Dan Verssen GamesHornet Leader - Carrier Air Operations

Wow whee. What a great game. I had been dying to get this for several years. It was not worth the wait. I should have gotten it as soon as I saw it. This game let's you take the role of a Navy or Marine Corps squadron commander. You pick your pilots (cherry picking or random draw), arm their aircraft and send them on missions. The game has varying levels of difficulty depending on the scenario you pick and what optional rules you choose. One HuGE difficulty thing is if you choose to play a Marine Corps strike carrier. They only fly AV-6B Harrier (and the new stealth fighters after 2014 or so... but you pay alot for them). Harriers have a very limited amount of ordnance in what they can carry and what they can use. The upside is that you get lots of special operation points for using Harriers. You'll need them because a Harrier strike force is not easy to manage.Their load outs are almost all 0 range except for the aim9 and aim 120 (which are the only AA missiles a Harriet can take). They can fly low altitude and gain "nap of the earth". It prevents them from being shot down or damaged. The biggest problem is knocking out long range AA sites before they can punish you. Since most of your ground ordnance is 0 range those AA sites get several shots off before you can take them out. This weakness in mitigated some in earlier campaigns as the better equipment has not yet been developed. Going up against "Hardened" targets is probably not a good idea with a Harrier attack wing. They do not carry enough ordnance that has enough punch. I am currently playing a Marine Corps game in Iran 2014. After the seventh mission i have 2 pilots MiA and only 2 victory points (having pilots go MiA really hurts your Victory Points). I think a Marine Corps General is going to resign after this campaign.That makes me wonder if Marine Corps squadrons only do very specific air missions. I was a tanker (m1a1 abrams) in the army. I really dont know much about fighter squadron doctrine. If that is true your games may bring all your pilots home. I have to live knowing Burger and Saw are stuck in the Iranian countryside evading patrols. I am glad they included the Marine Corps option as it adds another level of depth to the game. There is also an option to use a regular Marine carrier flying hornets , etc.Each scenario allows you to pick a different set of planes depending on the year. Libya (1984), WW3 and Iraq (1991) use different planes from say Iran (2014). I really loved the A7 Corsairs. These planes make missions much easier as their payload capacity is generous. I wish there were more earlier missions though. Some planes are only used for one scenario. You could break the rules and include planes that are supposed to be retired. The game police will not be knocking on your door if you do.The price is fairly high, but you will definitely get your money worth. Every campaign you play will be different and each will tell a story. One thing I added in is keeping a tally of how many fighter kills my pilots have. At the end of the campaign you can declare a Top Gun.I recommend sleeves for the cards. The cards themselves are very flimsy and wear easily. The art in the game is pretty bland in my opinion. It does the job. But I do not feel any immersion from it. The Jet art work gets the same "meh" judgment.That aside this is still a great game. I recommend it for any solitaire player. Dvg has also made a cthulhu expansion. I have heard it is really insanely difficult as things of a dark power should be. Here's hoping DvG makes a battlestar galactica version of Hornet Leader.

Absolute genius from start to end. I'm an avid PC wargamer as I can't find anyone in my personal life that enjoys the beautiful tedium of a paper-game. So when I happened upon this masterpiece of solitaire, I was thrilled. I find it refreshing to do my own calculations and keeping track of turns, mods, and events. The materials are decent quality. I immediately sleeved all of the cards and laminated the campaign sheets, as I plan on playing for a long, long time.My only regret is that I wasn't aware Hornet Leader and it's solitaire counterparts existed until recently.GO GET 'EM.

Product quality and mechanics are admirable. I played the 1991 Iraqi scenario 3 times. For context I served in a fighter wing in 1996-1998 that operated F/A-18 A/Bs.I was a little disappointed in the scenario and game mechanics. Primarily - the opposition had far too many bogies available for each mission - historically their air force was essentially neutralized from the get go. The other issue was 1. amount of my crews that finished each mission stressed, and 2. the frequency with which they had to drop stores resulting in incomplete missions.In summary:1. The stress mechanic is too strong resulting in unrealistic pilot availability,2. ECM and suppression is too ineffective against AA resulting in unrealistic aircraft damage and dropped stores3. 1991 Iraq scenario has more bogies in the first three missions than in the entire actual war4. point value for supporting Prowlers/Growlers/AEW&C is too highLoved the quality and concept but just not enjoyable to play

Hornet Leader - CAO is DVG's latest iteration of the Hornet Leader series, a solitaire wargame whose first incarnation was first published in the early 90's. As such, you're looking at a very polished, very playable game with few flaws. There are good reviews and descriptions elsewhere, so I'll keep it brief: Hornet Leader is a great card & cardboard wargame for anyone interested in modern air combat, and doesn't want to get bogged down in minutiae (saying this from my memories of playing SPI's "Air War", many years ago) but still retains many interesting decisions. It's expensive, but the components and production are solid and the rules are clearly presented. It plays quickly -- overall campaigns consist of many discrete missions, but missions only take a half-hour or 45 minutes to play. At any rate, if you're still the old-school grog who likes airplanes and wants to push cardboard around, you can't get much better than this. (And if you're maybe not a grognard, but wants to jump into the world of wargames, and you like airplanes, this is a good title for you, too :)

Game works as advertised. The rule book could be better and the quality of components is more of the 90s war gaming standard, however the game design is brilliant.Fine games of south bend Oregon delivered the game in 2 days at standard shipping cost, it was packed well and arrived undamaged.

Great

great game. Dan Versen crested a grest strategy game with a lot of historical and technical accuracy.

Love the game. The solitaire aspect makes it ideal for my needs.