Played a great game of Lacquered Coffins today down at the local wargames club. 400 point mid war battle, with Luftwaffe against the Soviets.
Aircraft are 1/600 scale from Tumbling Dice. Stands and bases are home-made from steel and wire
Soviets went for a mix of Ground attack and Fighters – 4 Pe-2, 4 IL-2, and a number of LaGG-3 and La-5 fighters covering them from the wings. Soviet pilots were all of average quality, some were even poor quality.
Luftwaffe went for fighters and bomber destroyers – mostly FW 190 and Bf 109s and some Bf 110 and an Me 210. The luftwaffe pilots were largely good quality, some average too.
Opening turn, long line of Soviet fighters protecting ground attack aircraft in the centre
Fw 190s get a few long range shots in with their 20mm cannons, not inflicting much damage though.
Luftwaffe close in on the wings of the Soviet formation, focusing on the fighter escorts
Luftwaffe and Soviet aircraft begin to merge and chaos ensues…
After dealing with 4 or so Soviet fighters, the 4 Good quality pilots in FW 190s attempt to catch up to the Soviet ground attack element, who during this time is almost at the enemy ground targets…. the fighters won't arrive in time to stop them!
Fw 190s moving out of range of AA fire from the Soviet airfield, 1 damaged FW 190 is shot down by AA..
Carnage… the game around turn 3, one of our Luftwaffe players shown thoroughly enjoying himself and taking an opportunity to display his optimism via photo bomb…
Turn 4, Luftwaffe clear the soviet fighters on the right, but still have 3 to deal with on the left – the Fighters do their job and their sacrifice allows the Soviet ground attack aircraft to get through!
The FW 190s catch up to the IL-2 Sturmoviks, and inflict heavy damage – somehow the Sturmoviks are still flying, despite absorbing enough damage to down a figher, and despite the pilot and crew being wounded…
From the Luftwaffe perspective (their ground attack targets shown in the foreground)
Pe-2s by this point have dropped their bombs on the Luftwaffe airfield / high value target, and scored 12 bomb hits (2 Pe-2s hitting with full 6 bomb loads, and 2 Pe-2's missing horribly -all their bombs going off target.
3 IL-2 sturmoviks realize they're far too high and fast to successfully conduct a strafing run on the ground targets, so they frantically try to lose speed and altitude, but generally fail at life and inflict no damage. 1 Rear gunner does shoot down a damaged FW 190 though, during defensive fire…
Nearing the end of the game (likely turn 6), Luftwaffe players carrying out their mandatory moves. 2 Pe-2 were severely damaged by AA fire at this point.
FW 190s creep in behind IL-2 sturmoviks
The game ended after turn 6. 2 damaged Pe-2's crashed upon landing, while a Sturmovik also crashed. The German pilots were able to land their damaged aircraft easily – being much more skilled pilots.
The results:
luftwaffe had around 180 points still on the table, while the soviet had about the same. Their successful ground attacks (12 bombs on a high value target, and a few strafing runs) gave them an extra 96 points, so the game ended as a heroic victory for the Soviets!
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