All,
It's 0615 on 24 July 1990 in the country of South Leon. We are with the Cuban Air Force's 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to South Leon several months ago. So far there hasn't been much to do, just some routine Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and close air support missions every now and again for the grunts, but no air-to air engagements to date. The squadron, also known as "The Flying Boxcars," is led by Major "Viper" Culero, a former US Navy fighter pilot that earned himself four kills and the Estrella de Bronce (Bronze Star with 'V') during the Cuban War of Liberation. He normally keeps a two-ship CAP up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but this morning, starting about 0400, there's been a lot of chatter about some major stuff going down up north, so he bumped the CAP up to four aircraft, just in case.
What the good Major doesn't yet know is that the Communist Army from Federation Socialiste Nationale de Leon (FSNL), South Leon's malignant neighbor to the north, has launched an all out invasion of South Leon, and they are rapidly rolling towards that nations capital. Accompanying them will be an all out blitz by FSNL's Air Force, and the Flying Boxcars are about to be involved in some of the most intense aerial action since WWII.
To kick off their offensive, the FSNL Air Force has put 6 x MiG-21s in the air on a classic fighter sweep, looking to clear the skies for follow on strike aircraft, while the Cubans have four F-4 Phantoms up on CAP.
This is my arena for aerial combat; simple, yet durable and, to me, beautiful (in a simple, durable way). I'm using tiny aircraft designed by my buddy Thomaston; not sure what size they are, just that they are much smaller than 1/600. They're 3D printed models that I mounted on cut-down bases from Litko, and I'm using a very simple rules system called "Battle of Britain," which I found for free over on The Miniatures Page (I've already played a good 13 fights with them). North is left, so the Communist aircraft are there, whilst the Cubans are on the right (south).
The modifications I've made to the BoB rules are thus:
-When a plane is hit, instead of it being destroyed, I added a roll to decide if it was damaged or destroyed. Different aircraft use different modifiers, and can take differing amounts of damage, but for the most part it's a D6 roll, 1-3=destroyed, 4-6=damaged, and most planes can take one damage before being knocked out.
-I added pilot quality in:
Rookie, -1 to maneuver roll (new pilot)
Regular, no modifier (becomes Regular as soon as he survives a combat mission, so long as he was actually an active participant, not skating off in the corner)
Veteran, +1 to firing (becomes Veteran after five missions -not counting missions he got shot down- OR two+ kills in one fight OR three kills total
Ace, +1 to firing and +1 to maneuver roll (becomes Ace after five kills)
Natural Born Killer, +2 to firing, +1 to maneuver roll, -1 to be hit (become NBK somewhere in the 25-30 kill range)
-I added shot down pilot survival roll:
1=KIA
2=MIA (he could turn up again at some point in the future, maybe not, depending on circumstances and campaign)
3-4=WIA (roll D6, the number of pips is the number of days x 10 he's out of action)
5-6=GTG (Good to Go, he parachuted to safety, made his way back to friendly lines, and is ready and able to get back in the cockpit)
-I added an 'Immelman' maneuver for 5 points
This fight, for the Cubans we have, from top:
Boxcar 18 (Rookie)
Boxcar 11 (Rookie)
Boxcar 10, 1st Lt Bermudez, the Flight Leader (Regular)
Boxcar 12 (Rookie)
The Communists, from top:
Green 03
Green 02
Green 01
Silver 01
Silver 02
Silver 03
All Communist pilots are rated as Regulars.
All fighter aircraft are rated as +1 (no difference between the MiG-21 and F-4 Phantom in these games; you can if you like, I simply have chosen not to. Perhaps later in the campaign there will be engagements between fighters with different capabilities).
Tally Ho! Both sides have spotted their opponents and are charging madly forward to meet the enemy. Not realistic at all, but if you're not looking for Hollywood, you've probably come to the wrong place. The MiGs on the left and the Phantoms on the right are moving to the merge, and this is the situation at the end of Turn 1.
Turn 2 is in the books, and now we're close enough that contact is imminent.
The furball begins with Silver 01 coming left, tracking on Lt Bermudez in Boxcar 10.
**This is absolutely genius, I can't believe I didn't think of it before! I'm using the pipe cleaners as jet exhaust, to show both 1) which aircraft I'm talking about, and 2) what that aircraft's maneuver was. No more "Silver 01 (center, from left) cuts hard left to track on Boxcar 10 (top right, with Silver 02 at bottom left)" Amazing!!!**
And Silver 02 shoots straight ahead.
Silver 03 comes in straight and level, too, trailing Silver 01.
In the east (top), the enemy Green flight loiters a bit, to let the fight develop.
And it does; Boxcar 11 and 18 cut right, heading at the Green flight.
While the flight leader, Boxcar 10, cuts left and goes head to head with Silver 01! Both pilots launch missiles...
And both score hits. Flying Boxcars, indeed...
Boxcar 10 is rocked by a nearby explosion, damaging Lt Bermudez' F-4, but a grin crosses his face as he peers over his shoulder to see the MiG come apart and fall to Earth.
Lt Bermudez pushes over left, splitting between Silver 02 (right) and Silver 03 (left).
Silver 03 immediately turns into him and fires...
Missing, he flashes past Boxcar 10 and turns parallel to Silver 02.
Silver 02 just kinda loiters, waiting to see what's going to happen.
But from the east (top), Green 01 cuts right and punches it, coming in right behind Boxcar 10 for a great shot.
The missile slams into the already damaged F-4 and it comes apart, and Lt Bermudez is unable to eject...
Green 02 loiters (top left), while Green 03 pushes ahead and cuts slight left, the pair looking to divide and conquer Boxcar 11 and 18 (top right).
Boxcar 18 (far right) is still trying to find the throttle as Boxcar 11 turns into Green 02.
While Boxcar 12 cuts left, tracking on Silver 02. The overall situation is looking a bit grim for the outnumbered Cubans...
But Silver 02 immediately turns into him! Both pilots loose missiles...
Boxcar 12 misses and is rocked by a nearby explosion damaging his aircraft, and the MiG zooms by.
And then Silver 02 cuts in, looking to finish Boxcar 12 off. He fires...
But misses and shoots past, but just as he does, Green 01 runs straight in on him and fires, but he misses too!
Back in the east, Green 02 runs straight in on Boxcar 11. Both pilots launch missiles and brace for impact...
The Cuban missile sails harmlessly past, while the Communist missile slams straight into the F-4, causing it to explode in mid-air. The Cuban have lost two aircraft and two pilots (as well as two Radar Intercept Officers) in a matter of seconds. Green 02 flashes past the explosion and cuts right, at Boxcar 12.
Green 03 goes defensive, turning into Boxcar 18.
So Boxcar 18 cuts left to gain some space to re-engage.
While in the west, Boxcar 12 is desperate! He nurses his wounded aircraft right, going head to head with Green 03, the MiG that just killed Boxcar 11. Both pilots fire...
The enemy MiG explodes, and Boxcar 12 cuts right, looking to pair up with Boxcar 18.
Green 03 forgets about Boxcar 18 (top left) and cuts hard right, into Boxcar 12.
Silver 02 comes left.
As does Green 01.
While Silver 03 pulls an Immelman, reversing course and putting himself in good shape to get on Boxcar 12's tail (left).
With this, Boxcar 12 panics and runs straight in on Green 03. Both pilots loose missiles...
And Boxcar 12 has his second kill of the day!
Feeling a bit peppy, Boxcar cuts hard left to get back into the fight.
But then Green 01 cuts hard left and gets in close to both Phantoms; he can't get a shot lined up, but he's in great position to engage either of them.
But then Silver 02 zooms in to finish off Boxar 02, lining up a pretty damn good shot. He fires...
And somehow misses, then flashes past!
Silver 03 cuts hard right, pulling in behind Boxcar 12.
So Boxcar 18 cuts hard right and goes head to head, both ships firing, and the Communist MiG is damaged.
Boxcar 12 pulls his damaged bird right, trying to escape.
But Green 01...
And then Silver 02 turn with him, looking to eat his lunch.
**I missed a pic: Silver 03, the damaged MiG, turns north, trying to return to base.
Boxcar 12 continues his run south, just trying to get his damaged aircraft on the ground. You can see the damaged Silver 03 at far left, trying to do the same.
Boxcar 18 cuts left, heading for base, too.
The MiG leader, seeing how the Phantoms were running and feeling benevolent, orders his aircraft to re-form and escort the damaged Silver 03 back to the barn.
*I rolled for Green 01's and Silver 02's movement, and neither could catch up to Boxcar 12 before he exited the map, so I ended it this way.
An interesting first fight, plenty of action, lots of fun, and I immediately fell right back into it, despite not playing for about six months. Here's what happened in terms of pilots:
Boxcar 10 (1st Lt Bermudez): one Kill, KIA
Boxcar 11: KIA
Boxcar 12: two Kills, damaged but returned to base, moves from Rookie all the way to Veteran!
Boxcar 18: no Kills, but right there in the thick of it, moves from Rookie to Regular
I played a total of three fights on Saturday morning, working on the batreps, stay tuned.
V/R,
Jack
It's 0615 on 24 July 1990 in the country of South Leon. We are with the Cuban Air Force's 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to South Leon several months ago. So far there hasn't been much to do, just some routine Combat Air Patrol (CAP) and close air support missions every now and again for the grunts, but no air-to air engagements to date. The squadron, also known as "The Flying Boxcars," is led by Major "Viper" Culero, a former US Navy fighter pilot that earned himself four kills and the Estrella de Bronce (Bronze Star with 'V') during the Cuban War of Liberation. He normally keeps a two-ship CAP up, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but this morning, starting about 0400, there's been a lot of chatter about some major stuff going down up north, so he bumped the CAP up to four aircraft, just in case.
What the good Major doesn't yet know is that the Communist Army from Federation Socialiste Nationale de Leon (FSNL), South Leon's malignant neighbor to the north, has launched an all out invasion of South Leon, and they are rapidly rolling towards that nations capital. Accompanying them will be an all out blitz by FSNL's Air Force, and the Flying Boxcars are about to be involved in some of the most intense aerial action since WWII.
To kick off their offensive, the FSNL Air Force has put 6 x MiG-21s in the air on a classic fighter sweep, looking to clear the skies for follow on strike aircraft, while the Cubans have four F-4 Phantoms up on CAP.
The modifications I've made to the BoB rules are thus:
-When a plane is hit, instead of it being destroyed, I added a roll to decide if it was damaged or destroyed. Different aircraft use different modifiers, and can take differing amounts of damage, but for the most part it's a D6 roll, 1-3=destroyed, 4-6=damaged, and most planes can take one damage before being knocked out.
-I added pilot quality in:
Rookie, -1 to maneuver roll (new pilot)
Regular, no modifier (becomes Regular as soon as he survives a combat mission, so long as he was actually an active participant, not skating off in the corner)
Veteran, +1 to firing (becomes Veteran after five missions -not counting missions he got shot down- OR two+ kills in one fight OR three kills total
Ace, +1 to firing and +1 to maneuver roll (becomes Ace after five kills)
Natural Born Killer, +2 to firing, +1 to maneuver roll, -1 to be hit (become NBK somewhere in the 25-30 kill range)
-I added shot down pilot survival roll:
1=KIA
2=MIA (he could turn up again at some point in the future, maybe not, depending on circumstances and campaign)
3-4=WIA (roll D6, the number of pips is the number of days x 10 he's out of action)
5-6=GTG (Good to Go, he parachuted to safety, made his way back to friendly lines, and is ready and able to get back in the cockpit)
-I added an 'Immelman' maneuver for 5 points
Boxcar 18 (Rookie)
Boxcar 11 (Rookie)
Boxcar 10, 1st Lt Bermudez, the Flight Leader (Regular)
Boxcar 12 (Rookie)
Green 03
Green 02
Green 01
Silver 01
Silver 02
Silver 03
All Communist pilots are rated as Regulars.
All fighter aircraft are rated as +1 (no difference between the MiG-21 and F-4 Phantom in these games; you can if you like, I simply have chosen not to. Perhaps later in the campaign there will be engagements between fighters with different capabilities).
**This is absolutely genius, I can't believe I didn't think of it before! I'm using the pipe cleaners as jet exhaust, to show both 1) which aircraft I'm talking about, and 2) what that aircraft's maneuver was. No more "Silver 01 (center, from left) cuts hard left to track on Boxcar 10 (top right, with Silver 02 at bottom left)" Amazing!!!**
**I missed a pic: Silver 03, the damaged MiG, turns north, trying to return to base.
*I rolled for Green 01's and Silver 02's movement, and neither could catch up to Boxcar 12 before he exited the map, so I ended it this way.
An interesting first fight, plenty of action, lots of fun, and I immediately fell right back into it, despite not playing for about six months. Here's what happened in terms of pilots:
Boxcar 10 (1st Lt Bermudez): one Kill, KIA
Boxcar 11: KIA
Boxcar 12: two Kills, damaged but returned to base, moves from Rookie all the way to Veteran!
Boxcar 18: no Kills, but right there in the thick of it, moves from Rookie to Regular
I played a total of three fights on Saturday morning, working on the batreps, stay tuned.
V/R,
Jack
I've briefly read over the Battle of Britain rules. How did you work in missile combat into them? Or did I miss a previous post where you added them in?
ReplyDelete-Chris
Chris,
DeleteThe short answer is, I didn't! ;) In the interest of keeping things quick and simple, I just changed 'gun' to 'missile,' if that makes sense. In the overall scheme of things, they're just the same rules, but with different models. All the changes I made are listed above.
V/R,
Jack
Sorry, meant to add, we're actually discussing this very subject over on TWW right now:
Deletehttps://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/operation-chunky-bandit/page/4/
V/R,
Jack
Hey Jack! (Don't know if you remember me I was previously known as Johnson)
ReplyDeleteLove the batrep! I am a tad disappointed about what happened to Lt Bermudez, but those are the dice. That first pass where he splashed that had me hootin! And the Rookie!
I am glad to see you back! I look forward to seeing more of the stuff that you put out!
Hey man, yeah, of course I remember! How are you? Out to the Fleet yet, or still going through school?
DeleteYeah, the fights have been rough, the advantage has been with the bad guys; the Cubans have been going through attrition while the Commies have not (meaning the Cubans field between 1 and 6 aircraft per game, while every game the bad guys have 4 fighters and six bombers).
It's good to be back, and I'm having a blast. The next fight will get posted Monday, this weekend I'm painting, playing, and typing up batreps.
V/R,
Jack
Hello Jack,
ReplyDeleteJut got around to reading this report. I remember the first battles with these and at the time used the Battle of Britain rules as a basis for some spaceship rules but I have not had time to play test them. Battle of Britain are aimed at fighters Vs bombers (with some fighter support). I could be wrong but is this the first battle you have played without bombers? Did they work fine without having an objective to stop the bombers from exiting? I assume they would work fine, just curious.
Shaun,
DeleteHey buddy, hope all is well, and thanks for stopping by! For me these rules are universal; they're simple and can be modded to do anything, I'm working on changing a little (only a little) to use them for WWII Pacific coastal actions!
This was the first time I've played without bombers, and the only issue (I've played two like this now) is that without the bombers you don't have a sense of when the game should end, so it can really stretch on. You're probably not going to kill every enemy aircraft quickly (or at all, in real life), so you just want to have an idea when you want to end it. I don't know when that would be, I just know you need it ;)
Probably the smartest thing is, rather than count turns or something, just set up a ghost track that moves three squares each turn, and when it reaches the opposite baseline the game is over. That seems reasonable to me.
V/R,
Jack
Interesting stuff Jack, many thanks. I wonder how jet age air-to-air between two countries like this would go in real life? I am genuinely not sure. I might have to look up Ethiopian-Eritrean and Indo-Pakistani war stuff to get an idea.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. I'm not sure I understand your question, but from my understanding, most countries are not willing to sustain this level of aircraft losses, so, even if they have the aircraft, after the initial intense series of fights, they seriously curtail further operations, and even then the pilots are much more likely to disengage rather than press their luck in a bad situation.
This is the reason I haven't been playing out a long war of attrition in the air over South Leon; the Communist Air Force was husbanding their aircraft for the big push to defeat South Leon, so they can't do it forever, but they got the aircraft and the will to do this for a bit.
V/R,
Jack
Hi Jack, all true and agreed. I was thinking at a more tactical level about both sides fighters just charging in. It seems odd but on the other hand, if you are relying on simple GCI (or even worse, nothing at all) then I am not quite sure what they do do.
DeleteJohn,
DeleteAhh, I see. Sorry man; in terms of the game/rules, that's just how they start, and whilst I try to build at least a military-sounding backstory into all my stuff, to be honest, with these rules above all others, I'm just happy to have a whole bunch of airplanes on the table, zooming around while I make 'whrooosh' noises and other assorted missile launch, explosion, and ejection-type sounds ;)
V/R,
Jack