WW1 Show Participation Game 2014

I've been thinking about a potential club game for the local wargames shows for quite a while, as we didn't put one together this year for various reasons. We've had some success in the past with our participation games and I've enjoyed being involved with the developmental side of things, with one or two rare exceptions, so it's about time we got our act together for 2014.

 

After the Knights of the Sky game a couple of weeks ago, I suggested we could run a WW1 aerial game next year using our existing collection of 1/72nd scale models and the club set of Hexon terrain. This went down well and we now have half a dozen volunteers and the author of the original rules onboard, with the objective being to run a game for at least one show next year.

 

I have some ideas for the format of the game and for the various elements that we'll need to put it all together but, as this is a club effort, I'm sure there will be plenty of constructive input from the team. My plan is to run a series of consecutive games from 1916, through early to late 1917 and on to 1918, covering the course of the war in the air. In each game there will be a simple scenario based on typical engagements of the time over the Western Front.

 

The players will be able to dip in and out of a game, with each scenario lasting between forty minutes and an hour or so. The games will flexible enough to cater for half a dozen volunteers or just a couple, with the club players filling in the gaps as and when required, or new participants slotting in to the game when others drop out. There would be three or four games over the course of the day, although we'd probably only run the game for a single day rather than two.

 

I already have enough model planes to run the game but will be putting togther some more to fill in some gaps. This will involve kitting up some Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters and Pups for early 1917 for the RFC and some Fokker DR1's and Albatros DV's for late 1917 for the Germans. I'll also build a few one-off models for the scenarios if I have the time including, for example, a Junkers J1.

 

The terrain will be bqsed on the Hexon system with some scratchbuilt No Man's Land tiles running down the middle of the board. These will be converted from the standard hex tiles with trench lines and shell holes etched into the surface using a soldering iron or similar method. I'm going to run some experiments to see how this will work but I think it'll look really good once the tiles are textured and detailed.

 

The terrain features will be moveable to allow for game play. At the moment, I'm thinking of either a 1/600 ground scale using Tumbling Dice models or 1/1200 using Brigade Models builidngs and vehicles. These will be used to construct gun positions, ammunition dumps, villages, ruins and other ground targets, together with areas of trees using Woodland Scenics foliage.

 

It's all a bit up for grabs at the moment but I reckon this could eb a bit of a show stopper in 2014.