How To: Tell Friend From Friend, or, Near Painless Mass Battles!

[Dark Horse]

So you are pretty good at telling “Friend from Foe” –you can identify crosses, roundels etc. right? But what about in a game when there are several planes (or more) per side and they are very similar? So I am not talking Manfred’s Flying Circus here (although that could be hard enough too in the heat of battle) but similar kinds of planes – imagine playing with several grey Zeroes, or similarly camouflaged 109-E’s or Spitfire I’s etc.

Keeping the planes and their appropriate movement decks/damage/speed tokens properly allocated can be a bit of a nightmare, especially after a couple of beers or three. Just ask my regular opponent…I mentioned in another thread that the biggest game we played (8 Zeroes vs 8 Wildcats) saw him mixing up every single deck of movement cards and taking me (as they were my planes) about an hour after the game to re-sort all the cards. Grinding of teeth…
So I started thinking about all that. Firstly I added some large distinguishing decal numbers to the wings of a couple of similar planes but that was not enough. Then I started putting those small dice you get in Games Workshop games onto the bases, with each plane displaying a different number and a corresponding dice with the same number on the associated flight console card. But they fell off & were put back incorrectly (now 2 planes display the number 4…), or could not be read properly. Decks got mixed up. Grinding of teeth…

Apparently one of the problems (so he says) was that he reacts better to colours than numbers – didn’t I have a variety of coloured dice instead? Err no, but I did have some coloured counters so these were placed on the bases, with a corresponding coloured counter placed on the flight console card. They kept sliding off too but there were less mix ups, for which my teeth were grateful.

So I decided that I was getting onto a winner – coloured counters were better than white dice but they slid off during the action. Hmmm. Drilling counters/damaging fingers? No. Washers? Drop over the stand peg? I reckoned I was onto something…




I dropped into my local hardware store after work. I visualized something that would work with my Litko bases and altitude dials and found the perfect wargames accessory – 1/4” mudguard washers!

1. Undercoat them (I use white undercoat spray)

2. Paint them pretty colours. You can probably afford to paint two of each colour & use one for each side in the game if you don’t have lots of different paints handy. That is because I am assuming that you can tell “Friend from Foe” on the table-top and that it is “Friend from Friend” that causes you the problems in a bigger game (I could be wrong and you might have problems distinguishing “Friends from Foes”…I understand this condition afflicts some folks)

3. Remember to paint another token or similar in the same colours for placing on the flight console card so that it equates with the plane that flies with that colour.

4. Place the washer over the peg on your base. If you want it there permanently then superglue it down. The transparent Litko altitude dial can go over the top (glued to the washer). This really makes the numbers on the dial pop out & it looks great! If you don’t want it to be permanent or don’t use altitude then there is no need to glue the washer down. Either way, it adds a nice degree of weight to the model on the table! All Done!! No reason either why the system should not work with Nexus/Ares bases.


My opponent got very excited when he saw them, suggesting we get sticks to push them around like the women in the RAF Operations Room in the “Battle of Britain” movie. Personally I do not think he would look that good in a skirt, wig and lipstick so I declined…

Here are some pictures to display all this, including an air combat in progress. The Hurricane on the “blue” base has all the dials glued down, altitude over colour & I think that it looks great! What do you think? The other planes just had the washer slipped over the peg as we sort out if this works for us.

The game was played with 4 BF109E’s vs 2 Spitfire 1’s & 2 Hurricanes. It was a really tense game with several beverages consumed by the both of us. Guess how many errors were made in controlling the planes and flight console cards?

NONE!!!

For which my teeth are extremely grateful and my dentist hopefully the poorer!

Remember Andrea - if you like this idea for mass combat games – you saw it here first!

[Zoe Brain]

An advantage of washers is that they provide a heavier base too - important if you use more than 4 altitude pegs, or Reviresco/Skytrex aircraft.

An alternative -



Stick on the same spot on the back of each card in a deck. Or stick on the front in an unobtrusive position.

To mark each aircraft base -

[Doug]

Good idea and very nice photographs.

[flash]

My oppo has the same problem so where he has more than one type he has marked his bases & cards with coloured stickers - works a treat for him.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

If you look at my AAR's you will find micro stickers on all my plane bases, cards, and plane cards. They work for up to eight decks before the colours run out, so if you take it that one deck can be dotless that gives you nine sets for each different deck you have. If yo have more than nine of a type, you need to resort to either placing them in another spot on the card or two dots of differing colour.
As Zoe says it works almost perfectly.
You can see one here.



Rob.

[BobP]

Great ideas and thanks for shareing thme with us.

[gully_raker]

Great idea Nigel!
I like the added weight of the washer plus the way the altitude numbers show up on the colours.

[Boney10]

What a neat idea, I have been on the sorting end of a few decks myself. I will be using something similar to this

[Kaiser]

Hmm i guess stickers is the way to go as a big opaque coloured dot on the base would destroy the illusion of a "really" flying aircraft.
The stickers i could cut in small pieces so i would have even more of them

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Hmm i guess stickers is the way to go as a big opaque coloured dot on the base would destroy the illusion of a "really" flying aircraft.
The stickers i could cut in small pieces so i would have even more of them

You should be O.K. with them Daniel they come in packs of 2,400. I have only just ordered my second pack.
Rob.

[Dark Horse]

It is interesting how, when you are concentrating on the game, you don't tend to even notice the coloured circles until you need them. I have thought of sticky dots too - & will eventually come to a final decision about identification markings. I do like the weight of the "heavy metal" though. Even if it is an interim, spending the 5 bucks on a pack of the washers is well worth it even in the time I have saved in not sorting decks since beginning to use them. When I decide I have finished with them for these games, I am positive that they will have other kinds of uses in wargaming in general.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

I solved the base weight problem when the Oberst brought out his altitude bases. If you look carefully all my bases are glued to one of his. You can see the official info through and it gives that extra stability to the model no matter how many pegs you add.
Rob.

[Dark Horse]

Tally Ho!!!! (even though I did ask you not to dress like that...)

[HTRAINo]

Tally Ho!!!! (even though I did ask you not to dress like that...)

Thats a novel way of keeping damage cards concealed! The little white tray is holding all her planes, but I would have to disqualify her from a game for using unorthodox range rulers.

[Dark Horse]

Thats a novel way of keeping damage cards concealed! The little white tray is holding all her planes, but I would have to disqualify her from a game for using unorthodox range rulers.

I think that stick is the one that she uses to keep all the players in line!

[Flying Officer Kyte]

I think that stick is the one that she uses to keep all the players in line!

That's even bigger than my pointy stick!
Kyte.

[HTRAINo]

lol thats to keep you away from seeing her cards... she'll take your eye out for sneeky peekies!!!

[Dark Horse]

And what of her other hand? Introducing dice rolling to the game perhaps?

[Thomatchef]

I have a similar solution for telling friend from friend.

A bit of colored tape and lego bricks from your kid's collection (or your own as was the case with me) will do the trick.

Just tape around a peg and cut of the excess tape. Look for a similar colored brick and you're done. Put the brick on you console for easy recognition.



Had green tape also but it seems that I've lost it...

[Flying Officer Kyte]

It's a way of doing it Thomas, but I think I'll stay with my little sticky dots. You can put them on every movement card, and it helps sorting out at the end of the day too.
Rob.

[LingSter]

I like the washer idea. I wanted extra weight on my bases and this looks good. With my altitude rules and having planes 8 inches off the board, the washers should help keep them from tipping.

[Dark Horse]

I have a similar solution for telling friend from friend.

A bit of colored tape and lego bricks from your kid's collection (or your own as was the case with me) will do the trick.

Just tape around a peg and cut of the excess tape. Look for a similar colored brick and you're done. Put the brick on you console for easy recognition.



Had green tape also but it seems that I've lost it...

Interestingly I heard of a variant of this method just this week but involved using clear and coloured lego pegs as a substitute for the standard peg. I have not seen them so cannot explain in any more detail than this.

[Dark Horse]

I like the washer idea. I wanted extra weight on my bases and this looks good. With my altitude rules and having planes 8 inches off the board, the washers should help keep them from tipping.

The washers certainly add weight & stability but I am not sure how they would help balance an 8 inch peg. Still, better than nothing & you could always glue a couple of washers together for the extra weight they would provide.