"B-36 Bomber Scenarios?" Topic

I see these are now available again, in 1/600th scale, and would like a few of them, though I'm not sure why, other than of course their very impressive size, and ancient Cold War tech.

Not sure how to use them in a decent Cold War bomber game though, since they are so large and slow.

Originally, when designed, they planned to bomb at night, and the Soviets/Russians didn't have any or many radar-equipped fighters that could find and intercept them, and SAMs hadn't become operational yet either.

I'm okay with none of the latter, but am not sure how to make use of them in a game in an interesting way, since if the Soviets do get radar-equipped fighters they'll probably make mince-meat of the B-36s, and if they don't then no one will want to play the Soviet or Chinese communist side, since there's no point.

Perhaps some sort of search/detection mechanic with a few radar-equipped fighters, and/or GCI controllers to aid those without radar to try to intercept them visually in the dark, like they had to do very early in WWII.

Might be tough to balance to make the game(s) fun for both sides. Perhaps throw in a few B-29s too, just for grins as well.

Of course, we can re-use those B-29s and have them raid North America as well, just for grins too, in order to keep the Air Defense Command boys on their toes.

Thoughts?

Over Korea the Communists did night interceptions with MiG-15s of the FEAF B-29s, hence the escorts of Marine F3Ds. The MiGs flew under GCI, and made things kinda sporty, including downing some Superforts, so a mid-50s scenario of PVO-Strany fighters under GCI would be very plausible. By 1955, birds like the Yak-25 were coming online so there would be radar equipped night fighters, but then take into account the ECM on the B-36. Even then a lot of effort was expended by SAC on countermeasures, so radar-equipped night fighters might find things a lot more difficult than at first glance, especially when the B-36 is ready and waiting with its 8 twin 20mm mounts.
CVA31

The B-36 is a beauty and a favorite of mine due to it's odd intergenerational design. I just don't see a lot of scenarios where it would get used much. There is always what if scenarios and what you outline above.

Perhaps a double blind game with an umpire? You could even get fancy and have a separate player be the gci operator. If he gets through the cam, he look at the bombers table from 10 feet away and then call out directions to the interceptors

You could try a post strike RB36 trying to get its film back. BTW when my dad's crew flew theirs from Puerto Rico to David Monthan they were told in actuality they had zero chance of survival and nearly none of accomplishing their mission. The flight engineer's clock from that plane sits on my desk.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I wonder just how rugged/fragile the B-36 was, compared to the bombers of WWII. It's certainly very large, with lots of engines, and a lot of fuel, but of course that means they can be shot out, or catch on fire.

Lots of defensive armament too, though I recall reading that at least one communist fighter was able to mess with a B-29's targeting radar to neutralize its guns back in the day.

Hmmmmm…….

A beautiful piece of aircraft. They have a B-36 at the USAF Museum near Dayton,OH.And I always see Jimmy Stewart flying one when I think of that big dog.

My dad use to take us to the USAF museum on the weekends while my mom was shopping. The B 36 use to scare us because it was so big. A cool plane. 😎

Thanks

Joe

You could use a variant of the celebrated (in some quarters) PVO Strany game as seen at the Conference of Wargamers in 2012…https://megablitzandmore.blogspot.com/2012/07/pvo-strany.html