Since these Portable Air Wargames are so quick, it is very easy to reload them and give them another go to test out rule changes! In this case, I executed the change that I had thought of
during the first mission, that is to make deflection front and side deflection shots only hits on throws of '6' rather than '5-6'. All other details remained the same.
The Set-Up:
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| Just as a reminder, the Hurricanes escorting the Battles on the left about to be intercepted by six Bf109s approaching from the right. |
The Combat:
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| The aircraft approach...again the Germas are approaching in two groups (top and right) |
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| The Hurricane leader goes straight in, guns blazing... |
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| ...as does his first wingman |
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| ...and so does his second... |
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| One group of 109s breaks left behind the Battles... |
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| The other group of 109s accept the head-on pass... |
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| Then go head-on against the Battles... |
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| The Hurricans break hard left to get on the rear of the 109s |
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| And one of the 109s is hit and falls from the sky (centre-right)! However, the 109s are right on the six of one of the Battles... |
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| And the 109s send down a Battle in reply |
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| A German pilot curses his luck as he is sent down by a combination of damage from Hurricanes...and the rear-gunner of a Battle! The shame... |
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| At this point the Germans had lost more than a third of their damage points, so they head for home... |
Game Notes:
The change to the shooting rules worked as intended and encouraged the fighters of both sides to get on the rear of their opponents rather than taking on unlikley high deflection shots but without increasing complexity to any noticeable degree. The use of morale rules in an air combat game still feels odd but the results seems to reflect reality very well: attacks were
not pressed to the last man in the air anymore than on the ground. I am working through in my mind whether the morale rules should only apply to fighters, or if they should apply to all aircraft. Bombers did turn back, but they seemed to do so after heavier relative losses than fighters. Anyway, another successful test as I feel these rules are really beginning to get where I want them.
Interesting series of postings. I notice that the flights are in 'vics' of three, a practice that I believe the Germans ceased early on in favour of a 'finger-four' formation. Discovering the effectiveness of this formation the Brits adopted it also.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering whether it would make any difference to combat using this rule system. Using 1 aircraft model to represent a flight would, of course, subsume such formations (if using a strength point system, Geman flights would be SP4, British SP3 to start with).
I mention this just out of curiosity really. I don't know much at all about air warfare.
It is a good point. In the scenarios I think the initial positions reflect that, the Germans being in pairs and the British being in Vics. Off hand, if I chose to model this, I would probably do it slightly differently, basically forcing the wingmen to be in only certain positions relative to their leader, but with much looser restrictions on the Germans.
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