Target For Today: AAR Mission Report Thread

Started by BanzaiCat, April 22, 2018, 04:04:47 PM

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BanzaiCat

This thread will report the ongoing Target For Today campaign.

Until I can hit my stride in how to best / most entertainingly report these goings-on, things might be a bit lackluster. This game has a buttload of tables to roll on and it's not as intuitive as B-17: Queen of the Skies is, though there are some good player aids on BGG that I plan on utilizing moving forward to help with that. There's also a metric ton of modifiers to go through, and that's taken up quite a bit of time, making sure I don't miss any of them.


BanzaiCat

#1
MISSION ONE (of 25)
Target: Villocoublay, France
Type: Airfield
3 May 1943


Aircraft Name:
Air of the Dog

Aircraft Status:
Destroyed

Post-Mission Crew Summary:
BOMBARDIER: Silent Disapproval Robot (SDR) - One Kill, Me-109 - Light Wound, Grazed Skull - Purple Heart award
NAVIGATOR: mirth - no kills - OK
PILOT: BC - no kills - Light Wound, slight tear of triceps muscle on left arm - Purple Heart award
CO-PILOT: JasonPratt (JP) - no kills - OK
ENGINEER: Barthheart - 1/2 Kill Me-210; 1/2 Kill Me-109 - OK
RADIO: Bob48 - no kills - OK
BALL TURRET: Gusington (Gus) - Two Kills, Me-210 and Me-109 - Light Wound, slightly torn pectoral muscle - Bronze Star and Purple Heart awards
LEFT WAIST: undercovergeek (UCG) - no kills - OK
RIGHT WAIST: Jarhead - 1/2 Kill Me-210 - Serious Wound, broken tibia, cannot continue with crew - Purple Heart award
TAIL TURRET: JudgeDredd (JD) - 1/2 Kill, Me-109 and damaged another - OK


Post-Mission Achievement Summary:
Enemy Aircraft Destroyed: 5
(3 x Me-109; 2 x Me-210)

Bombing Run: On Target
Bombing Percentage: 60%


Mission Report
Take-off from base in England without incident in hazy weather. Cloud cover 50% in all Zones to target. Enemy fighter activity was fierce, with upwards of five planes jumping us (in that case, five FW-190s). Our plane position was #10, High Cell.

Ball Turret Gunner Sgt. Gusington acquitted himself well, destroying two enemy planes, one of which was an ME-210 that attacked Air Of The Dog via a vertical climb maneuver. I do not expect these kinds of attacks to continue all that often as it really makes the enemy plane a sitting duck.

Enemy fighter activity, as mentioned, was fierce; we were jumped in every Zone on the way to the target. Our friendly fighter cover was Poor, which did not help matters at all. Without friendly fighter coverage, we were sitting ducks to the Luftwaffe, which had a field day on our raid. As we were in the High Cell, we did not take nearly as many attacks as we would have elsewhere, but we had more than our fair share. The last attack we suffered was as we exited the Target Zone, where four ME-109s came at us from the front - one at 10:30 Level, and three more at each of the three 12 O'clock positions.

The Air Of The Dog did not suffer major damage except during one FW-190 attack, before we entered the Target Zone. Said attack was comprised of five FW-190s which our guns did little more than to scare them away. One such plane coming at us from 9:00 Level hit our bomber seven times, destroying the life rafts in the Bomb Bay, hitting our instrument panel, and damaging our landing gear box. This would not bode well for later.

The bomb run was a success, as we got 60% of our bombs on target. Flak in the Target Zone was Light, both going in and coming out. Our bomber was unscathed from these attacks.

The return to England was relatively peaceful; the raid was attacked by German fighters twice, but our bomber was untouched; friendly fighter cover, though Poor, finally came through for us and ran off an ME-110 that had lined up on our 6 o'clock. (I'm fairly sure JD was a bit miffed about that.)

The real fun came upon landing. Not a cloud in the sky, and excellent conditions. However, our damaged instrument panel and landing gear controls had potential to make things interesting - and indeed they did. Everything that could have gone wrong with a relatively easy landing did, and despite the Pilot and Co-Pilot's best efforts, Air Of The Dog cracked up and tumbled on landing. We were fortunate that nobody was killed; three suffered Light Wounds that would easily heal before the next Mission, but our Right Waist Gunner, Sgt. Jarhead, broke his right tibia clean in the crash and would have to be sent to the hospital for a long recovery. We will incorporate a new Right Waist Gunner before our next Mission, and will also have to acquire a replacement B-17G.

Sgt. Gusington was recommended for a Bronze Star for waxing two German fighters so utterly convincingly, and this was approved by command.

End.


My Notes:
What a hairy ass of a mission. We were constantly attacked going to the target, and our Poor friendly fighter coverage really screwed things, with our bomber taking many attacks on the target run. The bomb run went well, and the crew's combat rolls were generally good with Gus stealing the show with a couple of boxcar rolls for damage on two occasions, blowing the enemy fighters out of the sky.

The -3 modifier that our bomber got for having instrumentation damage would not have been that big a deal...but, I rolled snake eyes on landing, which put the result at -1, causing the bomber to be destroyed and me having to roll for wounds for each of the crew. We lost Jarhead to injury, but it could have been a LOT worse, and a lot more anti-climactic if anyone had gone and gotten themselves killed in their first landing after their first mission. (This game is merciless, and I like that about it.)

Overall this game reminds me a lot of B-17: QotS, but with a hell of a lot more tables and modifiers. I hope to find a good pace with this game soon though right now it feels fairly overwhelming.

Barthheart

You got a Purple Heart for a small scratch after destroying the bomber on landing!?! They really do hand those things out like bubble gum.... :P

Our pilots need more training if any of are going to survive....

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

BanzaiCat

Quote from: Barthheart on April 23, 2018, 07:34:35 AM
You got a Purple Heart for a small scratch after destroying the bomber on landing!?! They really do hand those things out like bubble gum.... :P

Our pilots need more training if any of are going to survive....

I'm making a guess at the Purple Heart. I assume that if you get hurt in the course of a mission, you earn one. I could be wrong. I downloaded some extended/fan-made info on awards and medals from BGG and need to look into it.

JasonPratt

More tables and modifiers =  :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

Surviving that mission without a scratch =  :2funny:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Silent Disapproval Robot


Nefaro

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 23, 2018, 10:08:16 PM
I hit Pratt with a wrench.

Is that like casting Magic Missile at the darkness?

Did you do it in the Hallway or the Study?

Nefaro

QuoteBALL TURRET: Gusington (Gus) - Two Kills, Me-210 and Me-109 - Light Wound, slightly torn pectoral muscle - Bronze Star and Purple Heart awards

So.. Gus twisted his own tit?  ???

JudgeDredd

Quote
I'm fairly sure JD was a bit miffed about that
Yeah I was!
Alba gu' brath

BanzaiCat

To clarify, there are actually injury location tables in the game and Gus' torn pec is an actual result.

JudgeDredd

Get well soon Gus.

Also I can't believe JH has bailed on a wee broken bone pfft  :cowboy:
Alba gu' brath

JasonPratt

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 23, 2018, 10:08:16 PM
I hit Pratt with a wrench.

Entirely fair, under the circumstances. Now I can feel like I belong!  <:-)

However, I would have parried you with my chainsaw, except that I was busy slicing off Gus' ball. It was crushed.

Uh, phrasing, sorry.  :hide:


Quote from: Nefaro on April 23, 2018, 10:12:28 PM
Did you do it in the Hallway or the Study?

I SAID, PHRASING!!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!