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?

Alto Cenepa Number Crunching

I realized today that I need to do some more background reading and rules adaptation for the Wings at War Alto Cenepa project, before I can run the test game that I'm thinking of setting up. The main thing I need to do is mash together the Thud Ridge rules with the Flames above the Falklands rules, to extract the relevant bits from both and to adapt the aircraft and pilot capabilities to the Peruvian and Ecuadorian forces. I'm leaving out helicopters for the moment but I still need some more work on things like IR missiles, for example, so that the different performance capabilities of the Matra Magic R550 / Shafrir II and AA-2D Atoll are accurately reflected in the rules mechanics. In the meantime, I've found this really good first-hand combat account by the Ecuadorian pilot who shot down an SU-22 during the war, which is well worth reading:

https://www.laahs.com/colonel-banderas-remembers/ 

Wings at War Alto Cenepa 1995

Ecuadorian Air Force

Peruvian Air Force

I haven't played any Wings at War games for ages, so I'm planning a game for my day off on Wednesday using the Flames over the Falklands rules mechanisms for the Peru vs Ecuador Alto Cenepa War in 1995. I have all the aircraft models for this and have used them previously with the Target Locked On! rules, but really like the idea of Thud Ridge or Flames over the Falklands to run a few scenarios, having already played around with some numbers to work out the flight parameters: 

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2018/09/flashpoint-alto-cenepa-wings-at-war_22.html

These would be straightforward dog fights between Mirage F1's and Su22's, so nothing too complicated to start with, so that I can learn how air to air missiles work, as well as the rules for jet movement, afterburners and so on. I'll have to work out some more performance data but, apart from that it's all ready to go. Tally Ho!

Wings at War Flight Stand Sitrep

I've been working on the flight stands for the Wings at War project this weekend. These have been assembled, undercoated and basecoated today, so I'm now on to the laborious and rather sticky bit, adding Woodland Scenics clump foliage using cheapo supermarket superglue, as it's the best thing if you want the stuff to stay stuck down. I'm hoping to get them near enough finished tomorrow, although it's the other half's birthday, so that may have to come first? 

Wings at War Flight Stand Factory

 

I've now started to make a whole load of additional jungle themed bases for the Wings at War rules, which I can use for both Corsairs and Cavaliers and Thud Ridge. These are divided into 40mm x 40mm bases for the larger aircraft like the C-47's and 30mm x 30mm bases for the fighters and light aircraft. I've drilled the bases to accept panel pin flight stands, with the new 50mm ones for Level 4, 40mm for Level 3 and so on down to 20mm for Level 1. This is a much better system than my original panel pin heights and makes it more obvious which altitude is which, so I'm cracking ahead and have converted some of my old stands to the new system as well.

FAS Fighter Bombers Finished

FAS FG1-D Corsairs

FAS F-51 Mustang II Cavaliers / P-51 Mustang

FAS Fouga Magisters

FAH Dassault Super Mysteres

FAS Dassault Ouragons

FAH Canadair Sabres

FAS B-26 Invaders

FAE T33 Shooting Stars

I finished painting the fighter and fighter bomber planes for the Football War Corsairs and Cavaliers project today, with some jet fighters for both the Hondurans and Salvadorans included for some 1970's 'What If?' bonus scenarios. I've also painted some Ecuadorian Air Force T-33's for the Flashpoint Alto Cenepa project, which I forgot to include in the original painting schedule. I'm moving on to the last of the Football War aircraft now, with three C-47 'bombers' and three Cessna light aircraft to wrap up the project over the next week or so.

Alto Cenepa Ecuadoran AT-33A

I have been reading the newly published Helion book on the Alto Cenepa War, which is excellent as expected, and realised that I had missed out the AT-33A ground attack aircraft used by the FAE from my earlier painting project. I have some Tumbling Dice Starfire / T33 models for MiG Alley, so I pinched three of them to paint up as FAE planes. It's a good opportunity to play around with the SEA Vietnam scheme to find the right shades in advance of my Thud Ridge project. I haven't quite got it right yet, with a combination of Citadel Castellan Green (Forest Green), Foundry Chestnut Light (Tan Brown) and Vallejo US Dark Green (Dark Green), but I'm getting closer to the combination I'm looking for. 

Thud Ridge

I've decided that the best way to be able to develop a Wings at War rule set for the Alto Cenepa War, is to have a go at either Thud Ridge or Flames Above the Falklands, both of which feature the mechanics for fast jet combat and missiles. I'd originally thought of doing a Falklands War project but that requires a lot more effort in terms of terrain and ground targets than Vietnam, so Thud Ridge is the obvious choice, especially as I already have a set of jungle flight stands and most of the aircraft models for both sides. I'm going to stick with USAF operations, as I don't fancy trying to replicate the USN paint schemes and I can also just use a basic grass terrain cloth, together with my existing ground targets. This project won't happen for a while yet, as I have lots of other things to do first, but I think it's a good idea and will enable me to learn the rules required for the Alto Cenepa game.

Merry Xmas Mr Sankara

Soon to be available at Wargame Vault

Nick 'Bozkashi' Jones has very kindly sent me a copy of his Merry Christmas Mr Sankara campaign rules for the Agacher War, which use the Wings at War Thud Ridge rules for aerial combat. I'm really impressed with the thought that has gone into the campaign system and with the quality of the text, tables and photos, all of which make this an excellent adjunct to the Wings at War system. 

In fact, it allows you to break away from the parameters of the rules and use them for a narrative campaign, which is a great way to have the best of both worlds. I'm thinking of bending the campaign mechanisms into an Alto Cenepa War framework and I know Nick is working on something similar for the Football War, which is obviously something I'd be keen to take for a spin. Thanks Nick!

https://bloodybetancourt.wordpress.com

Alto Cenepa Air War

This new book is being published soon and I'm really looking forward to getting hold of a copy, as inspiration for my 1/600th Wings at War project. I have the other two books in the series and they are both excellent, so this one should be well worth the wait. I've also been enthused by the Thud Ridge based air campaign that Bozkashi Jones has been playing, as described on his blog and on TMP, and I think there's real potential to use his system for the Alto Cenepa War, rather than reinventing the wheel. 

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/air-wars-between-ecuador-and-peru-volume-3-aerial-operations-over-the-cenepa-river-valley.php?sid=3193eeaf4d4d5be73f445c1bd45e9d85

https://bloodybetancourt.wordpress.com

Condor War Strike Jet Skirmish

I played a game of Target Locked On! with my daughter this morning, which for a change involved two pairs of A37 Dragonfly light strike aircraft, meeting on patrol over the jungles of the Cordillera del Cóndor range in January 1981. I decided to try a game without any missiles and at very low altitude, using aircraft with high manoeuvre ratings and with equal pilot skill sets. This turned out to be quite good fun but very difficult for both sides when it came to actually hitting, let alone damaging the enemy armed as they were with out a single GAU-2 minigun. 

In the end, after quite a lot of twisting and turning, the Ecuadorian flight leader managed to get a couple of close range hits on his opposite number, the latter of which caused a critical hit resulting in a wounded pilot. This was too much for the Peruvians, who decided to bug out as they were flying on fumes anyway, bringing the game to a neat conclusion and an FAE victory. It's a good set of rules for this level of game and works very well but I think the addition of missiles makes it more decisive, with less chance of dogfighting but more of actually shooting things down. 

Target Locked On! Alto Cenepa Ground Attack Game

I played the strike mission scenario against my twelve year old daughter today and, as usual, got thrashed. She took the FAE Jaguars on a ground strike mission against a jungle airstrip while I took the FAP Mirage 2000 defenders. It started badly for me when the randomised entry point for the Jaguars ended up on the Peruvian's six, requiring some frantic manoeuvring to get out of missile arc in the first turn. Things went from bad to worse when one of the Jaguar pilots got a partial lock on to a Mirage, fired his R550 Matra Magic and scored three critical hits (!) despite an unsuccessful evasive manoeuvre by the Peruvian. 

This caused so much damage to the airframe and pilot that he had to fly in a straight line for the rest of the game, finally getting away by the skin of his teeth and with two partial locks on his tail. In the meantime, the other Jaguar successfully evaded a missile fired by the second Mirage, then pickled his four Mk80 bombs straight onto the airstrip, scoring two direct hits and sufficient D6 damage to knock it out of action. However, the FAP didn't go home empty handed, with a last minute missile shot from long range knocking out the engine of the Jaguar, which promptly stalled and crashed into the jungle, the pilot failing to eject in time. The Peruvian pilot only had one fuel point left too! 

A great game and the sprog wants to play it again tomorrow, so I'll set up another scenario perhaps  another rumble in the jungle or something in a slightly colder location?