Alternate Timeline - Gotham Campaign

[Gotham Resident]

Ok, so I discussed with Lil GR (William), my 10 year old, the idea of us doing a campaign especially with all the great AAR's and campaign scenario's I have seen here. I had to explain what that meant. We then discussed some of the alternate rules like altitude (which he understood), Pilot abilities (which he liked), Cannon Ammunition (which he thinks should refill - he thought you wait 4 turns before firing again, rather than having limited ammo, but we will discuss that more). He also noted to me that while he can fly 2 airplanes at one, he prefers to fly just one. We may use solo rules a lot then for our opponents.

So, we discussed that when we do our campaign, we will pick a squadron for "Allies" and one for "Axis". Some of our pilots might jump from theater to theater, and some planes may be out out of place (like the Italian Ambassador loaning his Regi to the Japanese on our B-17 battle). But, we will try and follow the general feel of a campaign - with pilots being KIA/WIA/possibly not replaced and planes being the same way. This led to a discussion on the fact that some fighters could carry bombs, say a single, 100, 300, or 500 lb bomb vs the B-17's many many bombs so if a bomber gets shot down, we might have to single fighters carry some bombs.

What made me the most proud was when he we were discussing Squadrons, and how usually they would be carrier based, or island based, or whatnot, but we would use the same pool of pilots. He then asked if we could do a scenario vs a carrier. I agreed, he jumped up and came back 5 minutes later (no more than 7) with a lego carrier, roughly 6-8 inches long. He modified a "sled carrier" he was using building for hauling his "Arctic Explorer" set around. I explained that the tower was not at one end, but usually in the middle side, so he came back 2 minutes later and showed it to me. He did it all himself and he said he added in 3 turrets so it could defend itself. He suggested we use A damage for them. The design was all his (with no picture). I was floored. He even put in the plane catcher at the end. He's a natural for this game! He also added the satellite, I might suggest he move that to the middle tower.



I will use this thread to post some of our generic campaign activity, but our AAR's will be separate.

I would expect this Carrier to be a target in an early campaign!!!!!

[Gotham Resident]

The squadron makeup will will be done as follows - with a minor tweak - same as campaigns for single engine fighters but w/ 1 more standard, and 1 less vet. All pilots are available for any plane.
Then there will be 2 crews available for each multi engine, or "two-person" plane.

So, we will pick the planes, then roll for our pilots out of our pilot pool to see who was on duty. We will have 2x the number of models available to our "squadron". So if say my single P-51 gets shot down on a mission, we do have a 2nd one...but we will follow the replacement rules for planes (or 3 missions, which is shorter). Additionally - *I have the card packs for Spits & ME-109's and lil GR has said we should use stand in models for those cards until such time as we get the models.

Allied planes in squadron - Beaufighter (x2), Wildcat (x2), P40 (x4), P-51 (x2), B-17 (x2), Gladiator (x2), Yak (x2), Spitfire* (x2), Gladiators (x2)
Axis planes in squadron - Reggie (x2), Ki-61c (x2) Ki-61a (x2), Ki-61b (x2), Zero (x2), Heinkel (x2), Me-110 (x2), Val (x6), Yak (x2), P40 (x2), Spitfire* (x2), ME109* (x2)

William got to choose the plane models when we got them, so we have a strange mix, some based on paint jobs & some based on damage done. I got the Vals & the Glad because they were on clearance.

I also purchased some unpainted planes (Zero's, ME-109, and Avengers), but they won't be ready for while as I haven't bought paint yet. lol, Plus a 4 pack of Merit Wildcats are in the mail .

If you have any good axis pilot names, please submit them, I imagine the Allies pilots will be his classmates.

Allied Squadron Roster. (Ratings TBD)
Fighter Pilots
1. ACE Hill
2-4 Veterans Ellington, Durand
5-10 Standard McWorther, Gisclon, Lil GR, 3 others
11-12 Rookie Gotham Resident, 1 other

Beaufighter Crew
1.
2.

B-17 Crew
1.
2.


Axis Squadron Roster
Fighter pilots
1. Wilhelm von Ahrens
2. Wiriamu Burea (Using this Japanese name converter)
3. Missha Deebiddo
4. Emirii Gureesu
5. Jenifaa Aurensu
6. Beno Morii
7.

ME110 Crew
1. Leutnant: Sven "Boom-Boom" Marechallanes / Bordschütze: Kristofer Fastgitwald
2.

Heinkel Crew
1.
2.

[fast.git]

I can't guarantee the authenticity of the names, but here's a name generator that might suit your purposes: http://www.herofiles.org/utilities/namegen/names.php

[Gotham Resident]

I can't guarantee the authenticity of the names, but here's a name generator that might suit your purposes: http://www.herofiles.org/utilities/namegen/names.php

That will work just great. I don't think we are as worried about authenticity, if you look at my first Allied pilot.

You didn't want to put in a special request for say Hauptmann Kristofer Fastgitwald?

[fast.git]

That will work just great. I don't think we are as worried about authenticity, if you look at my first Allied pilot.

You didn't want to put in a special request for say Hauptmann Kristofer Fastgitwald?

[Marechallannes]

Nice campaign idea.

I like this carrier vessel!

For axis pilot's names:

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sho...nes-Luftwaffe)

[Gotham Resident]

Sven, I will definitely borrow a couple of your fliers! I'm going to need some more German planes. lol.

------

So this morning before school I told William that he would need a 4-foot carrier (based on the nice pics that Clipper did recently) to be the scale we are using.....he built it after school. Mrs GR and I had a school meeting to attend so he played while we were gone and Grandma watched him! He didn't get to finish, but he set up a little scenario himself. I suggested he could have a CAP and one ready to launch. He did, but he started too far apart and his plane to launch had to travel the entire length of the carrier, so it never got involved. He told me that if we were going to do a campaign we would need a long weekend. No, we wouldn't do it all once. ..itwas going to be say 20 games in the next 3 years. He told he me that we better play more than 20 games in 3 years!!!!! Hopefully our new planes come tomorrow.

So here is what he did tonight.



Oh yeah, he also built an L-10teen (L for lego) which is only slightly larger than the B17, but it has a bit larger gun!!!!!!!!!! He also created a base for it. I don't think we will be able to use the L10teen in combat except maybe as a placeholder for a 2nd B17.

[Gotham Resident]

No new planes yet.

We did set up squadrons though. After we pick planes, we roll for pilots.
Allies got 1 squadron - pilots & planes will be used in both ETO & PTO. 12 single engine fighters. 2 crews for Beaufighter, 2 crews for B17.
Axis ETO - 6 pilots for single engine planes, 2 crews for ME110, 2 crews for Heinkel
Axis PTO - 8 pilots for single engine planes. (Vals are coming, but I haven't told him yet).

First mission was flown today. PTO - Scenario 1 - Attacking an airfield. AAR to follow. We both piloted an Allied plane and AI was the Axis PTO.

[Gotham Resident]

The first mission was such a success (Saturday) that on Sunday, we had to fly another one. In this one, we had an experimental fighter to try out, it was based on the Wildcat, but was the size of a Heinkel!!!! So, we tested it, running a Precursor to the day before. We let the Xperimental plane do a quick recon of the airfield we would attack the next day. (although we had the played the mission the previous day). Yes, he made up a card for it. And a stand and the base is the same size a Heinkel, he measured it out. Note the firing arcs on his base (yellow means it can't fire there...green is the front arc, red is back arc, it's hard to see in my pics.

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

Unbounded enthusiasm. Love his creativity, that huge carrier is awesome. The smaller one too. I do hope you play more games than you mentioned in 3 years!

Please post your AAR's so we can follow your alternative timeline campaign with lots of pics.

Neil.

[Gotham Resident]

He is very very excited! My picture is sideways but his plane card says:
Blue Warhawk, Damage 18 (recently increased to 25 based on the new fighters below being tougher), it flies on a "C" deck.
Long range damage is BBC, short range is BB whereas the rear gun is BB dropping to AA at range.
The pilot is Jon Skywalker, Anakin's younger lesser known brother.

It's a great learning opportunity as well, we took a virtual tour of a B-17 online and looked at the USS Bataan Carrier pics and history. We compared the size of the B-17 to the B-29 to the fighters.
===

Yesterday we received 4 new planes ! (Thanks mom for the Christmas $$$ & to a clearance sale on the specific schemed models we got!).

Our hodge-podge fleet now contains: ME-110 (black paint job), Bristol Beaufighter (Canadian), and two Japenese Ki-64's planes. I am fairly certain that on Wed or Thursday night a plane vs plane mission will be flown and I foresee another campaign flight on Saturday!!!

It's hodge podge because our paint schemes are all over the place, but the planes fly and we perfectly willing to mix and match.
He's already told me we WILL be substituting models for additional types of planes. Ie...he found the Spitfire card set (The Flying Legends) and wants to fly spits...so we use use P40 models and Spitfire cards, and I think the Japanese planes will represent ME-109's.

[Gotham Resident]

In testing our new planes, we had a pilot killed in action. That has led lil GR to change all the non-"real" pilots names away from his classmates (and his own name) to fabricated ones. His first lesson in the harsh realities of war.

[fast.git]

He is very very excited!

There is simply no beating the boundless enthusiasm of youth!