Solo Campaign Rules updated

**IRM** · 11-30-2010 12:59

Just a quick note to say that I've submitted a new version of my solo rules, for anyone using them.

Other than changing the layout to match the rules compilation already uploaded, I've made additions for those players using the Aerodrome Accessories stands along with various other adds and tweaks.

**MayorJim** · 11-30-2010 16:22

Lian,

Um...didn't see them in the download section...got a link?

**IRM** · 11-30-2010 20:32

They won't have been approved yet, I only uploaded them minutes before starting this thread.

**Wodin** · 12-01-2010 04:42

Excellent...as soon as I get the game I will be using them....though I need a damn printer!!

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 12-01-2010 11:08

I look forward to the update.
Thanks. Rob.

**IRM** · 12-04-2010 07:13

They're up now.

**MayorJim** · 12-04-2010 10:23

Got them...thanks...nice job and clear to read.

**Beanie** · 12-04-2010 11:48

Excellent - Thank you for the update

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 12-05-2010 03:15

Thanks Iain.

Rob.

**steel_ratt** · 05-05-2011 14:37

An enjoyable system... but I have a few questions.
- When placing random defenses, are these generated for each target or just once for the scenario as a whole?
- When rolling morale, is the airplane being rolled for itself considered a 'friendly aircraft'?
- For fighter sweep dogfights, is the number of enemy flights dictated by the starting strength of the friendly force, or are the number of enemies reduced if several friendly planes have been shot down or forced to return to base?
- If a friendly aircraft is forced to leave the table through a non-friendly edge, what happens to it? (It may have been unable to turn due to special damage, but be otherwise healthy enough to return to base.) Is it lost? Is the pilot lost or captured?
- For balloon busting missions, what is the availability of rockets and/or incendiary bullets? What is the availability and usage of incendiary bullets overall?
- How prescient are virtual pilots? Do virtual pilots take into account the planned moves of the enemy when planning their own moves, or do they make 'fairly obvious' moves?
- When virtual pilots disengage, how actively do they 'avoid combat'? Will they try to avoid flying past enemies on their way off the board or do they exit 'as directly as possible' without regard to flying in front of the enemy's guns?
- If an enemy flies off the board with enough damage (on fire or with no engine, for example) to cause it to go down or be forced down, is this considered a 'kill' for purposes of pilot skill points? If an enemy plane is forced to crash, is that a kill?
- When does the campaign start? It would seem that you would be more likely to have planes left if you start in January 1918 than if you start in January 1915. (The listing of planes suggests an early 1917 start.)
- When playing as the Central Powers, what are the chances of facing enemies of different nationalities? (I have improvised a simply week-by-week 50% British/French roll.)
- Also, clarification needs to be made in some areas regarding target numbers for die rolls, for example clarifying "6 or more" vs "more than 6"
I'm having fun with the system even though I have only tested out 2 1/2 weeks of a campaign! I'm looking forward to more.

**IRM** · 05-05-2011 20:20

Glad you're enjoying it. As for your questions:
Random Defences: Just once for the scenario (any involving ground targets), placed in relation to the centre card in the case of trench systems.
Morale rolls: Yes, you should count the aircraft making the test in the totals.
Fighter Sweep: The starting strength. It's intended that you could be badly outnumbered if you take heavy losses and decide not to abort the patrol.
Leaving the table: I'd suggest using Limping Home in the house rules section, but drawing 4 cards if you go off the enemy short edge.
Balloon Busting: All attackers can take either rockets or incendiary bullets, as historically appropriate (typically rockets for French aircraft designs, incendiaries for everything else). No limits on availability, but they can't be used outside of balloon busting missions.
Virtual Pilot plotting: Go with "fairly obvious". They're not psychic

, but you should take into account the enemy aircraft's capabilities and their own's when picking cards. Just dice for it if there's several likely moves.
Kills: Just use standard rules for enemy aircraft; going down to zero points, drawing an Explosion card, or drawing two Pilot Wounded cards is a kill. Planes leaving the table on fire draw the rest of the cards they'd have taken to see if they are destroyed (counts as a kill). Anything else is unconfirmed.
Campaign Start: Whenever you like. I use January 1917 since it suits the models I have available. Victory conditions are pretty arbitrary, the campaign's really just set up as a means to run with continuing pilots. Go with total kills, number of aces or whatever you prefer if it suits you better.
Nationalities: Nothing set, again it's just down to whatever models you have. I've tried to go with plane quality rather than specific types for random selection.
Target numbers etc: Clarified a lot of stuff like that in the last revision (14/04/11). Think I got them all

**steel_ratt** · 05-06-2011 07:27

Thanks for the clarifications. I'll run a few more scenarios and let you know if I run up against any other unforeseen events!
Oh, wait! One more thing I just thought of... when running a dogfight with random deployment, how do you determine which is your (and the enemy's) home edge? It is possible that both sides are heading in the same direction - who is heading home and who is heading out? (I suppose it could be randomly determined. I just want to hear your take on the situation.)

**IRM** · 05-06-2011 13:25

Randomising it would be fine, I just keep it simple and treat all edges as neutral (except if you run into two-seaters). Aircraft breaking off just head for the closest edge.

As you might expect, Bomb-laden two-seaters are heading to the target, empty ones are heading home so just use their starting orientation to designate friendly/enemy edges (even if it'd be long edges rather than short).

**steel_ratt** · 05-31-2011 19:29

Well, I finally ran my first airfield attack mission and I have a few questions...
- How is an airfield defined? I assume it is a standard 9 x 27 landing strip, but where are the buildings and how many are there? Is it enough to strafe/bomb the area of the landing strip assuming that there are buildings, fuel, and ammo scattered around?
- Which way do the defending MGs face?
- How likely are virtual pilots are to attack aircraft on the ground or airfield defenses rather than attacking the airfield itself?
- What altitude are virtual pilots likely to choose for the attack? Level 0 for max range and underneath the big guns, or level 1 to restrict the range of defending MGs?

Also, I have noticed that missions with AA guns seem to have them deployed on the back edge of the table where they are darned near impossible to attack. Is this intentional? (Eg. the airfield is placed 1 ruler from the edge, and the AA guns are placed 1 ruler behind the airfield)

Also, do you play your own AA guns with solo rules?

Clarifications appreciated!

**IRM** · 06-04-2011 02:24

I've been using an airfield marker I downloaded a while back (not sure from where now) which has a standard airstrip with several buildings around it. There's similar suitable airfield graphics the files section. Alternatively, you could just use an airstrip marker and allow attacks on an area up to an aircraft card length to either side to represent surrounding buildings and stores etc.

AAMGs face away from the airfield.

Enemy aircraft making bombing runs go after buildings only, strafing aircraft attack the closest target whether it's a building, AA card or grounded aircraft (two-seaters and bombers won't strafe, single-seaters will only do so if the bombs haven't caused enough damage for a possible victory).

If you're using the Burning Drachens bombing rules, they'll make their bombing runs at altitude 2. If you're using the Flight of the Giants rules multicrew aircraft bomb at height 4-6 instead (typical historically for DH4 and similar, I've read) while single-seaters still go in at height 2. Strafing runs should be at height 0 since it gives them more chances to cause damage faster.

AA gun placement for this scenario is intentional. Usually, they'll be 2 rulers from the centre placing them about a foot from their owner's short edge when using an area the size of the two official mats. They're not really intended to be targets in this mission. The attackers only have four aircraft and often only a few turns to cause enough damage to win before the defender's fighters can intercede, so they can't waste time going after ground defences except as targets of opportunity as they make gun passes.

I tend to use the solo AA rules from Burning Drachens, even when playing with human (-ish

) opponents. Much less hassle, especially with altitude rules in play, and fairer IMO if you don't have a spare player handy to control the ground forces.

**steel_ratt** · 06-04-2011 04:34

Excellent. Thanks for the clarifications.

ccthulu1 · 08-12-2011 10:30

Hi- Are there any rules for solo play for WWII? Everything I found is WWI based so far.

**IRM** · 08-12-2011 13:29

There's a couple of solo scenarios in the WW2 part of the Files section, but I don't know of anything else. There's been several threads discussing solo play which might give you some ideas for creating your own.

**jmkinki** · 09-19-2011 08:19

Hi friends!

I'm Jose Manuel from Spain. I'm a newbie in WoW and I have to play it in solitaire.
*
I have found some information about solo game and I have found this post about solo campaign game. I have now a lot of information to read in order to try all these systems and use one of them.
*
At the moment I like this solo campaign rules (congratulation Ian for your work). It's great to creat new missions. However for Virtual Pilot Rules I prefer Richard and Shaun system.
*
Anyway, I think to fly a mission I shouldn't use Richard/Shaun Virtual pilot rules without a complete tactic or vision of the mission. For this reason I propose to create a Decision chart or Flow chart. I think before use a table that drive autopilot plane to engage an enemy plane some factors should be considered (mission, number advantage, distance, damage,....)
*
This is a fist try to prepare a decision chart for fighters. I need to make other one for bombers and 2 seater fighters.
*
These decision table gives you a table where you look up the planned movement. These tables are like Richard or Shaun ones (I think they are great!!), but for each deck some tables should be made: a table for planes that don't change route, a table for passive pilots that only try evasive movements and a table for agressive pilots that engange enemy planes inmediatly.

Here you have the decision diagram:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yJ...52520Chart.jpg

Please note I named "friendly planes" to planes that you*flyes, and "AP planes" to autopilot planes.

I look forward to know your opinion and comments and changes tha should be made to the table in order it works fine.

Thank you!!!*
*
*
*
Jose Manuel

**jmkinki** · 09-20-2011 05:06

Here you have a complete Decision chart for solitaire game.
*
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...520Chart-1.jpg
*
As I said, for each movement, you should decide according the chart, what should be the best movement for AP planes. After that he takes the 3 moneuvre cards according to plane attitude (passive, agressive, or direct without changes). These are given by tables similar than Richard/Shaun ones.
*
Please, I would like your opinion about this decision chart. What should be the correct choice in each situation, in order AP planes flies with logical reactions, in order to comply their mission. As I said I'm a newbie at WoW, so I need a lot of help regarding to it.
*
I wait for your comments to correct charts.
*
Thank you!!
*
Best regards,
*
*
*
*
Jose Manuel

**IRM** · 09-20-2011 09:56

The decisions based on the situations described on the chart seem logical enough (I say seem only because I haven't yet had the chance to try it out in practice, intending to use the movement table descriptions as a rough guide for picking cards for now). Quite an impressive bit of work and very clear and easy to use, Jose Manuel.

It might be an idea to repost your rules in a new thread to make sure people see them, I only happened across them by chance when I was adding a link for some of the questions I'd answered weeks ago to the files section.