Heading for a Court Martial: Thunderbolt/Apache Leader (Dan Verssen Games) AAR

I decided to dig out Thunderbolt/Apache Leader (TAL) from Dan Verssen Games recently. It's another game I bought since moving to Norway, and, like Gloomhaven, it has the significant advantage that you can play a mission in half an hour, meaning that a campaign can be fitted easily into and around a busy week, provided that you have somewhere to leave it set up.

I've wanted this game since it first came out in 1991. Unfortunately, those were the days when I had more time than money, and little enough of either really. I played the original Hornet Leader that also came out in 1991 until the fateful day that my mother's dog ate my copy of that game, so I was aware of the system and knew that I got on with it. Still, it took thirty years before I found myself looking for more boardgames and jumped on TAL as one of my choices to fill my time.

I love what DVG has done with the game. The components are good quality and it comes with a mounted mapboard. I also like the new model hex tiles over the original game's cards. It's much more aesthetically pleasing. The only down side is the that the rulebook's structure and lack of an index makes looking things up quickly hard work. It's structured to fit with the game turn sequence, which is great, but that also means that information and rules can be scattered throughout the rules. It's not a dealbreaker for me, but it's a pain when coming back to the game after a break. It's a good job the rules are available as a free pdf, which makes looking things up much easier, although I play boardgames to get away from my electronic gizmos so it partially defeats the object. Still, it's helpful, and I don't need to check my tablet too often.

One of the other attractions of TAL is that it is not too serious, although you might not believe that from some of the posters on the BGG forum! The game reminds me of watching Airwolf or playing one of the various arcade machines where you fly around strafing the baddies. It's very Hollywood/videogame, and I love that. I mean, even the hex tiles for the terrain remind me of every canyon Airwolf ever flew down, while the ability to 'fly' A-10 Warthogs reminds me of the planes that used to fly over our house on the way to the bombing range so low they nearly took the chimney off every time. I guess this game has a fair bit of nostalgia going on too!

The game itself is a mix of management and tactics. You need to manage your pilots, planes and resource points (SO points), and you need to plot the best route through the enemy to maximise death and destruction. Getting the balance right to achieve victory is proving problematic for me so far, and the best rating I have achieved is 'Adequate', which feels more like damning with faint praise than a real success.

Pakistan 2013: Rapid Deployment

So, how does it play? I picked the theatre and the mission at random and wound up with what looks like a rather difficult mission, even though it is rated as standard. The problem here is that I don't get a lot of resources unless I pick old tech and the enemy forces get a lot of bonuses for movement, so they are likely to be right up in my face from the get go.

For my squadron, I pick:

• 1 AH64 Apache (aka Airwolf!)
• 2 A10 Thunderbolts

This does not feel like enough planes to take on the rapidly advancing enemy, but I hope the A10s pack enough punch to blunt their advance from day 1. Anything the Apache ... umm, sorry ... Airwolf does will be a bonus. I also buy a Scout which can increase my time over the battlefield if I am lucky.

All set up to play. Damage chits and Random enemy chits in the cups at the top

The planes are accompanied by a stable of pilots equal to the number of each type of plane plus one. I select pilots and choose not to downgrade or upgrade any of them.

I draw the special condition for the day. Turns out the enemy is particularly mobile and get yet another bonus for advancing on my airbase. That means that all the assault forces are guaranteed to advance and the support forces will advance most of the time with the command forces probably advancing. This is going to be a problem.

Enemy starting locations. Each range band they move closer to my Air Base, the harder things get

Then it is time to allocate planes and pilots to missions. I decide to attack the Fast Assault force, the Scout force and the Air Defence force. The Fast Assault force needs to go because it gets extra bonuses to move towards my lines and I cannot afford to have lots of enemies up in my face. If they get there, it increases the Stress my pilots suffer, which in turn increases their likelihood of becoming unavailable to fly. There are already enough modifiers that will lead to the enemy closing in on my, so they need to go. The other two are more vulnerable forces so I am focusing on them in the hope that I can destroy them more easily. That will reduce the number of targets I need to attack on Day 2. Ideally, some of the forces that give all those horrible bonuses will advance at the end of Day 1 and become more vulnerable to attack.

Day 1

So, time to arm my planes and enter the fray. I'm going to allocate 1 SO point to each plane which will buy me 10 points of weapons. That permits me a good number of Hellfire missiles and other better quality bombs and missiles, making Day 1 a bit easier.

First up is Gumby in an A10 versus the Air Defence force. The terrain is laid out and I dice for the locations of the baddies and it looks good. Looking at the (randomly determined) terrain layout and enemy deployment, combined with the 'Low Approach' Mission Event which means that the bad guys don't get to fire on turn 1, a clear tactic is evident. Gumby will use the ridge lines for cover and fly a low figure eight through the enemy. With a few decent dice rolls, he has a chance of taking out the whole force. We'll start by getting up close and personal with a SAM unit before it has a chance to fire. Those SAMs are quite lethal if I am not careful.

The flight goes substantially as expected. The enemy is caught by surprise and the Hellfires are on target, leaving a trail of carnage in Gumby's wake. The only problem is the SAM unit and an APC that take cover, meaning that Gumby will not be able to use Hellfire missiles on them. Instead, he has to get in and use his cannon. Unfortunately, he is not as good with cannon as he is at standing off and firing missiles, so it is a chancier attack. He flies in and misses the APC, leaving him vulnerable to attack by both it and the SAM unit. The choice of an ECM pod suddenly comes into its own. I roll unfeasibly high and both units find their attacks jammed and unable to lock. With his fuel low, Gumby gets up close and personal with the SAM unit and destroys it, before dodging some enemy fighters on his return to base.

Target destroyed, sir!

Next up is Pirate in an A10 versus the Scout force. Upon reflection, I think this was a mistake. Pirate should have attacked the Fast Assault force. Again, the terrain is laid out and the enemy deployed. The route through the enemy is less clear this time, but I plan a similar flight path to last time. In no time at all, the Scout force is scattered and Pirate is flying home.

Enemy destroyed, Sir!

The third mission for the day sees Judge flying an Apache in an attack on the Fast Assault force. I had thought he could hover and fire off the Hellfire missiles in a bid to take out half the force, which would then be ripe for picking off the next day. Unfortunately, he could not hit the broad side of a barn door and the enemy remained largely unscathed.

The enemy advance rapidly

The day ended with the enemy battalions advancing. Not unexpectedly, given all the modifiers, the assault battalions moved quickly towards my baseline and the support and command battalions seemed mostly keen to keep up.

Day 2

Day 2 dawned and my pilots were ready for their next mission. They even got an Email from Home (special condition for the day) that reduced their stress from the day before.

I needed to take out the Fast Assault force because it was closing in on my airbase. With the support battalions moving up, they had become better targets too and I could think about taking them out to slow down the advance by removing some of those modifiers that made it easier for the enemy to close on me.

So, I sent in Gumby to take on the Fast Assault force. He was having a bit of an off day though and only reduced it to half strength. Worse yet, the enemy got their eye in and punched all kinds of holes in his plane, but he still got it home.

Partial success. If you look at the sector map (top right) you can see that Battalion 9A has advanced  at the start of the day thanks to the special ability of the enemy Engineering unit

Flash got sent after the enemy Engineering Unit, because that one gave the enemy assault forces a free advance at the start of each day. Standing off in his Apache, he sent missile after missile at them and destroyed the battalion, although he took some damage that would soon be repaired.

Flash gives the enemy what for!

Pirate pitched up in his A10 with orders to take out the enemy Infantry Battalion. The initial approach went well, but he soon found himself outnumbered and outgunned. A lucky enemy shot saw him killed in his cockpit! Nothing you can do when you draw the 'Killed' chit from the damage pot.

Pirate's name is added to the squadron Roll of Honour

This was a bad day for mission events with my pilots encountering enemy fighters and enemy SAMs both on the way in and on the way home. I'm low on SO points with all the enemy on the doorstep of my base, so I'm going to have to focus on clearing up there before I can try anything fancy.

Day 3

As Day 3 dawns, I realise I am in trouble and see that I should have concentrated my forces better in the early stages. Better to kill units properly than spread my fire around. Worse yet, the special condition for the day is Enemy Advance. I choose to advance a command unit that was close to the rear, but it is still a less-than-ideal situation. I've not had the best random event draws so far with most going against me. Maybe today things will pick up.

So, Time to send Halo out to attack the Fast Assault force in an A10. It's at half strength so he should be ok. The mission goes as anticipated and Halo is able to finish off the force. Horray!

Flash heads out in an Apache to take on a Mixed Force. He should be less vulnerable to this force than to the Infantry Force (I thought!). My goal is to try to reduce it to half strength. I think destroying it is an unrealistic goal Unfortunately, things do not go to plan. It was not possible to position his Apache where it could avoid being shot at. The first shot wounds Flash and leaves him unable to fire on the first turn. Never mind. Try again. Bang! He is wounded again, killing him and his Apache crashes. He never even got a shot off.

Two pilots down, and two planes down. This is bad. I'm just lucky to have enough SO points to not suffer immediate defeat. I spend a tonne of victory points replacing the two destroyed aircraft and a tonne of SO points repairing damage. Meanwhile, the enemy is right outside my airbase and all up in my face.

Day 4

Day 4 was a mad scramble to keep things under control.

I sent Gumby out to take on one of the command forces. I figured it would be a reasonable chance of getting at least half victory points. As it turned out, Gumby was able to annihilate the whole force, although his plane came home with a tonne of bullet holes in it. I'm going to have to claim this one on insurance, I think.

I send out  an Apache and a Thunderbolt (piloted by my new pilot, Thor) against the infantry force that had killed Pirate. They piled into the combat area and started laying around them with Hellfire missiles, cannon rounds and anything else they could drop. The enemy battalion was destroyed but both pilots returned home with planes that looked like lace hankies more than they did combat aircraft. Thor was definitely going to need a week off after this. Good job they build those Thunderbolts solidly but I see another insurance claim in the offing.

Game end

With two battalions destroyed on the last day, I totted up the points. My score of 10 points gave me a Dismal rating, but at least I did not lose. In retrospect, I should not have bothered buying an extra Thunderbolt pilot to replace Pirate. Not spending that point would have raised my rating from Dismal to merely Poor.

Final Thoughts

Well, wasn't that a fine mess I made? Hardly my finest hour, but I had fun and I can safely blame the mission event cards and the damage chits for my worst failures. It felt like every flight was either sent bad coordinates or encountered enemy anti-aircraft fire heading to or from the target. Similarly, the damage chits were all quite serious, and my ECM barely functioned after the first day. I'm definitely taking the ECM back to Toys R Us and demanding a refund. The special conditions were more balanced and helped keep me in the game though.

This is a game I can pick up whenever I feel like without worrying that I need to completely relearn the rules. The tactics, on the other hand, are something I need to work on. It can be hard balancing needing to damage as many enemy battalions as possible with needing to concentrate my firepower to fully destroy them.

I do need to try using more different aircraft, but, honestly, I only got the game because I wanted to fly Thunderbolts, and to a lesser extent Apaches.

There is little to differentiate the different theatres other than the technology at the date the campaign is set, so Libya is the same as Pakistan is the same as the North Atlantic WW3. That means that the scene setting has to happen in your head. Fortunately, the different missions do feel different. The Rapid Deployment mission feels different from the Surge mission, for example. Despite the lack of differentiation in the theatres, the mix of aircraft and missions is sufficient to provide enough variety straight out of the box without buying any of the expansions. Overall, this is a great fun game. It's cinematic, arcade action on the tabletop and just what the doctor ordered. Now, do I set up for a different campaign or try something different next?