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  • #105369
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Just Jack’s Koepang air campaign has inspired me. I took the same Battle of Britain rules as a base, tweaked them, and started my own campaign. It is set in my imagi-nation world of Aetheria, a 1930s pulp style setting where an evil empire is threatening the free world, In this specific campaign, the Empire has targeted the tiny Republic of Lucrania.

    The first two missions are up on my blog. My minis and pics aren’t as pretty as Just Jack’s or Thomaston’s.

    Mission 1

    Mission 2

    #105380
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Welcome to the tiny club. Are these 1/1250 aircraft? I think the yellow wings are P-26 what are the other? I like how you based them, looks like it can use altitude very easily.

    #105401
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Dang it!  As soon as I get into a new project, here comes along someone doing it even better!

    Fantastic, thanks for posting, both were quick, fun reads.  I’m telling you, I’m loving these rules.  I’ve had a lot of fun with Bag the Hun and Lacquered Coffins (even tried my hand at writing my own), but I could never figure out how to get more aircraft on the board without it bogging down horribly.

    The rules are quick and bloody; I toned it down by adding in a damage roll.  My stuff has Zeroes and Oscars getting +2 to the maneuver roll, but you only need a 3+ to kill on the damage roll, where Wildcats and P-40s only get +1 to the maneuver roll, but are 4+ to kill.  Multi-engine bombers are 5+ to kill.

    Now you need more aircraft!  Anyway, I love the setting and can’t wait to see more.  Also, I can’t believe you’ve had a blog since 2013 and I’ve never seen it before, gotta head back to dig around a bit.

    V/R,
    Jack

    #105422
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Just posted Mission 3.

    Thanks Thomaston. They are actually 1/600 scale from PicoArmor. Yes, the blue and yellow are P-26s. Their opposition flies Russian I-16, and the bombers are Martin Marylands. I chose some lesser known planes to distance a bit my fictional setting from reality. The bases are just 3mm clear disks from Litko. I don’t bother with altitude so I don’t have to worry about height. I suppose I could stack disks to represent altitude if I wanted.

    Thanks for the encouragement Just Jack. I feel that my games pale in comparison to yours so I am glad that you like them. I too added damage rolls, otherwise the rules are really bloody. I don’t have enough bombers so I have been playing with half-size squadrons. Without damage rolls, the game ends way too quickly. I also added AA fire during the bomb run (hit on a 6) but it hasn’t been a factor yet. I too have done a lot of experimenting with air combat rules. For dogfights, I really love Kaptain Kobold’s Spandau and Lewis (found here) but I wanted something to game larger air raids. The Battle of Britain rules work very well for that. Anyway, hope you enjoy the blog. I feel that my games are a bit quirky – they don’t look pretty and they may not fit in with the masses, but I find them fun.

    #105446
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    Very cool!  I love imaginations, would be great to get some background on the participants,  if you have any.

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #105490
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Hey, quirky is my middle name 😉  In any case, I’ve never really cared about what anyone’s stuff looks like, my inspiration has always come from seeing other guys playing out campaigns, and you’ve got that in spades, so please keep it going.  The only thing I’ll keep bugging you about is…  Ya gotta get more planes! 😉

    V/R,
    Jack

    #105514
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    My background is very sparse and open-ended. Here are some posts about it:

    How the Aetheria project came about

    Intro to Aetheria

    First Battle – my original battles were what I called “air battle” scale where a stand of aircraft represented an entire squadron. The rules did not really work out as I intended. I played out a few battles then the campaign stalled. Last year, I returned to Aetheria when I began experimenting with dogfight scale rules (a few planes a side). These experiments, using Spandau and Lewis, proved to be more successful. Now I’m back to Aetheria using the Battle of Britain rules that Just Jack posted.

    You can find various battle reports by selecting the Aetheria label.

    And I am considering more planes. 🙂

    #106551
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Forgot to post this last week. Mission 4.

    I’ve been distracted by Squad-Hammer so I haven’t played any more missions yet. I’m also building up forces so I can do a full-scale raid.

    #106571
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Awesome man, thanks for posting!  That’s great about the hovering, and the clouds are a bit of genius, give the bombers a place to hide while they’re trying to escape to the target area.  I’m not sure how you handle bombers in the game, but ours are just on auto-pilot, marching directly towards the opposite table edge unless there is an aircraft in the way and they have to break formation, but then they straighten back up ASAP.

    V/R,
    Jack

    #106591
    Avatar photokyoteblue
    Participant

    Wowzer!

    #106595
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Your setting is pretty similar to ideas I’ve had before going all weird.
    Do you have an order of battle? Interested in the size and makeup of the factions.

    #106602
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Just Jack – I handle bombers the same as you. If there is a cloud formation in their path they do get a little break

    Thomaston – I never bothered with an OOB. I just plop down forces as needed. For the bombing campaign, I am using the Battle of Britain rules that Just Jack posted in his Tiny Air Combat thread. There are 6 squadrons each of bombers, escorts, and intercepts. I am using ~ half size squadrons so that there will be a max of 3 bombers in a mission. I’m working on beefing up my forces so I can go full scale.

    #106722
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Mission 5 – my first full-scale, 6 bomber raid.

    #106836
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Cool, I appreciate the notes at the bottom. How long was mission 4?

    #106843
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    The half-scale raids tend to run about half an hour.

    #107878
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Mission 6 – the finale

    It is unusual for me to finish a campaign; I usually lose interest and the campaign peters out. Sometimes I’ll restart it at some point. As a result, I’ve had campaigns drag out for 2-3 years. Thus, it is a testament to how fun these rules are that I managed to complete a campaign in a little over a month! (Although being off for the holidays helped).

    I’ll be revisiting these rules sometime soon. For now, however, I have been distracted by other games (Squad-Hammer, One Hour Skirmish Wargames, my own dungeon crawl rules, and now Rangers of Shadow Deep).

    Thanks to Just Jack for the inspiration!

    #107884
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    I wonder if the defenders might have won because most of the raids had been half size and didn’t have enough bombers to deliver enough damage on the target?

    #107897
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Possible. We’ll see what happens when I run a full-scale campaign!

    #119494
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    I started a new campaign last weekend. Got 2 games in.

    Being a lazy gamer, I decided to take a new, more indolent approach. I am tracking a 4-plane fighter “squadron” through a series of missions. Games use fewer planes and have a smaller footprint.

    Click here for some campaign notes: https://warwellwg.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-new-aerial-campaign.html

    Click here for the first 2 missions: https://warwellwg.blogspot.com/2019/08/first-blood.html

    Thanks for looking!

    #119499
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    I actually like the smaller size of the game, I have the same issue tracking all the aircraft. I use similar size for squadron for the same reason, anything more than 6 and it’s hell to keep track of.

    You mentioned 3 mission what are they and how are they set up? Are enemies always 4 fighters?

    Uncharacteristic of these games you didn’t loose anyone?

    #119504
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Warwell,

    Awesome, man, I’m glad to see you’re back at it!  It sounds like you and I have drawn a lot of the same conclusions regarding the rules (pilot ratings, damage rolls, etc…).   Though I’m still enjoying my (relatively) large fights, I’m also enjoying your (relatively) small fights, and I can see myself doing some of those in the future.

    I’ve got to steal your cloud idea!  Looking forward to more batreps!

    V/R,

    Jack

    #119510
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    Great campaign start at 2-0!  I hope they can keep this up.

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #119530
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    @Thomaston – the campaign will be best of 5 missions and the missions can be patrol, escort, intercept, or ground attack. Normally I would roll randomly but for this first run-through I am playing one of each mission + one random. The Dragons get 2-4 planes per mission while the enemy will get anywhere from 1-6 fighters, depending on mission (all determined randomly). And yes, the Dragons have been very fortunate so far.

    @Just Jack – Thanks, glad you enjoy the batreps. The clouds definitely add some tactical variety to the game.

    @Darkest Star Games – Me too!

    #120155
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Two more missions – https://warwellwg.blogspot.com/2019/08/dragon-tales.html

    Wish things went as smoothly as the first two missions. 🙁

    #120161
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    My goodness!  Mama said there’d be days like this!  Now you’re seeing why I have squadrons of 18 pilots, life is cheap in these rules.

    Pretty cool, I like your idea of striking ground targets on the board.

    V/R,

    Jack

    #120189
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Wow things really went down hill fast, must have rolled a lot of 6s. I like how you handled ground defensive fire, simple and effective.

    #120256
    Avatar photoDarkest Star Games
    Participant

    Yikes, that did indeed go pear-shaped.  Great reports!

    "I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

    #120334
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Just rolled for the next mission. Looks like the squadron is going back after the guns. Let’s hope this mission goes better.

    #120353
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Good luck man, can’t wait to see how it goes!

    V/R,

    Jack

    #120534
    Avatar photoDave Crowe
    Participant

    Hi Warwell, hi Just Jack

    been reading through these bat reps and it’s very interesting stuff. So thanks for all the time and effort you’ve put into outing them together. I had a go at a game myself, using those same Battle of Britain rules, I too added a damage roll, and I also had to adapt the rules for a hex map but overall it was a great little game and it got me thinking. I’m planning to add my own expansion version. While JJ does big raids and WW does small ones I wanted to try and apply some of the wider strategic elements.

    My plan is to double the number of targets and divide the damage points on each by two. The Germans can win either by destroying the Air defence, bombing the populace into submission or starving them by hampering the Naval supply effort.

    I’m planning on making a small deck of strategy cards for each side to draw a card before each raid representing a bonus based on some of the historical strategies that were in play. In the end I’m hoping that the overall game narrative will be enriched and will tell a bit more of the wider effort on the ground rather than just the air war you’re playing.

    #120535
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    @Dave
    That hex based rule souns interesting.

    #120584
    Avatar photoDave Crowe
    Participant

    Movement is 1 point to the hex directly in front. One point to change your facing (toward the front left or front right hex only) this allows for a plane to spend points in either a move forward or turn allowing a chance to get onto the tail of an enemy and line up the shot.

     

    The only issue with changing to a hex map is that straight lines go in three directions so you have to line up the bombing run in the deployment to be a direct line edge to edge

    everything else seems to translate fairly sensibly. My only concern is how many hexes end to end should the board be? I might have given my bombers too long of a run on my first play test.

    #120590
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    How did you deal with shooting modifier? Delete modifiers for left and right?

    #120603
    Avatar photoDave Crowe
    Participant

    Exactly right Thomaston.

    Warwell, sorry to Hijack the thread. I’ll get a bit of prep-work done on my plans and start my own thread when it’s ready.

    One thing though, I’m doing this 1:300 scale (shock horror!) I’m sorry, I’ll not be joining the tiny planes club. I’m just using what I’ve got. I can see the benefit of down-scaling though, it’s a big table.

     

    #120618
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    Dave Crowe,

    No worries. Looking forward to see your games.

    I am tempted to do 1:300 but then I remember how big the bombers would be.

    #120645
    Avatar photoAutodidact-O-Saurus
    Participant

    Hmmm… ever since I saw T.A.C. over on Wargame Vault I’ve had an itch that needs scratching. I’ve always wanted to tinker with the Chaco War in the air. Stop it! Just stop it!

    Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
    More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

    #120646
    Avatar photoThaddeus Blanchette
    Participant

    Again, 1/600 is a “freebie” scale: you GET to do it AND the other stuff you do. After all, an entire 1:600 army costs as much as a pack of GW figures. So it’s perfect for one-off projects like the Chaco War.

    We get slapped around, but we have a good time!

    #120661
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    Hi Dave, sounds fantastic, can’t wait to see some batreps, and how your strategic elements work out.

    When you guys say “…the left and right shots,” are you talking about the full-deflection shots where the target is moving across the shooter’s face, perpendicular?

    Based on Thomaston’s complaints, I mean critiques, I recently made some changes to the rules.  It would appear I’ve over-powered the Japanese pilots and aircraft, as I’m getting the crap kicked out of me…

    In any case, good luck, and hurry up! 😉

    V/R,

    Jack

    #120676
    Avatar photoDeleted User
    Member

    Yeah, I meant full deflection and bitching, is a god given rights.

    Also waiting to see more games report, so I can steal ideas for my own.

    T.A.C is elegant, I wanted to try my own with jets.

    #120729
    Avatar photoJust Jack
    Participant

    I don’t mind your bitching, but it’s getting my pilots whacked!

    V/R,

    Jack

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