Havoc XXXIII Mar 31-Apr 2

[Teaticket]

Havoc, in Shrewsbury Mass. is only one month away. For anyone interested I'll be running 3 games of Wings on Saturday Apr 1st.

Saturday 9am - 1pm

204 Battle of Britain
A major Stuka attack is escorted by a squadron of Messerschmit Bf1090s...coming to save the day is the RAF with Hurricanes and Spitfires. The future of Britain hangs in the balance! *

Sat 2 - 6pm

308 Over the Adriatic
A mixed Italian force crosses the Adriatic to attack an Austrian anchorage. Intelligence reported a cruiser in port, a tasty target for the Italians.
A small un-noticed Austrian gunboat spots the raiding air group and radios a warning. All available aircraft are sent aloft to intercept.

Sat 7:30 - 11:30pm

410 The return run home
A force of Entente bombers are returning west from a deep raid behind the German lines. Jastas have been alerted and sent aloft to catch them before they cross the lines. Knowing the game as it is played over and over, the Entente send out a flight of scouts to protect the homeward bound bombers.

The Havoc website is here http://havoc.battlegroupboston.org/index.php

[Teaticket]

Ok, next Saturday we will fly 3 missions at BattleGroup Boston's annual show in Shrewsbury Massachusetts. I hope to see some Aerodrome members here. Thomas, Frank, Max, Joe? I hope some of you can make it. It should be a good time and award badges as usual.

[BobP]

I have to text my friend about your game. Hope he may show up.

[Teaticket]

I have to text my friend about your game. Hope he may show up.

Great, hope he can make it.

[Teaticket]

Weather could be messy with a bit of snow tonight/tomorrow but I will be there. Take extra care driving whoever is planning on attending.

[BobP]

Raining here right now but you said maybe snow up there. Hope not but if so take care.

[BobP]

Heard that you had about 8" of snow so hope all went well with the show and game.

[Teaticket]

Thankfully at the venue's location the snow was minimal, mostly rain. Sadly it did turn many I think away. Just a few miles north got the real snow.

Turnout for my games was very good considering the weather. 6 for Battle of Britain, 7 for Across the Adriatic and 8 for The Run Home, with 15 different pilots in all.

I have a photo nightmare to deal with of my own doing. I took photos with 3 different devices, doh! My Nikon, my ipod and my wife's phone all now have photos I have to collect and edit. I blew it as my ipod's connection cable is in Maine and I won't be there for 3 weeks so those photos will be delayed a bit. In the meantime I'll do what I can.

[Teaticket]

AAR Havoc 1 Apr 2017 'Battle of Britain' 6 pilots joined in the fight

This battle is of a formation of Stukas in the early days of the Battle of Britain. The Stukas are flying inland to attack southern RAF airfields. The Stukas will fly across the table and then fly back after being joined by remnants of another formation.
As Spitfires and Hurricanes attempt to stop the raid ME109s do their best to keep them off of the Stukas.

The Stukas flew straight on auto-pilot until they had taken critical damage, then I would have them evade. Only one ended up escaping by evading.

(Unfortunately I got to open my new BoB planes Friday evening at 10pm and didn’t have the time to decal them as I had to be on the road at 6am to get to the venue in time for a 9am start. The Hurricanes are previous repaints as are 6 of the Stukas. (
ex-Belgians and ex-Italians!))

Hurricane H gets to point blank range.



6 of the original 8 Stukas, 3/4 of the way to the targets. A newly arriving Spitfire meets them head on.



After a long range shot he breaks into the formation.



Hurricane F takes down a Stuka from behind.



5 wounded Stukas reached the targets and dropped their bomb loads then when turning to head back to France they are joined by 3 Stukas from another formation as well as 3 fresh ME109s.


A Hurricane engages a 109 so that the Spitfire can hit the Stukas.





Hurricane F, using his favorite tactic, downs another Stuka from behind.



The Germans are starting to believe they may make it home as the see the Channel ahead.



109s after the Spits.



Hurri F again falling in at the rear of the Stuka formation.



A Spit is taken down.



As another Spitfire goes down while another one closes in on the fleeing Stukas from behind.
A well aimed long range shot takes down a slow movingg German.





Hurri F’s intended target breaks off so F goes after the next Stuka.



One more Stuka will not be making it home.



The 109s try to get even before heading home.









Too late to save his squadron mate a Spitfire closes in on a 109.



...but fails to down it.

The Me109s break off and head back across the Channel.


7 Stukas were shot down, the 2 109s survived both passes.
8 RAF aircraft went down.

A dark day for Great Britain at the opening of the Battle of Britain.

[Setarius]

Awesome fight and a Spirited defense by the home boys.

[clipper1801]

Well done! Love the epic games this new release! Thanks for the posting, I will have my own after bloody April passes here : )

[Stumptonian]

Great looking battle, Peter.
Looks so good over your fantastic mat, and your "aerial" stands with gimbals really bring it all to life.


I notice the chits are on the stands - no secret damage for this one?

[flash]

Great images Peter - looks like the Brylcream Boys will have to get their act together next time out.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Looks superb Pete.
I must get back to some WW2 now that the new aircraft have arrived.
Rob.

[Teaticket]

Great looking battle, Peter.
Looks so good over your fantastic mat, and your "aerial" stands with gimbals really bring it all to life.


I notice the chits are on the stands - no secret damage for this one?

The Stukas were flown as drones by no one, moved by me, while the participants moved their own planes. This was only my second game run at a show using altitude so I kept it simpler for myself. Next time I will use a roster sheet to keep track of damage on any AI planes as I wasn't going to be flipping and counting chits and running the game in a timely manner.

[Teaticket]

Great images Peter - looks like the Brylcream Boys will have to get their act together next time out.

Even though the score was just barely in favor of the Germans most of their kills came from the Stukas! The 109s didn't have a good day.

[Teaticket]

Awesome fight and a Spirited defense by the home boys.

One of the RAF pilots was channeling a future Japanese Kamakazi as he had several collisions. When his second plane entered the fray and immediately had another collision we concluded that he was sharpening his propeller blades for his deadly tactic. He took down 2 Stukas but was himself downed 4 times. Conclusion was the tactic didn't work!

[BobP]

Looking good. I guess the RAF pilot was like me at Cold Wars. Was it 3 or 4 crashes I survived ?

[Teaticket]

Looking good. I guess the RAF pilot was like me at Cold Wars. Was it 3 or 4 crashes I survived ?

I'll have to add a column to my score sheet and keep track of crashes.

[Teaticket]

AAR Across the Adriatic

Finally got to organize the rest of the Havoc photos this weekend...

Here we have both the Italians and Austrians with every option of plane in the sky. The Italians are trying to attack/bomb a pair of Austrian destroyers at anchor.

The Italians in sight of the island where the enemy ships are at anchor. A Caproni with an escort of a SPAD XIII, Hanriot and Macchi 5. The Austrians counter with a Macchi of their own, an Aviatik and Ufag.





An Italian Macchi 5 flies above waiting for the moment to pounce.



The fighting aircraft engage well above the Caproni.



The Austrian Macchi dives down on the Caproni only to jam it's guns on the first burst.



By the time he clears his jam the Caproni sets the Austrian on fire!



The Italian escort was not doing a good job keeping the enemy away from the bomber.



Planes from both sides ignite.





As the Caproni lines up it's bobm run, one of it's engines begins to smoke badly.





The UFAG is too high but gets to witness the Macchi attack.



The Caproni scores a direct hit, crippling the destroyer. It then turns to throw off the Austrian fighters. As it does the smoking engine escalates into a fire.



Even though on fire the bomber scores a partial hit on the second destroyer.



The fighters reposition as the Caproni tries to escape back towards Italy.





The Caproni dives down to the wavetops as the Austrians overshoot above.



A second Caproni arrives on the scene.



With a new threat to the destroyers the yellow Caproni is left alone and the new bomber becomes the center of attention.







After a bit of fighting andmaneuvering the grey Caproni, now ablaze, gets to drop it's bombs on the 2nd destroyer. No protective escort to help!



With partial damage to the destroyer the Caproni dives to the deck in it's attempt to escape.



The bomber is dogged by attacking Austrians but at least help has arrived.



A rocket armed N11 tries to sneak in to sink a destroyer. It's approach is to high so it must circle back at a lower altitude so it can let loose it's rockets.



The Austrians keep the N11 at bay and eventually shoot it down before it can fire it's rockets.



A long range shot takes down the fleeing Caproni just when it was thinking it would escape.



The Austrians were just good enough to keep both destroyers from sinkiing but they were both badly damaged. The Italians did not lose as many planes as the Austrians but did fail to sink any of the ships.

[Stumptonian]

Really interesting battle over another terrific map.
Love the seascape.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

What a great show Peter. I have had this sort of action on my mind ever since the Flying Boats came out. Maybe it will spur me on to get a couple of WWI Destroyers myself.
Rob.

[matt56]

Beautiful stuff here, Peter! I particularly like the WW1 map and smorgasbord of aircraft! You are an inspiration to us all - I echo Rob's kudos to you...

All the best,
Matt

[flash]

Bravo Peter, top notch action

[Teaticket]

Thanks guys. One of these days I'll run a game that I can play in! Then there probably won't be any photos to post.

[Teaticket]

AAR The Run Home

The last and the least...I didn't take many photos. I was a bit tired by the time I ran the third game of the day.

Here we have a string of IA random moving Entente bombers returning home after a long mission meeting inteceptors and some timely little friends.

A Handley-Page surrounded by German scouts.



The HP threads the needle and escapes any enemy fire.



The scouts have at each other.



The 'Pursuit Bomber' hunts down a Fokker.



The German pilot can't believe he can't throw off the bomber!



I have no idea where this came from. It flew by but did not join in the battle.



A burning Caproni dogged by a DVII.



The last HP draws a lot of attention but the escort does it's job. The HP makes it home.





It was quite funny when the AI 'Pursuit Bomber' dueled with a Fokker DVII and won. When the DVII got out of position off the HP's wing it could never gain the advantaged position. Th HP flew like a scout hunting down the Fokker. Gotta love AI!

[Shadowcat]

Well...those were fun...good job.