Returning to Base
Roeselare, 16th January 2014
+-1:30, 6 players, 6 planes & 2 AI planes
Date of mission: March 1945 – May 1945
Location: Germany
Story: Me262 Jet Fighters are returning to base. On their approach to the airfield they are jumped by P-51 Mustangs. The FW190D's of the Papageistaffel are defending them.
Axis Forces: 3x FW190D, 2X AI Me262 (More are possible)
Allied Forces: 3x P-51 (More are possible)
Axis victory conditions: By points - P51 shot down 1 point, every Me262 that crosses the map 2 points
Allied victory conditions: By points - Fw190 shot down 1 point, every Me262 shot down 2 points
Balance: Hard to tell, see story below
I was glad yesterday evening when the group we play boardgames with also wanted to give WGS a try. One of them is very interested and persuaded the others to join. Off course they where all new players so had to explain them the rules. This was a perfect opportunity to play test my Prague 2014 Scenario.
This was the lay-out of the map with the different entry points.
Dimensions of the map were 140cmx90cm
Used rules
Resurrection (When shot down a player returned at their entry point after waiting one turn)
Altitude (Revised rules)
No special damage except for explosion (newbie players and they already found it difficult enough to handle the altitude which I insisted on using)
For the Me262 I tried several things during the game:
Movement: I gave the Me262 the O-deck. Reasoning that the plane was in approach and thus lowered its speed in preparation for landing. The O-deck is a bit slower than the both the P and R deck which gave the attackers the possibility to chase their target with succes. In the beginning it flew a straight and then a D6 was thrown. 1,2 or 3 was a turn to the left followed by a right turn in the next phase while 4,5 or 6 let the Me262 first make a right turn and then a left one. After the two turns again a straight maneuver and a D6 to decide for the following two moves. It was often forgotten and gave a lot of collisions. To simplify it the Me262's just flew straight ahead on the centerline of the mat. Afterwards a second Me262 was introduced off-center. All Me262 flew constantly at altitude 3.
Damage: The first one had a damage resistance of 15. It was rather quickly shot down by the allies and the Me262's after that one all had a damage resistance of 18. The idea behind it is that a Me262 once crippled had a hard time making it back to the airfield and mostly crash-landed some where else. So all Me262's returning are in top condition...
Firing: The Me262's didn't have the ability to fire. The idea behind it is that they are returning from their mission and have used all of their ammo.
The game
The Allies won with a 7 to 4. Allies shot down 2 Me262's and 3 FW190's. Axis shot down 2 P51's and escorted one Me262 to safety.
3-0
The Fw190's (all rookie pilots) flew their Fw190 rather hectic with one of them flirting with the edge of the map far from the action. The other two made a few early collision which damaged one of them badly. One salvo of a P51 was enough to finish it. The Allies added points by shooting down the first Me262 (15 points) before it even was halfway the map. A new Me262 was introduced (flying straight this time and 18 points). The Fw190 pilots started to get the hang of it and started firing at the P51's while they where heading towards the new Me262.
3-2
While we where flying towards the new Me262 the FW190 managed to shoot two of the P51's out of the sky. Although the numerous collisions between P-51's and the FW190 also helped a lot.
5-4
The remaining P-51 managed to avenge his comrades and quickly shot down a FW190. Again FW190's collided and a fresh P51 finished one of them of. In the mean time a Me262 now flying only fast straight forwards was under fire by a P-51 but reached the other side with still 5 points left.
7-4
My P-51 returned right behind an Me262 and I was able to fly directly behind it and fire at it turn after turn. Quickly its maximum damage was reached and it went down.
Because it was already 1:30 in the night we decided to wrap up and go home. Although flown by rookie pilots I had the feeling I'm close to a balanced mission. If the FW190's had flown better from the start and focused on the P51's close to the Me262 they would really have a change to avoid it from going down. We agreed to try it again next month so I'm curious if they will fly more efficient.
Due to the current lack of Me262 mini's a Reggianne and a Kawasaki Hien served as Me262
Changes for the next game
First of all I would try new starting positions. Below is the new scheme of the idea.
The FW190 pilots found they had no headstart to really escort or protect the Me262. Both P51's and FW190 could reach them equally. With the new starting positions that problem should be solved given the FW190's the time to place them selves between the P51's and Me262's. A D6 is thrown to decide where the Me262 will start a their entry point. Although the entry point for the allies is very close to the point where a Me262's reaches safety the difference in altitude should be sufficient to protect a damaged Me262 from being hit by a freshly entered P51.
Because altitude didn't have much effect in the game (P51's dropped a level down and everything was fought on alt 3) I would put the attackers higher, the defenders lower and the Me262's in between. The Me262's would gradually loose altitude however (a counter per turn maybe?).
All Me262's have damage resistance of 18.
Possible ideas
Give the ability to the Me262's to fire a limited number of turns?
Let them fly faster? Maybe make a custom maneuver card which allows them to fly faster than the attackers? I'm not sure about this as they will cross the map very quickly and it will be very hard to hit them.
Use Flak? One of them suggested to put AA batteries close to the safety line.
Give the Germans a target too? (not done for me as it is to far from history)
All your ideas and/or comments are welcome!!!
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