Playtest of "What a Fighter" Malta 1942.

 So I have been tinkering with What a Fighter (WAF) for a month now and appear to have the basic components worked out.  My bias for these rules are that wingmen are important in a dogfight and speed is just as important as maneuverability. 

I did take a break and played a micro armor meeting engagement between a US company and a Soviet Infantry battalion.  

 

Every time I play at the 1/300th scale it grows on me.  

But I thought I had enough of WAF in place to take my Malta spitfires and give WAF a playtest.  I used Squadron Forward to roll up a scenario and got "intercept".  My flight of 4 spits against 3 ME 109Fs escorting 10 JU-88s.  

The siren sounds as Flt Lt Barnes boards the jeep to his plane.  He is to take his flight out on yet another mission today.  

Flt Lt Barnes           Pragmatic/alcohol                  Veteran            1 kill

           F/O  Jamie Farnsworth         Cocky               Average

Sgt "Scrum" Patson      Cocky/religous                  Veteran           2 kills

          Sgt  Joey Towson       Fickle                          Veteran          1 kill     considered unreliable wingman

Barnes didn't want Towson as his wingman so took the inexperienced Farnsworth.  Sgt Patson with 2 kills would lead the other element.  

Flt Lt Barnes flight heading towards trouble.  

As Barnes starts to scan the skys ahead for the Germans,  Scrum calls out, " Jerry on our 6!"  "Sod! Everyone break." screams Barnes. 

Very unlikely but the German fighters manage to sneak up on the Brits.  They are still out of range when detected though.  

As the British start to break up an ME 109 latches on to Farnsworth's tail and fires.  His wing is shot up slowing his speed. [ German is an ace pilot]

The second ME 109, flown by the officer, is average in skill.  He attempts to get on the tail of Sgt Patson who is a veteran.  With planes of equal performance this is a test of skill which Patson wins at the moment.  The best the german can do is a quick burst at the fleeing spitfire.  

The third german is a veteran NCO and he lines up on Sgt Towson.  This is also a test of skill which the german wins riddling Towson's fuselage and making it quite hard to fly. Towson will loose 2 dice next turn and is in trouble.  

The british now get to react.

As I previously stated my bias is on having wingman be important.  Flt Lt Barnes circles back and sees Farnsworth in trouble.  He manages to get a quick burst at the german...

 

and is rewarded by a flaming plane!  Barnes saves his wingman and gets his 2nd kill.  [ Lest you think that was easy.  Barnes had a 45% chance of hitting the ace and then a 33% chance of knocking him down.  You do the math.] 

Now that Farnsworth's tail is cleared he can help someone else.  Towson is in more distress but is not a team player.  Scrum is, has 2 kills and is also in a bit of a pickle.  Farnsworth moves to help Scrum.  

As the german sees 2 spitfires maneuvering towards him he breaks off his pursuit of his prey as he was losing it anyway.  The spitfires and ME 109 dance with neither side gaining an advantage.  

This frees up Scrum.  Who, acting as a wingman, goes to help Sgt Towson.  

The german veteran attempts to hold his position as he has Towson right where he wants him.  Towson tries to work with Patson to get him a shot.  As the 3 fighters dance Patson doesn't get a shot but does manage to move the german off Towson's tail, ...

which actually was the goal.    

Sgt Towson now manages to dive away to safety and back towards the airfield.  

After turn 1 out of 5.  All aircraft at medium altitude.  3 spitfires and 2 ME 109s.  No attacks against the bombers yet but Barnes has survived a bounce and knocked down a Jerry for the loss of 1 damaged Spitfire.  As all fighters regroup, he tells Farnsworth that he will take lead and they will go after the ME 109s while Scrum will go take the bombers.  

While Farnsworth is moving to get behind Barnes the germans strike.  To his horror Barnes sees the pair going after Farnsworth.  

  As Farnsworth turns the german officer barrel rolls behind the turning spitfire and starts shooting...

Barnes can see the petrol streaming from the plane as Farnsworth yells he is taking damage.  

Barnes attempts to get a shot at the german but his veteran wingman keeps him away.  [ note: wingmen are important.]   Barnes tell Jamie to dive into a split S.  

Despite Jamie's torn wing the maneuver works and Jerry is shaken off.  Also the Spitfire is more maneuverable than the ME 109 down at this altitude.  

Meanwhile, above the fighter combat, Sgt Patson looks to make a pass on the bombers...

He picks out the lead bomber and makes his pass...

to no effect!

Turn 3

Jamie can't escape so he finally tucks in behind Barnes as the fight continues.  Jamie watches his petrol go lower and lower.  As the planes swirl all the german can manage is a snap shot at Barnes that misses. 

Flt Lt Barnes moves the Jerrys away so Farnsworth can make his escape.  Now it is 2:1 but he needs Scrum to knock down some bombers!  Sgt Patson makes another ineffective pass.   

Turn 4

 As Barnes tries to keep the ME 109s busy down below the germans do manage to gain position and fire. Bullets rattle the spitfire but nothing critical appears to be hit.  

Barnes manages to return the favor and fires... and watches with satisfaction and the left wing crumples on the ME 109! 2 kills today.

Meanwhile Scrum makes his 3rd pass at the JU-88s all for nothing.  Are these bombers armored today?

Turn 5

Veteran against veteran.  The spitfire has a slight advantage at this altitude but this will be a test of skill.  

The best the german can do is a quick shot from the front quarter which misses.  It is all Barnes can do to bring the situation back to neutral.  As the flak begins to darken the sky Barnes and the german break off; acknowledging their skills are equal today.  

Sgt Patson finally gets a great position on a Ju-88.  This time we will have a bomber go down...

With incredibly poor shooting all Scrum is able to do is knock the bomber out of formation!  Poor Scrum.  On top of that his spitfire is riddled with holes but none critical.  [ a cool thing was had he not been a veteran his plane would have taken damage.]  

So ends my Malta playtest of What a Fighter.  Using Squadron Forward we still needed to see what happened to F/O Farnsworth and Sgt Towson. F/O Farnsworth ran out of gas but managed to glide to the edge of the runway and have a very rough landing.  The plane sustained major damage and he was wounded.  Sgt Towson tried to bring the damaged spit in and crashed on the airfield.  He survived and should be back but the plane was written off.  I considered this battle a draw as we did down 2 fighters for the loss of 1 spitfire but every bomber got through.  No change for squadron elan but Flt Lt Barnes is now leading the squadron with 3 kills on Malta.  

Post battle Barnes goes down with an ear infection.  We don't get a replacement for F/O Skeel who was killed earlier so we are down to 4 pilots plus Barnes, Farnsworth and Towson.  We do get a replacement plane and one back from the shop so we have 8 plus Farnsworth's in the shop.  

I thought WAF played well. The whole battle played in 80 minutes.  I didn't allow wingmen to be separated as I really wanted to see how the wingman rules played.  I think the bomber rules are sound despite Scrum's lack of success.  Will need some more playtesting though.  Now I will start to get this all down on electronic paper in a semblance of rules and see if Rich is interested in them.  

Enjoy

 

Joe

 

Sybille vrs Forte 1799 How not to command a Royal Frigate!

 I have been dabbling in multiple projects, none post worthy until my wife and I took three days off and went to Annapolis, MD.  When I lived up there we use to sail out of the academy so this was visiting our old haunts.  This inspired me break out my black seas ships and play a couple of games of Post Captain.  I have raved about Post Captain before; it is the only rule set that I really haven't tweaked because it just works.  I painted up a french frigate about 4 months ago so it was time to get her on the table.  Old Dominion Game works has downloadable scenarios including the Sybille vrs the Forte; perfect!

The Forte was a 50 gun frigate raiding shipping in the Indian ocean.  HMS Sybille was a captured french frigate captained by Capt. Cooke looking for the Forte and found her one evening at rest between two captured british merchants.  For some reason the french assumed the Sybille was yet another merchant so as they made sail they did not prepare for battle.  Thus Sybille was able to close before the french realized their opponent was a 38 gun frigate.  Capt Cooke had a contigent of army soldiers on board because it was known that the Forte carried many more marines. Needless to say, Capt Cook fared much better than I did!

  My brand new frigate-- the Forte!

My veteran the HMS Sybille!

The OD scenario has the french unable to maneuver or fire for the first three phases.  I modified this so that on phase two the french are free to act on a "6" [d6].  They then add a +2 every phase afterwards.

Initial positions of the ships per scenario.  Sybille to the left.  Each hex 50 yards.  

 True to form the Forte is strangely silent as the Sybille approaches.  I see my chance to get a bow rake and a statue of me in Trafalgar square!

Take that ye frogs!  [ We are now in the 4th phase.  Odds are very good the Forte can move and fire.]

Ouch!  Didn't see that coming.  The stern rake is devastating.  Half our hull hits gone and rigging shot up.  Guess I haven't played this game in a while.  To make matters worse the ships become fouled.  Interesting dilemma now, do we attempt to board? We have soldiers but how many marines do they have.  I decide Capt Cooke wouldn't take a chance here but given the two ship lists the brits have the advantage.  

   The ships drift apart and the Sybille can't seem to find wind which leaves her at a disadvantage.  At this point Capt Cooke takes a command test and, probably because I am trying to command the ship, fails and decides to withdraw.  I guess the only thing worse than losing to a large french frigate is having to strike to a large french frigate. 

Orders are passed to the gun captains to fire at the rigging.  Soldiers are manning the pumps.  I don't think this is how I get my statue.

Both sides bang away but superior sailing of the british slowly starts to be felt.  [ One of the few rules I have changed in Post Captain is that crack crews get a +1 on the "luff and puff" rolls.] And the fact that the british reload faster so their gunnery is superior. [ Great rule!]   Then an interesting thing happens.  With a third of the Forte's rigging gone she too must take a command test...

She fails and must open the distance to 500 yards!  "Captain, the Forte is turning away."  "Very good Mr Riggins, set a course for Bombay.  We will get patched up and be back for her.  And mark my words, she will rue that day!"

I won't say a great battle since I was running away most of it but it was an exciting battle.  Post Captain really makes you feel like you are sailing a man o war without getting bogged down in too much detail. This battle played in under an hour as well.  I would like to try it again and not have my stern raked and see how it plays out.  

In other news...

  Over the last week I have started designing an air combat game based on the decision elements of What a Tanker.  It appears promising.  I am going to try to run my first bombing mission this week. 

Enjoy

Joe

    

Something completely different- Mr President

 I have continued to paint up my AWI forces; received an order from Old Glory but I have become distracted by baseball and a game I ordered 2 years ago- Mr President.

Now most readers of this blog are from the US.  In my experience having lived in europe for 8 years, most miniature gamers in europe haven't played board games like Squad Leader or Wooden Ships and Iron Men.  They jump from Airifix toy soldiers straight to miniatures.  Many US gamers either cut their teeth on board games or play both.  I cut my teeth on board games and will still occasionally play them; normally if they are strategic in nature.  I have Fire in the Lake from GMT and it is great.  They advertised a solitaire game where you are the president of the united states.  It looked very immersive so I pre ordered it 2 years ago and it arrived last week.  Since many miniature games won't have heard of it I thought I would give a narrative review of the first quarter of my second year as president.  

The game from GMT.  Very immersive and very long!

This is an old style nuts and bolts "wargame" where nothing is left under the hood.  You get to see it all which I like.  It is a table hog though.  The left side of the board is the strategic area, center domestic and right is foreign.  

Not everything falls on your shoulders.  You have cabinet members to help and you draw a superstar card representing somewhere else in your administration.  Here my National Security Folks are brilliant.  That helps me get intel on the bad guys.  As you can see this all helps with the immersion.  Bo, who is from the south, is a slow talking but not slow thinking secretary of state.

Since this is my second year we start with the state of the union.  I focus on the successes we had last year and talk about how we will need teamwork to deal with the Taliban [ I plan to invade soon] and gun violence  dividing our country. [ had an event card late last year that caused a domestic crisis on this issue.  One great thing about this game is that it is apolitical.  You "solve" issues but it doesn't tell you how you solve them so it doesn't drive an agenda.]  Well I nail the speech and my realtionship with congress goes up by 1, my popularity in the polls up by 3 [6%] and I get to introduce a new bill in congress because they are dying for my leadership.   

 
 

I introduce education reform because it is one of my priorities.  Please note on this picture that I have key supporters in congress [white] and key opponents [black].  This also is great for the immersion and working with these folks is part of the job.

Next is an economy check.  The economy is doing well.  This gives us several more action points to use and allows us to spread some money around.  I use the money to send aid packages to Israel and Saudi.  The middle east is a mess and it is good to have close friends there.

Now we see how our strategic military initiatives are doing.  With a robust economy we have been working on two.  Ivan Mercer [SecDef] briefs me that we are keeping ahead of the Russians and Chinese [ our two main opponents] in both cyber and space; very good! 

Next I set the priorities for my cabinet to be working on for the year.

This represents all the other secretaries and the executive branch not explicitly in the game.  I need to keep our nation safe so homeland security will be job #1.  #2 will be making the executive branch more effective.  This helps with action points and some die rolls.  #3 is the press.  The media can sink you so we want people working our social media.  #4-6 are less important to me and they are domestic issues, congress and the economy.  Domestic issues we can deal with if needed, our relationship with congress is already great as is the economy.  

Next each cabinet member and myself get to do an action.  

These are some of the actions you can do in Mr President.
 

My energetic chief of staff works the hill because we need bipartisen support for our legislation and she also whips our staff into shape. [ She gets a bonus action!]

My Secretary of state Bo works on decreasing tension between NATO and Russia successfully while overseeing our efforts to bolster trust in the west for Poland and Hungary.  [Bo also gets a bonus action and Russian hit eastern europe with cyber attacks last year that has shaken their confidence in withstanding Russia.] 

SecDef Ivan works on our invasion plan for Afganistan by moving forces into the region as do I.

Our VP works on lowering the domestic crisis on gun violence.

Now either Russia or China acts for the whole year.  This time it is Russia.  China will act later. I have to say the bots are brilliant in this game.

First Russia catches up in cyber warfare.  We do not want to fall behind these guys!  Next they eat our lunch spying.  First they steal Israeli war plans and pass them on to Iran. [ These guys are fighting and now Israel is pissed as us.  So much for our bribe, I mean gift earlier.]  Then somehow they steal our missile defense plans.  Is anyone helping me in our government?  Then they spread false stories through facebook and get everyone in congress riled up at everyone else so bipartisanship and my relationship with congress both go down by 1.  In eastern europe they undo Bo's hard work by again attacking Poland and Hungary through facebook and economically.  Finally, to be petty, they block the renewal of sanctions against North Korea.  Wow, that all hurt!

In response I get to do three actions.  Doesn't seem like much.

First we launch a successful raid on a level 2 terrorist group in the middle east that actually destroys them.  I have all my intel assets their which helps. 

Next Bo sends his team back to eastern europe but this time they fail to make any headway with our eastern european friends.

  Finally, our relationship with Russia can't be any worse.  We arrange a summit and Bo goes and improves relations.  

Next we get to draw several event cards...

 This isn't good.  Why won't people listen to their president!  I need to get bills passed and I am in good standing with my party.  I will take the hit with my party and call for us to come together and pass my legislation!   The public is behind my me, I gain a new ally.

Next...

Ouch.  Energy independence was not on my radar.  Guess it will be for next year.  Fortunately our economy is strong.

Now some allies act and one rouge state.  There are 4 groups and they each act during the year.  This time first up is the UK, Japan and North Korea.  

The UK shares our concern about eastern Europe and they help stabilize the area.  Good show old chap!

Japan helps locate a terrorist group in the Philippines  and appeals to the UN for humanitarian aid for the Middle East.  Their appeal fails.    

North Korea  makes noise.

Now I get to see how well my cabinet is doing on my priorities that we talked about above.  They are having success imrpoving homeland secruity and cabinet efficiency as well as helping the VP with gun violence.  Not too much traction with the press.  

I get 3 more actions before we do the legislative session.  I have the VP and COS work the hill improving bipartasanship so we can pass bills while I take to the airwaves to press for passage of my landmark bill about freedom and equality.

As congress gets down to business this is where we stand...

On easy mode your party controls congress which helps deciding which bills get brought up for vote.  You can see I have more friends than opponents and they are more skilled.  Finally there is enough bipartisan cooperation that we can vote on 2 bills. I ran on health care reform and it easily passes congress with the help of a new friend, Javier Cruz from CA.  I also pick up a new and dangerous opponent Chole Johnson from South Carolina.  The first stage of my sweeping freedom bill also passes.  I get to introduce 2 bills which I do.  You bet one of them is energy independence!  A great session of congress!  

Unfortunatly there is no time to rest on our laurels.  More cards must be drawn!

First one is actually good.  There are no terrorist groups in Europe but this should help later.

The second card is not good news.  China increases her influence in the region.  Bo will have to do some work once we get this war out of the way.

Rats and now there is a level 3 terror group there.  Going to need to spend some time and money down here or it is going to get out of hand.

But now it is time to get rid of this rouge state called the taliban led Afganistan...   

In this game it appears best to go in with overwhelming force and get victory quickly.

My forces are aligned plus 2 carrier groups off shore.  We do not achieve surprise but the time has come to free Afganistan from tyranny!

A cyber attack disrupts their C+C and it is like desert storm all over again. [ I rolled very well. there is a 30% chance of a guerilla war but we avoid that.] The public and the world applaud. We will suffer some negative effects at the end of the year. 

 

And that my friends is one quarter of a turn [year] of Mr President. 

Good Points

Very Immersive Game

Excellent AI opponents

Great components

Less than Good Points

Need a very large space to play

This game takes a loong time.  The box states 8-12 hours.  I don't see myself ever getting it down to less than 16.  

 

 For the solo gamer with time and space I think this is a great game even though there are no miniatures required!

Enjoy

Joe