2024 Review - Scribbling Stuff

I had a couple of things published this year, which is a bonus given my lacklustre output at the workbench. After several years the Wings at War Corsairs and Cavaliers rules were published by Paul at Tumbling Dice, which is pretty cool. I wrote these as a lock down project and then offered them for free to Tumbling Dice, as I just did it for kicks and its not my system anyway. They were given a thorough check by the original rules author, Chris Russell, and have his stamp of approval, so I'm just happy to have a credit. I also had my Bag the Hun article published in this year's Lard Mag, which apparently makes me a Top Ace contributer, at least according to Richard and Nick, which is a nice way to wrap up the year. I don't really have any firm plans for rules writing in 2025 but you never know? 

Energy Management Explained

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. 

Blue Falcon Hobbies Soccer War Decals

I've just discovered these 1/200th scale decals from Blue Falcon Hobbies in the US. Although they are not 1/300th or 1/600th, my usual scales for air wargaming, I'm sorely tempted to order both sets for some Bag the Hun action, using the old Football War article from the Specials to set up some games. Very nifty!

Corsairs and Cavaliers

This is now available from the Tumbling Dice website:

https://tumblingdiceuk.com/products/corsairs-and-cavaliers

Wings Above Angola

Now that Corsairs and Cavaliers is off to the printers and if (big if!) it turns out to be well received by the players, I'm considering an adaptation of Flames Above the Falklands for the Border War. This is very sketchy at the moment but I have some initial ideas, which can be worked up into something once I've done some research, as I'm not exactly clued up on the Angolan conflict. I set out some thoughts this time last year for this but, as usual, haven't done anything since:

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2023/05/rabbit-holes.html

Corsairs and Cavaliers Print Run

Paul and the ever patient Glenys of Tumbling Dice are in the process of getting the Wings at War booklets printed, including the finalised version of Corsairs and Cavaliers. It's been a while since I started working on the rules adaptation and development but it's now off to the printers and should be available soon from the Tumbling Dice webshop thingy. I just hope it plays well, gives an enjoyable game and the that I don't get any of those 'rules lawyer' type niggles to sort out!

Wings at War Weekend

 

The other half is away in Paris this weekend, so I thought I might dig out the Wings at War models and have a game while I'm not going to be distracted by the usual 'list' of jobs to do. I may have another game of MiG Alley but I also quite like the idea of a game of Corsairs and Cavaliers, which I haven't played for ages. However, if I can find my scribbled notes for aircraft ratings, I could also run a game using my Peruvian and Ecuadorian fighter bombers over the Alto Cenepa, which I've been meaning to try out but somehow never got round to. SU-22M's and Mirage 2000's against Mirage F1C's and Jaguar Internationals...what's not to like?

Corsairs and Cavaliers Air Strike

 

I tried out the mission cards again today, this time for a game of Corsairs and Cavaliers, with the card draw being narrowed down to a patrol and a ground attack sortie for both sides, picking two rather than three missions from the deck due to the small size of the table. The game was fast and exciting, with the two patrols dogfighting at Level 3 while the fighter bombers got on with their respective missions at low level, the Hondurans hitting a bridge and the Salvadorans a truck convoy. I was hoping to try out the ground attack strafing rules during the game, so selected two cards that might give me an opportunity to have a go,

In the end, the Hondurans managed to shoot down a Mustang, as well as scoring two hits on the bridge knocking it down. The Salvadorans had one Corsair shot down by AAA on the attack run and failed to hit their target at all, but one of the Honduran Corsairs was shot down by a Mustang. The Hondurans achieved one mission objective, but the Salvadorans failed to achieve either of theirs. The game ended when the Hondurans achieved their Victory Target of 4 points, which was boosted to 7 points by their 1D3+1 roll for mission accomplished, while the Salvadoran scored a measly 1 point. 

Good fun!

MiG Alley Weekend Missions

 

This weekend I'm hoping to have some family free time to play a couple of games of MiG Alley, using the mission cards that I created earlier this week. The plan is to set up a couple of solo scenarios using a modified version of the card deck system, to see how it works and then make any tweaks required. If I get the time, I will also have a crack at the same exercise using the cards I have produced for Corsairs and Cavaliers, with the added bonus that I can check out the revised rules for ground attack and strafing. 

More Wings at War Mission Cards

Football War Mission Cards

 

First World War Mission Cards

I've been busy today working up the final sheet of mission cards for Duel of Aces and also designing a smaller deck of cards for Corsairs and Cavaliers. The idea is to test out the concept for the Football War while I get my act together and finish painting the WW1 aircraft, making ground targets and working out how to base the observation balloons. The Corsairs and Cavaliers cards also gave me some ideas for amending the bombing rules to include strafing with machine guns and cannons, which I have now implemented and need to playtest. I'm not sure why I didn't include the option of gun runs before but it's an oversight that needed to be fixed. I'll try out the amended rules as soon as I get some time.

Wings At War Duel of Aces WW1 Mission Cards

 

I've started work on a deck of mission cards for Duel of Aces, pinching the concept from a post on the Wings at War FB page. The idea with these is to add some focus and period flavour to games by giving each player a set of three missions, selected at random from deck of cards, although I'm adding another layer to this by adapting the AK47 objectives mechanism to make things a bit more unpredictable. 

These don't replace the Victory Points and Victory Targets in the game, but a successful mission can give a points bonus on top of the VP's won during the game itself. This is the first hand of cards and will I have another twelve or so to add to the deck once I've typed them up and tweaked them a bit. I really like the idea behind this and, if these ones work, I'm planning to make some more for both MiG Alley and Corsairs and Cavaliers.

Nifty Gadget!

 

One of the chaps on the Wings at War FB group has designed this very handy move key thingy for Wings at War, with the standard 5cm and 10cm moves included, as well as 45 and 22.5 degree angles so that it's easy to execute manoeuvres without any guesswork. I usually just fudge it but you can't really do that with an opponent, although I usually play solo games. It's similar in essence to the manoeuvre cards that you can download from the Wings at War website but a bit more ergonomic and efficient. I'll try it out with MiG Alley or Corsairs and Cavaliers as soon as I can find time to set up a game.

New Tumbling Dice Vapour Trails 1/600th Aircraft

Paul Sulley very kindly sent me the first castings of the latest Vapour Trails 1/600th scale models, the majority of which are light civil aircraft, militarised versions of civil aircraft or COIN aircraft designed for the counter insurgency or close air support role. 

As you can see these are up to the usual high standards of accuracy and detail, which makes them a joy to assemble and paint,  as well as really useful for Wings at War or similar rules systems. The O2 is perfect for Vietnam or Rhodesia for example. 

There are several in the current lot that Paul has designed to use with Corsairs and Cavaliers, which is fantastic as they fill some really obvious gaps, with particular reference to the Mustang Cavalier, T28 Trojan with rocket / gun pods,  the Cessnas and the fabulous C54 / DC4,  which is my favourite of the lot. These should be available relatively soon. A definite ***** 

Corsairs and Cavaliers Fine Tuning

 

Fellow Football War enthusiast and all round nice chap, Tom Ballou, has cast his expert eye over the latest draft of Corsairs and Cavaliers, making a handful of really good suggestions for fine tuning the end result. I've built these into the rules as I thought they were very valid points, with an example being the turning performance of cannon-armed F4U-5N Corsairs and tip tank equipped Mustang Cavaliers, amongst other things. I've also updated the list of Tumbling Dice codes at the end of the rule booklet to build in the new models that Paul has sculpted including the C-54 / DC-4, the aforementioned Mustang Cavalier and various light aircraft. I'll see what Tom thinks about my amendments then shoot the document over to Paul to get his feedback and an update on where were at in terms of publication.

Wings at War Air Combat Wargamers

 

The Wings at War Facebook group has taken off really well and now has over sixty members, which isn't bad for a couple of days. There's been some really good content and lots of enthusiasm, with two extra volunteer admins signed up to help me run things, which is a very handy. I'm hoping that the momentum will continue and that, once the word gets out, some new players will get involved too. The link here will direct you straight to the group, so why not join up and see what's going on:

Wings at War Air Combat Wargamers | Facebook

Football War - The Re-Match 1979

I've been playing around with some 'What If?' ideas for a Wings at War Corsairs and Cavaliers project extension, with a fictional war between El Salvador and Honduras c1979. This would make use of the 1/600th scale jets that I painted up for the project way back when, but with the rules adapted from Thud Ridge to take account of the new technology involved. I've been tweaking the Thud Ridge rules to work up some stats for the aircraft involved and have come up with this so far:

Honduras                  E @ 2-4               E @ 1 / Load             Max Alt

Super Mystere               6                             4                                4

Canadair Sabre              5                            4                                 4

El Salvador

Dassault Ouragan          4                             3                                 3

Fouga Magister             3                              2                                2

Armament

Dassault Super Mystere         FF cannon / 2 AA HS missiles / bombs

Canadair Sabre                       FF machine guns / 2 AA HS missiles / bombs

Dassault Ouragan                   FF cannon / bombs

Fouga Magister                      FF machine guns / bombs

Air to Air Combat Table

HS Missiles              0-1            2-3          4          5          6

Rear Aspect               W               -            D         S         S

Front Aspect              W               -            -           -         S

Cannon                     1               2              3           4           5          6

Rear Aspect               W            W             -            D          S         S

Machine Guns

Rear Aspect              W              -               -          D           D        S

All Guns

Other Aspect            W              -                -            -            -        S     

Notes

HS Missiles can only fire at jet aircraft. Firer must be in homing zone of the target. The HS missiles are ripple fired in pairs, so are a single shot weapon for all intents and purposes (unless I allow them to be fired as single missiles, which might be more realistic)

W = Missile Malfunction / Misfire or Cannon / Gun jam.

D = Target damaged (I may add some tweaks to this for different aircraft)

S = Target shot down.

Bingo Fuel rules apply (from Thud Ridge)

The Ouragans may get AA missile capability (I think they were wired for this in the 80's?)

I am still working on the flight limitations of the various aircraft, specifically turning and altitude performance. The Fouga Magister may well get a +1 for low altitude turning. 

I may also work out some rules for ejecting when hit and for different ground attack weapons. I may even get the B-26 and C-47 gunships worked out for this as well.

Corsairs and Cavaliers Continued

 

I'd sort of forgotten about this set of rules that I'd written based on the Wings at War Desert Spitfires rules, until I got a note from Paul at Tumbling Dice today, saying that he'd like to feature some of his new models for the Football War in a magazine advert and wondered if the rules were play tested enough for publishing. I have play tested the latest version (3.1) a few months ago and it all seemed to go smoothly, although it was a while back and I had to check my notes, so it's a green light from me. 

I have also suggested that they should be a free download, as they are not a full blown set of rules like Thud Ridge and MiG Alley but an adaptation of an existing free set, so it seemed more appropriate to go that way. I think it would be a more attractive option as a freebie anyway, especially as the aircraft that you'd need are not exactly mainstream and might not sell so well without a bit of a nudge? I'll wait and see what he thinks but it makes sense to me.

IAF Leader

The New Years Resolution to play more board wargames is still going strong, with the latest being DVG's Israeli Air Force Leader, as a follow on from my very enjoyable Phantom Leader Vietnam campaigns last month. There's an obvious cross over with my miniatures gaming projects too, specifically the Desert Spitfires project that I've been meaning to finish for a while now, having made a promising start and then been side tracked onto the Corsair and Cavaliers Football War project instead. Anyway, if you are interested, there are some on-going campaign after action reports on the other blog:

Tea and a Wad Wargaming: IAF Leader

That's 2021 Done

I've decided not to dwell on 2021 that much, for obvious reasons, so my yearly review will be a bit shorter than usual this time round. In brief, I played a lot more games this year than I have for a long time, including some memorable Dahlgren and Columbiad, Fistful of Lead, Broadside and Ram and AK47 games, a full solo Naval Command campaign based on the Indonesian Confrontation, which I really enjoyed devising and writing up, as well as a Bag the Hun solo campaign and, last but not least, some games of MiG Alley and my own Wings at War variant for the Football War, Corsairs and Cavaliers. I also played a few games at the club, notably a multiplayer Cruel Seas game and some AK47, but these were few and far between as you might expect. 

As well as the actual wargaming, I also wrote an article based on the Bag the Hun Khalkhin Gol series of games that I played over the summer, now published in the 2021 Lard Mag, successfully finished play testing the Corsairs and Cavaliers rules and wrote a conversion of the club WW1 aerial rules to the modern era, aptly titled Jet Knights of the Sky. These haven't been tried out at the club yet, however, so remain on hold until things go back to something approaching normal. I also continued to support International Naval Wargaming Day, with a game of Broadside and Ram, later followed up with a couple of Dahlgren and Columbiad War of the Pacific scenarios that I devised for my 1/2400th scale ironclads.

In terms of projects, apart from the aforementioned Bag the Hun Khalkhin Gol project and the modern ships for Naval Command, including British, Indonesian, Chilean and Chinese forces, it's been a less successful twelve months. I had a lot of stuff on my 'to do' list and started on a couple of projects, such as 1/2400th scale Napoleonic French ships and a 1/3000th scale WW2 Italian fleet, but these stalled early on due to a work overload in the latter half of the year. I wish I'd managed to get these shifted as I am still keen on both of these projects and have some excellent rules to use with them, but supply work got a bit busy due to teacher absences so they are still on the metaphorical slipway. I also had some inevitable dead ends, most notably an ill judged attempt to get a 28mm British platoon painted for Chain of Command (what was I thinking!?)

I managed to avoid too many distractions this year and so did a little bit of painting rather than just adding more lead to the pile. This included a single 28mm mountain gun for my Back of Beyond expedition army, a handful of extra ironclads for my War of the Pacific Chilean and Peruvian fleets, some Royal Navy coastal monitors for my Victorian ironclads, a load of 1/3000th scale post war and modern warships (see above) and a complete flotilla of E Boats for Cruel Seas. I also painted all of the 1/600th scale Japanese and Russian aircraft for my Khalkhin Gol project and some extras for the Football War and MiG Alley projects as well. I even scratch built a railway for AK47. Not too bad, if not a massive inroad into the lead mountain.

That's all folks!