Hawks and Wildcats over Morocco

 Am still painting up figures for Washington's War.  Have played several small battles and am still figuring out the rules.  

Boom and Zoom is undergoing edits and should be released by the end of February.  I am putting on two games at the Willliamsburg Muster 21 Feb.  

Today's battle is a Wildcat Mission during operation Torch.  I don't have an Atlantic Wildcat squadron rolled up because they didn't see much combat. So this will be a "one off" battle.  The tables in Squadron Forward need to be modified for the Naval operations.  Use this table instead

D10             Mission

1-2              Patrol [ Card A ]

3-5              CAP   [ Card B ]

6-7              Ground Attack [ Card C ]

8-0              Escort SBDs    [ Card D ]

Enemy aircraft will be Hawks.  [ I just read today that the DE 520 were grounded in Morocco because they didn't have 20mm ammo. ]  You can have a 50% chance of encounter, just use MGs. 

As a one off I rolled up my flight of pilots for today:

Flight CC   Bob         Veteran

   Wingman 1  Bill      Avg

Element ldr      Jim      Avg

     Wingman 2  John   Green

 I rolled up a CAP mission over the fleet. 

 Squadron Forward generated 8 light bombers with a 3 hawk escort. ( Vet, Vet, Green )

Now I switched to Boom and Zoom.  I rolled up the encounter dice.  Bob and the Wildcats get vectored into incoming aircraft. They get the jump on the French!

 The bombers are at low altitude (2)  while all fighters are at Med Low.  The french Hawks are weaving over the bombers and are currently behind and to the right.  Bob attacks the bombers from the left.  The Wildcats are flying in two ship elements which in B&Z are important.  But with so many bombers Bob wants to maximize hits to the bombers.  He tells Bill, his wingman, to split off and go for the lead bomber while he will concetrate on the second.  Jim and John stay as an element because John is green and they will end up closest to the hawks. The Wildcats dove on the bombers...

 

all 3 fighters score hits on the bombers [ blue triangles ] but none fatal.  Element 2 climbs back to altitude in preparation to meet the hawks. No mean feat in a poor climbing Wildcat!  

 The french are in a Vic but Jean Claude tells Jacques to break off and go after some more Wildcats.  Jean Claude starts a swirling maneuver with the element 2 but can't get an advantage.  [ The Hawk is slightly more maneuverable than the wildcat, particularly above 8K ft.]  Jacques looks for the enemy but can't see them through the wispy clouds. [ Jacques got a really bad die roll.] 

 

One french bomber is damaged enough that he drops his bombs and heads for home.  Seven to go!

 Unfortunately,  for the US, John can't keep up with all the maneuvers and loses Jim.  The element is broken. They will fly as two separate planes this turn.  Surprisingly, the french wingman stays right with Jean Claude. [ It is hard to stay in a Vic.]   

To make things worse for the US Navy I get a random event per SF... 

Two DE 520s hear all the chatter and come over to play.  [ In a 2 player game I would not have done this as play balance would be ruined.  Also, this was before I read that the DE 520s hear had no cannon ammo. That would also have helped the US. ]
 

The hawks continue to tussle with jim.  Without a wingman they quickly get on his tail.  But Jean Claude can't line him up in his sights! 

Jacques also finds it easy to line up on John's tail.  John is wounded!

Jim is in trouble but he able to go into a shallow diving corkscrew that leaves Jean Claude in the dust. 

 

John, wounded calls for help.  Bob, remembering that air combat in WW II is a team sport, comes over to assist... 

Quickly damages Jacques' plane and John is free.  [ Jacques also doesn't have a wingman.] 

Meanwhile, our cannon armed DE 520s dive on Bill.  He didn't even see them.  There is a parachute seen however.

 

 John, evades the Hawks and makes another pass at the bombers.  

Now there are 3 Wildcats left, all separated and outnumbered by equal or better aircraft.  I designed B&Z to emphasis tactics and teamwork.  What I should have done was to gather the Wildcats together for mutual support and then try to pick off maybe 1 bomber.  What did I do?  We must protect the fleet. Go after the bombers!  

Jean Claude and his wingman amazingly stay together.  The DE 520s break up.  The veteran DE 520 gets the initiative.   

Here he is in the center of the picture.  He is above a rookie, wounded wildcat.  This is almost too easy...
 

Sacre Bleu!!!  He rolls his performance dice.  You need a "4" or a "6" to shoot.  In the swirl of battle he doesn't even see the wildcat down below.  John is spared.

Bill makes another diving attack on these very tough, french bombers.

 The Hawks follow Bill trying to get on his tail.  

The second DE 520 latches onto Jim's tail at the front of the bombers. 

 For a second time today Jim manages to out run a hawk! [ upper left]

John makes another run at a french bomber.  This time it slows down and dumps its bombs...  

and heads for home.  Two bombers aborted!  Meanwhile...

 Bob has his hands full with Jacques.  As they continue to fly circles looking for an advantage they have gained height [ unusual ] and now find themselves at medium high altitude. 16K ft. This is significant because above 15K ft the  maneuverability of the Hawk decreases to that of the Wildcat.  John needs to be on Bob's wing here so they are fighting as a team.   He is not so...

Jacques manages to get on Bob's "6".  Fortunately there is no damage.  

Jim has another go at the bombers while Bob tries to hold the fighters back by himself. Jim sees hits but the bomber keeps moving.

 Jean Claude dives down on Jim after Jim's pass...

 Jim hits the silk!

 John climbs for altitude and tangles with a DE 520. His bleeding has stopped. 

 He quickly finds himself on the short end of the stick and his tail is badly damaged.  

 Unfortunately, the DE 520 gets the initiative on the last turn and puts Johnny's plane on fire.  There is no parachute.  

Having lost 3 out of 4 planes Bob breaks off as the bombers near the fleet.   Terrible showing for the US Navy.  Granted they were outnumbered and their shooting at the bombers was unlucky.  However, in the rush to get the bombers I forgot all the tactics I am trying to show in the game.  The Wildcats needed to stay in elements and keep altitude [ granted hard to climb in a wildcat].  Would be fun to play this again and remember that.  Plus I would cut the DE 520s from FP 7 to FP 4.    

As I mentioned on TMP, I have started an air to ground supplement to Boom and Zoom so this is my first playtest of those rules.    

6 french bombers close with the fleet.  The lead bomber is damaged but he has elected to continue since he is lead and already here.   

A supply ship to the left, DD center and our 6 french aircraft to the right.  The lead frenchman is offset towards the bottom.  He will try to bomb the destroyer.  Heavy AA spooks the second bomber so they are rattled and their bombs will be off target.  

As the bombers descend over the DD the light AA takes over...
 

The lead frenchman, who was going for the DD, is hit by flak.  The hit was only damaging to his engine but since his engines were already damaged he is shot down and ditches.  [ left most plane.]  Of course the 40mm gun crews will take all the credit here!

The other 3 planes pass over the DD, survive more AA and ...

  pass over the supply ship.  Bomber #3 gets a near miss.  

Since the ship is still afloat the last 2 bombers go in...

 they pass over the DD...

 and drop their bombs on the supply ship.  Bomber #1 also gets a near miss.  

The first near miss pushes a mass of water against the plates of the ship but the plates hold.  A second near miss  close to the first springs several plates and causes significant flooding below.  The ship will fight to stay afloat for most of the day with no supplies available. It will remain afloat but be able to move slowly and will have to put into Gibraltar for temporary repairs.   

Not bad bombing for 6 glide bombers.  Of course it is a big slow ship.   

In summary, I really like all the rules and how they play.  Just need to get better at tactics!

 

Enjoy

 

Joe