Back at our old Romford/Harold Wood club in the 1970s, using Airfix and Revell aircraft mounted on wooden dowels, we flew a number of types of missions - especially when we allocated people to squadrons, allowed them to build up characters and achieve a kill tally. To follow the progress of the war each week we would progress one month of war 'time' so that new types could (eventually) be introduced.
Unpopular missions included balloon-busting, trench strafing and - the worst - was 'bounced on take-off'. This last meant that defending aircraft started stationary and at 0 feet altitude (i.e. on the airfield) and had to build up speed and take-off while under attack. Luckily it did not come up very often.
So… what mission types are there?
1) Fighter sweep (known to the RFC as a contact patrol I seem to recall). A straight fighter mission and the most flexible. We normally diced for starting height with something like 2 x d6 in thousands of feet (2,000 to 12,000 feet). This gave you the height you entered the table at.
2) Reconnaissance - get your two-seater(s) into the other half's side of the board for two or three moves and then get them out again, with the info.
3) Photo recon - as above but one aircraft was nominated as carrying the camera and the mission was to get that one aircraft back safe. There was a 5% chance of the camera being smashed by gunfire if the aircraft was hit (roll 2 percentage dice).
4) Bombing mission - get the bombers over a nominated target, release the bombs and get out with as many survivors as possible. A typical rule was that the bombs' weight was points damage inflicted (a 250 lb bomb provided 25 pts damage - four x 20lb Cooper bombs would be 8pts damage) with targets needing 100 to 500 points to destroy them based on what they were - a railway marshalling yard was judged 'difficult' so came in at about 400/450 points. An ammunition dump was about 250 pts - vulnerable to explosion but spread out over a wider area. Each bomb released at low level over the target had a 4,5,6 chance of a hitting but this fell off to 6 at higher altitudes. Going lower meant you were at greater risk from Flak and fighters but increased your hit chance. I seem to recall the 5 or 6 'medium' band was seen by many as a very happy medium. Points were lost for losing bomber aircraft and aircrew.
5) Balloon busting - says it all really!
6) Fighter escort - supplementary to 2) 3) 4) 5) above, a couple of fighters fly with or near the two-seaters and try to get them to and from the target.
7) Trench strafing - never popular as the Flak and rifle fire coming off the ground could be nasty. The German CL types of Hanover and Halbertstadts are optimised for trench strafing and bombing.
8) Bounced on take-off (as mentioned already) but the other half of this was 'attack enemy airfield'. If you were the attackers it was great fun, less if you were the poor s*d trying to get off the ground.
9) Artillery observation - fly in a straight line for four or six moves to 'spot' artillery fire by radio to score points. The enemy scores points if he can stop you.
Recent WW1 reading has shown we missed a couple of missions
10) Spy drop - a two-seater flies into enemy's rear area, lands and drops off a spy. Returns with empty back cockpit so the rear gun cannot be fired. It appears the French did this one quite a bit. Jean Navarre is credited with flying several missions 1915/16.
11) Ammunition supply drop. Not the WW2 invention I thought it was, RFC RE8s and Armstrong-Whitworths did this regularly in 1917/18 to drop ammunition to troops either advancing too fast or cut off by the enemy's advance. One RE8 squadron suppled 36,500 rounds in one mission.
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Of course - on a large table and with multiple players - this mission approach could get really fun if each flight gets to draw or dice for a separate mission. So does the German fighter sweep engage the British fighters or go after the DH4 bombers heading for a high value target? Does the British fighter escort stay with its photo-recon flight or does it go to the aid of the trench strafers down low a few feet away who have just been bounced by a German fighter sweep? All options are yours!
It would also help if everyone did NOT arrive on table at the same time. Phase arrivals over two or three moves to present a shifting pattern of activity. So the British fighter escorts break-off to help others - only to see a fresh German fighter sweep emerge on table two turns later. Yes, I am evil!
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