In my game Saturday, I ran a combined land-air battle using SpecFors and planes. The Company - The Red River Rangers - had accepted a contract from Ethnic Separatists to help in their war of independance against a Dictatorial Regime, set in an island nation in the Indian Ocean.

The Staff characters poured over the maps and the SitRep, and came to the conclusion that the key to the seemingly hopeless situation was Jind Airbase, the only paved airstrip in the outer islands where the separatists lived. Jind was home to two squadrons of planes - 16 Northrop Tiger IIs and 16 Sukhoi Fitters - and a company of mechanized infantry. In addition, there was a tower with a powerful radar, and a AAA SAM battery.

The Rangers had a flight of Crusaders (the PCs) and a flight of Phantom IIs, operating from a small carrier. Attacking the base from the air was pretty much suicide.

The plan the Staff characters came up was fascinating. An advance group of 8 SpecOps would go in via zodiac, and take the Tower - hopefully without raising the alarm.

A second group of 33 SpecOps would be landed by Pibber in a nearby river, and take out as many vehicles as they could in the vehicle park, then destroy the SAM site. They also had a few techs to run the tower if they could capture it intact.

The third group of 120 light infantry was landed by LCVPs on the beaches at the ends of the strips. They were to secure the two landing strips by laying
tire-puncturing strips across them. and prevent the pilots and ground crews from getting to the parked planes.

Once the tower and SAM site were secured, the Crusaders and Phantoms would launch - the Crusaders to take out any planes in the air, and the Phantoms to strike the mechanized infantry.

The PCs played members of the 1st and 2nd Spc Ops teams - each a mixture of PCs and generic SpecOps personnel - and the Crusader drivers.

The tower was taken in an extraordinarily cool sequence, with the PCs slipping through the guard fence and between security patrols, and into the tower, taking out the security silently, capturing the techs in the offices at the base, and killing those actually at their consoles.

Meanwhile the Pibbers landed the second team, with some excitement from two guard boats that had to be taken out silently by swimmers. They also infiltrated through the guard fence, but were surprised by a light armored vehicle - an IFV - once inside. They took it out with a shoulder-mounted missile, and the alarm was up - luckily, team 1 had just secured the tower.

They pelted down to the first of two vehicle parks - this was by far the smaller of the two - and took out the guards in a short but viscious firefight. They took two IFVs and two APCs and destroyed the rest, heading towards the tower, along the way taking out a squad of armed men - probably crew and/or pilots.

They left most of their men at the tower along with one of the IFVs and both APCs, and in the other IFV, headed towards the SAM site. On the way they had a gun battle with two teams of two IFVs, which they destroyed with gunfire and TOWs. They assaulted the SAM site, driving off the crews and destroying the missiles and RADAR, then swung down to face the main mechanized attack coming up against them.

They sent out teams of SpecFors to either side to blow the buildings on either side into the road, blocking the force until the air strike could get there - a
matter of a few minutes. Their one IFV with a two man crew had to block the road until the demo guys could do their job.

It did in, an awesome running gun battle with three enemy IFVs. The PCs using up every resource at their disposal - I don't think anyone had an Edge or Trait left. The enemy IFVs were destroyed and the road blocked, and then the Phantoms came in to put a hurt on the rest.

Meanwhile, the Crusaders headed in. There was a CAP of 6 F-5s, and two Sukhois had managed to take off before the runways were blocked. The PCs knew all this because the Tower vectored them in. The flight split, with four planes taking on the Tigers, and two going after the Fitters. Three of the Tigers were taken out by surprise - the PCs knowing exactly where they were
thanks to the tower. There was time for a second missile shot before they got in gun range, and two more Tigers were killed. The enemy missiles would have
taken out two of the Crusaders, but the PCs used LUCKs to avert it. The Last Tiger was shot down with guns at very close range, with one PC coming from one o'clock and another from 12. The first PC - the one coming from 1 - got in a lucky shot which ko'd the pilot of the Tiger. The Crusader coming head on also got a burst in seconds later, though it didn't matter, then flipped up to avoid the Tiger. Unfortunately, the Tiger also flipped up (randomly rolled) The one o'clock F-8 rolled away, and was not in danger. The PC avoided a crash using LUCK (Luckily the hydraulics failed due to gun damage, and when the enemy unconciously pulled back on the stick, the plane kept on straight.)

The two Fitters were easy. The F-8s boomed down supersonic from the dive - the Fitters were NOE over the waves - and wasted them before they knew what hit them.

An awesome game, and once more my players surprised me with their inate grasp of tactics. they not only took the base, but took it INTACT, with most of its planes and its Tower. Brilliant job!

-clash

The title should be "IHW:Wild Blue Playtest Session"

If some kind admin-type should chance across this, it would be much appreciated if the title could be amended!

-clash