100 Hour War Scenario 2 - Zepeda misses out again!

I mentioned in Scenario 1 that one Honduran Corsair had a cannon malfunction and had to abort, inadvertently triggering the dogfight. That was Captain Zapeda. A few hours later he and his comrades were back in action, this time against a pair of Salvadoran Corsairs. And just like on the morning sortie, his guns jammed on testing again............

Major Soto pressed on and in the dogfight that followed claimed two more kills both against Corsairs. At some point a pair of Salvadoran F51s appeared. So this is the setup for Scenario 2. I've messed around a bit with history to get it more playable.

The Salvadoran Corsairs begin about two thirds of the way up the table, with the trio of Hondurans behind them. How far is important given I wanted to give the Salvadorans a chance. The Corsairs used by Honduras don't have Great Dive due to their having quad 20mm cannons and the rule restrictions on only 2 Traits, so to put them just out of engagement range there needs to be at least 22" between them. I left Zepeda in the mix but with no guns - he can still help in what can rapidly turn into a 4v2 even if he cant shoot as the opposition don't know this!  The F51s enter after they pass a raw Pilot Skill test at the end of each turn, adding one die for each turn they fail (or tbh when I thought it was a good idea to get them on to keep the players engaged). They don't use High Cover btw - there is no suggestion of any real coordination going on. Everyone dices for initial Advantage when they start, just as part of the explanation process for new \ first time players)

And that was it. We played three times and it seemed to work.

Corsair on Corsair action. Hondurans in blue, El Salvador in green

I'm going off to polish this one as I think it's a good demo. It's also interesting to see the unusual match up. 

side-note - Zepeda's cannons. After these two actions there was some investigation as to why his cannons failed twice when the others didn't. The result was in some ways emblematic of the war in general. Honduras had bought a batch of 20mm ammunition from the UK, presumably on a discount. Why is this a problem? Well the Corsairs used US M3 20mm cannon, which is in theory a copy of the Hispano 20mm used by the British. Problem is the US version had been "re-engineered" (and wasn't quite as good as the Hispano because of these changes but that's another story) and as a result the UK ammunition was about 1mm thicker than the US version. On older worn out guns this made no difference as the wear and tear coincidentally meant the UK rounds mostly worked. It appears Zepeda's guns were still in reasonable condition so jammed when trying to fire the British ammo. This was apparently resolved by the field expedient of clamping 20mm High Explosive Incendiary \ Armour Piercing into a lathe and grinding them down til they fit. Flying is dangerous but the guys who got that job certainly must have had massive "cojones" :-)      

Painters Block - smashing through

All wargamers get it sooner or later, and sometimes often - the dreaded "Painters Block".

It's that horrible project that for some reason just refuses to get painted. We all get it, and we get it for different reasons. My most recent revolves around a pair of Fw 200 Condors for Blood Red Skies. 

Disclaimer - I've not been totally blocked. I've managed to paint some other stuff, but nothing for BRS, and this has been going on for months. 

The reasons why the Condors (two of them) have been a problem are many-fold. Firstly I wasn't 100% happy with the models. These were planeprinter stls printed by my good friend Paul. At the time I didn't have a printer that would handle something the size of the Condor, so when Paul printed me a couple I was not going to complain. The original stl has some raised panel lines around the nose which looked strange, I'm sure this was a slip of the mouse, but but did mean a bit of sanding to get the model ready.

My first real problem kicked in when I picked up the paintbrush. I've been using the same scheme and colours for early Luftwaffe planes from the start of my taking up BRS - a grey \ green base with a darker green splinter pattern. I was using a Vallejo Grey Green that was supposed to match the relevant RLM colour, but recently I was starting to think it was too grey and not enough green. I've been searching for something that looked more "green" and this has put me off as I didn't seem to be able to find anything I liked. I put the paintbrush down.  

I picked up the paintbrush. This colour issue was also made worse by my failure to find some good images of the camo. German bomber camo was usually the same patterns stretched as needed to cover the plane, so in theory a He111 would have the same pattern as my Condors. I could find a good plan and side view, but was struggling to see how to merge the two views together. I put the brush down.

The other issue was lack of decals. The only supplier at the time was Misc Minis in The States. Sadly due to world events shipping costs changed and for a while were prohibitive and I wasn't going to leave them painted but without the correct decals. I got the base coats on, and then stalled. They sat like that for months, looking up at me accusingly as I painted Austrians and French Napoleonics.

Happily solutions have happened. Steve Toth of Blue Falcon Hobbies produced a set of FW200 decals for I KG 40 and sent them out as part of their monthly decal subscription. Thanks Steve! I've also looked carefully at the greens on my painting table and Vallejo Russian Uniform looks a bit more where I wanted for the lighter green. I picked up the paintbrush.

The final reason for me stirring into action was the realisation that this would not change unless I changed it, so, block be damned I've launched into them. And it was easier than I expected. I've got both painted and decals on and I'm rather happy with the result. 

And theyre BIG birds, and like their namesakes quite majestic. Here is a shot with a He111 to show the size, and also the changed base green.

and a slightly blurry pic of the KG40 Squadron emblem on the nose. It also shows some layer lines but theyre not really visible at table distances. 

Bit of local history and one of the reasons I wanted to do a FW-200 Condor was there is a local connection. On 19th July 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain Condor F8+EH of 1 \ KG 40 was shot down into the sea just up the coast from where I live.  The plane was based at Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport in France and was on a mine laying mission. While approaching the British coast at night, the four engine aircraft was shot down by the British anti aircraft fire and crashed into the sea off Crimdon. Four crew members were killed and two others were rescued. 

Now technically I suspect my Condor is a slightly later version than F8+EH but there's not much chance of finding the exact model. The markings are however correct as far as I can tell, thanks again to Steve Toth at Blue Falcon Hobbies.

So there you go - painting block smashed, what to paint next??

Spanish "Azul" Squadron for Blood Red Skies - part 1 - the Cunning Plan

A little while ago I mentioned I rated the Bf109G quite highly in Blood Red Skies. https://twtrb.blogspot.com/2023/08/blood-red-skies-list-building-what.html .

I already have some 109Es and Fs but as yet no Gs. One of the reasons is nostalgia. In my mind if I recall the "Gustaf" there is only one thing that comes to mind, the old Airfix Series 1 kit, in blue plastic with the totally Kool under wing rockets for shooting down B17s. This is a Bf109G-6 with the traditional square canopy. I loved this as a kid so thats the 109 G I want.

The problem is, the two easily accessible Bf109G models for BRS, from Warlord and PlanePrinter are both later versions with the "Galland" hood, which improved visibility dramatically but don't look right to me, so this project got parked.

I then went to FIASCO in Leeds (a long running Wargames show in the NE England)  I should do a review of that because I think there is a post there but maybe later. Anyway when there I spotted a book on the Spanish Azul (Blue) Squadrons that operated in Russia during WW2. I had heard of the Azul Division - Spanish volunteers fighting for the Germans against the Communists,  but not the Air Force unit, so I picked it up. I was thinking - that's a "Kool" and interesting 109G unit that I could do rather than a more standard Luftwaffe one. 

So I got home and started to read it - and its a really interesting story.

Potted history -back of a postcard stuff - Spanish volunteers fighting as a unit for the Luftwaffe against the threat of world Communism. The author goes quite a way to stress the point that theyre not Fascists just anti Communist - opinions may vary on that, but............ 

Anyway they wanted to be allocated to support their compatriots in the Blue Division, but the Luftwaffe said "no", so the initial draft were allocated to fly Bf109Es as a ground attack unit, 1st Escuadrillas Azules  15 Spanische Staffel 15.(Span)/JG 27 . The pilots were not that impressed as the first draft of volunteers were pretty much all seasoned fighter pilots with experience from the Spanish Civil War.

After a tour the surviving pilots were rotated back home and were replaced with another batch of pilots designated as the 2nd Azul Squadron. These guys got their wish and had the 109Es replaced with 109Fs and they became a standard fighter Squadron, 2nd Escuadrillas Azules 15 Spanische Staffel 15.(Span)/JG 51. The pattern continued, with the 3rd Squadron replacing the 2nd and taking over their planes, remaining as part of JG51. 

Up to this point they carried standard Luftwaffe markings plus their own unit badges, however with the arrival of the 4th rotation this changed. The 4th replaced the Bf109Fs with a mix of Bf109Gs* (at last!) and Fw190A2s .  However the fly in the ointment (for me) is that at this point and going forward to the 5th Squadron, they seem to have dropped their distinctive Squadron markings from their planes so they were just the same visually as a "standard" Luftwaffe unit. 

1st Squadron Badge

2nd \ 3rd Squadron 109F with Spanish "Yolk and Arrows"

After the remnants of the Blue Division was withdrawn it was only a matter of time til the Blue Squadron followed, which happened to the 5th in 1944.

So in Blood Red Skies there are a couple of interesting options here. It's a shame the 4th Squadron dropped their Spanish markings because a mixed Squadron of Bf109Gs and FW190As would be interesting and one of the few legitimate "Mixed Bag" Doctrine card units out there, though how well they would play is open to some debate. The earlier 1st and 2nd\3rd Squadrons have their own markings which set them apart somewhat. On the other hand the I'm supposed to be looking at using the Gs (!) so I better get on.

Anyway that's the background. Actual models etc in part 2. 

* some online sources say the 2\3rd Squadron got Bf109Gs

Summer Scramble 23 - The other side of the hill or "What would I do if I were a German*?"

Looking forward to Summer Scramble 23

If we end up with odd numbers of players I may have to play as an Axis player so I thought I would give my thoughts and look at list options should that situation arise.

It's going to be hard not to look at the Bf109E. 

Warlords infamous Bf109E models. These were the first BRS models I painted.

Of all the fighters available in 1939-40 this is for me is the apex predator. Speed 7, Ag 3, FP 1 Great Climb, Great Dive for 32 points (amended for Wing Commander due to the new Great Dive rule). Only a Spitfire will be marginally faster so I will mostly have the initiative on ties. I can get a six planes and 18 Pilot Skill levels at 500 points. I'd probably go PS 5, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, and lead with the Ace. I'm going to be vulnerable to better pilots in cheaper planes outmanoeuvring me (like the PZL 11 I mentioned in earlier posts) but being faster I should get to choose when the fight happens, and even without diving I can use my speed to try to get out of gun range. FP 1 isn't great, particularly on the PS 2 planes, but they will mostly act as wingmen and only shoot at targets of opportunity. Like the real Luftwaffe the Schwarm and Rotte fuhrer will be the ones making the main plays unless it all goes pear shaped.  Against Robust opponents like Hurricanes, Ms406s and Hawk 75s the lack of FP is going to be a problem but something has to give.

As an aside I think it is safe to say the Warlord 109E model has issues. It paints up well enough but you can tell it was from the first release wave. There are problems with the overall shape, particularly the front, and the panel lines on the wings look like they're from a much later version like a K. Actually the Warlord 109E front end looks rather like the earlier D version come to think about it so it can easily be proxied for those if you squint. Lastly the soft plastic is prone to a bit of bending. Hopefully this is getting remastered "soon". 

Another option would be to take the Bf110 Zerstorer. In BRS the 110C is a bit underwhelming. Speed 7, FP 2 but only Ag 1. I's also bloody expensive at 39 points each using the Heavy Fighter rule. On the other hand it is FP2 and has the Heavy Hitter Trait so an average pilot will be will be attacking at 6 dice and any hits will be classed as critical hits, and Great Dive does mean it can get in and out like the 109E. If I can initiate the engagement and blow through the opposition (literally) they may just work. Dropping to say five planes may help keep pilot quality reasonable. Hmm. btw the advantages and disadvantages of using Heavy Fighter is discussed quite a bit in one of the recent Lead Pursuit Podcast episodes and is worth a listen if you are interested in list building and the view from the States https://www.leadpursuit.net/podcast/episode-106-tournament-scene-2023  

Bf110Cs from Armaments in Miniature
 

Since I went out of my way to point out the issues with the Warlord 109E I should redress this by saying the Warlord 110 is a beautiful model, possibly the best in the range. Theyre well proportioned, detailed  and hard plastic. The only reason I don't have any painted yet is I had bought them from AIM before Warlord had even suggested they were releasing them. 

I suppose I could go Bargain Basement and use the Bf109D. This is slower and less Agile than the Emil and lacks Great Climb, but it is MUCH cheaper at 20 points each. I could build either a Swarm or Outmanoeuvre list with that, but I'm not sure.

Lastly I could go Italian. That would mean either a biplane like a Cr42 or an early FIAT or Macchi. None of these ideas appeal. They're cheap but are slower than their German counterparts and are turn fighters, which as I mentioned in another post just isn't my style.  Also I would have to get a squadron ready from scratch in a week which I don't fancy as I have no Italians yet.

* technically my paternal Great Grandfather WAS a German, but he vanished in undisclosed circumstances in 1914, about the same time the High Seas Fleet arrived and blew a significant part of my home town of Hartlepool into rubble. I'm sure it was just a coincidence.

  

3 Week Painting Challenge - day 10 - Decals and done

And done - ok no pilots, but good enough

My first post on this subject mentioned how the Poles had done some thinking when designing the Pzl P11c. This extended beyond the basics of design to the markings. At some point (shortly after having a giggle that the Brits and French actually painted bullseye style shooting targets on their planes) someone sat down and did some thinking about markings. Symmetrical markings, they reasoned, made it easier for opposition shooters to estimate the range and deflection, so why make it easy?

They came up with an idea to have the national markings placed at different parts of the wing, so outboard on the port wing but inboard on the starboard. A picture paints a thousand words apparently so here is a picture of what they did.

 

Which I think you will agree looks strange

I don't know how much this worked but you have to say there is evidence they were thinking out of the box! Personally I think it looks bloody odd.

I couldn't get any Squadron specific decals as originally planned - the Great Decal Drought of 2023 etc, but the i-94 ones I got from Pendraken are more than good enough. The individual numbers were a bit of an issue - I had some spare numbers from a Soviet set but had to carefully slice them down as these Sovs were using 2 digit numbers such as 01, 02, 03 etc however the Poles did not. They will do. 

So all that is left to do is the pilots. I think I may just not bother as it is a lot of faff and I don't think it will make much difference.

This has been quite an interesting project, but ironically I'm not sure I will use them at Summer Scramble this year. Partly because at the moment we have an odd number of players and I'm acting as sub so will need to drop out of gaming, and partly because I'm not sure, plucky though they undoubtedly are, these guys fit my play style. Will know in ten days I suppose, til then, 

  

 

3 Week Painting Challenge Day 7 - starting to paint

OK so now I have the models and some adequate if not perfect decals, I can start laying down some paint.

What I should do of course, is take a trip up to the NEMS (North East Model Centre) and buy a Hataka Blue Polish Airforce set. Like this one 

This would be doubly wise given I usually end up having multiple squadrons for each nation and PlanePrinter does both the Pzl 37 bomber and the Pzl 23 Karas ground attack plane, strong contenders for my bomber element to the Poles (I suspect I will do both). However there are two problems - 1) that would be like planning and I don't know if I'm up to that, and 2) NEMS didn't have it in stock on their website. I could order one from eBay or another store however I am mindful that real life (tm) has a habit of disrupting my plans so even with two weeks to go I would prefer to make progress now "just in case". 

Thus foiled I went for a standard gray rattle-can undercoat followed by a khaki rattle-can main coat - no idea of the actual colour just something from the box (PSC tank colour of some sort I believe?). I then had a moment of doubt as I thought it was too green but asked Marcin, one of the Polish members of The Ready Room , and he was fine with it, so onwards and upwards!

 Next some details I think

Blood Red Skies - "Grisha" Rechkalov - Bad Boy Red Ace?

While I have been taking a break I discovered a “spare” P39 model.  I have a Squadron of six painted up in Soviet colours so I thought as a little side project I would paint it as an Ace for Blood Red Skies.

But which one? I did a bit of research and decided on Grigoriy Andreyevich 'Grisha' Rechkalov, Double HSU (Hero of the Soviet Union) and a bucket of other awards gained mostly while flying Lend Lease P39s with 16 GIAP.

This is him - baby faced chap second from the left.

 

Incidentally the four pilots in this pic have more than 120"kills" between them.

And this is one of his P39s 

There were a couple of reasons for choosing him. 

1) He was the highest scoring Airacobra Ace (of any nationality, not just Soviet), with 50 of his 56 claimed kills coming while flying the P39. Putting that into perspective, the highest scoring US Ace was Richard Bong, with 40, and Johhny Johnson was the RAF highest scorer with 34*.

2) The markings for Grisha’s plane are included in the Soviet P-39 Airacobra decal sheet from Miscellaneous Miniatures - link here. 

3) He seems to have been a bit of a character, being subject to some rather pointed comments from his compatriots. This is unusual in the old Soviet Union where their heroes tend to be portrayed as whiter than white (Redder than Red?) Communist icons untainted by any criticism. Also there is some details that could be used to assign the two Ace Skills needed to him. All Good so far

4) The paint project looks simple enough but different to the "normal" Soviet P39s I have due to the tail flash. At least that's what I thought. More on that later..........

So what about Grisha’s skills? 

Firstly he seems to have been a bit what we could call a “glory hunter”. He had a rather big "beef" with Pokryshkin who he flew with as wing-man, and later they had a major falling out that resulted in him being relieved of command of a Squadron for "losing control, indecisiveness and lack of initiative" - ie concentrating more on his own kills than looking after the pilots under his command. This is all rather salacious and well worth a google if you are interested in the rivalries between aces, even supposedly fraternal Soviet ones. In return Retchkalov claimed Pokryskin was padding his kill stats by claiming as his own some of Retchkalov's kills.  It doesn't seem to have harmed his career too much as he later became a General post war. In Blood Red Skies Aces have special skills, and one of them is “Loner”, which grants bonuses to pilots if they operate away from friends, so that seems appropriate for Grisha.

Secondly, everyone, even his critics commented on his superb marksmanship. This should come as no surprise as you don’t get 50 kills if you cant shoot straight. There are a number of Ace Skills that can apply here, “Accurate”, “Killer Instinct” and “Tail Snapper” all would work, but I think Accurate is a good enough fit. That would give him a +1 shooting dice. Killer Instinct is a bit of a waste as his 37mm canon supplied by the Bell Aircraft Corporation already makes his P39 rather dangerous.

The last factor is his bonus to either Agility or Firepower from being a named Ace. Either seems reasonable, but I think I would go for +1 Agility.

So what would this package cost? I asked Andy Chambers (Name drop) and he thinks 125 points, which is not unreasonable, and combined with the bargain 23 points for an early P39 makes him just about "do-able" in a points based list. Maybe. 

How will he play - no idea, but if he's in a Soviet P39 we're looking at an eight dice attack with auto Critical which is "spicey", but a bit of a liability for the rest of the Squadron.

So now all I need is to find someone with talent who can lay out an Ace card. Step forward the multi talented Martin Wilson who proceeded to create this for me (Cheers m8!)

Postscript. All that was written with a mind to adding him to my Soviet Airacobra Squadron, so just before I planned to start the painting I dug them out to refresh my memory on the scheme I had used, only to discover I already had painted one up as an Ace - a certain G.A. Rechkalov ..... you really can't make this up!

Grisha and a wingman and yes I had forgotten I had already painted him!

If you fancy trying out a Soviet P39 Squadron you can get the models from Warlord here or from Armaments in Miniature here . You can use the standard stat card from the Warlord US sets. The Soviets were not enamoured of the wing guns and often removed them. If you want to do that you can use the "Reduced Armament" Equipment card, which adds Agility at the cost of Firepower. Alternatively Martin has created this card using the Beta stats from The Ready Room (which coincidentally IS Rechkalov's P39)

I mentioned earlier that Rechkalov flew as wingman for Pokryskin. If you feel like recreating this pairing he is already available as an Ace from Warlord, this time in his MiG3 which you can find here 

*Pat Pattle was credited with at least 50 kills but as the Squadron records were lost in the fall of Greece these are sometimes overlooked. Nothing at all to do with Pattle being a South African not a Brit, no, absolutely not…..
  

Guadalcanal Diary Part Three - (Bam Balam!)

OK I'm struggling with the title - been a long day :-)

In addition to the fighters, to do the heavy lifting, I'm going to need some bombers. The Mitsubishi G4M1 Type 1 Naval Attack Bomber, commonly known by it's Allied reporting name as the"Betty" is the logical choice. Entering service in 1941 as a replacement for the G3M "Nell", it was in almost all ways but one a superlative aircraft. The G4M had exceptional range, good speed and bombload, and good (for the time) defensive weapons. The only problem was to achieve that superlative range and other positive features the design sacrificed protection. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they did have a worrying tendency to burn if hit. When used as a high level bomber the speed and range of the G4M meant it could be hard to intercept. They could also be converted to carry torpedoes as well as bombs, and some squadrons were specially trained to do so with the aim of contributing to the IJN's Kantai Kessen (Decisive Battle) doctrine, where they would wear the strength of the US fleet down by long range air attacks before the two battle lines would meet. 

The Betty was the workhorse of the Imperial Japanese Navy's land based bomber force (fleet?) in WW2. Notable points were the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, and the assassination (is that the right phrase??) of Admiral Yamamoto. Their long range meant they could bomb targets as far afield as China and Australia. The Betty was ubiquitous, wherever the IJN went, there was the G4M.

The G4M was a big bird, more akin to a Wellington or Mitchell in size and role than a Ju88 or Blenheim (for instance) and it has a distinctly portly appearance - the Japanese pilots nicknamed it "The Cigar" as a result of it's shape, though how much the flammability issue contributed is an interesting thought. The Allies were much more straight and to the point, calling them "The Flying Zippo". 

In many ways the Betty mirrored the Zero in design, with protection being sacrificed to achieve excellence in other areas (range in both cases). That analogy continues to the crews, who were honed to a very high standard of capability, but who could not be replaced easily when lost. At Guadalcanal, this became horribly apparent as squadrons were almost annihilated by Wildcats and AA in long range strikes against the US invasion fleet at Lunga Point. Some squadrons lost 75% of their combat strength and received no replacements.

Throughout the war the IJN tried to update the design, adding more defensive weapons and even some protection such as rudimentary self sealing fuel tanks, however the weakness was baked in to the design and even at the end, the Betty had a well earned reputation as a flying torch. The Betty ended it's career and the war as a launch platform for the Oka suicide rocket plane. 

In Blood Red Skies the Betty is a good medium bomber. Speed 6 is commendably nippy for such a big plane, and defensive firepower is adequate - FP1 all round with a bonus +1 in the rear arc due to the 20mm cannon in the tail . On the down side it is rated as Vulnerable,  so enemies firing at it get an extra attack dice, and it can't dodge incoming attacks with Agility 0. The FP 1 rating is ok but can be deceptive if you are facing Robust enemies such as Wildcats which can negate your FP.  

My models are from PlanePrinter - printed by Paul D for me on his machine as mine struggles a bit to deal with something this big. The base colour is Tamiya IJN Green, which I'm convinced is a bit too dark for 1:200, but too late now...............Decals from Misc Minis.

So, which way to Henderson Field?

Blood Red Skies - New format Squadron Boxes

There is another change in Blood Red Skies with the new Midway starter set. The Squadron boxes being released with the starter set are in a new small box format. I thought it would be worth a look at what has changed.

Old format on the left, new compact on the right.

The short answer is, not a lot. Or at least not that much. The box itself has superb artwork similar to the later releases. Contents wise you still get the six models, bases, Trait and Doctrine cards as before. The only real change apart from the box size is the punch board with the Pilot Skill disks and other counters. In the old boxes (and the new starter set) this is a sturdy heavy duty affair. In the new small box format this has been replaced by a much thinner sheet of similar thickness to the ones in the newer Ace boxes. The layout has changed to get it to fit the new box. There are only four Boom chits, and no range ruler or High Cover markers, but most of us will already have so many boom chits this will hardly matter, and if you have the new starter set that comes with cool plastic range markers and High Cover markers anyway. In fact this is probably a better layout as it will mean you have fewer duplicated counters, but it is a pity about the quality of the card. 

It's hard to see this as anything other than a downgrade, and I sometimes wish Warlord would be a bit more consistent. At the moment the wave 1 Aces, starter sets and old style big Squadron boxes have the heavy duty card punch board, but the new Aces and Squadrons have the thinner ones. I don't know how much this is saving them on production costs, but it feels like a false economy for me the punter. 

Enough of the peripheral stuff, most of which is just packaging, what about the models?? Here it is all good news. The new models are in the new recipe "Warlord Resin" which is an improvement over the older version, and the ones I have seen so far are new sculpts with enhanced details and panel lines. They should be a joy to paint. I should add the last iteration of the old resin was perfectly acceptable, the new one is just better.

One last point of note. The new box has quite a handy painting guide on the back. Nothing too detailed, but more than enough to give you an idea of where to start.  

All in all except for the punchboard I think this is a good change. I'm assuming this will be the format going forward, but I don't know if they're going to retro fit the older squadron boxes into this style.

Battle of Midway Starter Set - Overview

 A little while ago I did a "preview" of the new Blood Red Skies Battle of Midway Starter Set - it goes into some detail  here if you are interested.

Today the postie delivered the real thing, so here is my first impression \ unboxing. I started to write an in depth and "warts and all" review, but realised to do it any justice I will have to split it into several parts, so this is just going to be a quick overview of the contents.

And there's quite a lot in this box.........

You get 12 model fighters - six each of A6M2 Zeroes and F4F Wildcats, plus associated "Advantage Bases " (stands for the uninitiated).

A rules booklet

A set of plastic measuring implements and game markers

2 Quick Reference sheets

6 Aircraft stat cards - Zero, Kate, Val, Wildcat, Dauntless & Devastator

15 Trait cards

17 Doctrine cards

19 Theatre cards

12 Dice

Three punchboards of ship target markers, pilot skill disks, clouds, game tokens etc

All in all a pretty decent starter set for Blood Red Skies, which I have to say is still my favourite WW2 dogfight game. 

If you fancy getting in to Blood Red Skies, or want to expand your collection into the Pacific, this really is an auto buy.

Anyway that will do as an overview. The Midway starter set should be available in shops from today at an rrp of £56.00, or direct from the warlord website. https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/blood-red-skies

 

Blood Red Skies Midway Starter - NOT an unboxing 'cos I don't have a box yet, but...........

https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/blood-red-skies/products/blood-red-skies-the-battle-of-midway-starter-set

Hi everyone. Had a bit of time spare so I've had a closer look at what we know is in the Battle of Midway Starter set for Blood Red Skies, now on pre order (see the link above) and compared it to what was in the original Battle of Britain one, which is now out of print. This is based just on info from old youtube unboxings, pics shown on line, information passed to me by Bothans etc etc. I should stress I have not seen the "real" thing so there may well be some errors here. Don't shoot me

The main components are the same - 12 planes, six a side, with bases and pilot discs, though of course the planes are different - Zeros and Wildcats instead of Spitfires and Me109s. The models are also a different material, with "Warlord Resin" replacing "bendy" soft-ish plastic. Like the original release these are pre coloured, this time blue and white, so in theory you can play out of the box with your 11 year old, if you have one. We've not seen the models in the flesh yet but first pics look promising so I'm calling that an upgrade. 

The original card markers and measuring tools are replaced with plastic ones which we've already seen in the Airfix version of the game. Given the questionable value of the original measuring stick, this is certainly another upgrade.

The card punchboards for clouds etc are there - at least as far as can be seen from the pics we've seen, and instead of the three double sided twin engine card bomber markers in the BoB set we now get six single engine ones, a change needed due to the nature of the Battle of Midway. Looking at the pictures there are also some card ships which I am presuming are for use as target markers - something missing from the BoB starter set. 

The dice also look to be the same as in the BoB set, though this time you get twelve instead of the ten?? (cant remember) in the BoB set. Twelve is actually the maximum number of dice you will roll if you are playing Midway - dodging a deflection shot with an Ace in a Zero, so it makes some sense and if so shows a nice understanding of the rules mechanisms. 

The play sheet also looks to be the same , which is good as the original is brilliant and easy to follow. The packaging pics suggests you get two, though the component list on the website says one. I would guess the website is wrong here.  

Another "upgrade" is the aircraft data cards. In the BoB set you got three - one each of Spitfire II and Me109E and then a double sided one with a Blenheim on one side and a Do17Z on the other. In the new Midway set there are six cards covering F4F, SBD and TBD, and A6M2, B5N and D3A. 

The rulebooks are similar but not identical - there are no major rule changes however the wording has been clarified in a couple of places, and the three BoB booklets has been combined into one more substantial book. The section on multi engine planes seems to have been removed, but for Midway that mostly makes a lot of sense. The scenarios are different however. Both still have 5 scenarios and the first three are pretty much reskins of ones that appeared in the BoB rules. This is a good idea as the scenarios are really teaching tools to set players up. The difference is in the last two scenarios in the Midway booklet which both have strikes against ship targets, plus some basic rules to handle attacking ships and AA. It should be noted these are NOT the same rules as in Air Strike, but rather a simplified set to allow players to try it out - if you want the full Air Strike package, you will need to buy Air Strike. I suppose the same applies if you want to use multi engine planes, though there are none in the Midway scenarios. The Midway booklet has a lot more background and historical information too, which is welcome. 

Theatre Cards. For the established players this is where it gets interesting. In the BoB set we got nine different Theatre Cards. Midway gives us twice as many (18). I've done a lot of sleuthing and staring at blown up pics of the set and I think we have seven that appear in the BoB set and ten (10) new ones. OK I've not checked but some of these may have appeared in Squadron sets , but it is certainly ten more than in the BoB set. I'm not sure but it looks like Home Advantage is NOT in the Midway set - which makes perfect sense. I'm assuming Numbers is in there too but don't know. I'm classing this as a big upgrade

Doctrine Cards. Again in a similar manner to Theatre Cards, we are seeing a bunch of new cards. The BoB starter set had seven Doctrines. Midway has seventeen (17). Only five of these seem to be common to both sets, leaving twelve "new" doctrines in Midway. Defensive Tactics and Low Altitude Performance seem to be absent as far as I can tell. Again, I think this is a big upgrade.

Ace Skill Cards. Something had to give. I'm not seeing any Ace skill cards in the Midway set. There were seven in the BoB set. How much of a loss is this is really up to you and if you play un-named or home brewed Aces.

Lastly - stickers. Yup the bloody useless sticker sheet makes a return. I know this does make sense if you are expecting to play with your 11 year old but it was one of the less welcome components of the old set. However Warlord also include waterslide decals, so those of us who want to paint our models can use them too. Another bonus.

So looking at all that how do I feel about the Starter Set? To some extent it depends on how long you have been in the game.

If you are just looking to start or don't have the old BoB starter this really is a no brainer - get it!

For completists and tournament players who want every Theatre and Doctrine card, again, it looks good.

If you already have all the Wildcats and A6M2s you need, or are not interested in the slightest in the Pacific then it is less of a gimme, but I still think an attractive package and I will be getting one.

Street Date is said to be late October - whispers about the 23rd

Cheers 

 

 

 

Second hand, Shot down once, in great condition (don't look a gift horse in the mouth) - SB2s for my Finns in Blood Red Skies

I've just finished (should that be Finnish-ed?) my latest BRS Squadron. Tupolev SB2s for Blood Red Skies.

Finland were one of the surprises of WW2. They became involved due to self defence, ended up on the Axis side for a while - "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" etc, and then switched sides when it was clear which way the wind was blowing. All in all they did what was needed to survive. This does mean they have a very interesting choice of aircraft, starting with what we would broadly say was a mix of "Allied" types, then switching to "Axis" (German) types as events dictated.

I've got a Squadron of (sigh) Brewster Buffalos as my Finnish fighters, and I wanted something suitable to use in scenarios to match them. The obvious choice was the Bristol Blenheim, but doing some scrabbling around in my "spares" box I found I had a trio of mismatched Soviet Tupelov SB2 models, so I thought, why not?

How Finland got to be flying SB2s is an interesting yarn in itself. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1940 the Finns put up some rather stern opposition, shooting down quite a few attacking SB2s. They recovered as many as they could that had crashed and in a remarkable and resourceful effort managed to build five flyable planes from the collected wreckage. They eventually lost the Winter War, but when the Germans attacked Russia in 1941 these five were now ready for service in what became round 2 - the Continuation War. As the Germans overrun many Soviet airfields they captured several SB2s on the ground in various states of repair, and sold sixteen of them to their new allies the Finns. These were amalgamated into No 6 Bomber Squadron which served through to the end of hostilities flying maritime patrol and attack duties. They lost seven planes to accidents and breakdowns, but none to enemy action, which I suspect says quite a lot about the problems of flying patchwork cut and shunt aircraft. 

So I had three SB2 models. Two from Armaments in Miniature - nice resin cast models, and one plastic kit from Zvesda. The Zvezda model is a different version to the AIM models, with newer engines, but given the nature of No 6 Squadron aircraft I think this is not only appropriate but desirable. I further messed about with the Zvezda kit by adding a dorsal turret, an addition to some of the later Soviet SB2s and was shown in some photos of the Finnish operated ones. The turret was donated by a member of the Blood Red Skies Ready Room on Facebook - it was so long ago that I cant remember who, but Cheers! It originated on another Zvezda kit - their Li2 transport, and just sits in the gap where the dorsal window glazing would normally be on the Zvezda kit. It looks a bit awkward but actually is spot on as you can see in the pic. 

As an aside this is one of the most useful Zvesda Art of Tactic kits out there for BRS players as the Li2 was basically a C47 Dakota as used by the USA and Britain (but with a turret!) and can also be used as a Japanese LD2 transport plane. All you need do is remove the turret, which takes seconds. And by pure chance the same turret was used on the SB2s.

Paint was pretty basic. I didn't bother with panel lining because the Zvezda kit has very little surface detail and would be a PITA to try and get it to match the AIM ones. Decals are from the ever reliable Miscellaneous Miniatures. 

And all put to bed in their bespoke foam from Just Lasered

Walking less trodden paths in Blood Red Skies 2 - the most useful bit of kit is.................

One of these

This is a Hawk "Widget". 

It's a small clear plastic connector designed for use with Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander \ Dropfleet Commander games. You can glue one of these to your spaceship model and it will then slip snugly over the "flying" base giving a convenient method of attaching the spaceship to the base that can be easily removed for storage etc. Having spent several decades fighting with models that keep getting detached from their bases I can say it is a work of sheer genius. The real beauty is that by pure coincidence the triangular post on a BRS base also perfectly fits the socket on a Hawk Widget. The result is that you can use ANY third party model, drill a hole and attach a widget, and it will fit a BRS Advantage base. Suddenly one of the issues with third party models - that they don't fit the BRS bases, has gone! I've also heard of people who are struggling with Warlord metal models fitting them too, just to improve how they sit on the base. 

I would love to claim credit for this discovery, but it was Paul Davison who as far as I know first suggested it. Well done mate!

Fitting widgets isn't that difficult either. Rather than go into it in depth I would refer you to this blog post here by Chris Jarrett (hi Chris!)  https://spitsandschmitts.blogspot.com/2019/02/converting-3rd-party-planes-to-brs.html who explains the process with panache.

So how do you get them? Easy - bug your FLGS or send for them direct from TT Combat who now control the Dropzone line. There are 64 in a blister and they cost £8 here - TT Combat - that should keep you going for a fair few squadrons.

So now when you are looking to build a BRS Squadron from a minor nation and Warlord don't do the model, but someone else does, you can quickly convert them to fit BRS bases. 

Cheers!

Walking the less trodden paths in Blood Red Skies - Romania

I have to admit it, one of the reasons I love BRS is the attitude of the players. I mentioned before how when we started to make beta stats available I was expecting a flood of requests for some of the high profile late war super fighters such as the Ta152 or Tempest, but instead the community wanted .......sigh...... Brewster Buffalo. 

There is also a hard core of players who are not really interested in yet another Spitfire or 109 Squadron, but like to look further afield. It is easy to forget that World War Two was a World War involving many different nations, not just the big five, and also that the war was truly global. Many nations fought in the air in WW2 that (probably) will never get a mainstream release from Warlord, but maybe deserve some mention. This week I was invited to have a game against such an opponent by one of our local gamers Rob Hymer (Happy Birthday btw Rob!). Rob is a new BRS player and has a soft spot for the Romanian air force. 

I was vaguely aware of the Romanian air force in WW2, but I wouldn't want to say anything without at least doing some googling. Rob knows quite a bit more ! and wanted to try out his planes so I was happy to run a 4 v 4 game with my Soviet Yak 1s against his IAR 81s.

It was a fun game which the Soviets won eventually because I have much more experience than Rob in BRS, and also got lucky, but I hope he had a good game and I'm sure he will be back for another match up.

It also rekindled a nagging desire to go a bit out of the mainstream for my next BRS project. BRS does lend itself well to toe - dipping as you only really need 6 fighters and 3 bombers and you are good to go. Not sure what, but I suspect something like Hungarian or Dutch or maybe something out East?  

So without further ado here are some pics of the game, and also some of Robs other Romanian planes which I think shows just why getting out of the mainstream can be so interesting. Rob got his models from Shapeways as there are very few other sources at the moment - Cheers!    

And a couple of shots of some of Robs other planes - including a Plz11 

Err how many Gladiators is too many*? Blood Red Skies and the magic of 3d printing

I recently mentioned my first forays into the arcane art that is 3d printing here 3d-printing-world-turned-upside-down.html

and did a bit of an interview with Rich Carlisle about his new project RoCWorks here roc-works-is-taking-off-interview-with.html

So this is a sort of follow up to both of those as when RoC-Works started to put their .stl files on sale I decided to take the plunge and bought the Gloucester Gladiator.

I had a couple of failed prints, then shamefaced I read the instructions that helpfully came with the files, reset and levelled my print bed, and I'm now turning out Gladiators faster than the original factory! Moral of the story RTFM!

I think the key is the files come with the supports already in place, at a suitable print angle and tested on a Elegoo Mars (which is close enough to my Photon to make no difference). I can easily get three on a build plate. 

The prints are clean and well detailed, and although there is a lot of supporting material on the Gladiator, they clean up quickly and easily.

The file cost £11.25 (introductory price) and includes a licence to print for own use only - you can't sell them or give them away, but to be honest at that price it's an amazing deal, even factoring in the cost of resin and running the printer, so if a mate wants some I will tell him to buy the .stl and I will happily run some off for him.  

In fact it was so painless that I picked up the D520 file too. I thought I had zero interest in the French, however I'm now bugging Rich to do a Ms406! 

So this is all ok if you are a 3d printer owner, but what about the rest of us? RocWorks are making the physical models available for preorder now and are planning to ship on 17th August. Prices are more than the print your own, but still very competitive.  printed-resin-models-catalogue NB the prices are for multiple models not just singles!

I understand there are more models in the pipeline, and if so I will be running the printer for some time to come.

Musing time now, but with RoCWorks taking the hassle and strain out of the 3d printing process I suspect this business model may well start to gather some momentum. 

* Technically the answer is 8 if you are playing to the Air Strike force building rules...... 

Roc-Works is taking off - interview with Rich Carlisle about his new Blood Red Skies compatible range of models

Interesting news. I’ve been chatting to Rich Carlisle about his new project Roc-Works. For those who may not know, Rich was one of the guys at Warlord when BRS started and was very much one of the unsung heroes that helped get Blood Red Skies where it is. He left Warlord over the Christmas \ New Year and has been involved in a number of other projects since then, however he has always been a BRS guy at heart. Anyway, long story short, he has this new BRS related project “Roc-Works” which I think will be great news for all of us. I asked him to explain a bit more about Roc-Works and what it is about for the Blood Red Skis Ready Room, but the interview took in quite a bit more than I originally expected so here it is in full. 

RichC Hi Ken, you asked for a bit about what’s coming up for roc-works.co.uk, we’ll I’ve been busy putting together a place for everyone to come and find some fantastic sculpts by several talented people; including Aidan & Rowan Boustred and Steve Toth. Production-wise I’ve decided to go along the 3dSTL route to allow those with a printer of their own to build their airforces. I can also make these aircraft to order for those without a printer.

Ready Room (err me): That’s great – I’ve already got some of Steve’s work as we did a couple of crowd funding projects (ok not big crowds!)  to have Steve design and print models – his Meteor and Ki45 were beautiful. I’ve also see Aiden and Rowans excellent Fleet Air Arm stuff. So all 1:200 and ready to accept BRS bases?

RichC – yes! and I hope to have all available BRS products including bases on the store

Ready Room so I have to ask – what’s the price point? 

RichC Prices depend on the size of aircraft (and therefor sculptors time and materials etc) so an average size fighter is £13.50 for an STL and £4.50 for a single resin model. $USD prices will be similar based on exchange rates 

Ready Room. That’s not bad at all – what are you working on ?

RichC Our first releases will be the following:  Brewster F2A Buffalo ,  Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Oscar),   Gloster Gladiator ,  Fiat CR.42 Falco ,  Dewoitine D.520 . From the 2nd August, you’ll be able to order the STL files whilst the actual resin models will be ready for release from the 17th August. More models are to come asap; including the Messerschmitt Bf 109 F Tropical, Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb/c Tropical, North American Mustang Mk1 and a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber (with torpedo) I and the sculptors hope you’ll give roc-works.co.uk a look and keep an eye on our progress, we have a whole lot of aircraft we want to make including many not available in detail anywhere else.

Ready Room – I’m sensing a matched pairs theme?

RichC Partially, I had a wish list we (sculptors) talked priorities and it came together. We wanted Italians and Aidan had the Cr42 and already had a Gladiator. Whilst Steve was working on a Spitfire and we added the Bf109F to match it but mainly to fill gaps we think are needing filling

Ready Room – You mentioned Italians – is that going to be a thing?

RichC There are definitely a couple more that I'd like to do, some are already planned by Warlord (SPOILER ALERT - ITALIANS ARE A THING!)  So yes, I want to look at those smaller airforces and aircraft that are often overlooked.

Ready Room – Will the stls come with printing recommendations – angles , supports etc?

RichC The STL come with several files. Firstly the STL sculpt but also that sculpt pre laid up (Sprued) and saved as 2 types of common printer files. Lastly as a ChiTuBox workable file with spruces so you can see how it’s been approached. Oh and we’ll include a guide on the website

Ready Room – nods wisely (not sure I understand that but I’m sure it makes sense to people with 3d printers)

Ready Room – any plans for bigger planes?

RichC Bigger planes, absolutely. We may start with twin engined bombers initially and I’d love to see the first of them later this year. But first things first. Let’s see if people want them   

So if people are interested in new BRS compatible “stuff” get your names on the newsletter list for RocWorks at https://roc-works.co.uk

For the TLDR brigade here is the short version

New UK manufacturer of BRS compatible models

Available as either print your own or physical models

On sale 2nd August for stls and 17th August for physical models

How good is that 😊

Poor Quality in Blood Red Skies

Probably the most queried Trait in Blood Red Skies is "Poor Quality".  The text on the card is pretty simple :

"Rushed development and poor manufacturing practices held back many innovative designs. - In scenarios where a die roll is made for starting advantage, Deduct -1 from the roll for planes of this type."

The classic example is the Yak 1 in the initial "bendy" plastic releases. The Soviet aircraft industry was in disarray and quality control at the factories was suffering as the pressure to provide aircraft for the front. As a result some planes were rushed into squadrons with known defects - including parts becoming detached in flight. Similarly as the war situation deteriorated for the Axis forces some resources became scarce and were replaced by less ideal substitute materials ersatz rubber in aero engines for instance, which adversely impacted on performance in some cases. 

What Poor Quality does in effect, is to handicap such aircraft at setup, making it less likely to start Advantaged, or more pertinently, 50% of them will start Disadvantaged in Dogfight scenarios, which can be a PITA. There is no ongoing impact - they will still get to be Advantaged, they just take longer to do that, assuming the opposition doesn't get to them first!

 

That seems very simple. What has happened however is that as the game has developed the "team" has found some other uses for this card. The relationship between altitude and Advantage is a tangible but non specific one - you can be Advantaged or Disadvantaged at any altitude, but if you struggle with a sustained climb rate you are more likely to be disadvantaged at setup. There are a lot of aircraft types that we know due to design or other issues did not perform as well at climbing to higher altitudes due to lack of superchargers (for instance). A good example here being the P39 Airacobra. We struggled to represent this because we don't have low or high altitude. One option was to make climbing for advantage a test for such planes, however this would add another dice roll per plane per turn - lot of dice rolls, to a game involving such types. We really don't like adding layers of tests. BRS is about air combat, which is fast and furious, and one of the strong points is the quick turn sequence, so anything that adds tests and slows that down is avoided if possible. We did however already have a card that generated the right result in game - Poor Quality.  

Poor Quality is starting to appear more often because of this. It is morphing into a useful way of applying a negative to a plane's characteristics without inventing new Traits. We don't really like new Traits because they would have to be retrofitted to current releases, and the problems with cards etc make that undesirable to say the least. In the dim and distant future when we get V2 there will undoubtedly be more Traits added, but for now we are trying to keep to what we have.

So get ready for a bit more Poor Quality. Italian aircraft with battery powered radios*, or planes with no radios at all? PQ can work here because it can reflect the disadvantage these planes would be operating under without making them totally outclassed. Badly designed cockpits that overworked the pilot, same thing. There are many uses for PQ, so giving PQ to a beautifully build Macchi** doesn't mean it was badly manufactured, but that something about their design puts them at a disadvantage.

Cheers

*For some reason the Italian designers didn't think a dynamo \ alternator was needed on fighters. Instead of powering their radios by attaching them to the big rotating thing at the front that would generate copious amounts of electrical power, not the sons of Caesar, nope, they would use batteries. Like our mobile phones, battery life would deteriorate with use and age. The end result was the Italian fighter force in the early war period would only have enough power in their radios to communicate for a half hour or so, after which point they were down to wing waving and the like. Of course poor radios were not just an Italian thing. In 1940 it is fair to say most fighters had issues with radios, and Spitfire, Me109 and Zero pilots all struggled one way or another to reliably communicate with others in their flight, but these were mostly ironed out.  

** Saying nowt but I think our Regia Aeronautica players will be smiling soon(ish) once we start to get out of the Lockdown backlog :-) 

Back in the saddle - Battle of Britain Campaign game 1

This afternoon saw my first game against a real opponent since the lockdown began, and it was nice to get back to a table - even if we were socially distanced. 

The game was Blood Red Skies - actually the first of what we hope will be a series of BRS games that will run over the summer mirroring the phases of the Battle of Britain - so real time minus 80 years. I should add as this was our first game back we were quite rusty and also managed to forget the sea coloured gaming mat, so we made do with a spare from Cruel Seas that was in the shop, and also my camera was still charging so I had to use my phone - which is my excuse for some of the ropy pics that follow

I'm playing the Germans - in this case elements of I / ZG 76 in their Me110s. Todays game was part of the KanalKampf phase of the battle and was a Fighter Sweep mission over the Channel.

We ran into some RAF Spitfires and had a very interesting battle. The initial pre game and set up didn't go well for the Luftwaffe. The RAF played the "Restricted Airfields" Theatre card, meaning in the confusion and congestion on our new French airfield something went wrong and one of the 110s failed to join up. This wasnt a one way thing however as the RAF were suffering from the "Supply Shortages" Theatre card - still getting back up to strength after the Battle of France and this caused them to enter the game with one Boom (morale) chit.

Slightly less satisfying was the initial set up positions. Both elements of 110s were caught snoozing and were disadvantaged, with the RAF being much more on the ball, starting with one pair in High Cover, one Advantaged, and one disadvantaged. This was quite a blow as one of the quirks of the scenario - starting positions of Disadvantaged aircraft are chosen the opponent not the player. This was not good!  Here is the set up with the Luftwaffe circled in yellow and the RAF in blue.

The first turn saw the 110s form something vaguely resembling a Lufbery Circle with both elements trying to cover each other as the Spitfires came screaming in.

This was however a cunning plan (or at least it seems to have turned out ok , which is almost the same thing!). The 110s made judicious use of the Dive Away \ Great Dive combo to put some distance between them and the Spitfires, wrong-footing the RAF somewhat who were not expecting the Germans to be able to burn advantage to dive. It has been said many times that Great Dive on a Speed 7 plane isn't that great, but in this case it was a lifesaver, allowing the 110s a little time to claw for altitude \ Advantage. One lone 110 piloted by Lt Hubert Gruber bravely engaged a pair of Spitfires to buy time for the rest of the Squadron.

This allowed the COs pair to dive through the clouds and get into a position to turn on the Spitfires in the next turn (hopefully)

A fairly "active" furball then developed, however the 110s were careful to keep their discipline and not throw away their planes in risky manoeuvres, and also cover each others tails - clearly having read the  Dicta Doug!

The RAF seemed to be having an off day. The Spitfires were I think intimidated by the firepower of the 110s and started to use their Defensive Tactics doctrine a lot. This is quite an interesting card as it allows a plane to turn a normal shot into a much harder deflection shot, but at the cost of breaking up your formations. No Spitfires were shot down, but they did accumulate some Boom Chits and more importantly, they lost their cohesion and wingmen, and it was now the 110s that were in the driving seat. 

 

The RAF did manage to rally a little and regain their composure, with one pair of Spitfires latching on to the German leaders tail. Luckily he had the "Sixth Sense" Ace Skill, which stopped him becoming tailed. 

The game ended when the Luftwaffe managed to score enough Boom Chits to make the Spitfires head for home. It was a bloodless victory but a good way to blow the dust off the models and get a game in. Looking forward to the next mission where I hope to sink some British shipping in The Channel !