Well, yesterday night (another "If it's Friday we Play with Wives" night session) was arranged at my place especially to test the new Zeppelin mat and the house rules for Zep hunt I had written and entitled "Easy Zeppelin 2D/3D".
My primary goal was to face the real big thing in 1:144 scale and get a feeling of how it could "behave" in a scenario. Another task was to have rather easy, playable set of rules without too much bookkeeping.
For those who do not know that yet, let me inform you, that Sue, Eric's (AKA 7eat51) wife did a great graphic job placing the cigar into the Dover Mat. I do not remember who allowed me to use the Zep picture (Dave?), but I want to thank you all who inspired me to print the Zep Mat.
It is pretty big: 180*100 cm. The Zep is almost 140 cm long. And it really stands out.
This was a game played without altitude (2D) using these, rather straightforward rules:
1. The Zep does not move (of course!), but due to it's size and speed difference it is not necessary to move it around the table. BUT, to simulate it's movement, the game should lasts a specific number of turns, after which the Zep runs out of range of the fighters or bombs the target or fighters run out of ammo. Whatever. The number of turns must be adjusted to the numbers of planes involved. Your choice. I decided to play the first mission in 15 turns. If the Zep survives, the German side wins. Easy.
2. The Zep damage capacity must be decided. To balance the chances of success for both sides, it depends roughly on the number of attacking planes.
In this mission we had 2 attackers and two defenders, so the decision was taken to give the Zep 60 points of damage. The flow of the game showed it was the minimum number and we should raise it to at least 90.
3. My Zep has no cells. It takes damage as a whole (It should be Easy, remember).
4. Fire is resolved exactly like with the balloons (official RAP). Incendiary ammunition - according to RAP as well. No difference.
5. The Zep does not obstruct LOS in 2D. It would have had obstructed if we played with altitude. Those 3D rules will be covered separately. Base/Zep overlaping has no effect on shooting, the Zep may be shot at. It is big.
6. Collision Plane/Zep is not possible in 2D. It would be possible in 3D (altitude).
7. Shooting at the Zep is resolved normally, according to RAP.
8. Defensive fire. There are 3 red dots on the Zep upper surface. These are B gun emplacements. In 3D reules, there are also B guns in gondolas below the cigar, in the same places (3D - another story, you know. Later). These guns may jam normally.
7. If the Zep gets a "pilot hit" card, the closest gun emplacement is silenced temporarily - treat it like a gun jam - place three jam counters on it.
8. These special damage cards are irrelevant for the Zep, while using normal ammunition: rudder damage, engine damage, smoke.
That is all. Easy, right?
This is how it all went.
Darek and Kamilla were the attackers: two Bristol Fighters B/A and B/B. The latter equipped with incendiary ammo in the front gun.
My and my wife became the defenders in D.VIIs.
Someone made a joke about the Zep size Well you see the starting position of the planes.
I managed to hit Darek's Bristol in the first pass. Smoke appeared. They fired at the Zep, but with no visible damage. Darek's guns got jammed.
The defending guns of the Zep were pretty accurate. They set Darek's Brisfit on fire. Unfortunately we both collided and I took C6 damage.
The attackers focused on the Zep, ignoring the escorts. Kamilla's rear A gunner has a bad day, however. His guns are jammed.
But take a look at the distant, Darek's Bristol. Now he has his both guns jammed and the plane is on fire...
It is the third turn. I immelmanned in my pink Fokker just to see that the attackers are taking some pouding, while the Zep seems to be undamaged.
Look at the White/Green Kamilla's Bristol. All it's guns are jammed The Bristols were plagued by gun jams that night...
The Bristol are making a long run over the Zep shooting as much as they can, we are after them...
Fortunately Darek's forward firing gun is jammed again!
Kamilla's rear gunner's guns are overheated and jam again. Now we close on her with final bursts of bullets. She takes 4 A cards...
...and spirals down to water. Scratch one Bristol.
Synchronized fire from my Fokker and Zep B gun brings another attacker down.
It took us 4 full turns to resolve the game. The Zeppelin survived, but got a real damage, mostly because of +1 continous fire rule.
The row above are the +1 damage cards, the row below is the regular damage.
Impressive 0 card number. I understand that Bristol Fighter pilots got really stressed seeing such a monster, that's why their fire was badly innacurate and constant shooting made their guns jam all the time.
46 damage points out of 60 damage capacity of the Zep means that the monster was nearly killed. If their guns had not jam that often,
the Bristol Fighters would have easily succeeded in those 4 turns.
Amazingly, incendiary ammo did not cause any fire!
Conlusions:
The "Easy Zeppelin" 2D rules worked well. The Zep damage capacity should be increased to at least 90. Even two fighters flying along it may cause a real damage when +1 rule is used. If they caused fire, the destruction would go much faster.
At the end of the day we had a real fun with the Zep. Short but intense engagement.
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