Hornet Leader V1.

1
Steven McDougall, 26th August 2013
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Campaign Set Up – choose campaign and prepare your full squadron

– Select Campaign card: place beside Tactical Display board
• decide on US Navy or Marine Corps Campaign
• note starting Special Option (SO) points and Days on Player
Log (these are shown on the map card)
• note these choices on Player Log
• place Recon, Intel, and Infra counters on corresponding tracks

– Select Target cards to determine the targets associated with the

chosen Campaign
• US Navy Campaign:
– select all Target cards that are shown on the map: these
will form the entire Target deck for this Campaign
• Marine Corps Campaign:
– select only those target cards whose number falls within
the closest range band of the map: these will form the
starting Target deck for this Campaign
– once ½ (↑) of the targets in a range band have been
destroyed, it is considered “Secured”
• now add target cards whose number falls within
the next range band of the map to remaining
Target Deck and shuffle: these will update the
Target deck for the Campaign
– some Campaign notes specify additional Targets that
can be targeted at any time as normal

– Shuffle Target and Event decks and place on Tactical Display board
– Select Pilots to fly the Campaign (record Name/Skill/XP/Cool on Player Log)
• Aircraft must have a service year range that includes the year of
the chosen Campaign
– US Navy Campaign: no AV-8Bs allowed
– Marine Corps Campaign: only AV-8Bs and F-35B/Cs allowed
• Short Campaign: 1 Newbie, 2 Green, 4 Average, 1 Skilled
Medium Campaign: 1 Newbie, 2 Green, 5 Average, 1 Skilled,
1 Veteran
Long Campaign: 1 Newbie, 2 Green, 6 Average, 2 Skilled,
1 Veteran
• cumulative cost of Aircraft must not exceed the starting SO
allocation (± SO “cost” of each aircraft is shown along LS side of card)
• SO points can be spent to immediately promote Pilots to higher
Skill Levels (record the costs on Player Log)
– each level increase costs 6/12/18 SO points for
Short/Medium/Long Campaign
– Skill Levels can be increased more than once
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1
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Pre-Flight – determine target to attack today and allocate Aircraft/Ordnance

– Choose a Target: draw number of Target cards as per Recon track and
choose one from those drawn for today’s Mission (discard the others)
• may spend 2SO points to draw 2 more Target cards before
settling on a final target (may repeat this process)
• each Mission will require you to destroy a variety of enemy
units (sites and bandits)
• Scramble Trait: if you draw one of these Target cards, then
stop drawing cards immediately: this must be the chosen
Mission (see P5)
• Improvement Trait: if you draw one of these Target cards, then
the effect is activated immediately and continues to be in effect
until the Target is destroyed (do not discard until destroyed, P5)
• Secondary Trait: if you draw one of these Target cards, then
it may be flown as a secondary Mission on the same day (see p6)
• place selected Target in centre of Tactical Display board
• note target number on Player Log

– May choose to have Down Time and not fly the Mission
• move Recon, Intel, and Intra counters 1 to the left and go to
Mission Debriefing

– Place Enemy Sites on Tactical Display board

• Target card shows how many counters to randomly draw and
place in each Approach and in the Central Area

– Allocate Aircraft/Pilots to the Mission

• choose number of Aircraft up to number shown at centre of
Target card
• Unfit Pilots cannot fly a Mission

– Arm each Aircraft

• Air-to-Air , Air-to-Ground and ECM Pods are Aircraft-specific
(limited to those shown on their respective cards and Campaign card)
• Special Weapons (shown on Campaign card) have SO equal to
Weight Point value (record the cost on Player Log)
– exception: JDAMs - pay 12SO per Mission (total) to load
as many JDAMs as Aircraft can carry
• the total weight of loaded weapons and pods (shown boxed in
top left corner of counter) cannot exceed Aircraft Weight Points
(shown on bottom right corner of card)
– note that some sectors of the battlefield may have a
Weight Point penalty associated with them
– this can be negated for all Aircraft flying the current
Mission at a cost of 1SO per Aircraft
(record the cost on Player Log)

2
 • note that Air-to-Air weapons have yellow stripes on them and
can only be fired at enemy Bandits
• Air-to-Ground weapons can only be fired at enemy Sites
• place Situational Awareness markers on Aircraft card if Pilot is
entitled to them (number shown on top right corner of card)
• place Flight Leader marker on Pilot with highest Skill Rating
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Target Bound Flight – place Aircraft and Bandits

– Draw a Target-Bound Event: draw top card from the Event deck
• apply effects of top section of card

– May choose to abort or partially abort the Mission

• may abort all, some, or none of the Aircraft on Mission
– aborted Aircraft will suffer Target Stress as normal but
will not gain Experience at end of Mission

– Place friendly Aircraft on any perimeter Stand-Off Area(s)

• more than 1 Aircraft can be placed in the same area
• select the altitude of each Aircraft (H or L)

– Place Enemy Bandits on Tactical Display board

• Target card shows how many counters to randomly draw and
place in each Approach and in the Central Area
• remove any counters that show “no Bandit” and put back in
face-down supply

– Intel Air Defence Adjustment: remove/add Site or Bandit depending

upon current Intel status

– Draw an Over-Target Event: draw top card from the Event deck
• apply effects of middle section of card

– Phoenix Missile Attacks: F-14 Tomcats armed with AIM-54s

• may launch any/all of these missiles at enemy Bandits (see P19)
• all fired missiles and targets must be declared before rolling
• follow standard AtA procedure
• these attacks ignore range and are not penalised for carrying
AtG counters

– Place Turn Counter on Turn 1 of Mission

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3
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Over Target Operations – 5 Turns of Combat and Aircraft Movement for the
current Mission
– Jettison Decision: Aircraft may remove any munitions from their card
• sometimes useful to remove AtG missiles to avoid Dogfight
penalties later

– Fast Pilots now attack one at a time against enemy Sites and Bandits
• Slow Pilots can discard 1 point of Situational Awareness to
attack with Fast Pilots at this stage (they can also attack later when the
Slow Pilots attack)
– Flight Leader can also discard his Situational
Awareness points to benefit other Pilots

Attacking
• an Aircraft can attack once during this phase
• Pilot declares single enemy Site or Bandit in any area that is
within range of the deployed weapons or cannon or can declare
an attack against the Target (card) itself
– note: Independent weapons can be fired at a different
target(s) outside that initially targeted by the Aircraft
– range is traced area-by-area by the shortest available
path
• Pilot assigns Weapons or Cannon to the identified target:
he can either:
– attack Target (card) with any/all AtG Weapons with
sufficient range (see P19-20 for details of use) if Aircraft is at
proper Altitude, or
– attack Target (card) with Cannon if at Low Altitude and
Aircraft is in Centre Area, or
– attack Site with any/all AtG Weapons with sufficient
range if Aircraft is at proper Altitude, or
– attack Site with Cannon if at Low Altitude and
Aircraft is in same Area as Site, or
– attack Bandit with any/all AtA Weapons with sufficient
range, or
– attack Bandit with Cannon if Aircraft is in same Area as
Bandit

• Air-to-Air Procedure: roll 1d10 for each assigned Weapon or

Cannon
– + AtA Modifier of Pilot (based on Stress level)
– - Bandit DRM if applicable
– - Weight Point penalty if carrying AtG missiles (excl. Pod)
and Bandit is in same Area as Aircraft
– score a Hit if Result ≥ Attack Number (top R of Weapon
chit or Aircraft card)
• 1 Hit destroys an enemy Bandit (counter to supply)
– remove all committed Weapon chits from Aircraft

4
 • Air-to-Ground/Air-to-Target Procedure: roll 1d10 for each
assigned Weapon or Cannon
– apply any DRMs shown on counters, etc

– Cannon: only ever inflict 1 Hit if Result ≥ 10

– AtG Weapons:
– if: 1st Attack Number ≤ Result < 2nd Attack Number
• 1 Hit scored
– if: 2nd Attack Number ≤ Result < 3rd Attack Number
• 2 Hits scored
– if: 3rd Attack Number ≤ Result < 4th Attack Number
• 3 Hits scored
– if: 4thAttack Number ≤ Result
• 4 Hits scored

– 1 Hit destroys an enemy Site (counter to supply)

– Target Damage counters are used to track damage to
Target card (this can be destroyed before Sites and Bandits are cleared)
• note that Infra track could modify required hits
– remove all committed Weapon chits from Aircraft

– Enemy Sites and Bandits Attack

• all surviving enemy units target the closest Aircraft it is able
to attack (choose randomly if more than one)
– note that Sites are limited by range to and Altitude of
targeted Aircraft
– Bandits are limited by range to targeted Aircraft
• each enemy unit can only attack once per turn
• all attacks are declared before any are resolved
• ECM Pod: enemy attack fails immediately if target Aircraft is
carrying an ECM Pod and 1d10 ≥ 6
• Suppression Attempt: after attack has been determined, any
one Aircraft can try to suppress it (use normal Weapons or Cannon AtG
or AtA procedure)
– if suppression scores a hit, that particular enemy attack
is cancelled
• Evasion Attempt: after attack has been determined, the target
Aircraft can try to evade it
– Pilot gains 2 Stress points (place on Aircraft card)
• only 1 Stress if ECM Pod on Aircraft
– the attack proceeds normally, except that 2d10 are
rolled and the lower result used

5
 Enemy Attack Procedure: roll 1d10 for the Site or Bandit
– if: 1st Attack Number ≤ Result < 2nd Attack Number
• add 1 Stress to target Aircraft
– if: 2 Attack Number ≤ Result < 3rd Attack Number
nd

• add 2 Stress to target Aircraft

• remove all Weapons, Pod, Situational
Awareness counters from Aircraft
• Aircraft destroyed if already damaged
– if: 3 Attack Number ≤ Result
rd

• Aircraft destroyed: remove from Mission and

conduct a Search and Rescue (SAR) check
during the Home-Bound Flight phase

– Slow Pilots now attack one at a time against enemy Sites and Bandits
as per Fast Pilots
• Fast Pilots can discard 1 point of Situational Awareness to
attack with Slow Pilots at this stage (even if they attacked earlier with
the Fast Pilots)
– Flight Leader can also discard his Situational
Awareness points to benefit other Pilots

– Aircraft Movement
• Altitude: choose Altitude of the Pilot’s Aircraft
(and flip counter if necessary)
• Movement: each Aircraft can move to an adjacent Area of the
Tactical Display board
– may choose to end the Mission early by removing all
Aircraft from the Display and move on to Home-Bound
Flight phase (must end if turn 5)

– Enemy Bandits Move

• if a Bandit is within range of any Aircraft, it does not move
• otherwise, move Bandit one Area closer to the closest Aircraft
(choose randomly if more than one)

– Advance Turn Counter by 1 space and continue Mission by repeating

the Over-Target sequence (up to 5 turns of combat)

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6
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Home-Bound Flight – Mission ended: search and rescue, then fly home

– Draw a Home-Bound Mission Event from the Event deck

• apply effects of bottom section of card

– Pilot Search and Rescue: roll 1d10 for each Pilot who was flying an
Aircraft that crashed during the Mission
• -WP penalty of target band on map
• +1 DRM for each WP of AtG Weapons sacrificed by other
Aircraft still flying the Mission
• +2 DRM if Aircraft crashed during Target Bound step
• +1 DRM if Aircraft crashed during Home Bound step
• Result ≤ 5: Pilot becomes Unfit (if rescued by an Event, then he
gains 1XP as normal, resets Stress to 3 and can fly next Mission)
• Result 6-8: Pilot suffers 5 additional Stress
(he also gains 1XP as normal and can fly next Mission)
• Result ≥ 9: Pilot suffers 3 additional Stress
(he also gains 1XP as normal and can fly next Mission)
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Debriefing – post-Mission maintenance of Squadron

– Record Victory Points for the Mission just completed

• check VPs from Target card if destroyed (0 if not destroyed)
• if target destroyed
– adjust Intel, Recon, and Intra tracks as per Target card
(if a secondary Mission was also flown, only adjust after both Missions
have been completed )
– set aside Target card for later evaluation
• if target not destroyed
– remove Target card from game

– Check Campaign Outcome if end of final Mission (see Campaign card)

• -1VP for each Aircraft destroyed during Campaign
• -1/2/3 VP for each Pilot that did not recover from Unfit status
during a short/medium/long campaign

– Add Pilot Stress on Aircraft card for each Pilot who flew the Mission
• ascribed Stress Points depend upon the attacked Target
Range Band (shown on map)
• reduce number of Stress Points by Pilot’s Cool

– All Pilots that did not fly during the current day lose 2 Stress Points
• lose additional Stress Points = Cool Rating

7
 – Rest and Relaxation: may spend 9SO Points (total) to remove 2 Stress
Points (+ Pilot’s Cool Rating) from every Pilot in the Squadron

– Update Pilot Experience Points and Stress on Player Log for each
Pilot who flew the Mission
• 1XP gained for flying the Mission (even if crashed or killed)
• +1XP if Target was destroyed and no Aircraft was destroyed
• note that some Target or Event cards can give XPs

– Check for Pilot Promotions

• promote if XP total ≥ XP target on Pilot card
• Newbie → Green → Average → Skilled →Veteran → Ace
• note new status on Player Log and record any remaining XP
• re-check his Stress and record his new Cool Rating

– All Aircraft are now automatically repaired

– Return to Start of next Day unless end of Campaign reached

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