Tally-Ho Over The Channel

After being given some trainee pilot homework to do in the week preceding, a number of Rejects donned their goggles, gloves and parachutes to fly their Spitfires and Bf109s in the shed of war.

Dan, David and Stuart manned their Spitfire Mark 1a for RAF Fighter Command.

Lee, Steve and Surjit, still fresh from their victories over France, climbed into their 109Es to further the glory of the Luftwaffe.

The models were 1/285 scale from Heroics and Ros.

The rules used were my own.

The aim of the day was to establish a national winner, but more importantly the Ace in the pack.  To do this a number of scenarios were played out.  All pilots started as "officer" (from lowest to highest: sprog, officer, veteran and ace) and had to achieve kills, cause critical damage, earn points from a pilot test and improve their rank.

The first scenario saw an RAF section scrambled to intercept a formation over the Channel.  Each player had one aircraft to pilot.

To start the 109s are closest and to the right.  The Spitfires are furthest away and to the top left.

The 109s with their pilot cards at the start of the game.

The dials on the plane stands turn and show the aircrafts' current altitude.

There is one pilot card for each plane.  These hold vital information such as top speed (in hex), pilot skill (officers have a value of 1, veteran 2 etc.), minimum turning circle, climb and dive information.

On the Spitfire below the starting speed is 4, and the dial is at an altitude level of twelve.

The Spitfires and their pilot cards.

Both sides initially jockeyed for height and position.  They quickly realised that they had to find a balance between speed and manoeuvrability.  Pilots can tighten their turning circles by reducing speed, but can sacrifice height for speed.

Once engaged, my camera work reduced as the need for game flow and umpiring became the imperative... so pictures become few and far between.

The RAF soon let rip with their guns.  However, they seemed unable to do anything more than pepper wings and fuselage with holes.  Meanwhile, Dan found himself suffering engine damage that forced him to turn for home.  Anyone who gets shot down "respawns" as a sprog pilot.  

Dan's crippled plane.  He managed to limp home.  Fortunately, he had sufficient altitude to burn in order to build speed and escape.

With other critical damage suffered, the RAF were deemed to have lost this engagement.  However, no kills could be credited.

Between games all pilots had to take a test based on the homework they were given. This consisted of distance and aim of fire for pilots.  The Luftwaffe scored better than the RAF and Steve achieved the best individual total.

After lunch was scenario two.  Some cotton wool was laid down to represent clouds.  Altitude was assigned to them.  No spotted planes were on the table.  Each players' aircraft was represented by two blinds with the real one needed to be spotted before action could be taken towards it.

Most planes were quickly spotted.  Stuart, flying over a cloud, quickly come unstuck when targeted by Steve's 109.  Accurate and prolonged bursts damaged the fuel tank and set the Spitfire alight.  Stuart successfully bailed out to fly another day.

Stuart's plane ablaze and going down!

The aircraft were more scattered than in the first game.

This proved to be a very different game from the first.  The pilots played a cagey game of cat and mouse using the clouds to get out of trouble when threatened.

Lee taking his camera out for the action.  He has just found himself being tailed.

Throughout the day, the RAF enjoyed accurate firing but were unable to draw critical damage.

Lee's 109 being tailed by Dan's Spitfire.  Lee is desperately diving into the nearest cloud to get out of trouble as tracers flash past his cockpit.  Lee enjoyed incredible luck in surviving a number of encounters... he should be called "the cat" for all the lives he's used up.

Poor Dan then got into trouble himself as a bandit bounced his Spitfire, causing the tank to rupture.  Fortunately, he managed to bail out before being engulfed in the flames.

Dan's Spitfire ablaze.

Lee, then found himself the victim of Stuart's Spitfire, whose accuracy produced an explosive end to Lee's 109.  I have no photo of this as Lee rapidly removed the evidence, and the game ended at that point.

I had fun putting on and umpiring the games.  The clouds made the second game very different and more tactical.  It was pleasing to see how quickly all players used the tactics of the day - like dashing for safety in the clouds, seeking height for advantage, burning height to quickly build speed.

There was plenty of action.  Action Cards were used to spice up the game.  This enhanced the drama and led to some exciting exchanges as player sought to out do player in gaining or neutralising advantage.

The tally for the day was that the Luftwaffe had the best of both encounters.  It was not that they scored more hits it was that with good use of cards and some luck caused more critical damage and two kills.  The Ace of the day went to Steve with one kill, the most damage caused and points from the test.  Well done Steve.

I had a splendid day.  So much thinking, fun and decision making with so few models.