Battle of Britain mini-campaign

[Westmarcher]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of my first face-to-face game since who knows when, thanks to our own Steve Holmes who hosted a mini-campaign at his home using The Battle of Britain—Again! rules by Mike Crane and adapted for a hexagon playing surface by Steve using his lovely 1/600th(?) scale planes.  Thankfully for my old brain, these are a Beer & Pretzels level of rules which added to the enjoyment. Alas, there were no beer or pretzels but tea and doughnuts were satisfactory enough.

The game represents German attacks on British targets during the first 7 days of the Battle of Britain. There is a pool of 6 fighter squadrons for each side and six bomber squadrons for the Luftwaffe. A target is selected each day and two German bomber squadrons and two fighter squadrons are selected by dice to raid that target. Two British fighter squadrons are also selected by dice to intercept them. You therefore don't know if you will have Stukas, Dorniers, Spitfires or Hurricanes, etc. The playing board represents the airspace where they clash.
The German objective is to destroy the airfield and eliminate one of the two other targets (a radar installation or an important factory) whilst the British objective is to shoot down enough bombers to prevent the Germans achieving those goals.

The set-up is fairly standard for each game with the German bomber squadrons (Staffeln being the correct term, I believe) set up at their end of the board in two waves with fighter staffeln on their flanks. However, as the week progresses, attrition takes its toll and so on some days your squadrons may be understrength or may not even turn up having been eliminated in earlier sorties! And if no bombers turn up, Blighty breathes a sigh of relief and you move on to the next day. 

On the first day's action, as the British player (selected simply on account of me having the better moustache), the speed in which the first wave of Ju88s zoomed across the board completely took me by surprise and before I could say, "Cripes, Algie!" my Hurricanes had flown past and given them a free run to the target where these guys managed to cause considerable damage to the objective (the airfield) causing 18 damage points out of the 30 required to destroy the objective. All my fighters could then do was shoot down as many bombers in the second wave. Fortunately, these were slightly slower Heinkels. The first aerial combat was a head to head fight between one of my Hurricanes and an Me.109. Fortunately my guy prevailed - but a very risky strategy that I soon resolved to avoid. I was then in among the bombers and enemy fighters. I seem to recall Steve lost another fighter or two (including an Me.110) but thankfully for me, he also lost all his second wave bomber force (hurrah!) so no more of der bombing voz made on zat day (sorry, got carried away). I lost two Hurricanes from one of my squadrons. I should have explained, bomber squadrons and British fighter squadrons have 3 models and German fighter squadrons, 2 models, so already the attrition rate was quite high.

On the following two days (or was it only on Day 2 - being a dunderhead, I didn't take notes), one of the objective was a Spitfire factory. If my memory is correct, Steve drew Dorniers, the much slower Ju.87 Stukas and an understrength fighter squadron. I had both Spitfires and Hurricanes. The Stukas were easy meat and that squadron destroyed - as for the Dorniers, you know, I can't remember (perhaps Steve will confirm) - did any get through because I can't recall what damage if any was  inflicted on the factory. Suffice to say, my tactics were getting better and more Huns were being shot down than I was sustaining losses. Steve's tactics could perhaps have been more effective (and to be fair, he also had the distraction of handling the admin side of the game) but his poorer dice rolls were definitely making life tougher for him as the next three (or four?) days were to prove.

By this time, Steve had lost two full bomber squadrons and one fighter squadron so when it came to dicing for selecting formations for the next raids, he had a one in three chance of having no bomber force (so raid called off) or a one in six chance of having only 1 bomber squadron available for the raid. Crazily, due to a run of bad rolls, no active bomber squadrons were available for selection over the next three (or was it four?) days.

So this left us with only one more 'day' to complete the campaign. There was now no way Steve could win the campaign but fortunately for him, the dice selected the already damaged airfield - so only 12 points of damage needed to reach the target total of 30 and destroy this objective to gain some consolation by finishing off strongly. But unfortunately only 1 bomber squadron of Heinkels (which, thankfully, was at full strength).  He also had three(?) Me.109s in 2 squadrons. I had two understrength squadrons - one with 2 Spitfires ond one with 2 Hurricanes. To win a decisive victory, my tactics were therefore very simple - shoot down one bomber. Why? Well, bomb damage is inflicted by throwing 2 dice, the total being the number of damage points inflicted on the objective. Steve needed 12 points to destroy the airfield. OK, he might have thrown a double six, so two bombers down would definitely seal it for me but with a one in 36 chance in getting a double six, I was fairly confident. I lost 2 fighters, Steve lost 1 fighter ... and 2 bombers, so to shouts of Hurrah! Tally Ho! and Donner und Blitzen!, victory was awarded to the RAF! Hurrah! (again).

A great afternoon's entertainment so thanks once again to Steve for adapting the rules for hexes and organising and hosting the game. As I mentioned, attrition was high but especially for the Luftwaffe - the final tally 11 bombers and six fighters shot down to the RAF's six.  A really good set of Beer & Pretzels style rules, imo, and well worth another go.

     

   

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Great report 

[fsn]

Sounds like great fun!

[Steve J]

I'm glad you both had a lot of fun .

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Sounds good to me

[fred.]

Sounds like a great game representing the BoB - and great that you can play through a whole week of attacks in an afternoon.

Link to the rules https://lonewarriorswa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Battle-of-Britain.pdf

[bigjackmac]

Fantastic, those are some of my favorite rules, I absolutely love them and have played quite a few games with them.  I need to get back to them ASAP.

Might a beg for some pictures?  I'd love to see your setup.

V/R,
Jack

[steve_holmes_11]

Hello, this is Berlin calling.

The only correction to the awful Britisher propaganda above is that our noble fleigerkorps lost three whole squadrons in the first two days.
Our inability to field raids for the following four days was entirely down to fog in the channel, nothing to do with our Bomber crews preferring to tangle with can-can girls in Paris than Spitfires in the air.

We shall review our flight rosters as soon as the Reichsairmarshall finishes his generous buffet spread.


Fun rules, quick games, decisive campaign and no brain fade.
All wrapped up in time to watch the football.

[paulr]

 

[steve_holmes_11]

Apologies, no pictures folks.
I didn't take any, anticipating  harder time getting a grip of the rules.

Perhaps next time.

[Westmarcher]

Might a beg for some pictures?  I'd love to see your setup.

Sorry, Jack. As Steve says no pics were taken. But actually, the playing area was simplicity itself: a hex grid about 31 hexes long (can't recall the exact number of hexes wide - but obviously less) with the only eye candy being Steve's models (to bomb the objective, you have to exit your bombers at the far end so no terrain required there either).

Hello, this is Berlin calling.

The only correction to the awful Britisher propaganda above is that our noble fleigerkorps lost three whole squadrons in the first two days.
Our inability to field raids for the following four days was entirely down to fog in the channel, nothing to do with our Bomber crews preferring to tangle with can-can girls in Paris than Spitfires in the air.

We shall review our flight rosters as soon as the Reichsairmarshall finishes his generous buffet spread.

Wait a minute! Just realised (thanks to the efficacious benefits of beer and whisky tonight - I was sober earlier when I posted my report .... *think on that*) that no-one spotted my arithmetical error(s) earlier today! In actual fact, I needed to shoot down TWO bombers on the last day, not only ONE  (which I did - in fact, did I not get all three Heinkels, Steve?) to stop Steve destroying the target ... awaiting Berlin's spin on events.

[steve_holmes_11]

Sorry, Jack. As Steve says no pics were taken. But actually, the playing area was simplicity itself: a hex grid about 31 hexes long (can't recall the exact number of hexes wide - but obviously less) with the only eye candy being Steve's models (to bomb the objective, you have to exit your bombers at the far end so no terrain required there either).

Wait a minute! Just realised (thanks to the efficacious benefits of beer and whisky tonight - I was sober earlier when I posted my report .... *think on that*) that no-one spotted my arithmetical error(s) earlier today! In actual fact, I needed to shoot down TWO bombers on the last day, not only ONE  (which I did - in fact, did I not get all three Heinkels, Steve?) to stop Steve destroying the target ... awaiting Berlin's spin on events.

Lord Ha-Ha calling all my British friends.

One Heinkel did indeed continue to bomb its target.
Our trustworthy Reichsmarshall ensures me that every bomb went right down the chimney of Mister Churchill's bunker.
I'll bet he did nazi that coming (Play this bit for laughs).


Air operations against Britain are hereby cancelled while we build some replacement aircraft turn our attention to a bigger threat in the east.

[Westmarcher]

 

[pierre the shy]

Tally Ho Westmarcher

The rules you're using are the same basic ones as I've been using to run my Singapore, Ceylon and (upcoming) Alutein scripted campaigns with a few tweaks thanks to BigJackMac.

They work really well, probably even better with "the efficacious benefits of beer and whisky"  

[bigjackmac]

No worries about not having pictures, just interested.  Here's what my first go around looked like:



And here's what I use now:


I hope to see some more fights; it's a wargaming goal of mine to play out the entire Battle of Britain (10 July to 31 October 1940, or 16 weeks!) using these rules, and I'm already in deep following three US squadrons through the Pacific. 

And I hope to see Pierre's Aleutians campaign kick off soon!

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Hopefully that will be taking place in the near future, got lots of real world stuff to tick off before I can get onto the campaign....

When you get your man cave recarpeted its amazing what you find hidden away for a rainy day when you have to move everything out! 

[Raider4]

Great report!

I acquired all of the aircraft to play this from Tumbling Dice the last time I went to the Newbury show (2019?).

Plus a pack of Bolton-Paul Defiants. Same stats as an Me-110, but no forward firing. If the Brits roll a '1' for squadron selection, roll again. If another '1' then the Defiants are used rather than the normal Hurricanes. Just to make life more fun . . .

Of course, nothing has been done, and all of these planes are still in their ziplock bags. Sigh.

Bristol Blenheims could also be squeezed in somewhere.

[steve_holmes_11]

Out of "Character", a quick piece on the rules.

Westmarcher and I used a variant I'd prepared for a hex surface (Since the only gridded mat I posess is a hex one).
Rules are on a PDF, and I'll attempt to find a way to post them after I've resolved a couple of bits of ambiguous wording.

The rules certainly deliver what I want form an air battle.
Rapid moves, quick kill or miss shooting, and the ability to complete a move in 15 seconds or less.

I don't mind faffing about with 10 minute moves if it's an operational table game.
The sort of "dogfight" where you're poring over tables to calculate burst length, closing speed and precise deflection angle - but a move takes 5 minutes - have always broken the immersion to me.
The same goes for detailed breakdowns of damage: "3 points of rifle calibre through the port wing".

My limited reading on the subject suggests that the pilot knew three states for his aircraft: Healthy, Damaged - but hopeful of getting home, and about to crash.
The two latter remove a fighter from the battle as anything but an easy kill, so I'm content with the "Bang you're dead" aspect of air gunnery.

Likewise the random movement distance.
I see this reflecting the pilot's management of energy, throttle, altitude etc.
There were a few instances in our campaign when a fighter a few hexes off an enemy tail rolled low for movement and couldn't get into a firing position.
Who knows what actually happened, aircraft emerged from cloud 2000 feet below the target, mechanical problems at the critical moment, sme other distraction.
This isn't chess and it isn't Advanced Squad Leader.

Finally, the specifics of the aircraft are open to criticism / modification.
I truied to get inside the author's head and understand his thinking.

Spitfire and 109 - quick and manoeuvrable.
Hurricane - slower, but manoeuvrable.
110 - quick (I figure it's starting at altitude, while the RAF - especially Hurricanes) are still climbing to intercept), but handles like a bomber.
Bombers - mainly targets, with differing speeds to reflect their capabilities.

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to play an air battle, I recommend these rules.
The dicing for fighter movement injects that random element that makes solo play quite fun (though I've not tried it yet).

[pierre the shy]

Finally, the specifics of the aircraft are open to criticism / modification.
I truied to get inside the author's head and understand his thinking.

Spitfire and 109 - quick and manoeuvrable.
Hurricane - slower, but manoeuvrable.
110 - quick (I figure it's starting at altitude, while the RAF - especially Hurricanes) are still climbing to intercept), but handles like a bomber.
Bombers - mainly targets, with differing speeds to reflect their capabilities.

If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to play an air battle, I recommend these rules.
The dicing for fighter movement injects that random element that makes solo play quite fun (though I've not tried it yet).

Yes, for what they are they're a very good set of simple air combat rules that are very open to modification/house rules that can be played solo or against another player (thanks for being a guinea pig Paul  ).

For example I have made Japanese fighters such as Zero bit more manuverable than Allied ones, but they're more sustainable to damage/break off results if hit themselves. For the upcoming Aluetians campaign I have given American 4 engined bombers up to 3 hits as they were very rugged machines.

I haven't tried a BoB based game but I hope you and Westmarcher have a enjoyable campaign.     

[paulr]

...
Yes, for what they are they're a very good set of simple air combat rules that are very open to modification/house rules that can be played solo or against another player (thanks for being a guinea pig Paul  ).
...

Seconded, a very happy guinea pig