Wednesday 19 September 2018

Flashpoint Alto Cenepa: Wings at War Aircraft Ratings


I've been reading through Flames Above The Falklands again, in an attempt to strip out what I think I need for the Alto Cenepa mash up. I think the key to making this work is getting the ratings right for the various aircraft involved and to then make sure that there is enough for them to do in each game turn, so that there is sufficient interaction and the potential for combat. This includes air to air but also air to ground strikes, as well as transport and re-supply flights by the helos.

The other thing I need to decide upon is whether to use three of four levels of altitude, with three being the approach for Flames Above The Falklands but four in all of the other Wings at War booklets. I'm tempted to go for three, as there were few if any high altitude engagements and most of the action was at very low level, making four height bands a bit superfluous. It also means that I have to make fewer flight stands, which is a small but still useful bonus.

The Energy Ratings and Max Height levels for the different aircraft are a bit more complicated to work out, although I can benchmark the Mirage III/V, the Canberra and the helicopters easily using the table in the rules. I've been trying to find out if there is a formula or system for calculating these statistics, perhaps based on thrust to weight ratios and related performance figures, as it would avoid quite a bit of number crunching and 'best fit' guesswork on my part.

I now also quite fancy doing Flames Above The Falklands too!

4 comments:

  1. I'd still be tempted to go with 4 bands- if only to introduce hills as obstacles, allowing helicopters to fly over them at level one but everybody else has to be at height level 2..?

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  2. That's what Paul at tumbling dice said as well. Good point.

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  3. I like the level 1 hills idea - gives an extra factor to consider for any ground attack missions flying across the table

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  4. Yes I was planning to have hills as terrain based on the set up in the MiG Alley rules.

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