Hi everyone,
I thought I would share a couple of battle reports with you, in case anyone is interested in aerial wargaming in 1/144th scale. Of course, you could fight out the battles using other aircraft scales just as easily, but the 1/144th scale planes are impressive to look at on the gametable, especially when using 3-D Flight Stands that permit virtually any attitude of flight to be represented.
It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon, avoiding the drudgery of household chores.
I think both games worked out reasonably well, but we weren't quite able to finish the Battle of Britain scenario, due to time constraints.
The first one was two 1/144th scale FW-190A's pitted against two P-51D's, flying on a training mission, to teach the guys how to use the rules.
They started out head to head, but Brian chose to maneuver to the right, and to climb for altitude, before turning back to the left. Diving attacks are given a bonus to hit in the rules, if you dive at least five levels on your target. At first, it was just Brian and Mike, but then Brad came back with lunch, so he was given a FW, and I flew Brian's wing.
The FW's tried a long range shot, but couldn't hit, due to the range, while closing from ahead.
On the next turn, Brian and I engaged with Brad in a head-on pass, while Mike was slightly to port, and just outside of the head-on arc of the Mustangs. Brian missed the FW, and Brad missed me, but I managed to get a lucky hit on him (Brad), causing heavy damage and a fire. Since this was a training mission, we chose to ignore that, and continued on with the fight. Mike didn't do any damage to Brian's plane either.
After that, the game degenerated into a fast, swirling dogfight, with planes flying reverse arcs trying to get a bead on one another in head-on passes. On one turn, late in the game, I was concentrating on getting on Brad's tail, and Mike was able to cut the corner nicely, and just barely got into my rear arc, downing my aircraft with one burst.
Brian struggled admirably to fend off the other two FW-190A's, but finally performed a Split-S, hoping to gain some separation, and speed. This he did, but it wasn't enough. The German pilots both nailed him, causing heavy damage to his plane, and wounding his pilot. He wanted to re-engage, but due to the high speed, and close proximity to the table edge, he was unable to turn back into the
fight.
I let the Germans have a final parting shot at him, but both missed, so we determined he would make it home to base, despite the condition of his plane.
Then, it was on to the Battle of Britain, with four Me-109E's trying to protect a single He-111 bomber from two vics of Spitfires. Brian and I flew the Spitfires against Mike and Brad with the German planes.
I forced both sides to roll for spotting, and only permitted one attempt per side, initially. I failed my initial spotting attempts, but Brian made his, as did the Germans, so the battle was on.
We also rolled for starting altitudes, and the Germans, and Brian's vic started out about equal in height, while I flew the high-cover vic of Spitfires.
The overwhelming firepower of the first vic of Spits (Brian's) set the bomber on fire, with a head-on pass, so the crew decided to bail, and managed to get out safely. All three of his planes scored hits, while the German return fire was ineffective. The first two hits on the He-111 during the game did very minor damage to it, being wing hits, but since it was damaged previosly, when the third
fighter attacked and hit it in the wing too, it caused the
catastrophic fire.
Thereafter, the game generated into a turning fight, with the German fighter pilots seeking revenge for their bomber comrades. Many pilots used Immelmann's, or Split-S' to try to gain advantage over their opponents. Losses were two Spitfires down, versus a single Me-109E, at the conclusion of our game.
The topcover vic of Spitfires (mine) was vectored in by an
inexperienced GCI controller much too high (the bad random die roll, for an unofficial house rule), and they had difficulty getting into the fight initially, due to failed spotting rolls at first. They were unable to fire on the bomber, so my lead pilot traded shots on a climbing Emil pair, in a diving head-to-head pass on them, along with his wingmen, but suffered a critical hit to his engine, downing his aircraft. Certainly an inauspicious start to the fight for my vic of fighters. He was unable to bail out successfully.
One of his mates hit a 109E, but did little damage to it in the fast-closing pass.
The altitude difference between my Spitfires and the other pair of German fighters at medium altitude was too great to compensate for in the first few turns. Eventually, they were able to get down to mix it with the Emil's, and to trade shots with the German fighter pilots. However, for at least one turn, I had a nice position on a pair of 109's, but couldn't get down to them fast enough to take advantage of that to shoot. Very frustrating.
I had to level off to prevent damage from overspeeding in a steep dive, so couldn't catch them.
After that, the game generated into a tightly twisting dogfight, with many pilots using tight turns, or special maneuvers to try to get on the tails of their opponents.
Brian and Mike each traded losses later in the battle, and I got lined up for an ineffective shot, or two. Then we had to end the game due to time constraints.
Overall losses were 1 x He-111 and 1 x Me-109E shot down for the loss of two Spitfires.
All in all, it was a fun afternoon.
We used 1/144th scale planes, Duel of Eagles rules (we sell them for $11.99, which is a great bargain), and a 6' x 12' table for both battles. Duel does not require the use of a hexmat for play, and we used telescoping 3-D Flight Stands that we produce for the dogfight, since they permit you to represent the aircraft in various attitudes of flight.
Best regards,
Rob
Topgun Marketing LLC
topgunace111 AT yahoo DOT com
reports from OrcCon 2008.