and Shilkas (ZSU-23-4s). This time Top Wop and Strikers. Their target turns out to be the POL tank farm near the major airfield.

Again details are lacking here but it seems certain that the Tornados came in low in terrain masking initially.

Apparently the SA-8s did not get good optical acquisition rolls until a couple of turns into the game. Slick and Grossman opted not to use the radar mode with them at all. AAA took shots the entire game but failed to hit. The first missile shot attempts were by an SA-8 which launched two missiles at Madman, but both failed. The MiGs came in high and got the jump on the low flying Tornados. Grossman piloted one in behind Zee, the other Strike Tornado and tried to launch a pair of Matra Magic-Is but both again failed.

About this time, Top Wop cleaned out both SA-8 units with cluster bombs in a lay down attack. Slather does 2D on a nearby ZSU- 23-4 in the same turn. Madman and Zee raced forward to hit the POL site but Grossman was still hot on Zee's tail and tried to launch his last two Matras. One failed and the other is decoyed by a flare program the Tornado is putting out. Bob was redfaced but determined and continued to pursue for a gun attack.

Meanwhile Slick was maneuvering his MiG to attack Top Wop who, after blasting the SA-8s, has a Stinger launched at him which much to the defender's grief, also fails to guide. They have now lost six of seven missile shots to the muse of bad dice. Slather attacked an S-60 site next but missed as Top Wop broke to give Slick a bad angles gun attack. Slick also missed, spreading tracers all around but not through Top Wop. Grossman however, is rewarded for persistence, he managed to catch up to and shoot down Zee's Tornado with gunfire just before it reached the target. Grossman then swung in behind Madman but Top Wop pulled a clever fake by launching his two ALARM ARMs at Bob who thought they were IRMs and engaged them allowing Madman to escape.

The finale came moments later when Madman did his attack run inflicting 6D hits on the POL farm and then reversed to meet Slick's MG in a head on gun pass. Madman's luck was good and his 27mm Mauser shredded Slick's MiG which blew up. Slick missed his shot. Grossman, forced out of position could only watch as the three surviving Tornados raced off to saftety amid some scattered AAA fire.

This was another well played attack by the offense. Top Wop and Slather did an excellent job of suppressing some key defense units while keeping Slick's MiG out of missile shot parameters. Zee got a little too cocky in vying to reach the target and went down but it was Top Wop's timely fake that allowed the Tornado team a win via Madman's killer bomb run.

Table 4:

Popcorn, Iceman, Wildman and Bozo formed the attack teams at this table while Cougar and Gunner played the defenses. Again the offensive teams elected to use Tornados. Cougar and Gunner rolled SA-11s, the MiG-21s and the S- 60 based AAA to fight with.

Here too my notes are lacking but it appears that while the Iron Hand element (Popcorn and Iceman) were fairly effective, the Strike element failed to reach their targets as everyone got tangled up in a furball with the MiG-21s which were controlled by Gunner. The SAM units and guns were run by Cougar. Popcorn avoided two SA- 11 missiles early and knocked out one SA-11 launch vehicle before getting tangled up with Gunner's MiGs. Gunner launched two Magics at Popcorn but one failed to guide and the other was decoyed. However, Cougar did get in a lick with AAA hitting Popcorn for Light damage after he fended the MiG off.

In the same timeframe, Iceman also managed to evade three SA- 11 SAMs but a fourth found its mark sending him down in flames, but not before he got ordnance off whichkilled another of the SA- 11s. At some point the two Strike Tornados tangled with the other MiG and Bozo was crippled by gunfire from the MiG which attacked him from above with a diving vertical roll. Wildman dodged one SA-11 shot and did a few turns with the MiGs but little else. This game was called for time while the furball was still in progress though the MiGs were in the advantaged pursuit position.

This one was interesting because the players opted to dogfight with heavily laden Tornados against very agile MiG opponents. All this while under fire from SA-11 units. The loss of one or more Tornados in this situation was quite predictable. A bad move on the offensive teams parts.

Origins 91 Air Strike Tourney Report

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