Taking a break from land combat I thought I would run a quick battle covering with 6 P-38s intercepting some Betty bombers escorted by some Tonys. I will play this solo with full advanced rules. Since I have no idea have to make a video hopefully this can answer some questions for folks about how the game plays with the advanced rules.
First I rolled up our 6 US pilots using the appropriate chart in the book. We get 1 Veteran, 4 Average and 1 Rookie. Interesting that the rookie is actually leading an element. Must be a 1LT with little combat experience. The US plays just like the basic rules with planes in 2 ship elements.
Next I roll up the Japanese. I decide 5 is a good number. I get 1 Ace, 3 Average and 1 Rookie. About what I would expect for early 1943. The Japanese will fly in a loose "V" called a Shotai but break into individual planes upon contact per their national rules. This will contrast with the teamwork of the US nicely and show how a gangly plane like the P-38 can do well in the Pacific.
Lets look at the aircraft for today.
These are not official cards but will work for demo purposes. For the P-38 we see it has cockpit armor and self sealing fuel tanks and packs a punch with FP of 11. It is also sturdy for a mid war plane with above average dice of 10. It is faster than the Tony at all altitudes but particularly down low and above 15K ft. [Medium High]. It is outclass in horizontal movement at all altitudes except above 30K ft. Not much chance of fighting up there today. It is even with the Tony in the vertical. While surprising, this is because the Tony dives better than early war Japanese fighters and the early P-38s had compressability problems so limited their diving speeds. So if we can't avoid the Tonys, slashing attacks will probably be the order of the day.
For the Tonys it is the opposite. This fighter was a bit of a compromise for the Japanese. It didn't turn like the Oscar but was faster, sturdier and had more guns. Unfortunately, it still wasn't as fast, sturdy or gunned as the US fighters. So a turning dogfight is still your best bet even though you don't turn as well as an Oscar. At least you do have some armor and better guns!
For a bomber mission [ actually any advanced mission] both sides roll dice to see if anyone achieves surprise. You look for "5s & 6s.
Here we end up with a tie; no surprise. So order will go by initiative.
So I place the bombers in the middle. [ sorry I only have 3 Bettys painted up!] I roll a D8 to place the Japanese. I get a "1" and place them in front with 3 planes in the square with two trailing. I roll a "7" for the US and place them 2 to a square on the left side. the Japanese were not big on altitude at this point so I place them at medium low with the bombers. [ plus they function better there.] I figure the US have a 50/50 chance of gaining altitude before the encounter and they do. Time for a lightning strike!!!
I roll for initiative. I roll for each formation. [ You could roll for each US element and for each Japanese plane. That is the way we will do it for every other turn. I just do it this way for the first turn.]
The Japanese ace with his +4 gets a 10. He spots the P-38s coming from above! Normally I would have the whole formation go first but the Japanese don't have radios so I roll for the second square to see how fast they react. They get a "5" so will go last. [ You don't need to make it this complicated. Just roll normal initiative per the rules. I am just showing the flexibility of the system.]
I am not going to show every phase but will pick out a few and any that illustrate key points.
So the Tony Ace goes first. He needs to climb and tie up the P-38s. Banzai!
He takes 2 dice to climb one level and move into the P-38s square. Next he uses a "2" to declare a maneuver attack against the P-38s. Since he is an ace, he converts a "1" to a "2" which will add a +1 to his maneuver roll. Finally, he will use his "4" to shoot.
Unfortunatly, at Medium High altitude his tony has only average maneuverability so he uses a D8. The P-38 with is a dog rolls a D6. The Ace gets a +1 but the P-38s get a +2 for the wingman who is guarding the tail. You see the above roll. But wait! An Ace can re roll dice once per turn...
Didn't help! [ You keep the same modifiers.] So despite his skill the ace is unable to gain an advantage on the P-38s.
Amazingly the other 2 Tonys also fail to gain an advantage on the P-38s.
So the veteran P-38 pilot decides to go after the Ace. He tells the other 2 elements to attack the bombers.
He rolls his dice...
As we discussed he is looking for an opportunity to perform a slashing attack. But what is this? With his impressive situational awareness [ two "3s"] and his wingman being in the right position [ 5] he can perform a barrel roll and close in on the Tony.
So he declares a maneuver attack with a "2", then adds +2 with two "3s" and another +2 with his "5". the Tony, without a wingman gets no modifiers and even though he is an ace, can't re-roll dice more than once a turn!
Your kidding! Even with a +4 the veteran pilot loses. But wait! As a veteran he can re-roll dice three times in a game...
Whose laughing now?! The P-38 sets up with the advantage on the Tonys wing.
He scores a -2 hit. A "5" on the hit location chart shows he hit the cockpit. But wait, the Tony has cockpit armor so this will be a -1 hit.
The ace is shocked that the big P-38 barrel rolls on to his wing and
fires. Bullets riddle his cockpit as he is hit. Losing blood he won't
be able to pull "gs" so his maneuver rating goes down by one.
Now the second element is going to go after some Bettys. They would like to perform a surprise diving attack; the Boom and Zoom!
The bare minimum you need are two "1s" and a "4". More dice are obviously helpful. Lets see what we can do with this opportunity.
We dive and roll our blue "5" and get a "1". We can convert our "6" to a "1". Then we use the "4" and "3" to shoot with a +1. We save the two extra dice to Zoom afterwards back a level up.
the second P-38 element dives on the lead Betty. The advantages of a Boom and Zoom are: we get +3, re-roll any "1s" [with bombers you already re roll "1s" so we get to re roll 1's and 2's] and there is no return fire. The wingman also gets to shoot but with a -2.
It is no contest.
The lead Betty is destroyed!
The third element causes significant damage to the wing of a second Betty. Damage to bombers is somewhat abstract in B & Z. 2 damage markers are enough to cause a medium bomber to abort. Three markers would knock it down.
End of the first turn. The last 2 Tonys could not engage the P-38s as the P-38s had already been engaged this turn. So they climb and prepare for next turn.
When playing solo with 11 fighters it is helpful to have a way to keep track of everyone's initiative. Here the US veteran gets the jump on the Japanese Ace.
The veteran already has the advantage but wants to see if he can increase it. This would normally be a good roll for a slashing attack.
The ace is down to dog status [D6] and the Veteran gets a +1 modifier so he is now on the Ace's tail.
He rolls a healthy number of hits. The ace rolls his defense...
not one save! But wait, he hasn't used his re roll for this turn. [ It would not have made a difference during the maneuver.] Roll them dice again...
Better but not good enough. The ace goes down in flames.
The second element performs another boom and zoom on the Bettys and manage no hits!
Third element has a go.
Great shooting. But wait! The element leader is a rookie. Three times during the game [ I am going to change this to twice because it is very painful] your opponent can force a re roll of your dice. The Japanese request this. "There is no way a newbie LT is going to shoot that well."
Unfortunately they are correct.
The rookie misses but his wingman takes out the top turret gunner.
A Tony engages the rookie element. He can do this because a Boom and Zoom attack is very fast and an element can undergo both a B & Z and a normal attack. Here the Tony wins the maneuver battle by 2...
and fires!
The P-38s engine is damaged. He will have 1 less performance die and loses speed.
A Tony challenges teh second element and also wins.
The second element leader has serious engine trouble losing 2 performance. He must abort if able.
Thus ends our second turn. 2 P-38s in trouble now. The big advantage for the Japanese is they must spend their turns trying to get out of trouble and NOT going after the bombers.
As part of the end of turn sequence we roll for each contested square to see if the combatants change altitude. In the square with the rookie element and our Veteran it does change. The twisting and turning brings everyone down one level to medium low. This is bad for the Lightnings as now the Tonys are nimble instead of average.
Our high flying second element goes first this turn. This is the one disadvantaged to the Tony with the leader's engine damaged enough he has to abort. Since he has a wingman his wingman gets to see if he can knock the Tony off. It is much easier if the advantaged plane doesn't have a wingman as in this case. The wingman rolls for dice and consults the appropriate table...
Could be worse. He gets a high deflection shot at the Tony. If he hits the Tony the enemy pilot will be distracted and the advantage is broken.
The wingman bores in guns blazing and shoots down the Tony!! One way to clear a wing. The leader, now that he is neutral to everyone, leaves the table.
Now the rookie Japanese pilot is going to take on our veteran P-38. Remember, Rookies can only use one "6".
He would like to do a Boom and Zoom. He rolls the "5" as he gains energy and gets a "6". Well that won't help.
He is too inexperienced to pull off a boom and zoom. He settles for a scissor maneuver with a tight turn. It fails.
Now our veteran finally gets to go. Decision time. Go for the bombers, go for the rookie pilot who just attacked or help out our newbie LT who is disadvantaged. As the flight lead he has to protect his men. He will help out the newbie. [ In a solitaire game for the enemy I would dice for this.]
Now attacking an advantaged plane w/o a wingman with another element is pretty straightforward. You play almost exactly like normal rules. If you hit the enemy plane the advantage is broken.
Either type of attack will work here but with all those "2s" and a 5 it looks like we will chance it with a maneuver attack. As the enemy pilot is fixated on his target we also gain an extra +1. The only downside is after the phase we don't get to remain advantaged. We will go back to neutral. [ It gets complicated otherwise.]
Our pilot sets up his attack. He holds a "3" back to use with his firepower. He will still be at + 5.
Don't worry Slim I am coming. Wait what?!?! With a +5 I still lose. [ At medium low the Tony now uses a D10. And I already re rolled my die this turn fighting off that rookie Tony. How embarrassing.
The Tony goes and causes a fuel tank leak in Slim.
Slim's wingman rolls his 4 dice and fails to do anything to the persistent Tony.
So now the element leader has to break the advantage. He only gets to roll 5 dice. He doesn't have a speed advantage anymore and he has a big horizontal disadvantage. Both planes are the same in the vertical. This is going to be tough. Without any "2s" diving away seems to be the best option.
He rolls the "4" and gains a "2". This will give him a +1 to the vertical maneuver roll. You can't use "5s" in the vertical as wingman aren't much help. He pushes the yoke over and pushes for more speed.
The P-38 slowly pulls away from the Tony!!
The element heads for home.
Another Tony performs a Boom and Zoom on the veteran P-38.
Bullets shatter the canopy and wound the veteran pilot.
At the end of the fourth turn there are 2 P-38s left. The veteran is wounded. He has damaged another Betty that has turned for home. It is time to leave.
The P-38 pilot gets the initiative and heads for home. 2 Tonys and a Betty destroyed and 2 Bettys aborted. 2 P-38s damaged and 2 pilots wounded. A US victory but a close fought battle that took an hour.
I hope this play through clarified some concepts of Boom and Zoom. I also hope it showed off the advanced rules and some of the things you can do with the system. Questions please ask.
Enjoy
Joe
