On July 21st, several of the usual suspects showed up at my place to give my latest VSF air-naval rules a spin.  I drew some inspiration from the Seas of Steel rules that we have played in the past, and melded it with ideas taken from a few other sources.

The game was straightforward.  A British dirigible convoy, escorted by two squadrons of Aeronef, were set upon by a French commerce raiding flotilla.  After the French withdrew, one of the British squadrons gave chase.  The escort commander, suspecting a trap, moved most of the remaining squadron up into the thick cloud cover above, staying just low enough to track and follow the dirigibles below.  The plan was to lure more French raiders in to attack the poorly defended convoy.

The British transports and their escort sail steadily toward their destination.  As always, click to view a larger image.

A French commerce raider flotilla in two squadrons moves to attack the British convoy.

The British pursuit squadron rushes to the rescue of the dirigible convoy.

The convoy sat at the middle of the table, moving toward the northeast edge.  A French flotilla entered sight from the northwest, rushing to intercept the poorly protected convoy.  And the British squadron that had hared off after the earlier attackers makes best speed in line astern from the southeast, trying to rejoin their charges.  This sets the stage for the game; the remaining British ships are hidden on the table, waiting for the right moment to descend and attack.There are two play markers for each ship.  The die on each base shows the ship's altitude.  Altitudes go from 0 (for a ship that is landed) up to 6, and altitude affects what targets are available.  The yellow and red rings (which will end up hanging from the ships in later pictures) show the ship's current speed rating: red for slow, yellow for cruise, and green for full.  These ratings determine how far each ship can move in a turn.  The clouds in the distance were also at altitude 3, providing cover and protection to the ships.  Everything else shown is ground color and had no effect on the game.

Msrs. Ed and Sean, the two French players, have started their attack against the convoy.

British escorts screen their charges, taking fire and damage.

Combat began quickly (maximum range is 36", and the table is 60"across, so gunfire started as soon as there was a clear line of sight through the clouds).  French fire damaged the Vulcan (the round black token next to the base) and inflicted a critical hit, damaging the ship's lift systems.  Each turn it had to test, and if it failed it was forced to descend an altitude level.

Jim's British squadron races to rejoin the convoy, as the escorts continue to take damage from French gunfire.

The French move to cut off the convoy's escape, while the British struggle to catch up.

After another turn, Sean attempts to cut off the convoy's escape.  Tiger has been destroyed, and Vulcan is crippled (the red token) and has suffered multiple critical hits.  The hidden British (under my command) have descended from the cloud cover, but at altitude 5 they cannot fire on the French Their deck-mounted guns cannot fire at ships lower than they are. Sean's French L'Epee (the leftmost ship, facing to the right) has climbed to altitude 4 in order to bring her heavy forward guns to bear on the British Exeter without Ed's ships blocking her fire.

British attempt to intercept the French before they can cross the convoy's "T".

The British squadrons continue to advance; Hyderabad and several light escorts (visible with Exeter in the distance) open fire and shatter a French destroyer.  Exeter, less maneuverable, is still too high to engage the enemy escorts.  She fires at L'Epee in the distance, damaging her.

Exeter takes severe damage. A critical hits the primary magazine, detonating it and destroying the ship utterly.

The French cross the convoy's "T", with concentrated fire destroying the Majestic and one of the lighter transports.

Ed's ships engage the Exeter, Hyderabad and their escorts, destroying the Exeter and several light ships.  Meanwhile, Sean cuts off the convoy.  Note that they descended, preventing Jim's escorts from firing back at them with their main guns.  The dirigibles' guns are mounted low, and thus can fire at anything that is not higher than they are.  However, they are lightly armed and their fire was ineffective.  The escorts light weapons, which could fire high or low, inflicted a "ship shaken" critical hit on one of the destroyers, preventing it from firing next turn.

The British move broadside to broadside at point blank range…

Jim positions his light escorts to fire broadsides into Sean's squadron, with Rawalpindi and Lahore firing broadsides into the head of the French line.  Behind, I move the remaining convoy dirigibles into the cover of the cloud, where they can't be seen by the French gunners.  Beyond them, Ed's ships are ready to mop up my remaining escorts and then encircle the convoy next turn.

…and both sides take a beating.

At this point we called the game.  The British ships were heavily damaged, while the French were still in good shape for the most part.  Jim and I could see no way to get the dirigibles off the table before the French could destroy them.  In discussing it, the scenario setup was heavily biased against the British, as they had to cross half the table to get into range while the French started out able to fire on the convoy.  There were also some glitches in the ship designs that caused problems.

Overall, it seemed like the system worked well for everyone.  Movement and maneuver were quick.  Combat was sufficiently bloody at close range, while long range fire was mostly ineffective, mostly providing an opportunity for critical hits to occur.  I need to fix the broken ships, rework how I calculate the stats, tweak the ship record sheets a bit, and make some small rule adjustments.  But overall I like how it turned out.  Especially for a game where, in fine Jackson Gamers tradition, I finished writing the rules less than 12 hours before play.

For future games I'll want to get some smaller dice for altitude, and possibly some of those acrylic dice docks that various people make nowadays to hold them steady.  I also want to get acrylic tokens for the various game markers:  critical hits, fast move markers, speed markers, etc.  The paper markers I knocked together worked, but colored acrylic markers would be less obtrusive.

While several our members were having fun at Historicon, four of us met at Bill's, first for an Aeronef game (see separate report) and then for a play test of Mexican Jack Squint Presents The Lion Eats Tonight from http://www.brigadegames.com/The-Lion-Eats-Tonight-by-Mexican-Jack-Squint_p_3150.html.

Each of us (Bill, Ed, Sean, and me, Col Campbell) had a bushcraft 4 rated hunter, a gun bearer, and a porter in our hunting parties.  We also each controlled two animals or groups of animals.  In addition there were four herbivore herds on the board which move randomly as their action cards came up.  With each hunter having four action cards and the"trophy"animals having two to five cards, plus a wind change/end of turn card, it promised to be a "lengthy" turn sequence.  In fact I think we only went through the deck two times since the wind change/end of turn card was almost at the bottom on both shuffles.

A herd of giraffe move slowly through the African bush, looking for tasty vegetation upon which to munch.

Baron Potzdorf (my hunter) has drawn a bead on a rhino. I wounded him with my first shot but he decided that he would just move away from me. So I took a second shot. And my expensive double express jammed! [I rolled more 1s than 6s (hits).]

Suddenly a lioness bursts from the bush and grabs Mr. van Huysen's (Ed) porter.  Van Huysen couldn't get a shot off and the poor porter was dragged back into the bush for a snack by the lioness.

The lioness reaches her lair with the porter's body and commences to "chow down." Ed's character tracked the lioness down and killed her.  After all, one mustn't let the help be eaten without revenging them!

Baron Potzdorf needs a new gun or better ammunition—another misfire as the female rhino charges him!  But she can't quite get to him yet.  You can bet that the Baron will have something to say to his gun maker upon his return to Carpania!

Suddenly a lion charges Baron Potzdorf from the bush. He turns to meet it, raising his gun.

One shot later he kills the lion. Of course he had taken his secondary weapon from his gun bearer for this shot and didn't have to worry about his malfunctioning double express.

But then Mrs. Rhino completes her charge, knocking poor Baron Potzdorf on his keester! With unloaded guns and an enraged rhino right on top on him, the Baron didn't have a chance.

Young Mr. Stanley (Bill) makes a perfect shot (three 6s) and fells the lion with a shot between the eyes!

Finally Herr Schneider (Sean) gets into the hunt, startling a female elephant who charges them, protecting her calves. Schneider froze on his "morale" check and the elephant crashes into the party, but doesn't do any damage! As game master I then ruled that she continued on through with her charge past Schneider and his party.

After the elephant had gotten past Scheifer, he recovered his composure and took careful aim. A double hit (two 6s) from his excellent hunting rifle put paid to the elephant. Schneider will have a tale to tell and some ivory to show for his efforts.

While all this was going on, young Mr. Stanley was able to make two successful long-range shots, getting both rhinos that Baron Potzdorf had stirred up. Stanley ended the game as the clear winner, with a lion and two rhinos. Each of the others (Potzdorf, van Huysen, and Schneider) each got one animal (lion, lioness, and elephant, respectively).

It was an enjoyable game although a little slow what with the large number of cards we had to go through.  A couple of us spent some down time waiting for our hunter's or animal's cards to turn up.   I think that we can up the speed by trying to get through the cards quicker, turning several of them when they won't interfere with another hunter or wild animal.  We are going to try this game again later in the year.

Pictures were taken by Bill, Ed, and me.  The terrain was provided by Bill.  All the hunting parties and animals are mine.

Air power leads the way

On Saturday July 7, 2012 the Jackson Gamers played a 15mm WWII game at Jay Stribling's home in Jackson MS. For rules, we used our variant of the Memoir 44 boardgame rules which we tenatively call "Memoir 45."

The Blasted and Bombed battlefield

Two stands of infantry replace the four figures of the boardgame to designate an Infantry unit–with a marker behind it showing 4 strength points. One 15mm model tank represents an Armor unit–with a marker to its rear indicating 3 strength points for Mk IV tanks or Sturmgeshutz vehicles. And lastly the Memoir 44 game's artillery units are replaced by two bases with 81mm mortars–the marker to the rear showing 4 strength points.

American players: Jim Pitts (on left) and Bill Hamilton (on right)

The German players were Jay Stribling and Phil Young.  Each of us had an infantry battalion with two tanks.  Two more companies of infantry and six tanks came on as reinforcements.

The American commanders were Sean Pitts (on the right flank), Jim Pitts (Overall commander–in center) and Bill Hamilton (left Flank).

Another view of the Battlefield

The battle is just beginning with American tanks and infantry visible at the top in the distance.  The chaos, fires, and destroyed units are the results of the American aerial bombardment on July 25, 1944.  After the attack, General Collins attacked with his VII Corps and within 2 days had broken through the German lines.

A German Flak 88 knocked out by the air attack

You can see American artillery fire impacting on German units in the background.  We have a "move deck" of cards for each player to use for his units, an "Artillery deck" to control off-board artillery arrival and a "Special deck" to generate odd occurances – such as "friendly fire" artillery hitting one's own troops.

An American P-47 fighter swoops down to strafe German infantry

The allied fighters were the bane of the German players.  Every turn seemed to bring another of the loathsome "Jabos" (Fighter-bombers) to bomb, rocket or strafe us.  And where was the Luftwaffe?  We still know nothing of them!

Knocked out German tank and cowering mortar squad.

The American artillery and air power blasted every German that they saw.  The Germans seemed to get mainly "No Guns Available" cards for thier off-table artillery fire.  The Americans got a few of those also, but mainly they were able to get fire missions when they needed them.

Another P-47 attack

This fighter roars down a line of German platoons attempting to damage them all.  While this attack may not have been totally successful, the American Air was terriby bothersome to the "pleace-loving" German army.

An American Flamethrower tank in action

As if conventional weaponry was not enough, the Americans had two flame-thrower tanks.  They employed one to evil effect, but several turns later, a German Panther destroyed it.  The other flame tank was still waiting for the German armor concentration in the center of the battlefield to be reduced when the game ended.

German artillery impact on their own troops

One of the "Special deck" cards for each side is one entitled "Enemy Fire Targeting Error!" This allows the player who would normally be on the receiving end of the off-board artillery fire to relocate the impact point to any spot within six hexes.   There are only 2 or 3 of these cards per deck and both sides triumphantly made the other side "eat" some of their own shells.

A view of Hell!

Toward the end of the game, the center of the battlefield became a cratered burning mass of knocked out tanks, and dead German infantry.  All of our Mortars were destroyed, all of the infantry and tanks on the left had been knocked out, and only two Panthers (damaged) and a Tiger held the center.  The American numbers and fire-power had told, as the game-master had known that they would.

The angel of death in the form on the olive-drab P-47 can be seen on the left, busily harvesting souls.

The center holds - barely

This is another view of the destruction in the center.  The three German tanks shown are the only Axis forces on the left and center of the field.  Phil Young, commanding the German right flank still had one platoon of infantry and a Mark IV tank, but he was too weak to come to the assistance of the center.

The Collapse of the German Left

Jim Pitts tanks are nearing their objective – to exit the battlefield into the German rear in this photo.  Sean Pitts American right-flank infantry was held up only by the rough terrain and the constraints of the movment cards.

While technically the Americans had not met their victory conditions – to exit forces into the German rear – they were about to and we ended the game at about 2:15 pm.  The German players could feel good about thier resistance and the casualties that they had infliced on the Americans.  The Americans could relish the fact that they had triumphed over a very strong defense.

A good time was had by all!

MORE TO COME ON THIS BATTLE

On the Fourth of July, a small number of us met at Jay's to try the Wings of War rules.  Bill has the WW1 set and Ed has the WW2 set, so we tried them both.  Once we got a handle on the rules they seemed very straight forward and fairly easy to remember.

Jim "Col Campbell" flew these planes during our Wings of War games.

WW1 Dogfight #1

With Bill handling the rules, we started with two planes per side.  Jay and Jim each had a German fighter and Ed and Sean each had an Allied fighter.

Jim's Pfalz D3 engages Ed's Belgian fighter.

Jim shoots down Sean's British fighter.

Jay's German fighter, shot down by Ed's Belgian fighter, goes down with a thick trail of smoke.

Ed's Belgian fighter flies by to ensure Jay's German won't come back into the fight.

Finally, Jim's German fighter is shot down by Ed, ending the first game.

WW1 Dogfight #2

Now that we seemed familiar with the rules, we started the second game.  Jay and Jim each kept their German fighter and Bill jumped in with a German DR-1 triplane. Ed switched to a British 2-seater  and Sean kept his British fighter.

Jim's German Pfalz D-3 (foreground) sights the two British planes (right and center) and Jay's German fighter (left).

Jay's German fighter zooms over Sean's British fighter but takes fire from Ed's British 2-seater.

Jay's German fighter is the first to be shot down.

An overhead shot of the British planes circling Jay's crippled fighter like vultures.

Ed's British 2-seater is trailing smoke as he engages Jim's German fighter.

But that doesn't stop Ed, with Sean's assistance, from shooting down Jim's German fighter.

Ed's British 2-seater then engages Bill's German DR-1 triplane.\

And Bill's German DR-1 goes down in smoke.

WW1 Dogfight #3

For the third game, we actually devised a little scenario.  Everyone kept the same planes.  Ed's British 2-seater, escorted by Sean's British fighter, had to take pictures of one of several objectives.  His actual target was hidden from the Germans.  Bill, Jay, and Jim had to stop him from taking the pictures or from getting them back to British lines.

While Jay's German fighter again is first to be shot down (by Sean this time), Jim and Ed exchange fire.

Ed's British 2-seater swings to the right, leaving Jim's German fighter (front right) out of position. After shooting Bill's German DR-1 down, Sean's British fighter is trying to close with Jim to protect Ed. Jay's German fighter still burns in the foreground.

Ed's British 2-seater was able to take his photos, but Jim's German fighter shot him down before he could return to British lines. No photos for the Brits today!

Jim's German fighter attempts to get on the tail of Sean's British fighter, but…

Sean's British fighter does an Immelman turn and both Jim and Sean then shoot each other down. But the Germans won because they prevented the Brits from getting the photos back to their lines.

WW2 Dogfight

After lunch, we put Bill's "stringbags" away and pulled Ed's WW2 fighters out. They were smaller than the WW1 planes, being 1:200 scale instead of the 1:144 (we presume) scale of the WW1 planes.  Even though the rules are similar, the flying characteristics of the WW2 planes are very different–faster and more maneuverable.  It took us a while to get the hang of these speed boys.  We started off just zooming by each other without hardly getting a shot!

Sean and Jay choose a pair of German Me-109 fighters.  Bill took a British Spitfire, while Ed and I took British Hurricanes (Ed another Belgian and Jim a Brit).

I didn't take as many pictures during this game.  We had to plan two actions, then without looking at the second action after we had completed the first, plan the third action.  This kept up through out the game.

The two Allied Hurricanes (foreground) approach the two German Me-109s. Bill's British Spitfire is on the right.

Bill's Spitfire makes a high pass of Jay's Me-109.

Trailing smoke from his engine, Jim's Hurricane and Sean's Me-109s make a swift pass of each other. In the background, Ed's Hurricane is trying to get on the tail of Jay's Me-109.

Jim's Hurricane shots Sean's Me-109 down.

Jay's Me-109 and Bill's Spitfire shoot each other down. Ed's Hurricane had flown away with heavy damage. including the pilot being wounded.

That ended our WW1 and WW2 aerial games.  We didn't try to use the altitude rules.  The games were fun and very quick.  We played the three WW1 dogfights in about two hours or so and the WW2 dogfight in about an hour.  We'll definitely do these again!

Using our modified version of the "Memoir 44" boardgame, the Jackson Gamers played a WWII 15mm battle on June 30, 2012 at Jay Stribling's home in Jackson MS.  The Germans were on the offensive and attacked with three forces.  The Americans were on the defensive with three forces also.

The Commander-in-chief on each side had an armor-heavy force, with the Germans having five Panthers and a Tiger (each tank model represented a platoon of 4 or 5 tanks) and three infantry platoons and a mortar platoon.  Each platoon of ground-pounders was represented by two stands, either with three infantrymen or one mortar and two crewmen.

Jay Stribling was the game-master and also played on the American side as the right-flank commander.

Artillery marker placed on advancing German Infantry.

This army was originally set up for the Crossfire rules set. So each infantry platoon had three stands (3 squads). Here we are using a strength marker behind the 2-stand platoon to show its strength (from 4 down to 1 point).  As along as it has at least one point left, a platoon moves and fires at full strength.  When that last strength point is killed off, both stands are removed, as the platoon is combat ineffective at that point.

We are not using the platoon leader stands, but we are using the Company commander stands. A platoon with a company commander in the same hex may ignore the first "Retreat" result in any combat dice toss.  However, every time the unit takes a casualty, a separate die roll must be made to see if the company commander is killed also.

German effort in the center. The Panzers have outstripped their Infantry support.

As a further torment to the Germans, the cards from the "Commander's Special Deck" drawn by the Americans produced and "Air Attack" card.  A model P-47 was introduce and its 50-caliber machine guns damaged German armor, but missed the infantry.

American P-47 fighter makes a strafing run.

After two runs, the P-47 departed.  Later, another U.S. Air attack card was pulled, but the Germans countered it with a "Luftwaffe drives of enemy aircraft" card.

The village in the U.S. center

There were three villages on the U.S. side of the game table.  The Germans were trying to take all, or at least two of them.  There were also three hills that the Germans would attempt to capture.  Actually they took none of these.

After the game, the German players accused the Game-Master of making them start too far away.  Their infantry could not keep up with their tanks so the tanks attacked alone, with some artillery support.  This was a very valid criticism.  The Germans should have had extra movement to get closer to the enemy.  This will be remedied in future games.

One of Jim's tanks has been destroyed by U.S. M-18 Hellcat.

In real life the M-18 tank destroyer, while not mounting a really heavy gun was very mobile and had a high "kill to loss" ratio against the German armor.  In this game, Sean Pitts, using only one M-18 tormented his father Jim Pitts, by using the mobility of the unit to get on the flank or rear of the German tanks and dispatch them.

The M-18 Hellcat gets another one!

Although the Americans were on the defenseive, Sean Pitts, on the American left decided that The best defense is a good Offense!.  He moved out, attacking first the German Armor with his M-18, and then bringing up his infantry.  He used infantry fire and artillery (EVERY American stand can call in off-board artillery) to shred Jim Pitts Germans.  At game's end, Sean was across the table in the German rear.

The M-18 finally meets it's end after destroying 4 German tanks

The German players were: Phil Young on the left flank, Ed Sansing (CinC) in the center, and Jim Pitts on the right.  THe Americans were Sean Pitts on the left, Bill Hamilton (CinC) in the center, and Jay Stribling on the right.  Bill had four M-4 Sherman tank platoons and a company of infantry.  Sean had two companies of infantry, an M-18 TD and a 57mm AT gun.  Jay's force was similar to Sean's except that he had two AT guns and no armor.

The German forces were divided similarly but each commander on the flank had 2-3 tanks or SP guns as well as three companies of infantry.  The commander had 6 tanks and a reinforced infantry company.

Each player on both sides also had an 81-mm. mortar platoon (2 stands) and on-call off-board artillery.  In the American army, each stand could call in artillery.  On the German side, only company commanders or specified "Forward Observer" stands can request artillery.

The American center and left early in the game.

The German attack in the center

Then the Germans get an"Air attack"card and an FW-190 comes in to strafe, shooting up some U.S. footsoldiers

It's damage done, the FW-190 streaks away from the battle.

The "Cauldron" in the center of the table consumes the tanks of both sides.

In the center, stout resistance by American infantry and the inability of the German tanks to wrinkle the U.S. footsoldiers out of the woods and towns finally told.  The Germans should have had infantry support, but it was still slogging up from the start line when the game ended.  The game-master agrees that this was an error on his part and vows to do better next time.