"Somewhere Over The Gulf, 1991" Topic

All,

Okay, on to something new and different. I'm playtesting another set of rules, this time some air to air combat rules. In this, my first game with the rules, we have a flight of four USN F-18 Hornets taking on a flight of four Iraqi MiG-29s. For my purposes everything is equal: the planes are equally maneuverable, each carries four IR missiles, four radar missiles, and three sets of countermeasures, and the pilots are of equal quality (apparently these are the cream of the Iraqi Air Force, and a USN ROTC aerial club). In any case, the action picks up with each flight at opposite ends of the table, over barren Iraqi desert…

Furball developing on the deck at far right, while the other two sets of fighters cautiously feel each other out at altitude.

A helluva dogfight breaks out.

Ultimately the US Naval aviators splash three bogeys.

The game was played with Picoarmor 1/600 jets on about a 3' x 3' table in about two hours and ten minutes. I've already thought of a few tweaks to the rules, and if you've got the time I'd love it if anyone could give a read through and let me know what they think of the batrep.

Thanks for taking a look, and for the whole fight check the blog here:
link

V/R,
Jack

Firstly… for once I can take 10 minutes to just relax from touring Lisbon and all its markets and churches and wineries…ironically we visited the birthplace of St Anthony the patron saint of finding lost items and on the way home my wife lost her purse :D St Anthony owes me one I can tell you :)

Anyway its marvellous to see you broaden your horizon and finally take to the clouds (I kind of reckon you probably belong up there :) )

Kind of ironic that when you do decide to take flight you actually do it on the ground and not on the table! Was it easier to photograph aerial views of the planes in flight ;) (I'm trying to be on my best behaviour with you Jack but sometimes you don't make it easy for me :) )

I was never interested in computer games when I was a kid (I was football and hunting crazy) but I loved modern flight simulators. Would play out sorties in real time for hours on holidays ….so I found this a pretty exciting read

I've gamed WW2 "Check Your Six" a few times in the past and loved it (I have just tons of planes so makes me wonder why I haven't tried it in so long.) I hate playing on hex mats (my obsession with creating natural looking gaming environments can a pain in the backside I tell you…so I made a bunch of maneuver templates that I'd place down on the plain (excuse the pun) table. Have you tried "Check your Six"? Anyway was very interested in the rules you were using and I would have liked more info on them.

Anyway enough BS :)

Very exciting report. The large amount of photos really helped show off the battle and how it developed. No wonder it took so long to play with all the photos and attaching missiles and afterburners and all! Never mind learning a whole set of rules to boot!

My gaming mind was constantly trying to figure out the mechanics involved in the action so I would have liked a little more explanation of the rules.

I have to mention the great minis and your markers deserve special mention! I'm presuming the actual missiles are originally white pipe cleaners with the fuzz stripped off at the ends to help create the missiles? They were amazingly effective. How did they attach to the models? I don't think there are tiny magnets involved…sorry things like that intrigue me <sad>

pilots are of equal quality (apparently these are the cream of the Iraqi Air Force, and a USN ROTC aerial club)

I'll tell you I laughed :D

Badger 03 lines it up, "Fox One!" and looses a radar missile at Romeo 03, who punches out CM. The first roll is "damaged," the second is a miss. Badger 03 takes the tailing test but fails…

Was the system using a IgoUgo activation system?

Loved it and hope to see more of these if you can occasionally squeeze them in :)

I remember in"Chack Your Six" there was a considerable amount of pilot skills which I thought could be interesting if there was an on going campaign.

All the best Jack

Panda,

Thanks for checking in, I know you're busy.

Hexes don't bother me, I hate messing with turn templates and the like. I've taken a hard look at CY6!, but never played them. First, they looked a bit too detailed for me, and second, the pre-plotted movement ( at least my understanding of it ) didn't look very solo friendly.

The batrep wasn't too bad; yes, pic heavy, but not too bad narrative-wise. I didn't mind taking the pics, I thought they really helped tell the story. It did take awhile to play the game, but I'm sure I'll get quicker, and no, I won't be playing any more games on the floor…

The rules are more playtest stuff; more will come out regarding the mechanics as I get further into playing and discussion. And I'm glad to hear you have an interest in air gaming, I had no idea ( and have tons of planes to boot, eh? ) . My next play will Israelis vs Syrians over the Bekaa Valley, then I'm looking to take it to Brit vs Luftwaffe over the Channel, followed by USN vs IJA/IJN over the Solomons.

The planes are all 1/600 from PicoArmor ( picoarmor.com ) , which are $4.50 USD for eight planes, so quite the deal, and the markers are all from Fights On! ( link ) Little expensive, but they work really well. They are really just glorified pipe cleaners, but they look cool as hell ; ) Being pipe cleaners they have a metal rod running down the center, so I use magnets in the aircraft stands for them to stick to.

These are an IGO-UGO set of rules; sorry, I don't really like those types of rules generally myself, but I wanted simplicity, plus there's still some uncertainty in there. Pilot skill has its place, and I really want to start a campaign ( I had a blast with a Battle of Britain campaign several years ago, before I started blogging and taking pics ) , but I need to get the kinks worked out of the rules first.

Take care Panda, hope you guys are having a great time.

V/R,
Jack

Good to see you can fathom air combat! In modern (symmetrical) war it trumps all!! Even a ground pounder can understand that!!!

Joe

Watch yourself, Joe, watch yourself ;)

Glad you stopped by, Sir, hope things are well.

V/R,
Jack

I love the pipe-cleaner markers!