Planning a strike, routes, tankers and airspace in Operation Roaring Lion

Opening the planner

Press Plan operation in the top bar, or P. The clock stops while you plan. Choose Joint strike or Special forces raid (raids are covered in Finding and seizing the stockpile). On the right you get a forecast that updates as you change the plan, and you finish by picking an H-hour and committing. A committed operation waits on the Desk with a countdown, and you can cancel it there.

What goes in a strike

• Targets: any located site. Sites are grouped as air defences, the programme, and missile and drone bases. Each shows its hardness and how much of it is left.
• Aircraft: F-35I from Nevatim, F-15I from Hatzerim and F-16I from Ramon, set with a slider for the number of sorties. The F-35I is stealthy and leads against air defences. The F-15I carries the GBU-28 bunker buster (40 of them). The F-16I is the workhorse, but every one needs tankers.
• Stand-off weapons: air-launched ballistic missiles fired from outside the defences. They count double against radars and batteries.
• The heavy option: the Western Ally's B-2s with GBU-57 penetrators, the only weapon built for Fordow. They aren't offered at the start. The Ally offers them once the battery guarding Fordow is down.
• Support: electronic attack and decoys cut aircraft losses by about two thirds but cost tanker slots. Drone overwatch adds damage and halves the civilian risk, and needs a drone over the region. The agent network's drones can be used once, best on the first night.

Hardness decides damage: above-ground, bunkered, tunnel or deep. Only the GBU-57 does real damage at deep sites.

H-hour

H-hour can be +3 to +24 hours ahead. The earliest is set by the slowest force in the plan: +3 hours for aircraft, +7 for B-2s and +6 for a raid. Strikes in the first 8 hours of the war have surprise.

The three routes

Aircraft fly one of three routes, and each crosses other nations' airspace:

Route	Airspace crossed	Tanker load
Northern	the Interim Council, the River Republic	×1
Central	the Hill Kingdom, the River Republic	×1.15
Southern	the Kingdom	×1.6

The planner picks the route with the fewest closed skies to start, but you can change it.

Airspace

Each nation's sky is open, tacit or closed. The Desk shows them under Airspace.

• Tacit costs a little goodwill with that nation each time you cross.
• Closed is a violation. Relations fall by 12, international pressure rises by 4 (once a day per nation) and you lose 1 political capital.

Decision cards can change a nation's sky, for example the Kingdom's quiet arrangement, the Hill Kingdom's drone deal and the River Republic's protest. The planner warns you before you commit.

Tankers

Tankers are the real limit. Seven Boeing 707s give 35 receiver slots a day. If you accept the Western Ally's offer, four KC-46As add 24 more. Each sortie uses slots by aircraft (F-35I 0.8, F-15I 0.75, F-16I 1), multiplied by the route's load. Jamming costs 3 slots and a raid 6 plus its cover. The Desk's Forces today list shows slots left.

Reading the forecast

The forecast shows each target's chance of being destroyed, expected aircraft losses, civilian risk, international pressure and tanker load. It resolves on the same numbers as the real thing, with dice on top. One thing can differ: aircraft losses are drawn against the true defences, including batteries you haven't found yet. The planner says so. Don't treat the loss figure as a promise.