The checkered career of Maj John Lightning

 First, thanks to all you stopped by the table and played Boom and Zoom at the Williamsburg Muster last weekend!  Lots of fun and good feedback and it rekindled my zest to actually get the rules done.  Was so busy running the games that I only took one picture...

 Vals bombing a cargo ship off Guadalcanal.  She was damaged [ a bomb hit the bridge and killed the captain!] but managed to offload her supplies to the marines.  

One of the things out of kilter after streamlining the maneuver attacks is the wingman defense.  So I have played several Pacific battles where it is easiest to test wingman verses no wingmen.   That led me to my P-38 pacific squadron, the Headhunters!

I rolled this squadron up using Squadron Forward years ago and they are interesting.  They are led by none other than Maj Johnny Lightning.  Based in New Guinea, they are normally up against Oscars and Tonys so should do well.  The problem is they haven't.  Of their seven missions they have only won 3.  Their kill ratio is good but not great.  They have escorted B-25s twice and it has been a cluster both times. Few make it to the target to drop bombs.  The group commander, LtCol John Birch, almost sacked Johnny after the last B-25 raid for not "accomplishing the mission of protecting the bombers".  Birch flew the last mission with the squadron where Lt Adkins shot an Oscar off the LtCol's tail.  

The squadron morale is average but their reputation on base is terrible at -3.  Birch is prioritizing the other squadrons for parts and planes.  Needless to say, Johnny is on thin ice.  

Birch calls Johnny into his office.  Johnny, your mission today is to go to the north side of the island and bomb a small bridge that the japs are using to run supplies.  The B-25s can't hit it; too small.  G-2 thinks rockets won't work.  Load 250lb bombs and take out that bridge.  And Johnny, no excuses!

[ Rolled up a fighter bomber mission with target of bridge.]

The squadron only has 6 sat fighter so that is what they have to go with.  Johnny with 3 kills with fly top cover and take "Bone Nixon as his wingman.   In charge of the bombing flight will be the senior Lt, Paul Browne.  Paul is obnoxious but he is steady.  He had 3 kills in P-40s prior to coming into the squadron.  Lt Porky Greenway will lead the other bombing element.  Porky has grown up in the squadron and is now a veteran with 1 Oscar to his credit.  The two wingmen will be the new guys Smally and Peters.    Smally has been in some scrapes but just isn't catching on.

Top Cover

Maj John Lightning                 Veteran             3 kills

           2LT "Bone" Nixon             Avg

Bombing flight

Lt Paul Browne                        Veteran             3 kills prior

            2LT   Max Smally         Green

Lt Porky Greenway                  Veteran             1 kill

           2Lt  Chip Peters             Green   
 

 

Things go well until 8 minutes out from target.    Johnny sees a glint of silver to his left; too late!

 6 Tony's bounce the formation!  Rats!

The Bomber flight is bounced.  Fortunately the P-38 is tough and no one sustains damage except for one Tony who latches on to 2Lt Smally's tail and chews it up.  Smally jettisons his bombs and calls for help.

 

Lt Browne might be obnoxious but he can't loose a wingman.  He drops his bombs and uses his superior speed to get a quick shot on the Tony's tail...

 and is rewarded with a stream of fire from the Tony!  First kill in a P-38 for Paul.  Smally is saved.  His plane badly damaged, he turns and heads for home.

 Johnny gets kill #4 up high!

Lts Greenway and Peters continue towards the bridge. 

Browne needs to buy Smally time to get away so charges at 2 Tonys even though he now doesn't have a wingman.  

 

Unfortunately a Tony [flown by an ace] quickly latches on Browne's tail.  The P-38 takes hits but keeps chugging.  Meanwhile...

A Tony takes position on Porky's tail and starts to fire.  Loaded down by bombs Porky and his junior wingman can't do anything.  The bombs must go!  Without bombs...

Porky not only escapes but manages to damage his assailant.  

 

Unfortunately all the twisting and turning is beyond 2Lt Peter's ability to keep up.  He loses Porky.  Now both are without wingmen.  Things just got easier for the Tonys.   Meanwhile...

Johnny hears Browne in trouble over his headset.  He knows Browne doesn't have a wingman because he ordered Smally home with his damaged bird.  Browne can't shake the ace and now has a small fuel leak.  Johnny, ignoring the last Tony up high, goes and does a Boom and Zoom on the Ace attacking Browne.   He sees strikes on the Tony and fuel leaking but it doesn't go down.  Still it breaks off.  Browne is saved. 

Meanwhile...

Since Porky and Peters aren't fighting as a team they both get into trouble fast.  The ruggedness and the light armament of the K-61a's keep them in the fight.  

Suddenly...

The Tony left high by Johnny does his own B&Z high attack on Lt Browne.  No one really saw the attack but they do see Browne's parachute drifting towards the jungle. 

 As the fuel gauges move toward bingo Johnny catches up with the Tony and claims his 5th kill!  

Not enough fuel to get to the bridge and even if they did, they have no bombs.  Johnny hopes LtCol Birch understands that they had quite a fight on their hands!  They radio Browne's position and head for home.  

Johnny goes through in his head their success today.   4 Tony's down for the loss of Browne.  [ Plus he made ace!]   The ground folks should be able to find Browne.  Surely that is a successful mission?  Plus I am an ace now!

As they approach the field to land there is a still smoking wreck of 2Lt Smally's P-38 on the runway.  

[ He failed his landing roll.]  Fortunately his is only injured but the plane is a loss.   

In the debriefing room LtCol Birch is clearly agitated but congratulates Johnny on making ace.  He refuses to say the mission was a success.  "The mission was to bomb the bridge, not engage Tonys".  

Three days later Johnny is told to report to Gen Holland's office, the wing commander.  Lt Col Birch is also there.  "Johnny, you are a damn fine pilot.  We need your expertise up here at the wing helping us with training."  "But what about the squadron?" Johnny asks? I think Capt Strong is ready to take the reigns.  Report here tomorrow at 07:30."  

So Johnny is out and Capt Strong will take over the headhunters.  Johnny can still fly every third mission but will not be in command.  WOW!    I set AKOT at unlikely that Birch would relieve Johnny after the mission and rolled a "2".  I was shocked but how cool is that?  So now Strong has to get this group heading in the right direction but Birch will give him a lot of support.  Should be fun to find out what happens!

The playtest worked great with the wingmen rules as well.  You could see how the P-38s suffered without wingmen.     Getting closer to a finished product!

Enjoy

 

Joe

 

Review of Poor Bloody Infantry

 

First for anyone in the Williamsburg, VA area I will be running two games of Boom and Zoom at the Williamsburg muster on 15 Feb.  It is always a great group of folks so come out and test drive the rules and tell me what you think.

Now for my review of Peter Pig’s 2025 version of Poor Bloody Infantry.   I could not find many reviews of the rules in any of their editions so hopefully this will help folks.  Martin has many good videos of many of the game mechanics at his Peter Pig Website.  Hence I won’t go over many of the nuts and bolts but give an impression of how they play.  First a couple of caveats:

I have played 4 games with the rules.  I think this is enough to get a feel for them but I have no doubt there are some subtleties I have missed.

All games have been played solo.

I have met the designer  years ago and have found him a pleasant chap.

Rulesets are subjective but when reviewing a ruleset it is important to understand what the designer’s intent is.  Otherwise a reviewer can have unfair complaints.  (If you buy a sports car you shouldn’t complain that there isn’t the carrying capacity of a SUV!)  Martin is very clear that PBI is designed for two players to show up with a prepared company of troops plus support, quickly generate a generic attacker/defender scenario and play to a conclusion in about two hours. 

This makes it different from every WW II set I have except perhaps Piquet.   Battlefront WW II, O Group, TW&T ect are all designed to have historical forces engage each other normally in historical type engagements.  I authored Platoon Forward partly to have a scenario generator to quickly generate 20 different types of battles to use with the above type of rulesets. 

So PBI is already different for me.  You need to build your company first.  The rule book shows you how to calculate points to build your company.  If you are familiar with platoon structure you can build historical platoons no problem.  If you aren’t sure you can buy PBI’s companion book entitled Company Architect.  This gives you a plethora of companies for not just for the major powers but all the minor ones too.  It also contains armor data and “asset” data which we will touch on shortly.  To be honest, I felt building companies “gamey” and time consuming.  After two games I just went with historical TO&Es.  That said, in going with Martin’s theme, it could be fun for some and would ensure an even “match”.

Once you have your company you pick three assets for the game such as “artillery” or “sniper”.  Then you start an engaging dice game called a “piggy chase” where you have to be the first player to roll a D6 sum to 36. The results of this game determine who is the attacker and how many platoons start on the board. This is a clever mechanic and  I think this would be a blast with two players.  As a solitaire player though it loses some zest.  

One of the complaints I have seen on line about PBI is that you can’t play historical scenarios with it; poppycock!  My 4^th game with PBI was actually the bonus recon scenario from PF using a US armored infantry company with a section of Lee tanks.  I played solo and let PF run the germans.  The game worked fine.  So if you are a solo player or not interested in the above, don't worry.  You don't have to use any of it to play an actual game of PBI.  But if this interests you it is there and I haven't found it in any of the other rulesets I have.  

Germans facing my US armored infantry.  2 peter pig figures with 1 battlefront NCO. The game calls for 3x3 bases but any basing will work including pennies.  

The actual PBI game

The actual game itself is played on a 8x8 grid which turns a lot of gamers off but I have been playing hexes for over 10 years now.  I love the ease of movement, the distance is known and it is easy to position figures. 

 

PBI uses 6 x 6 inch squares.  For my games I used 2 hexes x 2 hexes.  At 15mm this gave me a ground scale of 1.5 times which I was pretty happy about for a company level game.

There are some idiosyncrasies with the grid such as infantry can't move diagonally but once you play the grid works well.

Your actual maneuver unit in PBI is a platoon made up of infantry bases of three men or 2 man specialty teams.  Martin states this is to help him sell figures; I appreciate his honesty!  This again is different than all my other games which are either individual figures, half squads or squads.  So most squads will be made up of two rifle bases and a LMG base.  The upside of this more granular approach is easier breakdown during casualties and you can split off a 3 man team to scout/draw fire if you need to. The downside besides more painting would usually be moving the figures but since we are using squares that are activated per square this downside disappears.  I actually like this approach.  My only disappointment here is the game doesn't emphasize the squad (or section for Martin) anywhere in the rules.  

My German company during the Battle of the Bulge.  Each platoon with three squads that will stay that way unless we assault.  3rd platoon armed with assault rifles! 
    

Combat is straightforward and is bucket of dice.  Each weapon is rated for how many dice it gets and you always hit on a "6".  You can choose to try to pin or go for the kill.  There is no "disrupted" state in PBI.  This takes a little getting use to but after a couple of games I like it. It plays quicker.  The system is clean and fast and there is a nod to some weapon differences such as the german LMGs being the best geting more dice than other LMGs. It can be very difficult to kill stands in the game which is realistic.  You almost always have to pin them first which cuts down on their return fire.  I do think there isn't enough pinning of troops but that is my personal opinion.  Assault is deadly and follows a similar theme. 

While you always hit on a "6".  Your save depends on the terrain in your square.  Buildings being the best; saving on all but a "1". 

Armor Combat  follows a similar theme.  Vehicles have an offensive value which equates to number of dice with "6s" hitting and then an armor value for saves.  Vehicles are stunned or killed.  It works well but I have been spoiled by Battlefront WW II's system which is slick.  

This M10 didn't roll any saves!
 

Command and Control  is done by rolling a D6 for each square.  This is modified by presence of an officer and distance to the platoon leader. This gives you the number of action points for the square.  Veteran troops get a +1 while raw troops get a -1.  This is a simple yet elegant way to model initiative.  Platoon leaders are important in getting troops to move and lay down accurate fire.  [Each square can fire up to three times.  Sometimes you need a lot of dice to hit.  That will cost you 3 action points my friend! ]  This is probably my favorite mechanic of the system.  Your platoon leaders will lead.  The company commander ends up running around the board boosting his commanders rolls.  This I am not as much a fan of as he should be directing the battle; moving only to steady a unit.   Overall C+C is quick, easy and feels like you are running the battle. 

 

A squad leader directs the squad. 

Favorite Points

Command and Control    As already stated, this is quick and easy and subtly shows differences in training.  Did I mention pinned troops have -2 APs?  Simple and models their slowness to do anything. Also important for folks like me that run Character driven campaigns this will be easy to play with so I can model Sgt Schmidt from 2nd squad or Capt Stransky from the Cross of Iron. 

Grid system   I like not measuring and the grid system also works to speed up the game.  It also leads to small firefights which are quick to adjudicate as they are between squares not individual bases. 

Combat System  Clean, simple and quick.  Needing a "6" to hit is easy to remember and the saves are easy as well.  After 10 minutes you should need no charts for infantry firefights- ever.  The results seem realistic except I still think it is too hard to pin troops.  I tested a house rule my last game which I will share here; each pair of "5s" rolled also result in a pin check.  Example,  I roll a 2,5,5,5,6.  The 2 is a miss and the 6 is a hit.  The pair of 5s result in a pin check which is adjudicated before I resolve the "6".  Martin would tell me this will result in too many pins.  YMMV.

End Game     At the end of your turn you roll a D6 which a running sum total is kept.  Once the total hits 36 the game is over.  Simple, quick effective.

These dice are showing 10.   My french have plenty of time!

Less Favorite Points

The pre game points and piggy chase are not great for a historical solo gamer.  That said I think for Martin's stated goal they hit the mark.  Also, in fairness, no other game has anything like this that I have seen so it really isn't a negative.

The Armor combat system.   It isn't bad just compared to the infantry system it feels clunky. It isn't any worse than O Group it just isn't slick like the infantry system. For instance I could see no mention of being hull down.  Also I have been spoiled by Battlefront WW II armor system which is brilliant.   I should add here that the C+C system for the armor is very good. 

                   I need at least 8 APs to take out both Lee tanks!
 

Overall 

Martin has well achieved his goal with a fun game that can be played in two hours using reasonable tactics between two players.  His pre game hits the mark for two evenly matched companies having a challenging game.  As stated it is easy to use this game for more historical engagements as well.  Clearly this is an infantry game with armor attachments. It is simple but not simplistic.  Everything is well thought out.  It is much harder to design a simple game covering a complex topic than a complex game. Simple, quick, fun!  It has become my go to for land actions.  I can give it no higher praise than that; bravo Martin!

 

Joe 

Russian Front with the Royal Romanian Air Force

 Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!  It has been a while for the blog because gaming has taken a back seat due to the holidays.  Kids coming home, taking care of parents leaves little time for gaming but much time for joy.  

My son  ordered Saga's new book Age of Chivalry about hundred years war/ War of the Roses for me but that hasn't shipped yet.  

I did get an expansion for GMTs Tank Duel which I played several times.

Germans trying to take a bridge 1941.  

It is a fun game but probably better with others.  If I am going to put that much effort in a game I will play a WW II miniatures battle.  

Also I was inspired to work on my airplane rules to make them faster.  Also I offered to show off the game, entitled Boom and Zoom at the Williamsburg Muster mid February.  This should keep me on task if it is accepted.  

For today we have one of my favorite squadrons using Squadron Forward.   My IAR 80 squadron has flown many missions over the years.  It also boasts one of 4 aces that I have grown using SF.  The kill/loss ratio is 7/5 which for the FARR [ Royal Air Force] is good so their reputation [cool factor] is a 3. Last mission they escorted stukas and the group commander went along.  Today I rolled up a fighter sweep.

Capt Sandru our ace will lead and he will pick Lt Macri to take the other element.  Since this is a sweep he will pick Adj Dusescu, the new man, to fly with him.  He assigns SLT Alexiu to the other wingman spot and tells Macri to keep an eye on him.  His abort rate is higher than average whenever they encounter the enemy.  

Capt Sandru             Ace

           Adj Dusescu       Sprog

Lt Macri                  Avg

           SLt   Alexiu        Avg     Pessimistic, avoids combat when able

 

Over the front lines Sandru spots Russian fighters low streaking towards Romanian positions.  He manuvers his fighters to their 6 o clock.   

 Laggs armed with bombs with some Yaks as top cover.  He will keep his wingman and go after one.  He orders the other two officers to split up and each take a Lagg.  He wants to see what Alexiu will do.

A good but not great bounce!    Sandru damages a Lagg as it drops bombs.  Macri damages a Lagg but can't stay on it's tail.  Alexiu fires and damages a Lagg.  [ Pilot severely wounded actually.]

The Yaks come down in what the russians would later call "the falcon's blow" and knock the Romanians off the Lagg's tails but none are more than minimally damaged.  

Two of the Laggs chug forward; a third "lags" behind. [ Couldn't help it]  The wia pilot successfully leaves the board.  The Yak-1s turn to stop the IAR-80s.  

Capt Sandru decides to go high and take on the Yaks.  He orders the other flight to pursue the Laggs. 

Sandru climbs and quickly earns his 6th kill.

A Yak gets a snap shot at Sandru and damages his tail.  

Macri tangles with a Yak while Alexiu catches the 3rd Lagg.  At low level the IAR is slightly more maneuverable than the Yak. 

 

Unfortunatley Adj Dusescu loses Sandru during the twisting dogfight.   The veteran Yak pilot quickly gets on Dusescu's tail.  

Alexiu keeps firering into the Lagg but it refuses to go down.

The Lagg escapes west off the board.

The veteran Yak gets the initiative and unloads into poor Dusescu.   His gas tanks is punctured but fortunately doesn't alight.  

Sandru comes to the rescue.   Since the Yak pilot doesn't have a wingman he has a choice; take Sandru's blows or break off and deal with the ace...

He breaks off but Sandru still maneuvers to his 4 o clock...

and leaves with smoke streaming from his inline engine!

As the sky clears of Russians planes Sandru is pretty pleased.   He has a kill and a probable.  Alexiu stayed and fought.  Desescu is in trouble but the Laggs lost their bombs; not bad.

Unless you are at Romanian HQ!   With unusual efficiency all snow is cleared from around the HQ.

3 Laggs streak over the HQ.  One plane drops bombs but they fall long.  With enemy fighters in the area they don't come back for a strafing pass.  Still, the wing CC gets a call about the lack of air cover over the front lines!

One more drama needs to be played out with SF; the landing.  Using AKOT Dusescu does make it back to the air field and lands fine.  Quite a first mission!  

Great game that played in an hour.   I called it a draw because 3 of 4 Laggs did get through.  I probably need to re work some of the rules for fighter bombers; they seem pretty fast.  

Post battle  Sandru is congratulated on his 6th kill.  Dusescu's fighter won't be ready for next mission so we are down to 7 planes.   We introduce Capt Tocra the base flight surgeon.  He is fanatical about the war against russia so will be prone to send pilots back to flying to early.  Could prove interesting.  I told you this was a great squadron!

Enjoy

Joe

Barge Busting in the Baltic

 Played another fun scenario over the weekend busting barges.  This time I went to the frozen north where I could use the KFK I just built.  I didn't roll up the forces but used the barge busting scenario from FF.  Rules were Coastal Patrol and I modified how many flood and fire hits were possible.  Visibility 2K yrds with calm seas.    4 MO-4 boats looking for a small convoy moving supplies that was spotted by air.  The Russians are rated poor.  Because of this they will start in column. 

Russians on the prowl. Each hex is 100 yards.  I use the spines as well so 11 directions per hex.

Russians spot something.  Big problem- like to stay away from the front.  I do say that all guns on the ferry have a -1 to hit in all but the calmest seas.

Russians veer away from the ferry.  Here's hoping we can get by it unspotted.  [ I do use the spotting rules from Crueler Seas. Just personal preference.]

Amazingly the plan seems to be working even though we also spot a KFK as well.  

Then Commrade Unstode [ MO-4 boat 4] sees a torpedo in the water and takes evasive action. 

[random event from Flotilla Forward.]   Clearly he has been hitting the vodka again!!

This wakes the KFK up and all hell breaks loose!  Coastal actions at it's finest.  Fortunately we have the KFK outgunned.  At this range even Russians hit once in a while.

 The russians finally spot the convoy.

As the MO-4s move around the KFK a fire breaks out on the third russian boat.  The KFK starts to flood and slows.

It is a losing battle.  The KFK starts to sink.

The MO-4 boats move towards the back of the convoy.  Meanwhile back on the third russian boat...

fire fighting wasn't emphasized in their training so the ship becomes engulfed in flames. 

A small barge starts to sink.  

 The convoy has slowly moved out of the way to give the ferry a clear shot at the russian boats.  

A direct hit on the lead MO-4 knocks out it's engine.  The Senior Leader signals boat 2 to pick up the crew and for boat 4 to go pick up the crew of boat 3.    With a KFK and barge sunk and another dead in the water we have done enough for tonight!

Boat 3 flashes by the Siebel ferry!  

Great battle that took 90 minutes.  It was surprising that the russians managed to sneak up on the germans like that.  I am slowly modifying the rules to suit my taste. It amazes me that rolling for the number of actions works as well as it does.   I liked the -1 to hit for the ferry.  The MO-4s and KFK each took 3 flotation and 3 fires.  I am even playing around with ship data cards.

 

Play test data card.

Happy Veterans Day to all our Veterans and a Happy Remembrance day!

Enjoy!

Joe