Finished this last night and thought you'd enjoy it.
BTH2 AAR
Oran, North Africa. Operation Torch, November 1942. The British have returned! First the outrage of Mers el Kebir, and now this. They have no honor!
8 Albacores flying off HMS Furious escorted by 6 Sea Hurricane IIC's from HMS Dasher or Biter have raided the French airfield of La Senia. With too little warning to intervene the 9 D.520's of GC I/3 scramble and leave the target area, clawing for altitude. Mission complete the Brits head back out to sea. The escort Hurris, expecting any trouble to arrive from behind, lag behind the slow bombers.
The game begins at this point. I used the pilot quality charts in the book. I gave the French a -1 modifier since by this time they had fought the Battle of France as well as the action is Syria. The French are at squadron strength, flying 3 patrouilles of 3 ships each.
Blue 1 = Veteran, Blue 2 = Regular, Blue 3 = Veteran
Red 1 = Veteran, Red 2 = Veteran, Red 3 = Regular
White 1 = Regular, White 2 = Regular, White 3 = Veteran
The British Hurricanes in one division at Alt 3
Red 1 = Junior Ace, Red 2 = Sprog
Blue 1 = Veteran, Blue 2 = Sprog
Yellow 1 = Regular, Yellow 2 = Sprog
Albacores in two vics of 3 and one of 2 at Alt 3
The book doesn't include Albacore stats so I treated them as Swordfish. In retrospect I think Rob 4 is high, making them too durable.
Turn 1: All bogeys move. The Brits call Tally Ho! Fighters 10 o'clock altitude 6. Blast! The 
s have gotten ahead of us. The French spot the bombers at the same time but somehow miss the escort.
Turn 2: Blue and Red Patrouilles split to pincer the Albacores while White Patrouille remains high as top cover. Between the normal move cards and Formation and Altitude bonus cards, Red and Blue scoot right to where they want to be. Still unspotted, but cursing themselves for being out of position, the escorts can only watch as the French move to attack position and swoop in, tearing into the bombers flanks. Hurtling in, the French finally notice the lagging Hurricanes. Merde! Good thing for top cover. Blue Patrouille Leader (on the bomber left) fires front deflection at the left outside Albacore, whose pilot swerves sharply to evade. He escapes damage but is now out of formation. On the other side Red Patrouille Leader (on the bomber right) puts a front deflection burst squarely into the right vic leader. Cannon rounds (die roll 9 +1 for 20mm = 10) find something vital and the bomber explodes. Worse, the victim's wingmate loses control whilst dodging debris and spirals right and down. Unable to regain control he eventually ditches.
Finally able to react, the Hurri commander barks orders and the echelon breaks into scattering pairs.
Turn 3: Brit Junior Ace card! French Blue Leader looks up in horror to see Brit Red Leader boring at him guns blazing. Critical instrument damage! A second burst not only misses the well-flown D.520, but precious seconds of ammo are wasted. British Blue pair doesn't like the looks of White Patrouille waiting above, and climbs to engage them – only to watch them dive past and attack the bombers from behind. Each D.520 takes a separate target, leaving the Albacores that much more scattered and ragged. Unfortunately none go down.
In the chaos of the following turns, Yellow Leader wounds Blue Patrouille 3 and the bomber tail gunners scatter White Patrouille. Blue Patrouille limps off and disengages while Brit Yellow 2 and French White 1 are shot down. The poor Brit sprog never had a chance. Shortly after that White 3 finds himself trapped between Brit Red 1 behind, Blue 1 to the right and 3 tail gunners ahead. Down he goes!
Just like that the fight is over. Final tally? 2 D.520's down and 2 damaged. 1 Sea Hurricane and 2 Albacores down. French honor has been served!
Lessons learned? You can go from Hero to Zero very quickly. Rob 4 seems too high for single engined bombers. The Albacores just would not go down after the first pass – lots of M and M*. Very few tricky or hard maneuvers were used. Most planes got to where they wanted to be via normal easy turns. This kept fighter formations intact for the most part as the Sprogs were able to keep up.
assembles and paints two varieties of Hurricanes from 