Happy Thanksgiving! I have continued to work on my airplane rules. Am on version 4 now ever simplifying and speeding up play. I have reworked Maneuver combat so all of it is resolved with one opposed roll. Still need to figure out how much of a bonus a wingman should give you. As a playtest I pulled out my Finnish Buffalo squadron. This squadron has had it rough. Their first CO was frankly incompetent and they really haven't recovered yet despite having Lt Bluisma brought in. A jovial, tough as nails fighter pilot. 2Lt Tervo, second in command is coming along nicely and will probably get a command with a little more seasoning. Their SNCO is WO Karhunen, relatively new to the squadron. Long on time in and friends but short on actual fighter experience, he flew bombers in 1939. SSgt Tani is their highest scoring pilot currently with 3 kills.
Today starts with...
Lt Bluisma is called into Capt Aibal's office. Ivan has boats snooping about again. Command wants the Finnish to deal with them rather than our German allies. Crank up a flight and convince them to turn around. [ Rolled up Fighter bomber mission from Squadron Forward.]
Bluisma was about to tell the Capt he only HAD 4 pilots available so a flight was all he could produce but thought better of it. His 4 pilots include himself WO Karhunen, SSgt Tani and Sgt Lumme. He decides he will let Karhunen lead the flight today to gain some experience as he has been chaffing at the bit to lead. So the flight will look like this:
WO Karhunen Avg
Lt Bluisma Vet 1 kill
2nd element
SSgt Tani Vet 3 kills
Sgt Lumme Avg
Though the Buffalo is slightly more agile than the Rata the Russian quickly outmaneuvers WO K and his engine become damaged.
Lt Bluisma tries to come to his aid but his halted by Russian wingmen who are in a Vic formation. Bluisma does get a shot at one of teh wingman but the Russian ace still has the edge on our Warrent officer.
SSgt Tani get a rear shot at a Rata and does some damage.
and is rewarded with a small stream of smoke emitting from the Russian's engine.
The lagging rookie shows up to the party but is easily swatted away.
As the whirling battle continues the Russian's wingman lines up a quick shot against Karhunen trying to clear his ace's tail and fatally damages the Warrent Officer's engine. As his engine stops, Karhunen radios he is too low to bail out so he will ditch. Bluisma sees him nearing the water but then he is distracted by...
His Buffalo is rugged enough to absorb one attack. Then he high tails it towards...
his target and sets up a strafing run!
Which is much more effective!
The Buffalos dash for the ships left most of the Russians flat footed.
Rather than a second pass at the ships, Bluisma climbs and tackles a Rata. He quickly gets on it's tail and picks up a kill!
A Lone Rata tries to interfer with SSgt Tani's second strafing run but fails. They give the ships another once over and leave them sinking.
Low on ammo and Fuel [ 5 turns] and having accomplished the task of turning the Russian ships around, Lt Bluisma turns their flight home leaving 2 ships sinking. They do see remnants of a Buffalo in the water but no pilot.
Fun battle that played in an hour. Even though both sides lost a plane the Finns accomplished their mission so it is a win for our Buffalos. Post battle, search and rescue find no sign of WO Karhunen. He is listed as MIA(LAS). Bluisma feels terrible, that he should have been lead. He finds unlikely solice from Capt Aibal. The Capt states that officers have to make tough decisions, based on the data available it was a good one. Who knew they would run into a hot shot russian pilot? Bluisma suggests that SSgt Tani be made acting Warrant Officer. Capt Aibal doesn't buy it but is willing to send Tani to an abbreviated course. So Tani will miss the next two missions and come back a WO! You would think the squadron would get a replacement but apparently it doesn't work that way! However, Sgt Keskinen is back from the hospital so we are still up to 4. We lost a plane but two come back from the shop so we have 6!
The rules played well but I think I need to make defensive wingmen stronger. Still too easy to get on tails. The rules won't contain an air to ground section. For those of you interested in that, I wrote an article "Brag the Hun" found in a TFL special about a decade ago.
Enjoy and God Bless the men and women serving our country far from home and their families that are missing them!
Joe
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