2024 Review - Painting Things

This year has been even more of a washout when it comes to painting stuff, once again due to work and illness sapping my time and energy. I did complete the 1/3000th scale heavy units for the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy early war fleets but not the rest of the British forces which are still waiting to be tackled. I also completed the 1/2400th scale Royal Navy Napoleonic fleet, which I really enjoyed painting albeit stretched out over several months, although I still haven't played any games with them yet.

The Soviet half of the 1/600th scale aircraft for the Continuation War project were finished but not the Finnish contingent, or the 1/300th scale Soviet aircraft either, despite making a good start on the latter. I also built a 1/72nd scale Bristol Scout for Knights of the Sky but had to drop out of the actual game due to illness. A handful of 1/600th USAF aircraft were also finished for MiG Alley. To wrap up an unspectacular year, I painted three test bases of 2mm English Civil War infantry, cavalry and artillery, then ran out of time to do any more before the holidays. I think my report card for 2024 will read 'must do better!' 

2024 Review - Rolling Dice

It's been a very patchy year in terms of playing games, mainly due to six months working full time and a lack of spare time to spend on actual wargaming. Nonetheless, I've had a couple of excellent games of Strength and Honour, despite still not having a proper grasp of the rules, several very enjoyable pre-dreadnought and WW2 naval games, some one off games of old favourites including Saurian Safari, Bag The Hun, Knights of the Sky and Back of Beyond, together with some new things like Blood Red Skies (of which I am not a fan). Not everything has been a success, the MiG Alley introductory game being a good example, but on the whole it's been a rewarding, if less than extensive spread of wargaming over the course of the year. Unfortunately, its also been very inconsistent, with a strong start fizzling out after three or four months, only picking up right at the end. I really need to make more of an effort to get to the club and to pick up my solo efforts at home, when I have time to set up a game, especially to try out new rules and get stuff on the table after I've spent so much time painting it. I have some ideas for 2025 that might help this along in the right direction. 

MiG Alley Multiplayer Club Game

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.

MiG Alley Extras Finished

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. 

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. 

Almost There

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.

Sabre Stripes

A bit more progress on the Sabres and Mustangs yesterday, with everything blocked in apart from the canopies. I have added the invasion stripes to one of the Sabres using a 0.1 black fine line pen, just to see what it looks like, as well as painting the canopy at the same time. The rest will have to wait until next weekend as we are off to sunny West Wales for a short break.

F-86 Sabres and F-51 Mustangs for MiG Alley and Bag the MiG

I really don't need any more aircraft for MiG Alley but I fancied adding some early war F-86 Sabres and F-51 Mustangs to the line up, so have started painting eight of the former and four of the latter for the game at the club. The invasion stripes will be a challenge but there's only three per band, so not too much to worry about, fingers crossed! There are some scenarios featuring F-86A Sabres in Bag the MiG too, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone.

MiG Alley Coastal Terrain

I made these North Korea coastal terrain boards last year sometime then forgot about them. With a game of MiG Alley in a couple of weeks and some USN, USMC and FAA aircraft to deploy, I thought I better finish them off. It's just done with spray paints but I think it looks not half bad.

MiG Alley Club Game

After a long delay due to work and family life, I've set up a four player game of MiG Alley for the 5th November. This will be for players with no prior experience of the rules, so I'm going to keep it user friendly but hope to get in at least two games on the night. I just need to finish off the sea terrain boards that I started on ages ago to complete the set up. Tally Ho!

Korean War F-86A Sabres

I took my daughter to an Open Day at Reading University yesterday and we had a hour or so to kill before taking the train back home, so popped into Waterstones for a bit. Unlike most branches of this bookseller, they had a well stocked carousel of Osprey Publishing titles, one of which was this book in the dogfight series which I didn't yet own.

It's an excellent little book and has lots of potential scenarios for Bag the MiG or similar rules, with a breakdown of tactics and manoeuvres accompanied by full colour diagrams. It has inspired me to have a crack at some early war 4th FIW F-86A Sabres, complete with the D-Day style invasion stripes. My existing 1/600th scale Sabres are all the later F-86E version with the yellow bands, so I have a gap in my Bag the MiG and MiG Alley line up that needs to be filled. I already have twelve Tumbling Dice Sabre models in the leadpile, so it won't take long to paint up enough for some early war games. 

I've also decided to have a go at some 1/300th scale F-86A Sabres and MiG-15 fighters, using the Scotia Collectair models, a couple of which I ordered a few weeks ago just to check out. I thought they were really nifty, so have ordered some more to make up matching flights of four, along with some decals from Dan at Flight Deck Decals for the North Korean MiG's and from Scale Specialities for the 4th FIW Sabres.