Thud Ridge - US Tactics

I am not one to talk tactics, on the basis that I have been shotdown every time while playing this game. What I thought I would offer are some thoughts on force compositions and the impact of such on the game. The DRV have one major advantage either of you can shoot each other down, but only the US can get themselves shot down while attacking a target. One strike aircraft in 6 is going to be eating pumkin soup at low level. DRV Tactics are a whole new ball game.

First off, the USAF.
So you look at the rules and the models:

• Fighters, I must take fighters bound to be MiGs
• Bombers, yep need them
• SAR Package, well yes might lose an aircraft or two
• ECM support, keeps those SAMs off

Typical strike package

2 sections of F4 without a gun flying CAP	8 Points.
2 Sections of F-105 strike aircraft	8 Points.
ECM support from an EB-66	2 Points.
1 SAR section of HH-53 and A-1	3 Points.
TOTAL	21 Points.

Your already need 7 VPs to win the game taking this. Assume that the DRV plays clever and doesn't deploy any aircraft and just hopes to shoot you down with SAM or AA the most you can score is 16 points (2 pts per hit on a strategic target) f you go in at Level 1. Any higher and the most you can score is 8 pts. Bomb attacks at Level 1 hit 50% of the time so most likely 6 points and not enough to win if anything goes wrong. If you are at level 2 only 33.3% of your bombs will hit (and you can only score 1 hit per aircraft at this level).

You could also be unlucky and the DRV only places one target in which case any SAM are going to be clustered around the target. It also means he knows where you are going as well and as they move second......will plot an intercept accordingly. Also he has the option of hiding SAMs as well so finding one or two of them on your route in is going to cause trouble so you will need some form of Recce.

2 sections of F4 without a gun flying CAP	8 Points.
3 Sections of F-105 strike aircraft	12 Points.
ECM support from an EB-66	2 Points.
1 SAR section of HH-53 and A-1	3 Points.
Recce Aircraft	3 Points.
TOTAL	28 Points.

28 Points means you now need 9 VPs. 6 from your strike package is the norm, you can probably keep any MiG out the way but SAMs are still a problem. So a pair of Wild Weasels. These will reduce the number of radar locks from his SAMs and will add to your VP total if you take one or two sites out. But you are now upto 32 points and need 10/11 VPs and you now have 16 Aircraft on the table.

2 sections of F4 without a gun flying CAP	8 Points.
3 Sections of F-105 strike aircraft	12 Points.
ECM support from an EB-66	2 Points.
1 SAR section of HH-53 and A-1	3 Points.
Recce Aircraft	3 Points.
1 Section of Wild Weasel	4 Points (F-105)
TOTAL	32 Points. (10/11 VPs)

No one said Thud Ridge was straight forward and you haven't added a tanker or worried about even plotting how your formation would operate yet.
A tanker or ECM support flying a racetrack pattern on your table edge has a turn radius of 15cm. ECM need to be within 60cm of a friendly aircraft to help with Break lock so you could fly close escort with the mission (then enemy only gets 1 VP if you get one shot down).
MiGs chasing your ECM aircraft and threating the returning strikers probably mean keeping a section of CAP back . What happens if one of the strikers goes down? Where do you put the SAR effort, if a plane is shot down over the target by AA and you have only deployed in 30cm it is going to take at least 6 turns to get the Helo into position. You need to soften up the area with the A-1 as well

Why not try a B-52 force or a small low level strike with F-111s

Airforce done, what about the Navy? Historically you have a couple of choices depending on carrier availability. Force strucutre is similar but you have the option of better recce aircraft to find those SAMs.

2 Sections of F-8 flying CAP	8 Points.
3 Sections of A-4 strike aircraft	6 Points.
ECM support from an EKA-3	3 Points.
1 SAR section of two SH-3	3 Points.
RA-5C Recce Aircraft	4 Points.
2 Section of Iron Hand A-4	4 Points
TOTAL	28 Points. (9/10 VPs)

The Navy effort is cheaper for the 18 aircraft on table. You can deal with the SAM threat a lot easier with 4 Iron Hand than the USAF pair of F-105s. The F-8s are well equipped with both gun and HS and will keep the MiG threat off you.