LZ Hotel

Just finished reading Charlie Don't Surf. Wanted to try out Di Di Mau and Critical wounds so stopped my "3 battles for Hue" and went with a standard sweep. The standard sweep scenario will actually be in "Middle of Nowhere" which will be the asymetrical warfare expansion to Platoon Forward. This platoon was used 2 posts ago if you want to catch up.

Platoon

Lt McSwain optomisitc Gr II leader

SSgt Davis 1st sq meek Gr III leader and brilliant leader

Cpl Lawrence 2nd sq gambler Gr II

Sgt Colton 3rd sq cunning Gr I

1st and 2nd squad are up morale and 3rd squad is down morale. Also one of the M60 MMGs normally assigned is broken.



Lt McSwain looked at Lt Jaroze with relief as he spoke. " I know you were beat up last battle and lost one of your hogs so I have an easy one for you tomorrow, Ted. All you have to do is secure a small LZ, advance into a hamlet and wait. The rest of the battalion should do the heavy lifting on this one. " The only glitch is you can only land 2 squads at once. There will be one gunship overhead if you need it. There is a buddist school to the left of the hamlet; don't destroy it please. You shouldn't run into too much. Couple of snipers and maybe a VC squad or two.

Battlefield. LZ Hotel is at bottom.

Buddist school is white building upper left

What is your plan LT????

McSwain would land his 2 best squads with his one M60 in tandem. They would quickly advance north with 2nd squad going towards the jungle and 1st squad securing the school. 3rd squad would then land and reinforce whoever needed it.

1st & 2nd squad move out as planned

As the squads advance just like at Benning a MMG opened up from the hill from behind the school. This slowed SSgt Davis' advance. Worse, 2nd squad ran into VC when only 20 yards from the jungle and started taking casualties.

Cpl Lawrence 20 yards from the jungle runs into Charlie
In addition, 3rd squad was delayed for some reason. Lt McSwain got on the horn to Jarose. " Sir, we are taking MMG fire as well as from at least a squad in the jungle. I have WIA. Request the Cobra and my 3rd squad." [ At this point got a random event that brought in a new squad. So Lt Jarose decided to tag along and see what was going on for himself.]

Lt Jaroze arrives and speaks with 1st platoon

Lt Jaroze arrived with not only 3rd squad but with an addiitonal squad as well. The cobra suppressed the MMG allowing 1st squad to advance towards the school. Jaroze suggested that 3rd squad trail 1st and the other 2 squads advance on the treeline. During these discussions the VC advanced on the shaken 2nd squad and killed 2 before Cpl Lawrence hid the survivors in some bamboo.

VC attacking 2nd squad

Jaroze next request artillery to work the jungle over and this was granted. 3rd squad was slow so Lt McSwain moved to speed Sgt Colton up. SSgt Davis made it up the hill but the MMG managed to Di Di Ma and escape. 3rd squad with the LT took up positions in the schoolyard which was unoccupied.

3rd squad in the school yard

1st squad emerges from the hill and scatters VC in the village

After the artillery, 2nd squad and the extra squad entered the treeline again. The VC where still there but had taken 2 casualties. In addition, their LMG jammed.

2nd squad re enters the jungle

With the americans in good cover and artillery available, the VC chose to withdraw. The americans sustained 3 KIA and 6 WIA. The VC 4 KIA and 4 WIA. I called it a draw because the VC were stronger than expected.

After the battle Cpl Lawrence is finally promoted to Sgt. SSgt Davis made an off handed comment about Lawrence taking casualties and the now Sgt Lawrence has taken offense. Consequently Sgt Lawrence dislikes SSgt Davis. This will not help the platoon. Furthermore, due to the heavy casualties the platoon will go short next battle by 2 men. Such is life in the Middle of Nowhere!

Fun game. The VC had 2 random reinforcements which made them stronger than expected. I had 5 random events this game to include a human wave by a VC squad. Most games I get 1 or 2.

US forces as above Only 2 squads land 1st turn. Last squad lands on turn 3 or on the second turn of the reinforcement card. 1 addiitonal squad with a Gr II leader was generated as a random reinforcement. In addtion the Company CO came in; a Gr IV brilliant leader

VC forces that were generated were

1 MMG (50% of starting in a bunker; mine didn't)

3 VC squads (1 with poor morale)

1 LMG (50% of starting in a bunker; mine didn't)

1 gr III leader 1 gr II leader 1 gr I leadre who was hesitant

2 reinforcements were generated to include and additional vc squad with gr II leader and a LMG They entered through the hamlet

Enjoy

Joe

Costly day for the USAAF

Sorry it has been a month since any postings. Had a family reunion and started a new job which has kept me busy. Played several small TW&T games and BTH2 games but took few to no pictures. Did play one B-17 raid this weekend though...

The men of Bomber squadron 222 "Iron Men" shuffled into the briefing hut. Target Kiel. Ingress over land to fool Jerry and egress over water; brilliant thinking?!?! Worst news was BS 222 was to be the low squadron for the group today. Only good news was plenty of P-51s and a smattering of P-47s to cover.

SQ lead Hell's Bell's Ace
Dangerous Curves
Belle of the Ball Rookie
2nd element
Return Ticket Veteran
Queen of the Skies
Miss Jane Rookie

Escort was 6 P-51Ds with 1 ace, 2 veterans, 2 average and 1 rookie
Random event added 2 P-47Ds with 2 Average pilots

Germans spotted US first and came in undetected. P47s trailing and P-51s echeloned to the left of the formation.

German force consisted of
6 FW 190 A8 R6s (the armored guys with 30mm cannons 3 Vets 1 Avg and 2 green covered by 2 ME 109Ks both average.

Iron Men flying with escort

Unfortunatly the first sign of trouble was when Sgt Singleton, the tail gunner of Miss Jane, called out bandits 6 o'clock high closing in fast!

4 P51s quickly split S'ed to engaged the 3 fighters attacking Miss Jane while 2 provided top cover.

Embarresed P-51s come roaring in!

Miss Jane took enough wing damage that she fell out of formation. The P-51s drove 1 of the armored attackers off but Jane was now in trouble. She next lost her top turret and waist gunner. Finally her number 3 engine exploded; 4 parachutes were counted.

The other 3 FW 190s fell upon Queen of the Skies. Their cannon were too much and she succumbed before fighters could show up with 8 parachutes counted. They then moved onto Return Ticket. Cannon fire also managed to knock her out of formation. But by this time the P-51s were making things too hot for the FW 190s and they decided 2 bombers was good enough for today and left. 4 of the 6 FW 190As had significant damage but none were shot down. 1 ME 109K fell to a P-47s guns. No US fighters were lost. On the bomb run Dangerous Curves took a direct hit into the gas tank and exploded with no survivors. The 3 shaken survivors of 222 scored no hits on the harbor. A costly day for the USAAF!

Fun game but pretty one sided. The bounce by the germans set the stage. I also upgraded the FW 190A8 to ROB 3. Will play several more games to see it this works. I used a modified damaged table based on my variant damage table for BTH found in a TFL special. I also used characteristics for fighters that I hope to pen in a future article.

Below are just a smattering of other pictures I have taken receintly

Inspired by Chris' latest Sharp's Practice

Supplement I played a British Pirate game

Had 6 IL-2s bomb some bunkers

The Bomb run

Earlier escort mission; this one in Tunisia.

All 4 P-38s shot down!

Thanks!

Enjoy

Joe

Plekui 1968

Inspired by Rich Clark's article "Tet a Tet" in the TFL Summer special I played my own villiage fight using my 1st Cav. I stole his map and used a modified "Hasty Attack" scenario from Platoon Forward to generate the forces. This is the 8th battle with this platoon. 2nd Squad's morale went up after last battle due to Lt McSwain's leadership.

Lt McSwain entered into the hut where he and SSgt Davis had been hastily summoned by Lt Jaroz the company CO. Looks like Charlie is staging some type of attack into Plekui. Division is up in arms so battalion is as well. Crank up and enter Plekui and see what exactly is going on. No helos but we have trucks, one track and a tank. Move out in 45 minutes. You might hit some blocking forces on the way; push through and find out what is going on at division. Good Luck.

Characters
Lt McSwain Optomistic/movies Gr II
SSgt Davis 1st sq shy/ wealth Gr III Brillaint leader
Cpl Lawrence 2nd squad Gambler/greed Gr II
Sgt Colton 3rd sq cunning/ family Gr I
1st and 2nd squad high morale 3rd squad average morale

As you enter the outskirts of town you hear firing up ahead. What is your plan LT?

Outskirts looking from town

1st Cav will enter far side of board

Lt McSwain unloads the trucks. He decides to send 3rd squad up towards the houses on the right (his right/ left side of picture above) to find source of firing. 3rd squad has not done as much fighting as the other 2 squads and though they are not as proficient he is trying to even the workload.

A HMG quickly opens up from the red roofed house pinning 3rd squad. They do see an ARVN squad in the nearest house fighting it out with VC squads nearby. Lt McSwain, curses himself. He knew Colton wasn't up to the task. He orders SSgt Davis to infiltrate left through the paddies to take out the HMG, the tank forward to shell the red roofed house and the track to the right to lay down fire as needed. He will go forward to rally 3rd squad.

3rd squad proves difficult to rally. Suddenly out of the elephant grass to the right a rocket streaks toward the tank. The Lt doesn't need to look back as he hears the tremendous explosion.

Failure of 3rd squads attack. Lt McSwain

is the one still standing in front.

SSgt Davis made some headway on the right until they ran smack into a VC squad. They held their own but could not advance as the HMG turned its attention on them.

The Lt orders the track up to lay fire on the elephant grass. This track is designed for anti aircraft work with a gattlin gun and cuts an impressive swath through the grass. Meanwhile, 2nd squad goes wide right through the swamp as 3rd squad lays down supressive fire.

Cpl Lawrence and 2nd squad advance

through a swamp

2nd squad manges to push through to the grass and actually takes one of the houses but looses 4 men in the process. It is too much. Lt Mcswain orders a pull back from the town. He explains to Lt Jaroz that he is up against at least a company and requests an air strike on the town. Jaroz knows McSwain to be a good officer. If he can't make it maybe this is something big. He tells McSwain to hold while he checks with battalion, LtCol Patterson.

So ends the first battle! I haven't lost in a while so this will keep me humble. I used the iniative rules from the Christmas special and the americans went 3 turns without getting the tank firing card. This allowed the VC to move up a RPG to take it out. Ouch. Guess the tankers couldn't figure out the target or had a brand new sergeant.

American forces as above plus 2 M 60s. . the M113 had a gattling gun on it.

When the americans reach the 3 closest building roll a d6. On a 1-2 there is a 6 person ARVN squad in there with a Gr I leader. The ARVN will get no more than 2 squads total. The ARVN will defend their building but will not advance.

VC

2 Gr II leaders 1 gr I leader 1 squad with low morale

3 squads all armed with AK 47s. 1 HMG and 1 LMG team. 2 RPGs

a random reinforcement came in [ turn 4]that was a squad with a gr III leader. This was the squad that SSgt Davis ran into.

Great game. Hopefully you can do better than I

Enjoy

Joe

Sgt Saunder's Bronze Star day!

Last weekend got back to a tried and true Platoon Forward battle using my 101st platoon! Situation Normandy D +2.
Characters
Lt Joe Ramsey Scholarly/Techie Gr III
SSgt Bill Taylor Optomistic/wealth Gr II 1 sq
Sgt Paul Saunders Cheery/comforts Gr III 2 sq
Sgt Aaron Goldberg shy/wealth Gr II 3 sq (weapons)

OBJECTIVE: Recon road and outskirts of town. Secure approach to town for rest of company.
There is a MMG in the white villa on the right. (Random event gave you 2 recon rolls pre game)
You have 2 squads; 1 with a LMG, 1 with a BAR and a 3rd squad consisting of a 60mm Mtr and a 2 man Bazooka team. WHAT IS YOUR PLAN LT?

Looking towards St Giraird from

the american positons

Lt Ramsy said we had to take this french town ahead so our boys could pass through. Shouldn't be too many Krauts but there was a machine gun next in the villa next to the road. No artillary or armor for support; just us airborne.

LT said we were going to do a right roundhouse on those huns and avoid the road and woods. Aaron's mortar would lay smoke on the villa while 1 squad's LMG would lay down suppressive fire. "Great! I am thinking. Guess who gets to be the assault element." Right as Rain Sergant!!

Sgt Saunders is not expecting German

paratroopers! Ooops

So the smoke starts popping and the LMG starts buzzing and me and my boys go tearing across this field. About 20 yards away their fire gets serious and we hit the dirt. At this point I see 5 Krauts in a built up position and they have rimless helmets. "Christ we are up against paratroopers!" Can't let me boys know what I am thinking though. I yell, "grenades" and we all throw. "Up and and at em" I scream and leap forward. I didn't realize only 4 men and the Bar follow me. (Other 7 men were shaken) We kill all 5 with only Simmons getting wounded.

Sgt Saunders finishes clearing the position

Lt Ramsey moving up with additional troops

The BAR team starts firing into the MMG and they hightail it back into town. Meanwhile I go back to my boys and tell them they better not ever, ever, ever do that to me again. They are screaming eagles!!!!
Lt Ramsy ocupies the villa and 1st and 3rd squad come up. We are told to advance to the hedge and once supressive fire is available move up again.

2nd sq behind hedge when german gun

rolls around corner (top middle)

We are catching our breath when the Krauts roll up this gun and start to shell us from the town! I look back at the villa and it is under MG fire from the town as well. I ain't staying behind this hedge to be killed at long range! I ain't retreating! Only choice left is to go forward. We advance to the first house but it is in line of sight of that blasted gun. We move forward again (Sgt Saunder's is being modest, all these moves were under fire) and arrive at the town proper where there are 4 germans setting up a machine gun. We don't even break stride but enter the backyard and take them out!

Sgt Saunder's squad encouters the MMG

We encounter fire from the house. After a brief firefight it's grenade time and we enter. 10 americans against 8 germans! I have never been so scared in my life. We lose 5 but only Snyder is KIA. The germans lose 7 with the last one running into the next building yelling his head off.

Using a german LMG we are in a perfect position to lay fire on the gun crew and they scatter like legs! I was just congratulating myself when potato mashers come flying in and 6 germans come storming in from next door without knocking first! The biggest problem is I have 4 WIA and only 4 effectives. I killed 2 of the bastards and the other 4 turned tail.

Honestly Sir I was just doing my job. Any of the NCOs would have done the same.

Great battle and quick too. No heroic events where drawn. Sgt Saunder's cards just came up at the right time consistantly and his die rolls were good. 70% of a bronze star and he made it. He also earns a dynamic commander card. At the ceremony the following month he meets Sgt Lujens a Sherman tank commander who was also awarded a medal for valor. The two become friends. Will they meet again? I would bet on it but don't know where or when.

German Forces Roll die 20% paratroopers 30% security troops 50% wermacht

2 Gr III leaders 2 Gr II leader

2 squads

1 MMG

1 75mm SiG How

Set up northern half of board. Can set up 1 squad dug in.

Orders are to delay american forces

Enjoy!

Joe

Neukirchen Feb 1945

Grandparents visited over Memorial Day. Umpired a 2 person Lazy TW&T game between my Dad (german) and my son (american) Fictional battle took place in Neukirchen. Americans orders are to advance to the RatHaus and accept the mayor's surrender. If heavy resistance encoutered attempt to take the town. They are the spearhead of an armored force with follow up reinforcements close on their heels.
The Germans are a platoon of Landsers commanded by Hauptman Robert Vaughn (my dad likes the movie Remagen Bridge) 2 squads have nl moral and 1 has poor morale. You also have a 75mm ATG pulled by an opel truck. Your mission is to advance into the center of Neukirchen. Meet up with a platoon of Volksturm and defend the town. Americans have been reported 30 kilometers away so time is short! You are to become the town commander and have the authority to remove the mayor if need be. Rumor has it he would like to surrender the town if not for the volksturm.
Unknown to Robert Vaughn, the Volksturm platoon is actually an 8 man squad commanded by a Gr I leader. Also unknown to Robert, the americans will enter the south entrance of the board 2 turns before the Wermacht due to the vagaries of the umpire's die!

Center of Town. 4 men hidden in Kirche

4 men with panzerfaust just driven off

roof of warehouse on left.

Where is Robert?

Moments before, the americans, not trusting

the umpire, enter town very cautiously.

Good job son!

The Volksturm quickly melt away under M1 fire. They do delay the americans enough to allow the germans to enter the board. 2 squads quickly make for the Rathaus. The opel truck enters with Robert and a squad and quickly see a Greyhound down the street.

3rd squad quickly abandoning the truck when

faced with an american armored car!

At this point a P-47 enters and strafes the truck/squad and gun. Somehow they all survive

(who wrote those rules? see lardies special) but the men are shaken and run into the brick factory.

The2 german squads gain the Rathaus first and the americans have a hard time breaking in. they finally send a squad around the rear to gain entrance.

Close order fighting in the

grand hallway!

Robert is at the top of the screen

An epic battles wages in the Rathaus for several turns. A german MG jams and the americans managed to get a second squad into the building. Both sides suffer heavy casualties. Ultimately, the landsers are force into the upper left corner of the screen shot above. With 12 americans in the grand hall and a sherman tank and greyhound out front, Robert Vaughn leads his 7 survivors out the windows and down the alleys to escape. They will live to fight on another desperate day. As Robert Vaugh says in Remagen Bridge, "Who is the enemy?"

Great game. My Dad failed to comprehend that the 75mm gun was slow to move and set up once unhooked from the truck. He never got it into action and the greyhound kept the crew under fire.

Germans

3 squads

1 gr IV leader

1 gr III leader 2 gr II leaders

1 75mm gun w truck

1 8 man VG squad SMG armed with PF and gr I leader

Americans

3 squads plus 1 bazooka and 60mm mortar

2 gr III leaders 1 gr II leader 1 gr I leader

1 M8 armored car and 1 jeep with 30 cal MG

1 strafing attack by P-47 will occur during game depending on your rules

1 sherman tank comes as reinforcement on turn 4

Enjoy

Joe

Final Playtest! Philippine Sea late 1944

Have the rules written for LAAF and for Bragging the Hun. Had some Corsairs painted up and 3 new Jacks as well. Time for a final playtest! I like to attack smaller ships, not only does it play faster but I have a chance of sinking them. Furthermore I don't have to worry about history getting in the way of the story. If I have the Yamato supporting landings off Guadicanal that doens't sound quite right!

The Japanese are desperate to get a supply convoy through to the Philippines. The oiler is their #1 priority. They have scraped together an escorting force to include the Tone and will try to get through the ring of american airpower. They have also assigned a CAP force to cover it's entry into Phililpine sea.


TO HQ IMPERIAL NAVY

TOKYO

FROM HQ NAVAL FORCES PHILIPPINES

SUBJECT AFTER ACTION REPORT OF US ATTACK ON JAPANESE CONVOY 22 DEC 1944 AND ANALYSIS OF LAAF AND BRAGGING RULES TO BTH 2 SYSTEM


Prepared by Cmdr Lee Gan (Due to US Freedom of Information Act we have full knowledge of US forces and plans)

Our convoy consisted of 1 CA (Tone); 1 CL (Sendi) 2 DDs (Kamakazi) 2 PG (Saga) 1 Oiler, 1 Large merchantmam and 2 medium merchantmen. CAP at the time of attack consisted of 3 Zero fighters and 3 Raiden fighters.

Enemy forces consisted of 4 Corsairs armed with rockets and 12 SBD Dauntless divebombers. (These should have been Helldivers but despite being an arsenal of democracy, at 1/300 scale the US currently does not have the funds to purchase these aircraft so SBDs were used instead. But admiral, you should see the detail at 1/300th...) It should be noted that the englishman who designed BTH 2 clearly showed his western bias when rating the Corsair's manuverability as a 6. It actually is a 5 with a good roll rate and was used correctly for this playtest.

It appears the devil's plan was to have the Corsairs sweep in first to supress the AA fire with rockets. 6 SBDs would attack the oiler, 3 would attack the large freighter and 3 would tarry and finish up whichever ship needed to be attacked.

The Blue Wave


Raidens ride the wave

The Raidens approached from 3 o'clock but were spotted early. The Zeros approached from 12 o'clock. The fighters broke up the divebomer's formation but the Corsairs kept them busy. Interestingly neither side could gain the upper hand which worked towards the enemy's advantage as the SBDs jinked their way towards the convoy. Only 1 SBD was shot down by a zero fighter. No kills for our brand new Raidens. 3 SBDs were forced to abort their deadly mission; one with a critical instrument damage, one with a fuel leak and one with the pilot WIA. This pilot, Ens Wholaver, blacked out and crashed his aircraft into the sea. Interestingly the brand new Corsairs also failed to score. 2 Raidens were damaged and forced to leave early.

Overall, I expected 1 more SBD and at least 1 Japanese fighter to have fallen in air combat. These lack of kills are attributable to the speed differences in the aircraft which made tailing difficult and poor shooting.

IJN Tone was the bulwark of our AA defense

Convoy right before the attack

CL far left; Oiler and Large MM next in tandem

2 small MM next in tandem followed by Tone

2 DDs flanking either side of large MMs off screen

2 gunboats flanking small MMs off screen

Attack came from top of screen

The Tone and Sendi opened up with heavy AA at long range and continued during their envelope of attack. The large mm combined guns with the starboard DD and managed to "Shake" an SBD early on. (This is the one SBD that missed the oiler due no doubt to this accurate fire) The Sendi then destroyed an SBD. As the attacker transitioned into Lt AA range the rocket firing Corsairs managed to supress the CL, PG and pin the DD. This significantly hurt the AA fire in the near attack run; decreasing it just over 50%. Several Corsairs recieved minor damage from flak but this is occured after they had fired their rockets. Just before a Dauntless started its dive for the large MM the Tone's 25mm guns finally hit home and it blew up in mid air! This is doubly impressive since our 25mm guns are far inferior to the devils 40mm guns for AA duties.

9 SBDs and 3 Corsairs started attack runs. They were in zone for flak for 6 turns. 2 SBDs were destroyed, 1 shaken and 2 corsairs recieved minor damage.

Overall these results are deadlier than predicted and the deadliest we have seen in any playtest. I would have expected a 35% chance of destroying an aircraft; the same for shaken one and close to 100% for one causing a plane minor damage. (nothing is 100% in probability except our ultimite victory!) The rules do play faster than the ones in BTH 2 as you are not looking up how many dice to throw. I attribute the convoy's success to their bushido spirit that overcame the odds facing them! Banzai!

Corsair on final run in for rocket attack

on Kamakazi

Corsair just moments after successful

rocket attack on the Saga

3 Rocket attacks were executed. All hit their targets as expected. The first on the kamakazi took out 2 25mm gun mounts with significant crew casualties. These rockets not only supressed the AA fire on the ship but the loss of these guns depleted her AA capability for the rest of the battle. The second rocket attack was on the Sendi. These rockets caused some shrapnel damage and pinned the AA crews but no mounts were damaged or destroyed. The third rocket attack was on the gun boat Saga. While small this ship has 10 25mm guns so was critical to the light AA defense of the convoy. Unfortunatly the rockets caused a fire to break out on the deck and rapidly spread. The confusion of damage control parties and the smoke kept this ship out of the battle for the rest of the action.

Overall this is a small sample size on which to judge. The fire is unusual but possible occuring 20% of the time.

As you know we have improved upone the englishman's to hit procedure as well. His process has divebombers too accurate particularly the western ones! 7 planes dropped their bomb. (they all dropped 1000lb bombs, for simplicity we ignored the 2 100lb bombs). 3 bombed the oiler with 2 hitting. The one that missed was the shaken pilot. 2 bombed the large MM with 1 hitting. 2 bombed a small MM with both hitting. I would expect a hit rate on a large MM of 60%. 5 hit out of 7 which gives us 70%. Close.

The first bomb that struck the oiler penetrated several decks causing significant structural damage. (about 25%). The second bomb that hit buckled the already weakened keel and caused a fire. The ship was 75% damaged and had lost most of its speed.

The next ship attacked was the large merchant man. The first bomb hit a 25mm AA mount aft and exploded. This destroyed the gun and crew but prevented more serious damage to the ship.

The next bomber to attack was destroyed by the Tone. The third missed.

The last ship attacked was a medium merchantman. The first bomb penetrated several decks causing significant structural damage (about 25%). The second bomb struck aft into the engine room causing significant damage there and causing the ship to come to a complete stop.

Immediately after the US attack the oiler was burning as was the PG Saga. The large merchantman was superficialy damaged and a medium merchantman was significantly damaged and dead in the water.

Overall the results were realistic. They do show variation but this takes into account variables such as where the bomb hits; does it penetrate ect. It takes some time but definitly adds flavor to the battle.

Lastly the Fate Of Ships table was consulted. The oiler sank. The fire on the Saga was put out with only minor damage. The medium MM through heroic efforts of her crew managed to start engines and limp to port with about 33% of her cargo intact. She will not return to Japan however.

In conclusion it must be stated that we lost this battle with a minor loss. Our oiler did not reach the Philippines. The devils lost 4 SBDs and we had a large MM and 1.33 medium MM get through but it was not enough to claim victory. The english system of BTH 2 with our vast improvements added to it is a great system that does produce a fun and reasonably historically accurate portrayal of air sea combat in WW II. Most importantly it will give us the detail to brag about our final victory over the west!!!

Cmdr Lee Gan

Great battle and I am now done with BTH 2 for a while! I am ready for some Platoon Forward Russian Front style next.

Thanks

Joe Legan

Site not dead!

Capt Sandru making ace!!

Apologize for the lack of posting. A bussiness trip; real life and working of 2 projects for BTH 2 have kept me from playing any real games of late. Both projects should be in the Lardies summer special. The first is LAAF; simple anti aircraft rules for BTH 2. I have gotten some great help on this from Dan Nelson. The second is Bragging the Hun. It is more detailed damage tables for BTH 2 so you too can brag about your exploits back at the squadron bar! Ran 4 playtests this weekend including a particularly exciting one. 9 SBDs against 2 Tone class cruisers and 2 Japanese DDs. 1 SBD shot down by flak ( as expected) 6 of 8 SBDs hit their targets ( higher than expected but I am not messing with the to hit tables) First cruiser had a fire start/ 50% damage and had a 5 in turret destroyed. Fire burned out of control and gutted the ship. Had to be towed home! Second cruiser had bad flooding and heavy casualties. Flooding took a while to control and cruiser ended up limping home towing the first cruiser. Not bad for 8 SBDs!

Only real battle I have played was with my IAR -80 sq. Capt Sandru did make ace by downing 2 IL-2s while 6 IARs were flying CAP over a german TB and 3 Mine sweepers that had just delievered supplies in the Black Sea. They were attacked by 10 IL-2s escorted by 3 Yak-1s. Cpl Forscu was killed. Only one bomb struck home on the torpedo boat doing some minor damage. Flak scored no kills.

Next weekend I hope to have time to either play a russian front battle or a BTH2 battle with some corsairs I am currently painting up.

Till then thank you

Joe