For sometime I've wanted to do a Battle of Britain kriegspiel.
I would Umpire, and have a list of when radar, observers etc call in the spots. The table would be the plotting table. The players would be the Control room staff (it's ok, I'm not going to make Orcs dress up as a WAAF).
So I would say 'x' is reporting 'y' at 'z'. The team then relay their orders to airfields, and I would determine arrival times, results etc.
My renewed interest in this is I have asked my parents to get me a repro control room clock for Christmas.
(https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235284908882?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3D97d83c02472348c5be1d6751ce5f3527%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D235284908882%26itm%3D235284908882%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2351460&_trksid=p2351460.c100667.m2042)
Any thoughts/suggestions/websites etc you would give?
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(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/GFYAAOSwjtdmYKu6/s-l1600.webp)
QuoteThe table would be the plotting table. The players would be the Control room staff (it's ok, I'm not going to make Orcs dress up as a WAAF).
Thanks a bunch! Now I have to try and get that image out of my head!!!
Well, to get that image out of EVERYBODY'S head, anyone have any suggestions?
If you like detail there's always Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich: https://www.matrixgames.com/game/gary-grigsbys-eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich (https://www.matrixgames.com/game/gary-grigsbys-eagle-day-to-bombing-the-reich)
A bit of a classic but looks like its been heavily updated recently.
Not played it myself but I did spend large chunks of the mid 80's playing Grigsby's earlier "Fighter Command" on an Apple II+. Plan your raids then sit and watch them either succeed brilliantly or get shot out of sky.
A while ago I came across this set of operational level rules that look interesting. I've not had a chance to play them yet...
https://miniaturewargaming.com/blog/battle-of-britain-rules/ (https://miniaturewargaming.com/blog/battle-of-britain-rules/)
I also came across this youtube link, including WAAFs, which you should find interesting
On the 'Tote Board' each squadron had the following statuses
Released (not available);
Available (able to be airborne in 20 minutes);
Readiness (airborne in 5 minutes);
Standby (pilots in cockpit, airborne in 2 minutes);
Airborne and moving into position;
Enemy sighted;
Ordered to land;
Landed and refuelling/rearming.
While mostly obvious, a couple of questions.
"Released" - what does it mean by 'Not available' (I KNOW WHAT NOT AVAILABLE MEANS!) - that is, is the squadron stood down for more than a few hours, etc? Is it something that could change at short notice, or is it something planned.
What causes the change from Available->Readiness->Standby? Why would a squadron be at a lower alertness? Is it just resting pilots/food etc?
How long would you give from the point the squadron landed to Available? - that is how long to refuel and rearm?
Changes of status are ordered by Group. I think Released means the aircraft are being serviced.
This is a guess but -
20 mins, Pilots at dispersal mostly kitted up.
5 Mins at but not in the aircraft
2 Mins - in with engines running
Yeah, my guesses correspond; I wonder what the trigger for change would be. There is that trade off between resting the pilots, who would need to be as comfortable as possible as the BoB was exhausting, and having the planes at readiness.
I want the game to be 'real time', so readiness will be important. What stops the players having them all at standby?
All at 2mins would wreck the engines and exhaust the piolots. Reckon the status change was prompted by info from Chain Home and the Observer corps. also I suspect you could go direct from 20min to 2 min
What I'm thinking is they are at 20 mins, and the count starts when fighter command says "Go". Maybe allow FC to give a Go without a target, but if no target by +5 mins then they return to -20.
It occurs to me that if you are sitting in the aircraft with the engine running you are depleting your onboard fuel supply. There's no point being at two minutes readiness if you only have ten minutes flying time.
QuoteA while ago I came across this set of operational level rules that look interesting. I've not had a chance to play them yet...
https://miniaturewargaming.com/blog/battle-of-britain-rules/ (https://miniaturewargaming.com/blog/battle-of-britain-rules/)
Great find Paul - LH, this should give you most of what you need
I think you may be worrying far too much about the differences between the readiness levels of squadrons and what tiny impact that has vs all the other variables that come into play for interceptions.
I think I've downloaded those, going to try again this weekend on the computer rather than tablet.
What I am actually after is something a bit different to those, different to a traditional wargame. I want to run a kreigspiel for Fighter Command in real time.
Instead of nice discrete turns the players would be reacting to information in real time.
The Umpire (me) would have a timetable of reports; the Luftwaffe would be preprogrammed, and there would be a "game time" clock. This might be set at, say, a 1000 start, even if the game started at 1:25 pm. When the time was 2:25, the game clock would therefore say 1100.
As events came up on the list they would be reported to the players. So at 1005 I might say
Quote<station1> reports aircraft forming at <location>
<station 2> reports 30 aircraft heading 290 over <place>
Then at 1015
Quote<station> reports <thing>.
And so on.
The players then have to decide who to scramble when, and against who. Do they scramble on the basis those two tracks are actually the same raid being reported by different Observer Corps stations, or do they wait to make sure it is really just one?
The video above has the Filter room trying to make decisions on what the various tracks actually are
I suggested the rules as a useful source of information to the Kreigspiel umpire ;)
Depending on what you scale you want to run your kreigspeil on can I also suggest these two items from Two Fat Lardies?
If you are interested in running one squadron of around 12 aircraft then the "Their Finest Hour" and "Squadrons Forward" booklets may be for you, but if you want multi-level Command - Group - Squadron approach then probably not.
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/bag-the-hun/ (https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/bag-the-hun/)
I have used these and found them pretty good for squadron level campaigns.
Hope you find a suitable solution LH, please keep us informed...BoB is always an interesting gaming subject.
I may well get these separately. Many years ago I wrote these
https://lasthussar.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/battle-of-britain-free-wargames-rules/
I have a lot of Spitfires, Hurricanes, 109s etc!
These are written for classic dogfights of a few models per player.
What I'm interested in here is the very top level decisions at Group level.
Sounds like the sort of thing that John Butterfield's RAF: Battle of Britain game deals with?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40209/raf-the-battle-of-britain-1940
This may be worth a look - its for a similar level - duty Group controller.
https://wargamedevelopments.org/Games/Battle_of_Britain/handout.pdf (https://wargamedevelopments.org/Games/Battle_of_Britain/handout.pdf)
It is aimed at a public display game running one player through as the controller pretty rapidly with the umpire guiding but it is tweakable/expandable.
WD and Megagame makers have both run big KS style Battle of Britain games but tracking down material is proving harder than I thought.
LH - if you are looking to do this in real time - you are realistically only going to get one day (or perhaps even part of one day) played through.
Given that BoB was a battle of attrition with strategic objectives, I'm not sure how you will give the players this wider decision making when looking at a narrow split of time.
They are either facing a single raid, so scramble everything to intercept. Or are facing multiple raids, so decide what to hold back for a second raid. Being gamers scrambling everything will still be the likely choice as getting more guns firing is nearly always the right choice in a wargame.
I also think you will have huge periods of nothing happening. Eg
Player - move squadron 603 to readiness
<15 mins pass>
Umpire - Squadron 603 ready to take off
Player - scramble squadron 603
<2 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 airborne
<13 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 at patrol height
Player - heading 180
<5 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 sights enemy
Player - Tally Ho!
<3 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 reports 2 enemy 109 shot down and bombers engaged
Player - squadron 603 - continue to engage
<3 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 reports low fuel
<10 mins pass>
Umpire - squadron 603 lands
<10 mins pass>
Umpire - initial damage reports from 603....
Even if the players have a few squadrons I'm not sure what is going to give the players much to do, or much tension.
The Umpire on the other hand, sounds like he will be mad busy!!
Looking at it, I think I will end up with a mixture of two command levels. I think I am looking at a maybe 3 hour segment. As it will be the whole of 11 Group, we are looking at up to 24 squadrons needing vectoring, calling in reports etc, as well as Chain Home and the Observer Corps reporting detections.
FC were getting up to 14 calls in an hour.
I've run Modern kriegspiels (on the Brecklands OS map), and yes, it can be umpire resource heavy!
If anyone has a model timetable for a day of BoB, please point me towards it.
Behind the zzzzooom zoom dakka dakka you have.
A bunch of amphetamine junkies in cramped bombers and extremely cramped short ranged fighters.
The best chaps form around the world.
Steered by "Dowding's woodchipper" - the worlds finest communication and data processing facility.
Lord Hardthrasher's video contains rude words, but swiftly describes the RAF strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj37zXgz-w0