From: Doug Murphy Subject: Foxbat & Phantom: review Foxbat & Phantom is a simulation of modern jet combat circa 1975 by the James F. Dunnigan and published by SPI in 1973. For your money you received a mostly blank 22 x 34 hexmap; 224 mostly generic counters: airplane silhouettes and to track game functions; the rules which are encompassed in a map-like folding stock and the most fascinating for me aspect: a bunch of weird but interesting Aircraft Control Charts for each plane type (about 7 inches wide by 24 inches long) with altitude tracks, combat results tables for cannon and various flavors of missile unique to the particular a/c, ecm, pilot experience and weapons systems, as well as acceleration, climb, speed, diving and various other modes. This chart is extremely well designed (since it is thin but long) to be placed only the edge of the map and contains all and I mean all the necessary information at a glance to "fly" your jet. As someone who cut their aerial wargaming teeth on Flight Leader by AH and SPI's later Air War, I enjoy this game very much. You get the F4E Phantom, F5E Tiger, F14A Tomcat, Mirage III, British Lightning, A7E Corsair, F15 Eagle, Mig 21 Fishbed, MiG 23 Foxbat (now known as the MiG 25), F104 Starfighter, F111E, Mirage F (now known as the Mirage 5 I think), Su-7 Fitter, and SU-11 Flagon. You select one of 2 "missions" to play: Radar intercept or Point defense in combination with a historical scenario. One player is the Intruder, the other the Interceptor (a nice aerial spin on attacker/defender) Scenarios cover NATO vs. Warsaw Pact; Israel vs. Arab; India vs. Pakistan; North vs. South Korea; Greece vs. Turkey; South Africa vs. "guerillas"; Taiwan vs. China and of course Vietnam. There are enormously long and detailed examples of play as the mechanics of the game are quite simple. Each turn represents 30 seconds with each hex 1000 meters; each alt. level: also 1000 meters; and each speed level 145 km. One can also intercept bombers. During a turn (intruder goes first): there is a flight decision phase: (decelerate, accelerate, climb, dive, vert. dive); movement phase; and combat phase. Interesting that the designer (Dunnigan himself) swears that late generation a/c (F15, F111 as a fighter, MiG 25) show their capabilities as getting beyond human capabilities which can only mean that completely computer driven a/c (black boxes and pilot-less) are the wave of the future. In the design notes, Dunnigan noted as qualifications to his approach that he used high alt. performance characteristics so most of the combat simulated is at high alt; also David Isby and Dunnigan conducted most of their own research on these characteristics. The speeds of the jets are such that they barely stay on the map. They also impact manuevering. A key manuever to master is the "yo-yo which useing acceleration and rate of climb to position oneself for a shot. Although most combat takes place around 1,000 mph or below (dogfighting.) This one plays almost as a modern computer game and once you master the mechanics of movement, I would venture that it is even simpler to play. There are some quirks that are revealed by the 20+ years which have elapsed since publication, but this is a good example of a solid SPI design on an interesting topic. Doug (dmurphy@wppost.depaul.edu)