Saturday Gaming Night: Air Raid on Malta.

Last Saturday my group gathered at my place to test a Malta Air Raids cenario, that we may possibly play in Prague 2015.
The specific and detailed mission goals will be posted later on; for now the briefing is: It is September 1940 and The Italian team equipped with Ju 87 escorted by 2 Falcos is going to bomb Malta's specific targets (direct hit/non direct hit points respectively): The airfield (4/2 points), the harbour (6/3 points) or the city (1 point).
We used specific points on the official mats which made things easy (no target cards needed).
1 Ju 87 (Pichiatello!)was piloted by me (!) escorted by Darek and Andrzej R. Opposing force was composed of the famous Faith, Hope and Charity Gladiators (Sławek plus two kids of our Flight: Filip and Wiktor). The defenders had two AA gunsto place and they positioned them freely in the middle of the map...

The whole thing started...
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Buton the very first encounter one of my escorts (Andrzej R.) exploded in the air (he took an XP token - the FIRST one in the game!).
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Being chased by one of the Gladiators, my rear gunner managed to send down one of the defenders! 1 kill and 2 points for me;)

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I turned to the left to hit the harbour and started a vertical divbombing run...

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I released the bombload pefectly on the target scoring a direct hit (6 team points, 2 individual points), but a well planned Anti-A fire got me! D: 18 - Ouch...

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On my way to the target I noticed that one of my escorts caught fire, but right on time managed to shoot at a Gladiator, sending it down in flames...

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...and escaped to safety...

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Right after that another Italian Ju 87 (my next plane;)) appeared and this time I decided to attack the AA gun nest, that would give the Italian team desperately needed 5 points for the destruction of the guns...and I scored that!

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/att...6&d=1414348675

We wanted to give some prizes to the young ones for their involvement, so even they had not really scored, Filip got a book on planes and Wiktor a WWI Spielberg movie:)

http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/att...1&d=1414348841

The final score is down here: The Italian team won 15:10 this time after having a great gaming time and me the "Pichiatello Bomber" scored 3 individual points :D.

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Raising young pilots is a lot of fun. Wiktor, Andrzej R.'s son proved to be a capable Gladiator pilot:)

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It occured to us we had invented and tested a playable Malta scenario that may be played well by 6-8 players with easy to grasp rules of bomber waves and targets. Victory Points were really balanced and some tactical decisions were to be made by both teams.

Thanks for watching,
Andy.

Great AAR Andrzej!!! Its always great to see Malta mission played by so many people.:D I have an apparent resistance with the D damage - always 0!:)
Thanks


Nick

I am pleased to read about a balanced Malta scenario for that size of player group. Well done!

Great AAR, Andrzej. :thumbsup:

This looks like an awesome scenario for Summer Con.

Of course the nightbomber bombed that precise & deadly. :slysmile:

Nice game and report :)

:salute: Excellent Historical Scenario Andy.
Great to see more young players getting involved.:thumbsup:

Nice AAR. Good to see recruiting of the young. And the Nightbomber is finally doing some bombing. You made it look too easy!

Fantastic game Andrzej.

Andy

A great AAR. Very interesting scenario!


Rich

Andrzej,

Superb AAR :thumbsup: Looks like you had good time playing the game.

I like your scenario. Seems like well balanced indeed. The list of Mediterranean scenarios for Prague Con is growing ;)

Great looking game Andy - one for Donny 15 perhaps ?!

:) 2015! I dream about it. It is easy adoptable to even a greater number of players. Faith, Hope, Charity and friends just have to repell the incoming waves of invaders. And these cool biplanes and Pichiatellos :D There is some decision making and target priorities with little bookkeeping. Altitude plays it's vital role, specifically for A_A guns and dive bombers. And of course a shot down pilot may return to the game next turn at the respective table edge.

Those interested in the historical background click here: http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v3/v...les/stuka.html

I was a bit slow finding this one Andy, but it has all the ingredients I would expect for a Malta Game. Successful bombing of targets, AA fire that actually hit stuff, and the Bi-planes.
It's no wonder that the defenders started moving everything underground into the caves.
Pity they could not move the Harbour underground too.
Glad to see the lads got something out of the evening too.
Rob.