P1Y Frances **Done**

I know it'd make for a crowded card but what about adding Combined Attack or Comb Attack?

COMBINED ATTACK: While this unit is in the same sector as a friendly Dive Bomber, it rolls one extra attack die when making Torpedo attacks.

COMB ATTACK: During the Air Attack step, if a local friendly Aircraft makes a Torpedo attack, this unit rolls one extra attack die when making Torpedo attacks this turn.

OK, I finally got around to playtesting this unit out with some friends along with the 'Jill' and the SM.79 side by side.

For targeting when in sector my opponent's priority firing was: SM.79, 'Jill', and then the Frances.
For AA Placement of fighters my opponent's generally left the SM.79 to the ship AA, while he chased after the 'Jill' first then the Frances.

When asked why he targeted the 'Jill' over the Frances, it basically came down to: "They have the same armor, and do the same damage from R1. I may as well take out the one worth more points and can fly every turn off your carrier."

The one thing we did find is that during a night battle or using long distance rules the Frances is ALOT more valuable as it could benefit from the better search roles and not have to roll for return.

I also think we should keep this unit's cost to 11, which means as it sits something needs to come out of it. So from my playtesting and post discussions we came up with the following:

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Aircraft
Patrol bomber
Year: 1944
Cost: 11
Bomb: 8
TT: 2/1
A/VA/HP: 5/8/1

Ranged Torpedo Attack - This unit's Torpedo attack has range 1. When this unit makes a range 1 attack, that attack can't benefit from Special Abilities.
Kamikaze Attack - This unit can make a 11 dice Bomb attack instead of a Torpedo attack during your Air Attack phase. Destroy this unit after the attack.

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Basically:
1) reduce the cost to 11.
2) remove Excellent Endurance
3) Increase the Kamikaze Attack to 11 instead of 10 (theoretically it would have a bigger payload, more weight, and fuel to cause more damage than a 'Jill' or Zero.)

As a note we discussed removing the restrictions of SAs adding to the R1 torpedo attack, but IIRC the 'Jill" ability was errated to disallow all SAs not just the Expert Torpedoes from boosting the torpedo attack.

One last note: we were thinking of a more complex Kamikaze Attack SA (combining it with Press the Attack):
Kamikaze Run - This unit can make a 11 dice Bomb attack instead of a Torpedo attack during your Air Attack phase. If this unit is aborted by a ship's Antiair attack, you may roll a die. On a 4 or higher, this unit continues with its Bomb attack during your air attack phase, hitting on a 5 or higher only.  Destroy this unit after the attack.

Thoughts/Questions?

True, but that would affect he A/V/H values.  Since it is better armored but less agile it has the same Armor value... from a damage perspective that extra armor not the agility will cause the more damage.

Jill is 14, the PB variant can be 1, 2, or 3 points cheaper depending on what the team wants to make it.  Just remember that the most expensive PBs out there (as of now) are 11 points... including the SM.79, the Kondor, and the Sunderland (probably the three most played PBs)

I'm not crazy about the Press the Attack modification.


Range 1 air attacks and range 1 AA attacks shouldn't even be allowed at night, but that horse left the barn a long, long time ago. I don't see a need to add it now in either event.

I would personally much rather have the EE than the Range 1 torpedo attack, but that is me. I very rarely use Patrol Bombers that don't have loiter, and the few I do use have EE.

I think just leave it the way it is and drop it to 11 points. The range 1 attack is already nerfed, and the Kamikaze attack is good at 10 dice.

It does NOT need additional nerfs like "can't attack in darkness" for the ranged-1 attack. We didn't do that for the Jill, Grief, etc., and RB didn't do it for the Kondor.

I provided my playtest groups comments. So, I'm going to take a step back and wait for the official playtesting request now.

Sorry, went through some personnal trouble since then. I'll find my documentation and deliver by end of week, sir