Sunday, May 18, 2008
Warbirds In Miniature Battle of Britain Game
Miniatures Games
This past Saturday, our group played a World War II air combat games using the excellent “Warbirds In Miniature” rules.
Warbirds In Miniature is easy to learn and play, and yet has what we judged was the right “feel” for the period. The game is played on a hex grid, which makes maneuvering and plane facing easy. Altitude ranges can be tracked on paper, although we used telescoping stands for visual appeal and reference. The aircraft models were 1/144 scale plastic models.
The core of the Warbirds In Miniature is the aircraft control sheet, which shows the maneuvers available to each model at different speeds. The maneuvers are illustrated as hexes, showing the plane’s movement direction and its ultimate facing. The first hex in each sequence also is marked to indicate whether the maneuver can be done in level flight, climbing or diving.
The range of maneuvers, of course, varies by aircraft. Lumbering bombers, for example, may be able to fly only only one hex at a time, and perform only a few simple turns. Fighters have much greater speed, acceleration and decelleration, and can perform a wide range of twists and turns.
At the beginning of each turn, players secretly record a maneuver, and note any changes in altitude. All action is then carried out simultaneously. Shooting comes after all movement. There’s no snap fire, but since most aircraft move at 1-4 hexes per turn, the time frame is small enough that we didn’t miss it.
Combat can occur when planes are within 1 altitude band of each other (the bands ranged from 1 to 30 in our games). Horizontal range depends upon the airplane and the weapon, as does the angle of fire. Fighters shoot straight ahead—very easy to keep track of on a hex grid. To resolve fire, firepower factors are totaled, dice rolled and a chart consulted. After determining the number of hits, the attacker rolls on a damage chart to determine what parts of the craft have been damgaged, and to what extent.
Our scenario was set during the London Blitz. A German formation of two HE-111 bombers and two ME-110 fighter bombers are being escorted to their warehouse target by a pair of ME-109s. Four British Spitfires are sent to intercept.
The bombers were great, slow pigs, and lumbered on in a straight line toward their target at one hex per turn. The ME-110s, being faster and more maneuverable, broke away from the heavier craft, while the ME-109s darted forward at the ceiling to engage the oncoming Spitfires.
After shaking off their initial engagement with the ME-109s the Spitfires fell on the bombers, almost immediately damaging the engines of one so badly that it could only stay in their air by executing a long, slow dive. The other took heavy wing and fuselage damage, eventually losing its landing gear and a gunner. Two of the Spitfires stayed on them, while the other two pursued the Me-110s.
The Spitfires stayed with their targets, inflicting more damage. That, however, made things easier for the German pilots, who maneuvered behind the Spitfires while they were concentrating on their targets.
In the rules, a player whose plane is being tailed must tell his pursuer the direction he plans to turn, as well as whether he is climbing or diving. Once the Germans had the Spitfires in their sights, it was nearly impossible to shake them. One Spitfire was shot down; another lost half its weapons. German pursuit drove them off the tails of the He-111s.
The faster ME-110s reached their target first, dropping bombs and damaging the warehouse. They suffered heavy hits, however, and one was downed by its pursuing Spitfire. One of the HE-111s took more hits and went into a tailspin. The remaining still was on its dive of doom; it likely was going to reach the target and crash a turn or two later.
By this time, however, the Spitfires were running low on ammo. One had emptied its guns and left the board. Another was shooting at half effectiveness, having lost guns earlier in the game. An ME-110 killed the pilot of the third Spitfire, leaving just one.
Meanwhile, an ME-109 that had taken damage earlier was smoking and slowly falling apart. After a series of bad rolls, the fuselage disintegrated. An ME-110 also went down.
Finally, the remaining ME-110 got a lucky shot on the remaining Spitfire. Its engine was destroyed and the pilot had to bail.
The scenario’s scoring gave the Germans the victory for driving off the Spitfires and destroying the warehouses. The price, however, was high: one ME-109, both HE-111s, and an ME-110.
It was a terrific game, and we are anxious to try the system in a Pacific was scenario. It’d be a lot of fun choosing from all those maneuvers available to the Zeros.
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