AAR: Battle of Britain He.111 Kette Raid!

[OldGuy59]

Time Schedule for any interested in joining a Skype game?



Location

Local time
Time
zone
UTC
offset


Comox (Canada
- British Columbia)
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 10:00:00 AM
PST
UTC-8 hours

Paris (France)
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 7:00:00 PM

CET
UTC+1 hour

London (United Kingdom - England)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 6:00:00 PM

GMT
UTC


Chicago (U.S.A. - Illinois)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 12:00:00 Noon
CST

UTC-6 hours

Brisbane (Australia - Queensland)

Wednesday, December 30, 2015 at 4:00:00 AM

AESTUTC+10 hours


Corresponding UTC (GMT)

Tuesday, December 29, 2015 at 18:00:00
-
-



Discussion started here: Skype Players Forum - WGS Version (http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?14471-Skype-Players-Forum-WGS-Version&p=383897&viewfull=1#post383897)

Plan at this point is kette and escort at one edge of a three mat area, with one 'V' of RAF fighters in the middle, on the way to the intercept. As planes go down (or people join), more fighters join in from their respective sides. Bombers will retreat if one engine gone, or pilot wounded. More bombers come on, as the kette leaves the mat area (either they get through, retreat, or go down).

If all works out as planned, Neil [Skafloc] will lead the RAF team, and Paul [tikkifriend] will lead the Luftwaffe escort fighters. I will manage the kette of bombers.

Limited use of Ace skills, no speed or altitude. May dispense with special damage, too. We'll see who joins in. Game runs until we get tired or kicked out of Skype.

[OldGuy59]

Further scenario set-up info:

Two 'V's of Hurries are starting at the center of the map, heading for the bombers. A Schwarm of Bf-109s in two rotte will be coming on with the Kette.

This should be two players vs two players, with me running the bombers. We'll adapt from there. As other players show up, another mixed bag of Spitfires will show up, with another Rotte of Bf-109s spawning on the sea side of the table. This should allow up to six players, with some extra joiners taking a plane from any of the other players Random joiners will take an RAF plane, as they are in groups of three.

Initially, all players will plan a move card for all their planes, until their maneuvers split them up, or another player takes over a plane.

Darell [grumpybear] will be joining tomorrow, too! We haven't determined where he will end up. More tomorrow...

[tikkifriend]

Jawolt Achtung Hurricane.

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

"Scramble A and B flight, Scramble. 10+ Bogies at Angels 12. Hastings."

Squelch: "Ok listen in, stay tight. Our task is the bombers. Leave the escorts to the Spits": Squelch
Squelch: "Tally ho, tally ho. Stay tight. Bomber on our right is the target. Swing tight in behind them as we pass": Squelch.
Squelch: "Got him, I got him.": Squelch
Squelch: "No you bloody well didn't. It will take a lot more than that to bring one of those down. Keep it tight": Squelch.
Squelch: "Bingo Red 1. Bingo. He's nearly done for." Squelch.
Squelch: "So am I skipper, so am I. Going down, engine misfiring, too much damage to make base.......: Squelch.
Squelch: "Bail out Peter, bail out. Did anyone see his parachute?": Squelch.
Squelch: "Hope he remembered to fall out of the combat zone before pulling the cord. Well that's one down and two to go".: Squelch.
Squelch: "Hit the leader. Hit the leader, he's nearly done for...there he goes. That's for Peter. Now for number 3".: Squelch.
Squelch: "Good shot Green 1. Good shot. You've bagged one.": Squelch.
Squelch: "Skipper, engine gone and badly damaged. Heading for home": Squelch.
Squelch: "Good lad Tom. Keep the tea warm, I'll see if I can help out B flight and that lone spit that turned up. Well done lad. Now get home".: Squelch.
Squelch: "Come on lads. We've done all the hard work. Lets not spoil it by letting a few of them get away without getting their feet wet first".: Squelch.
Squelch: "Alpha leader. Alpha leader. Return to base. Return to base. All enemy aircraft heading home.": Squelch.
Squelch: "Not bloody likely control I have this one ME109 to get first....Tacka, Tacka, Tacka.....that's got him. His mate's had enough and I can't keep up. Alpha leader returning to base control. Alpha leader returning to base control.": Squelch.
Squelch: "Well done Alpha leader. Well done.": Squelch.

"This is the BBC home service. Today Hurricanes and Spitfires engaged a larger hostile force near Hastings. The enemy lost 6 aircraft. All the enemy bombers were shot down. Only 1 badly damaged ME109 returned to France. The RAF lost 2 Hurricanes shot down but both pilots were rescued by RAF rescue launches operating in the Channel area"

17 maneuver cards, 3.5 hours and 4 kills. Not bad if I do say so myself.

[OldGuy59]

As mentioned above, I threw Ace Skills into the mix for this game. I borrowed Robert's [Rabbit 3] file (here: WWII Ace Skill Cards (http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=1364)), and revamped them in Photoshop: WGS Ace Skill Cards (http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/album.php?albumid=3605).

I put the images into an Avery Business Card template, and printed them onto business cards. Then, I printed 10 copies of the Wings of Glory image using the same template on the back of the skill cards.

To hand out the skills, I came up with a quick selection process. Participants drew 'C' damage chits. If they drew a special damage, they got an Ace Skill. For this game, not using some of the rules, and keeping it simple, I used only five possible skills:

Fire, or Boom: Lucky Pilot
Rudder Jams: Acrobatic Pilot
Pilot Wound: Strong Constitution
Engine Damage: Perfect Aim
Smoke: Itchy Trigger Finger

The Super Ace card wasn't used for this scenario, but I will be using it in future games, as well as adding all the other skills to the album, eventually.

[OldGuy59]

The set-up in Games & Grounds, Courtenay, BC:

The Tech Table on the left, and the Play Table on the right:
184227
Kelsey Watts and Kamryn McMillan at the table, the webcam is on the stick above the table. Kesley was attired in combat gear for the occasion, and I was wearing my Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary t-shirt. Rather prophetically, the t-shirt shows an He.111 being shot down.
184238

184228
Neil [Skafloc] is flying the 46 Sqn Hurricanes on the middle center coming off the shore, Paul [tikkifriend] is flying the Molders rotte between the kette of bombers on the near edge, and Kamryn's Oblt Walter Feil rotte on the far left, Darell flying a lone Spitfire on Neil's right. Kelsey is flying the 1 RCAF Sqn Hurricanes on the middle right, and I am the big target(s) in the middle near of the table.

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Darell's Spitfire top left (red range ruler - Thanks, Keith [Oberst Hajj]), Neil's 46 Sqn Hurries top center, Kelsey's 1 RCAF Sqn Hurries on top right. My kette center bottom, Paul's Molders rotte (white range ruler - Another thanks, Keith [Oberst Hajj])to my left, and Kamryn's Feil rotte (standard range ruler) on the bottom left.

184230
A third of the way through all the shooting, and the bombers are a bit chewed up. Lead is a bit damaged, but B has taken a bad case of lead poisoning, and C is 1/2 gone.

184231
Kesley attempted a wing-tip approach on my kette, but I turned into her formation and then returned to my approach on London, This left her behind me, and I tail-gunned her pretty bad. Her S/L (Green) was damaged, but her right winger was shredded and lit on fire. You can see the Ace Skill card beside her S/L cockpit. Her left winger is undamaged.

184232
I didn't take too many pictures up to this point, but other than the kette getting perforated by Kesley, there wasn't a lot of damage. Now things were going to get interesting, or desperate. Kamryn's rotte is on the top right, Paul's rotte is under my bombers and trying to turn into Neil's oncoming Hurries. Kesley's burning flight of Hurries is trying to turn around to take another round out of the bombers. Darell is on the middle left, trying to bring his Spitfire around to get a piece of Kamryn.

184233
Neil got in behind my kette, and was all over me like white on rice! Two turns later, and the lead bomber is hurting, C has been badly mauled. Three crew were injured, and only the pilot and the bombardier are left.

184234
Next turn, and Neil takes out B bomber, loosing his right winger.
Kelsey finally managed to get turned around, and was headed for the bombers, when Kamryn decided to fly across her nose. Kesley invokes her Itchy Trigger Finger skill, and Kamryn drew the Spikey Zero! Down went Oblt Feil, without a return shot.

184236
Neil may have been hurting me, but it wasn't without cost. Unbelievably, at this point, Neil's right winger had 19 damage chits on him, before this last round of firing. I assume the top four chits were the mutual kill shots (well, two of them, anyway. two would have been from lead). This pilot had the Strong Constitution Ace Skill, taking everything but a pilot wound. Image courtesy of Neil.

184235
Neil relentlessly pours on the firing, and takes out the lead bomber. I had decided to turn and run for home. I obviously left that decision too late!

184239
The kette is down to one very shot-up bomber with two crew remaining. Way past time to go home.

184240
If the decision to turn for home was left too late, the direction I chose was even worse. I dropped my bombs and did a fast right turn. I thought I'd be turning away from all the trouble, but with Neil on my lead's posterior like a diaper, the turn and speed put my C bomber directly in front of his two remaining fighters. There wasn't enough damage left to survive four B chits. Down went the last bomber. Darell was finally getting back in range, and all the targets disappeared. Neil was way too greedy. Kesley has overrun Kamryn's remaning Bf-109 that was in front of her, and there is no shooting there. Paul's rotte is over on the far right, and turning back to help the kette. Too late for that. We loose connection with Paul here, and Kamryn takes control of his planes.

184241
The accumulated damage to the kette. Hmmm... I can't count, and I messed up who was getting what damage. I applied a bunch of damage to B bomber to C. Who has way too much damage, now that I count it. And B doesn't have enough. That's what happens when you don't lay out the management cards in the same formation as the bombers. Well, they wouldn't have survived, in any event. None of them was in good enough shape to make it off the table.

184242
Kelsey pounds on Kamryn's last plane, and takes it out, as her flame-damaged Hurrie head for home. But not before taking a few shots at the wandering rotte passing in front of her.

184243
Kesley doesn't turn fast enough, after chasing down Kamryn's original rotte, and Kamryn gets some revenge with Paul's rotte coming in from the right. With the bombers all gone, Kamryn starts heading home. Neil sends his damaged winger home (engine damaged, and badly shot up), but Immelmann's his lead, and chases after the remaining rotte.

Between images, Darell and Kamryn make a head-on pass with each other, and both targets get pounded. Darell doesn't have any bombers to shoot, so he starts planning to head home.
184245
He was digging deep for the big C chits! Darell started heading home.

184244
Last shot of the action, and Neil has taken damage from two steep maneuvers in a row, chasing the retreating rotte across the channel. He takes out one, but the other was out-pacing him. Kelsey's remaining two planes were coming around to help, but too late.

Accumulated damage from Kesley, Darell and the finishing touches from Neil. The plane survived the B damage, but the following fire A damage took him out.
184247

Final Damage:
Surviving Bf-109. Paul, nor Kamryn, got to use the Ace skill.
184246

Kesley's flaming winger, survived the fire damage, and lives to fight another day.
184248

Neil's planes at the end of the fight. The winger that went down in the middle of the fight is on the left.
184249

Summary:
Luftwaffe - All bombers were splashed before reaching British soil. Of four Bf-109s, only one made it home (Paul's Lead). A pretty bad day for the Luftwaffe. I get credit for one Hurricane, and Paul/Kamryn took out the second one.

RAF/RCAF: Although really badly shot up, only two Hurricanes went down! Pretty awesome shooting, Commonwealth pilots!
Kesley started the work on the bombers, and downed both of Kamryn's planes, but Neil finished all three of the bomber, eventually. And although Neil gets the credit for the remaining kill, that plane was tagged by both Darell and Kelsey.

The game started around 10:30 AM local, by the time the set-up was done, skills sorted, and planes assigned. We called it shortly after 1:00 PM local. Two and a half hours of shooting. Neil really showed his experience in maneuvering his planes, getting stuck in behind the bombers and making colanders out of them all. Paul was the next most experienced, with me and Darell as the minor veterans. Although Darell hadn't played WGS for quite a while, and this was his first Skype game. Kelsey had only played at InCON in August. This was Kamryn's first game ever.

Thanks to all the participants for braving the scenario and the technology. Thanks to Games & Grounds for allowing me to host in the shop. I had a blast, it was great fun!

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

Cheers for putting this epic game on Mike. It was great to get back in the saddle, I've missed so many skype games. Hopefully now that others have seen what can be achieved they too will take up the mantle and play some skype games.

Neil

[tikkifriend]

Sorry about dibbing out early chaps but got called out to see to my mother (83) in the next town. Asked Mary to tell you but she forgot. !!
Great game and good to see you all again.
Never got to use my ace skill as I took engine damage almost straight away :(
Thanks for setting it up Mike. Good to see some youngsters lrearnong the ropes.
See you all next year I hope.

[grumpybear]

That was a blast , thanks Mike for hosting. I enjoyed it a lot hope to fly better next time.

[tikkifriend]

Cheers for putting this epic game on Mike. It was great to get back in the saddle, I've missed so many skype games. Hopefully now that others have seen what can be achieved they too will take up the mantle and play some skype games.

Neil

Talking to hawkhurst (Andy) at Doncaster he expressed an interest in getting involved over the Winter months