Early summer 1944, somewhere above northern France. The day before, allied command received a report from the French resistance in the area, about a new V-1 rocket launch site being setup. A squadron of B-17 heavy bombers (3) was sent to stop them, before the launch site became operational.
A squadron of P-51 Mustangs (4) was sent to escort them. As the target didn't require extended range on the fighters, they opted for external bomb loads instead of fuel racks, the logic being better to have an extra bomb on hand in case any of the bombers gets knocked out.
But little did they know, the Germans were expecting this. A pair of Me 262 jets was stationed nearby on a makeshift runway, so they were the first responders. Another squadron of Me 109's (4) was sent as well, but they got a late warning, and it took them some time to reach the target area.
As such, we decided to have the bombers and their escorts start on the board, slightly separate from one another. Both of the Me 262 started on the board as well, on the opposite end, as their jet engines allowed them to reach the enemy formation in time. The Me 109's however we decided were going to arrive after 5 turns, on the board edge closest to the target zones. We set up the 109's on the new entry boards, next to the board edge where they will arrive, and marked the spot no.5 as a countdown.
This time we decided to try out the new fuel counters. The bombers didn't need them as we judged their 44 fuel points was sufficient. On future double map scenarios and with using breakthrough rules for bombers we will use the counters for them as well. For the Mustangs we estimated they spent 5 fuel to reach the combat area so we marked their counters. The 109's received the same estimate, needing 5 fuel to reach the combat area. The jets we assumed, as they were stationed close by, only spent 2 fuel to reach the area. These estimates are pure improvisation, as no official scenarios with their own calculations are available yet. This could end up being too little fuel spent to reach the area, and so this will be addressed in future scenarios.
The bomber formation was slowly approaching the target area, with their escorts correctly guessing the direction the interceptors are most likely to come from, and were going to position themselves between the enemy and the bombers.
The German jet pilots were used to this kind of tactics by now, so they pushed their Jumo 004 engines to their limit, to reach the bombers before the escorts got in the way, but are unable to reach a good firing position in just one turn. By next turn, only one of the jets was able to get in a decent position to attack, one pair of escort planes was making a dash for the target zone in an effort to loosen their weight, while the other pair tries to block off the returning jet. The other jet decided to make another pass.
Such a bad roll, only the tail gets damaged.
The Mustangs start to line up on the target.
Defensive fire from the stricken bomber destroys the first jet. Not surprising, as in Zoey's hands d6's always roll 5's and 6's. Side note here, next bombing raid we'll try the speed markers and the optional rules for the difference in speeds. This might have helped me here.
The Mustangs have finished their bombing run, and are now circling the bombers.
The remaining Me 262 is lining up a shot at a different bomber determined to avenge his downed wingman.
His firing has no effect, while the defensive fire makes short work of him.
The bombers are now free to level the target as they see fit as the next wave of defenders is due in 3 turns. In retrospect, the single map set seem small enough to allow a 4 turn delay, as a 5 turn delay allows the slow bombers to destroy the target, make a U turn and head back to base. Using a double map would present interesting possibilities for reinforcements. We can't wait to give that a try.
The Mustangs get bored with nothing to do, and decide to try an old 40k tactic, the conga line, in order to block off the entry path for the next wave, whereby they receive the dreaded raised eyebrow of contempt in return.
The Me 109's finally arrive, zip past the blocking Mustangs and separate, going for the bombers instead. The math is simple, a single Me 109 is unable to down a fresh B-17 even if it rolls box cars (factor 4 + 12 - 6 for the armor =10), but can damage it. So the damaged bomber gets one on its tail, one of the bombers gets a pair to increase the odds of success, and that just leaves the last one to try and damage the third.
Its easy enough to hit, especially with 2 fighters, even on column B, but both roll abysmally poor and only score a few holes in its fuselage. In return one of the fighters gets damaged by defensive fire.
This one tries to dive on his prey, his hit has no effect, and gets blown up in return.
This one feels a bit more confident, as his target in already damaged, and he is the best possible position to strike. Nope, no effect, and he also gets blasted by return fire.
The last pair of 109's tries again nest turn, but again no luck, and they both get downed in return.
With the whole target blasted into large craters, and no losses suffered, the allied planes head for home.
The fuel counters didn't get to have any effect. Next time we'll have more fuel spent to reach the battle, and designate the same amount as bingo fuel when the counter reaches down to it. The battle lasted less than expected (about an hour), even with more that usual number of participating planes.
One thing that we will start using is the speed difference, as that might have saved the poor jets. The authors mentioned that the rules would be the same as in the WWI game.
We didn't use the curved flight stands, still unsure of the way they worked. Next time we plan on trying these out as well, as the more complete rules document will be available by then. If anything, that will spice the visual effect, plus it does have rules on how it effects the game.
I glad I got to try out the Me 262's, even if they failed miserably in this scenario. You must be careful when using them, yes, they blast across 2/3's of the map in one turn, and then you're stuck so close to the target, but with speed 15, agility II and even the lowest of the speed dice good luck getting into position to strike with speed 9 and the new turning table. That's why one of the jets had to circle back for another go. Their firepower factor is currently second best in the game with only the Beaufighter having a 10. We'll have to try them out on a double map, and not intercepting from head on.
The B-17's are beasts. I love how they work, slow, lumbering, able to take a lot of punishment with armor 6 and the ability to have 2 different damage markers before being destroyed by a third. The micro expansion with a dozen of them? Sign me up. Their defensive fire seems way to powerful, as they blasted 2 jets, and 3 109's, with only one of those being damaged by them first. It might not be a problem with their defensive factors, it could still be the case with the shooting tables, too easy to hit, too easy to destroy, and not using the speed difference. I hope the German side receives a similar micro expansion for a larger number of He 111's and Ju 88's, along with some Ju 87's as well. I have to be honest, that would be one of my gaming dreams come true. Not many games allow for a smooth gameplay with a bomber stream, and this is one big plus for this one.
The Mustangs were fine. We brought 4 escort planes for the bombers, as the previous time we played a similar bombing scenario for WWI we used 2 Staakens, 2 Gothas with just 2 escorts, against 6 interceptors. You can read that one on the Bgg. At that point we were still afraid to use more than 6 planes per player, but have since seen first hand that the game system handles it perfectly.
The Me 109's seemed underpowered, but that is because we pitted them against a very tough target. Compared to most other fighters and in fact other types as well they are fine.
Since playing this scenario, we have received the wip rules document. Most of the stuff was already known after playing WWI, but there are more than a few bits clarified. For example, the sharp turn is explained (one of the new icons on some of the planes), than the booster is in fact in addition to the green die, but once per game. The shooting modifiers are many, and will impact the game the most. The final version of the game will include more variants with shooting, long burst is still there, there are going to be point task zones for dive bombers to chase after, and there might even be another blue die introduced. And that's just the base game.
Now that we have a more complete picture of how the shooting works, we will probably do a couple of dogfights to try it all out, before doing another bombing run.
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