Bag the Hun Club Multiplayer Game Plan

I have about half a dozen players signed up for a Bag the Hun 2 multiplayer game at the club, with a date in a couple of weeks looking good, although I have yet to book it in to the club website database thingy. I have been thinking about how to run this game and have come up with a cunning plan. This  involves recycling a successful game I ran a few years ago with a few additional twists to make it a bit different.

This will be a late war game set in 1945, with each player being allocated at random a pair of fighter aircraft and pilots, the objective being to shoot down as many of the enemy as possible. Half the players will be flying for the Luftwaffe, while the other half will be either RAF, USAAF or VVS. All will fly on as bogeys in Turn 1 from different directions and at random altitudes, much akin to the reinforcement entry mechanism in AK47.

There will be a general 'free for all' dogfight with a set time limit of turns, after which a 'Bingo' / 'No Fuel to Duel' card will be slipped into the pack, on which all of the players will have to roll to stay on or to head back via their entry point. If a player is shot down early in the game, I will have some spare aircraft and cards that can be used after a decent interval to allow them to fly back into action, possibly on the opposing side if required.

The aircraft involved will include the P51D, Spitfire XIV, Tempest V and La-5/7 for the good guys, with the Fw190A8, Fw190D9, Me262 and Bf-109K for the baddies. I'm also going to paint four 616 Squadron Gloster Meteor F MkIII's for the game, using the old Raiden Miniatures model, even though they never engaged in air to air combat. If you remember the old Airfix model of the Gloster Meteor, you will have some idea of what they looked like in 1945.

After some close shaves they were painted overall white to prevent trigger happy AA gunners and USAAF pilots from assuming they were Me262's, so the paint work will be very straightforward. On the other hand, it does mean that I will have to divert my last remaining flight stands from the III/JG2 Fw190A3 project for the moment, leaving them high and dry until I can order some more or get some from Magister Militum at Colours on Saturday.

Tally Ho!

Riding the Herd, Falling off a Shed

I've been stupidly busy today, re-felting the garden shed in the middle of a thunderstorm and various other dangerous pursuits, so have only managed to base up the Warbases herd of Longhorn cattle. I was hoping to have added the all essential horns and textured the bases as well but this will have to be squeezed into the schedule tomorrow, the shed having only been partially covered as I slipped and face planted off the sodden roof. Not that I got much sympathy from my kids who proceeded to laugh like a pack of demented monkeys. Anyway, more bovine related progress to follow, together with a few more cows if I can round them up at Colours at the weekend.

Spitfre II/V vs Bf-109F

I have read several of the Osprey Duel series, some really good and some a bit iffy, so I thought I'd hedge my bets and download this one, especially as it is directly relevant to my latest Bag the Hun project. I have to say that this is definitely one of the better books in the series, with some excellent detail on the design and relative performance of the two iconic aircraft, together with very interesting accounts of their use over the Channel Front c1940-42. I was particularly surprised to find quite a bit of coverage of the obscure wing tank LR Spitfire II's, which I've featured in a published scenario before. In fact, there's loads here for you if you want idea for games or just an accurate guide to camouflage and unit markings. Very good!

Moo

I found these today - a stash of 28mm Texas Longhorn cattle from Warbases - which I bought at Warfare last year then forgot about. They're hefty lumps of lead with attachable horns so that you can make them long or short, so to speak. Not being a cow enthusiast I'm uncertain of the merits of the shorter or longer variety of bovine but they will be excellent for Fistful of Lead: Reloaded cattle rustling games, one of which features as a scenario in the rulebook. I'm thinking of doing a quick paint job on these, basing and texturing the bases first, then blasting them with a white basecoat followed by some light brown patches and a wash. I'm back at work tomorrow but may well tackle them next weekend as a quick dip back into the Old West.

Bagged by the Sprog

The sprog and I finished off the game of Bag the Hun that we started a couple of days ago this afternoon. This was based on the Bandits scenario from the rules which features a dogfight between two evenly matched sections of fighters, with the sprog taking four FW190-A8's for the Germans and myself four P-51D Mustangs for the Americans. The Americans had a Junior Ace but the Germans had an altitude and up sun advantage to start with.

The game began with some frenetic twisting and turning, followed by some close range firing by both sides to little effect, although one of the FW-190's did take some minor damage by the end of Turn One from a Critical Hit. In Turn Two, the dogfight continued with both sides getting on the tail of the other at various points and making ineffective attacks. This looked like a repeat of the last game but it was all about to change.

And so it did. In Turn Three the American flight leader once again made the same mistake and attempted an ill-advised Immelmann, leaving his sprog wingman to fail his manoeuvre test and fly off the table. I can't believe I tried doing this twice. What an idiot! Anyway, this left the Americans down to three aircraft, one of which had by now received some nasty wing and aileron damage and was looking a little bit like a flying sieve.

The Yanks decided they were up a waterway without propulsion, so headed back across the front line in Turn Five, hotly pursued by the Luftwaffe. They managed to box in the flight leader but he wiggled out of the trap and put his foot down in Turn Six to zoom away, ready to fight another day and to answer some awkward questions from his CO. I think the Luftwaffe won the game (again) although it was strictly speaking a draw.

It is the sprog's birthday today too so, to celebrate the occasion, he was declared the winner and awarded the Iron Cross first class. I'm sure there will be a few victory rolls over the Luftwaffe fighter base and a slap up sauerkraut and schnitzel dinner for the victorious Schwarm Leader of II/JG4. We meanwhile are off down the local pub for a burgers and chips birthday tea!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Spitfires over Berlin

I've flicked through this a few times in WHSmiths but it's now available as a digital book for £3.99, so worth getting hold of. There's lots of useful stuff here too for Bag the Hun and the like, covering the air war in the last five months of the war, not just last few days as the title suggests. The creation of the excellent cover art by Mark Postlethwaite is also explained on his website, which I think is really relevant to painting miniatures too:

http://www.posart.com/spitfire-berlin-wip/

Bag the Hun Operation Bodenplatte Revisited

A few years ago I finished off my late war NW Europe Bag the Hun project with a club multiplayer game set during Operation Bodenplatte, the massed Luftwaffe assault on Allied airfields on 1st January 1945:

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/bag-hun-operation-bodenplatte-game.html

This was a lot of fun, so I've been thinking of setting up another one, this time with a limit of three or four players a side, each with a pair of RAF, USAAF or Luftwaffe fighters. This would keep the number of cards down to a manageable size and also speed up game play, with less time wasted by those players not involved each turn.

I was also thinking of a random system to determine who flies what and which side they are on, along with pilot experience, altitude and position. This might include a specific mission objective for each player, rather than just a generic 'shoot down the enemy' points tally. There will probably also be some low level cloud cover and a bit of indiscriminate light flak to make the scenario more challenging!

It's all a bit sketchy at the moment but I think it might be good for a club night at some point.

Searching for Sagebrush Sam

I thought the latest 99c scenario for Fistful of Lead: Reloaded sounded like a lot of fun, so I downloaded a copy for the princely sum of seventy six of Her Majesty's new pence. The scenario set up is a 4' x 4' table covered in scrub, rocks, cactus and other rough terrain, through which two to four gangs have to search for the eponymous Sagebrush Sam, who supposedly knows the location of hidden Conquistador gold. 

Not quite sagebrush but it's what I've already got!

So far, so good but the best bit is a brilliant random encounter table that throws the whole thing up in the air and, I suspect, causes all sorts of amusing mayhem for the players involved in the actual searching. I really fancy setting this up as a club game one evening, all that I need being some templates for the eight search areas and a figure for Sagebrush Sam himself. It's all well worth the 99c asking price!

III/JG2 'Richthofen' Luftwaffe Fighters (4)

I got side lined yesterday by the Bag the Hun game and by other less interesting things to do, so only managed one addition to the III/JG2 project, which isn't even directly relevant. This is a Ju88-D1 reconnaissance aircraft, converted from a Museum Miniatures Ju88-A4 medium bomber.

I had to do the actual conversion after I had finished basing and mounting the model, as a bit of last minute research revealed that the bomb racks and dive brakes should have been removed, requiring some careful cutting, filing and sanding of the wing under surfaces to remove the offending bits.

I could add some long range drop tanks instead but I don't think I need to. This model will be used in scenarios as a target for Westland Whirlwind interception, the so-called Pigstick operations of 1941-42, or as something for III/JG2 to escort and protect. It will also get a +2 to the front Fire Factor thanks to an extra MGFF 20mm cannon!

That should give the RAF a nasty surprise!

Total Germany

Another 99p book for the Kindle which looked interesting and an easy read now that I'll be back at work. I have a 1/3000 Royal Navy fleet for the Med in a box that might yet see a splash of paint, although it's been there long enough already that I don't think it will happen any time soon! I think my 1/600 coastal forces are more likely to see some additions before that happens, especially as I have a destroyer and minesweeper already prepared for painting.