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!

Jet Knights of the Sky Bases

The club did a bulk order of bases and magnetic pick up tools for Jet Knights of the Sky a few weeks ago and I collected mine yesterday. I now have enough for three more stands, so will crack on and build them so that I can run some more play testing sessions before we return to the club in June, if it all goes according to the plan? I can also start on the aircraft model making, which I've sidelined whilst focusing on naval stuff over the last couple of months. 

First Draft - Playtest Three

The third and, for the moment, the final playtest of Jet Knights of the Sky today was a much better experience and I actually got to use missiles properly for the first time. I set up an interception game between an SU-22 and a Mirage F1C, with the Mirage attempting to ambush the Fitter from above. The Mirage and SU-22 ended up at close range again but this time I could use my I/R missiles, albeit at minimum range. The first one locked on, fired and hit despite two flares being popped by the Fitter. It caused three wing hits and one fuselage hit, the wings being left with serious structural damage and almost being ripped off. In fact one more wing hit and it would have been a parachute home for the Sukhoi pilot.

The SU-22 decided it was a bad idea to carry on so attempted a diving retreat, chased by the Mirage. The Mirage pilot got a second I/R lock on at maximum range, fired but the missile was defeated by a triple flare burst from the Sukhoi. In the final moments, just as the SU-22 was about to cross the line, the Mirage fired a third and final missile, this time an R/G missile at minimum range, which hit home despite the SU-22 punching out three chaff bursts. Luckily for the pilot, two of the resulting hits were on the tail with a poor set of dice rolls causing minimal damage, while the other two were on the fuselage, knocking out some systems but not preventing the Fitter from limping back to base. 

I was pleased with the flow of the game and the fact that it seemed quite balanced, without one side or the other being knocked out in seconds but with serious damage being inflicted by two missile hits on the SU-22. If the game had continued, a final missile hit by the Mirage would have destroyed the Fitter, which seems like a fair end result. It was a set of lucky dice rolls that prevented the second missile from toasting the SU-22, while the first missile hit did just enough damage to allow it to keep flying but not blow up. I think the revised missile arcs and ranges are justified and I'll keep them as they are without the need for any more tweaking. It's now a good time for some other players to try out the system, so that I can get a break!

First Draft - Playtest Two

I ran another two playtest games yesterday, with a MiG-21 against an SU - 22. Both games ended up as close range gun fights again, although I did have a go at an I/R missile attack which ended up with two successful evades using flares. I've now scrapped the old missile firing parameters and designed a different system for missile firing arcs, which I'm hoping will make it easier to target and fire at aircraft. I'm even considering getting rid of the restrictions on I/R missiles, so that they don't have to target the rear arc, but that's up for debate with the club. 

First Draft - Playtest One

I ran a playtest this afternoon to try out the Jet Knights of the Sky rules, using my 1/600th scale aircraft and battle worn, moth eaten old Hotz hex mat. The game set up included a Peruvian SU-22 fighter bomber being intercepted by an Ecuadorian Mirage F1C. This was an enlightening experience as it turned up an immediate issue with the missile firing arcs and lines of fire, which are based on the Bag the Hun system. A turning close range dogfight developed which denied both pilots a chance to fire their missiles, although the SU-22 did get a burst of cannon fire on to the Mirage, causing only minor wing and fuselage damage.

I have now changed the missile firing diagrams to fix the problem, using a target zone rather than a forward line of fire, which should make it easier to get a missile lock on both at short and long range. I didn't use this system in the initial draft of the rules, as I thought it would make it too easy to sit back and fire missiles at long range, but it's better than the current arrangement and should be an improvement. I have also extended the firing range of cannon from two to three hexes but have retained the linear firing diagram, as I don't think cannon can fire along diagonal lines!

I'll try out these tweaks tomorrow, if I get the time, to see how they work?

Jet Knights of the Sky Korea

I've been thinking of developing another version of the Jet Knights of the Sky rules for the Korean War, using 1/144th scale models and focused on MiG Alley. This would need a new altitude and speed calculation method, together with a more specific set of damage tables and a revised gunnery chart, but wouldn't be too difficult to do. The aircraft would be limited to the F-86 Sabre and MiG-15, both of which are readily available and relatively cheap, the first from Trumpeter and the second from Eduard. This would be a solo project rather than a club effort but it's a nicely self contained project and a bit of fun fort the sprogs.

Kit Build - Dutch F-16A

I haven't had time to start building any 1/144th scale kits for the project yet, but have now decided to glue together two Revell F-16A's and paint them up as Dutch aircraft. I could have chosen Belgian, Danish, Norwegian or USAFE schemes, but as I already have some Dutch decals I thought it was an obvious choice. The advantage of the F-16 is that it's a simple camouflage scheme and the kit is also relatively straightforward to construct, so it shouldn't take too long. It will also be good to get back to the workbench after all that word processing and DTP! 

First Draft - Cut and Paste Playtesting

To enable some of the club to have a go at playtesting the Jet Knights of the Sky Rules, I've bodged together a print, cut out and pritstick together playtesting kit, which can be enlarged to A3 for an even more cinematic, Top Gun style experience. There are three aircraft included in the set, an RAF Jaguar GR.1, a Luftwaffe F4F Phantom and a Soviet MiG-21bis 'Fishbed', which should give players a variety of flight profiles and capabilities. It will also give me a good idea about the relative strengths and weaknesses of different types of aircraft, as well as a grip on the balance of the game. In the end, the playtesting is where it will either stand up or fall down, with some idea of how the game performs as a set or rules but also as an experience, enjoyable or otherwise?

First Draft - Aircraft Sheets Assembled

I've finished the rest of the aircraft record sheets for Jet Knights of the Sky but may well add a couple more later like the SU-25 and Blackburn Buccaneer. I'm thinking of changing the blog to Jim's Wargames Wordprocessor, although the vast majority of the keyboard bashing has now been done, so it's on to the playtesting!