A refreshing nautical breeze is wafting across the workbench today, with the WW1 Ottoman fleet now based and ready for undercoating. I've added a single UB-III submarine to represent the UB-II flotilla that operated in the Black Sea, even though submarines don't really appear in most rules involving surface action, aside from convoy games or one off tactical scenarios. I'll crack on with the painting as soon as I get some free time, which may not be for awhile.
After the lacklustre MiG Alley game yesterday I realised it's probably not the set of rules I'm looking for for a club multiplayer game. It's too confusing in terms of energy management for an enjoyable game, with more time spent clarifying the finer points of the rules than actually having fun. To put it simply, it's fine for solo games at home but not as an evening's entertainment.
Instead, I'm looking again at Bombers Over Germany, a free set of rules based on a simple system from the Junior General website. It's themed around the daylight bomber campaign in 1943-45 but could be adapted for other things, including B-29 missions over North Korea, for example. I discovered this set of rules a couple of years ago and thought it would be ideal for a big club game but didn't do anything further than an initial feasibility study. It's now looking like a very attractive alternative to Wings at War and a potential project for next year.
http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2020/08/bombers-over-germany.html
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A frustrating and disappointing game of MiG Alley at the club tonight, made less enjoyable by some confusion over the rules due to my failure to explain them properly. I've been playing this game for years but not for a long time, so I was a bit rusty and this showed in the way the game played out. It was the longest game I've played as well, for some reason, so we only got to finish one game and didn't use the ground attack rules at all. I'm a bit fed up it didn't go as well as I wanted and will be sticking to Bag the Hun and other rules for club games from now on I reckon. Bugger.
Against my better judgement, I started base coating the Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Curtiss P-36 / Hawk 75 fighters for the Continuation War Bag the Hun scenario project. I thought it would be a shame not to get at least some of the Finnish aircraft painted, particularly as most of the scenarios only involve Llv32, which was equipped with this particular fighter. I've given them a base coat of Vallejo Russian Green which is pretty much spot on for the fuselage colour used up to 1943, before any black camouflage pattern was applied over the upper surfaces. I'll carry on tinkering with these over the next couple of weeks, while I get on with kit bashing the WW1 stuff.
The decals were a right pain in the back side but I've finished the F-86A Sabres and F-51 Mustangs for MiG Alley at last. The decals were fiddly and I've realised that the wing roundels are at the wrong angle, but I can fix that another time. I still have more things to add to the MiG Alley line up but, for the moment at least, I'm moving on to other wargaming projects.
There's often a bit of head scratching over energy management in Wings at War, so here's a simple reminder of how it works. The key thing to remember is it is primarily at the end of a sequence of moves, when action point expenditure equals starting energy, that any energy problems are resolved (apart from stalls, which can occur during a turn as well as at the end)
1. Action Points = Energy at the start of a turn.
2. Don't change your Energy dice during a turn but do keep a separate track of Energy loss / gain (using tokens or counters is a good idea)
3. Aircraft are allowed to exceed their Energy rating during a turn, but....
4. If energy falls below 1 during a turn = STALL (the turn ends after this has been resolved using the stall diagram)*
5. Otherwise, the turn ends when all Action Points have been spent.
6. If Energy at this end point is less than 1 = STALL
7. If Action Point/s spent for the final manoeuvre in a turn cause Action Point expenditure to be greater than starting energy = SPIN.
8. If Energy at this end point is greater than Energy Rating = AIRCRAFT BREAKS UP.
9. If Energy is equal to or less than starting energy (but obviously greater than 0) = Action Points available for next turn.
10. Flip the dice to the new Energy level on the model's base at this point.
*Try to avoid making manoeuvres with a random energy modifier (D) as this can cause a significant loss of energy during a turn and is unpredictable.
The MiG Alley extras are almost finished, with the painting sorted and the decals ready to be applied tomorrow. The black and white invasion stripes are far from perfect but, at arms length, don't look too bad. I'm happy with the end result but want to wrap these up ready for the game on Tuesday at the club.
I'm taking a break from painting tiddly planes this month, with something a bit different from the 'to do' list, in the shape of a 1/2400th scale WW1 Turkish fleet. I glued this all together earlier but still need to add a couple of additional models and then base the whole lot before I can start painting. I'm going to get started as soon as I've finished the extra models for MiG Alley, hopefully after the weekend. I'll probably use Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnoughts with these, unless something else pops up that's suitable for small actions rather than fleet sized battles.
I've set up a new competition for this month over on the AK-47 Facebook group, if you fancy having a go:
It's competition time...this month it's 'make a flag / standard / totem / 'waggle it about and follow me!' base.
The rules are simple:
A 30mm x 30mm base - round or square (smaller bases are allowed if 10mm or 6mm figures are your thing.)
Three figures (at least one of which must be from a Peter Pig range, unless you are not using 15mm figures of course)
At least one figure must be converted in some way (head swap, green stuff etc)
At least one flag bearer (can be the equivalent of a flag...use your imagination!)
Deadline: 1st December
