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Here are pix from last night’s game in Jim’s Basement, using the Air Pirates/Mustangs rules. The airplanes are diecast Corgi Fighter Scramble models, the toy boats are from my 1/1200 coastal forces collection, the cloth mat with 5-inch hexes was uniquely hand-crafted by Matt Irsik of the Air Pirates Yahoo Group.
Corgi Fighter Scramble diecasts were my inspiration to begin WWII airwar miniature wargaming. When I first saw them 20 years ago in Walmart, I immediately thought, “I must possess these fascinating toys! And I must play a structured wargame with them!” I realized I could gin up a miniatures game using the rules from the Avalon-Hill Mustangs boardgame and a couple of Battle Masters hex mats, and the rest is history. Well, historical wargaming, actually.
It’s been too many years since I played with these toys. Thanks for hosting the game, Jim. Thanks for playing, guys. The game was successful enough that I’m scheduled to GM another session in January, with B-17s, P-51s and FW-190s. It would be fun to get some momentum going, maybe take the game to some local cons this year. We’ll see.
This scenario was inspired by the Kanal Kampf, the earliest stage of the Battle of Britain, where Luftwaffe bombers attacked British convoys attempting to run through the Channel in daylight.
The convoy comprised eight freighters in a double column, with a Flower class corvette in the lead, a Hunt class destroyer in the rear, and a couple of armed trawlers on either flank. The escorts all shipped light flak, which is effective only at low altitudes. However, the Hunt carried a heavy battery of 4 X 4 inch AA, that had too much impact (BIFF! POW! SOK!) on the game. I’ve had this problem in the past, I can see that I need to tone down flak’s effectiveness in future games.
I never know how many players I’ll get on a night in Jim’s Basement. Last night there were four plus me. I gave Norm, Jim and Bob each a pair of Spitfires and orders to “Stop the Stukas, save the convoy.” I gave Coach a pair of Bf-109 escorts and took charge of the Stukas myself.
I set the Stukas up five hexes from the freighters. Flying at speed 1 with their bomb loads, it would take them 5 or 6 game turns to reach their targets and bomb, if they survived that long. I let Coach set up his Bf-109s wherever he liked, no farther forward than the lead bomber. Then I let the RAF players set up where they liked on their side of the convoy, no closer than 6 hexes to any German plane. With the fighters all flying at speed 3, I expected the shooting to start some time during game turn 2. And so we began:
It didn’t take long for a furball to engage. Coach and Norm began a fighter dance on the Stukas’ right flank. Coach shot a few holes in Norm’s Spitfires, but nothing too damaging, while Norm maneuvered to get at the bombers. Meanwhile, heavy AA from the destroyer shot the tail right off a Stuka for the first kill of the game. Worse was to follow. Jim and Bob flew straight at the other two elements of Stukas and Bob shot one down, but Jim’s dice rolled cold, scored just a few hits.
The aerobatics and shooting went on. Heavy flak blew more holes in another Stuka, and shot down a Spitfire that incautiously flew into the zone of fire! The bomber gunners got a hit on a Spitfire, the Spits set a Stuka on fire and put more holes in the rest, the Bf-109s took down one of Bob’s fighters.
This pic is of the middle of turn 4, when we called the game. By this point all the surviving Stukas had taken enough hits to become ‘crippled’ under the rules, and been forced to jettison their bombs. Two Stukas went down as well as two Spitfires, and the RAF had accomplished their mission to save the convoy.
I had fun, my players all say they want to do it again, and another game is scheduled for January. I’ll get back to y’all then.
You'll shoot your eye out, kid!
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