Introduction

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Hornet Leader II is a solitaire board game that simulates the experience of leading a squadron of aircraft through a campaign. Designed by Dan Verssen, the creator of Down in Flames, it is available exclusively as a PDF printable download or VASSAL game. Naval Warfare Simulations also sells a high-quality, print on demand version for those who prefer the traditional board gaming experience to VASSAL.

For those unfamiliar with VASSAL, it is a free Java program that allows board games to be played on computer by providing a graphical interface to the maps, boards, counters, and other components. VASSAL also allows real-time and play-by-email functionality for online players. For solitaire games like Hornet Leader II, VASSAL’s save game functionality is particularly useful, allowing the state of the game to be saved without requiring any precious table space. The program is available here.

Overview

The general objective of Hornet Leader II is to successfully complete a campaign by flying missions, destroying targets, and managing your team of Hornet pilots. Campaigns last for a pre-determined number of days and each day your team must fly a mission against a chosen target. As you fly missions, your pilots accumulate stress and experience. Given enough experience, a pilot will get promoted and improve in skill. Given enough stress, a pilot will become ‘shaken’ and less effective, eventually becoming ‘unfit’ to fly. As you destroy targets, you will have more choice in the kinds of missions you fly and enemy defenses will be weaker. You also have access to a limited amount of special operations points, which allow you to use powerful ordnance on a mission. During the course of the campaign, you will constantly be called upon to make decisions on which pilots must fly, which need rest, what special ordnance to allocate, and whether to go after a big target with substantial risks and substantial rewards, or whether to go for a smaller one allowing more of your team to rest. Since different pilots can handle differing amounts of stress, the best pilot may not be the best workhorse. Some pilots will be eligible for promotion after only a few missions, others may take many more to improve. And in spite of your careful planning, you likely will lose pilots to a dangerous and unpredictable enemy.

The main Playing Surface displays mission critical data

Gameplay

The bulk of the action in Hornet Leader II comes from flying the missions that comprise the larger campaign. To fly a mission, you draw a number of Target Cards determined by the campaign and the amount of damage you have already caused, selecting the one you would like to attack. The Target Card dictates the site defenses, bandits present, amount of weight Hornets can carry, and the number of pilots required.

After choosing a target, you select a set of pilots and equip them with ordnance to destroy the target and suppress defenses. A wide variety of munitions are modeled by the game, from simple 500lb Mk.83 iron bombs, to HARM anti-SAM missiles, to Paveway laser guided bombs. Different weapons have differing weights, effectiveness, ranges, and altitudes at which they may be fired. All of this should be taken into account when arming your pilots, who also have differing abilities to attack air and ground targets.

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