"Shipping Strike Missions - Rules?" Topic

I went to a show earlier in the year and got to play a fantastic Dambusters game with a 1/72 Lancaster and it got me thinking – would it be possible to run a similar type of game with 1/72 aircraft attacking shipping?

So I've got a few Airfix Mosquitos and a couple of German boats with the intention of making it my project for the summer. Has anyone tried anything similar?

Also, can anyone recommend a set of rules that would be suitable? Ideally, I'd like them to be able to handle up to 6 Aircraft attacking maybe the same number of ships.

You can use the Blue Sky series or CY6!. If you want something with a little more detail, the old Battleline/Avalon Hill game Air Force would work, as well.

Thanks very much! I'll have a look for the Avalon Hill set. Not come across Blue Sky before – is it hex based like CY6? I do use CY6 for 1/600 scale gaming but I don't know if it would work so well in larger scales.

This would work very well with Bag the Hun!

You could use the air rules in Action Stations – which has the advantage of having some very nice rules for the "targets" as well :)

Yes, the Blue Sky series is hex based, but it is an incomplete set. Current modules cover Early War Pacific, Mid to Late War Europe, the Eastern Front, and the Med. An Early version of the game (Squadrons, I think) covers the Battle of Britain, while a rewrite also covers BoB, IIRC.

IIRC Miniature Wargames magazine published an article on this subject including some rules called Whispering Death or similar. They are fairly simple and require a hex mat but produce a fun game.

Theres a guy who does CY6 in 1/72 at HAVOC every year and it always draws a full table. Impressive looking game.

I've played this type of game using Action Stations, and it worked out quite well for the naval attack portion of the game, and for enemy flak fire.

Ran a scenario of a long Coastal Forces B-24, and some Mosquitoes for follow-up attacks, vs. a pair of U-Boats during the "Fight-back Campaign" orders from Hitler. The U-Boats were ordered to fight it out on the surface with attacking patrol aircraft, instead of diving.

I think I made up some home-brew depth-charging attack rules as well, for the B-24 vs. U-Boat(s). As luck would have it on the first attack run, a U-Boat was sunk – only about a 3% – 5%, or so chance of that with the home rules.

We played again with Mossies, and the Germans got some Ju-88Cs for support, just to make things interesting.

Quite fun!

I think we used the Duel of Eagles rules for the air-to-air combat, though AS may have rules for that too.

Not 100% sure.

Next time, I want to have the Beaufighters/Mossies search for, and beat up some coastal convoys, just for fun, using cannons and rockets.

The "Hunters in the Sky" ground attack rules work well for anti-shipping attacks. Here are some photos of an attack on an aircraft carrier…

link

General Quarters III can handle all you mention. It has two levels of detail for aircraft, so you can fly individual flights of a/c to attack. Or use a simplified campaign level of detail which is more fast play.