[OOC] Thunderbolt Black (Fighter Pilot Mercenaries)

[urukhai]

@The Mage

Hmm you do that, ill take a couple grey hunter squads with a plasma or a RL a small thing of wolf guard and Bjorn the Fellhanded

[Rhona W]

Pff, you kids and your 40k.
When I started playing back in the 90's, it was second edition. Back when it still had a sense of humour, and when there were no codexes for the Grey Knights, the Dark Eldar were just a throwaway line of fluff in a codex, the Tau weren't even an idea with mecha stolen from anime, and you had to scratch-build if you wanted half the stuff you can get nowadays.

I gave up after the whole game was re-launched with new rules, as the Eldar army I'd spent £100's+ building and making into a killing machine was completely invalidated by the changes in rules, and I'd have had to spend as much again making it 'rules legal' to play. Plus I got fed up with how tremendously po-faced and SRS BZNS grimdark the whole damn thing was.

Also, when someone once said that '40k is the best sci-fi universe ever' with a straight face, I almost died of laughter-induced seizures.

[The Mage]

Pff, you kids and your 40k.
When I started playing back in the 90's, it was second edition. Back when it still had a sense of humour, and when there were no codexes for the Grey Knights, the Dark Eldar were just a throwaway line of fluff in a codex, the Tau weren't even an idea with mecha stolen from anime, and you had to scratch-build if you wanted half the stuff you can get nowadays.

I gave up after the whole game was re-launched with new rules, as the Eldar army I'd spent £100's+ building and making into a killing machine was completely invalidated by the changes in rules, and I'd have had to spend as much again making it 'rules legal' to play. Plus I got fed up with how tremendously po-faced and SRS BZNS grimdark the whole damn thing was.

Also, when someone once said that '40k is the best sci-fi universe ever' with a straight face, I almost died of laughter-induced seizures.

@Silverwind Blade

well, it's something to do. Only thing that I saw that I'd like to waste time and money on. I love it because I love painting, and it's calming.

It's not the best sci-fi universe. that title is between Star Trek and BSG IMHO.

and it contains so much fluff it can fill the world with nice, soft pillows xD.

also, Urukhai, nice Bandwagon. I'll stick to mine.

[Rhona W]

well, it's something to do. Only thing that I saw that I'd like to waste time and money on. I love it because I love painting, and it's calming.

Oh, I'm not being overly down on it - my tongue is wedged firmly within my cheek, have no fear. I know that it's still exceedingly popular, and even going from strength to strength. Good for you if you enjoy it, and I won't hold anyone's hobbies against them (well, unless they're like, torturing small animals or something).
I enjoyed it when I was really into it, and I'm glad you get enjoyment out of it too. I build Gundam and military models myself, and I find it the same - I enjoy the creativity and imagination I put into my models, and the focus and concentration I get when painting and building.

[The Mage]

sadly everyone around me doesn't like battle-damaged models, even world war 2 era- tanks are painted bright Pink.

Seriously, I get satisfaction staring at my Blue-painted tau with Ash and concrete dust covering their uniforms, their paint starting to chip from their constant battles....well, the ones I make up of course....

DAMNIT. My fekkin kitten climbed up my dresser and broke my only two Drones.....

my 4+ invuln...

GONE!

*crying noises*

[Foster]

No JP233 on the Tornado F3/ADV though, as it's an interceptor and not a ground attack aircraft.

@Silverwind Blade

Operationally, no.

But the ADV could carry the same air-to-ground ordnance as its dedicated strike-cousins, but it was designed mostly for patrol-duty and carries the same ten hardpoints with a max-rated capacity of nine metric tons. It would just be a waste of a good radar-platform and suffer from poor(er) downward-visibility in the same way as using a MiG-23 like it were a MiG-27k.

Is moot point though, for some reason due to lack of sleep I perpetually thought the Tornado was one of the ground-pounders on this flight.
-Or at least I was really hoping for it.

Side-note: would it be alright if Short-Round 'rents to own' one of the local Su-25Ks? Assuming she can get them to load one up and park it on the taxiway, she could cut-down her turnaround-time in hopes to make-up for the team not having an A-10 pilot handy.
-Won't be calling-in a Chinese strike plane because those are either 2-seaters or totally made of suck.

Although in this case it will be a 2-seat UBK model, with a dead-head observer trying to teach/learn/sell the plane.

ALSO:
Technically, any guided air-to-grounds are called "Rifle" in brevity. Fox-One is for Semi-active radar air-to-air, such as AIM-7 and AIM-120.
-This can be particularily jarring to anyone waiting to hear "Fox [number]!" before anything is fired
(The reason why AGMs have a brevity at all [unlike iron-bombs, although even then it's a good thing to note ingress/egress from the kill-box] is to inform other planes that your pilot will have a mild case of target-fixation)

I also noticed I may have swooped the GM's targets.

[The Mage]

You know what.

I'm done with this cat.

I am.

I am about to take this cat, stretch him out like a rubber band and send him flying to the ISS.

I am done with him.

He has destroyed ALL of my old mega bloks creations I built many years ago.

He has broken my missile drone and my shield drone

and my XV88 Broadside.

That's a total of $300 worth of destruction!

300!

****ING

DOLLARS!

[Foster]

I would have suggested erecting a giant wood/cardboard force-field around your valuables that also served to organize them neatly for display-purposes.

In the meantime, fix them wounded models.

[Rhona W]

In the meantime, fix them wounded models.

Break out the pin-drill, wire and superglue.

I'll get an IC post up either shortly, or tomorrow PM, GMT.

Is moot point though, for some reason due to lack of sleep I perpetually thought the Tornado was one of the ground-pounders on this flight.

I figured that was most likely the case myself.

Side-note: would it be alright if Short-Round 'rents to own' one of the local Su-25Ks? Assuming she can get them to load one up and park it on the taxiway, she could cut-down her turnaround-time in hopes to make-up for the team not having an A-10 pilot handy.

The mission(s) and the contract won't likely go on long enough for that to become an issue for the meantime. We're not going to be running back-to-back sorties, I can let you in on that much for now. I thought I'd ease us into things this time, and save the hair-raising stuff for later, when the stakes get higher (should things last that long, fingers crossed).

I might entertain the idea of people having 'back up' planes some time in the future, but not right now. There'd also be the logistics to consider of getting twice as many planes to wherever we'd be based for each mission, which is a headache - for example, it would mean we'd have twice as many pilots... so in which case, if they can fly the planes to the base we're at... why aren't they flying the missions? xD
We'll see about it some other time. But right now, I wouldn't worry about the Su-25, you won't need it, I promise.

[ShiningSector]

From the north east, a quartet of radar returns briefly flashed on screen, almost ghosting, before dropping off again.

@Silverwind Blade

Suddenly I'm reminded of the oh so bad situation presented in the mission Gracemeria Patrol (Ace Combat 6).

[The Mage]

<Snipped quote by Silverwind Blade>

Suddenly I'm reminded of the oh so bad situation of presented in the mission Gracemeria Patrol (Ace Combat 6).

@ShiningSector

that game still makes me sad for Garuda 2

[Foster]

I might entertain the idea of people having 'back up' planes some time in the future, but not right now. There'd also be the logistics to consider of getting twice as many planes to wherever we'd be based for each mission, which is a headache - for example, it would mean we'd have twice as many pilots... so in which case, if they can fly the planes to the base we're at... why aren't they flying the missions? xD
We'll see about it some other time. But right now, I wouldn't worry about the Su-25, you won't need it, I promise.

@Silverwind Blade

Actually the plan was to hot-bunk planes in the event a pilot is incapacitated*, as right now we have a perfectly fine A-10 without a pilot assigned, but there is no plane ready to fly with it if we hot-bunked just the one.

But I do see the issue of actually moving these planes between theaters, unless they always returned to the same carrier.

*Aside from illness, rearm/refuel and in-air-refueling is usually quick enough that pilot-fatigue from sustained operations to be an issue.
Battle-Damage-Repair is also a timely-thing.

Anyways, I've still got nails, nape, and guns to go-go.
-that, and a pair of Fox-Two/Rifles. (odd thing, the Chinese PL-9 has an Air-Ground mode)

[Rhona W]

-that, and a pair of Fox-Two/Rifles. (odd thing, the Chinese PL-9 has an Air-Ground mode)

That's pretty interesting, and kind of useful. I did read a couple of years ago that the Sidewinder had been tested as an air-to-ground missile around the same time, but I never read any follow-up news on it. I guess the PL-9 shows that it can be done.

Suddenly I'm reminded of the oh so bad situation presented in the mission Gracemeria Patrol (Ace Combat 6).

I couldn't possibly comment. ^__^

[Foster]

<Snipped quote>

That's pretty interesting, and kind of useful. I did read a couple of years ago that the Sidewinder had been tested as an air-to-ground missile around the same time, but I never read any follow-up news on it. I guess the PL-9 shows that it can be done.

@Silverwind Blade

Well, the SA-6 and RIM-7 Sea Sparrow also have land-attack modes.

AGM-87 'Focus' was the IR-homing version designed to home-in on trucks moving at night.

AGM-122 were passive radar-guided, often also fitted with parachutes that would allow them to 'loiter' over suspected radar-stations, and you could carry A LOT of them.

MIM-72 was the ground-launched version that remained popular until '98 since it was WAY more effective than the redeye.

[ShiningSector]

I couldn't possibly comment. ^__^

@Silverwind Blade

Now I'm worried.

[Rhona W]

Well, the SA-6 and RIM-7 Sea Sparrow also have land-attack modes.

AGM-87 'Focus' was the IR-homing version designed to home-in on trucks moving at night.

AGM-122 were passive radar-guided, often also fitted with parachutes that would allow them to 'loiter' over suspected radar-stations, and you could carry A LOT of them.

MIM-72 was the ground-launched version that remained popular until '98 since it was WAY more effective than the redeye.

I remember reading about the Sidearm previously - I'm sure I read about Apaches using them on some mission during Desert Storm, but I can't find the source now. I'm not even sure that it wasn't a piece of fiction (like a novel or something) without the source.
I've read since that the stocks of Sidearms are depleted, with no action taken to create new ones, I guess there's no perceived need for it. Or no money, at least.

I hadn't recalled the AGM-87, but the particular program I remembered and was referring to was this one, for the AIM-9X - http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/exclusive-raytheon-adapts-aim-9x-for-air-to-ground-335762/

Now I'm worried.

[The Mage]

You're Evil, Silver

but I like Evil

[ShiningSector]

...So how are you all doing?

[The Mage]

doing good

nephews over until Saturday which will mean I will not be able to post because MIGRAINES

[Rhona W]

Busy with work. Trying to get back into my writing while I'm all caught up with RP. Organizing stuff for the next episode of my podcast too.