Bomber Aircraft in the Back of Beyond

[Boggler]

I won one of these a while back on ebay after having seen one that a friend put together for his Chinese Warlord army:

http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/w1/br14preview.htm

However, I thought it would  be a shame to use it with the standard ground-strafing rules in the CLA rulebook. So, I've cooked up these (very tentative) rules suggestions for bombing aircraft in the Back of Beyond:

To represent bomber aircraft, the models used should be two-seater light bombers such as the DH4, DH9 and Breguet14, or three seat medium bombers such as the DH10.

Bombers follow the rules for aircraft employment i.e. throw under D6 tactical rating to appear, placed anywhere and remain on table for up to 6 turns.

Bombers have a Tactical Rating of 5 if experienced and well trained e.g. British, German or French

If less experienced or lacking in training, the Tactical Rating is 4 e.g. Chinese, Japanese or Russian.

Bombers may not attack with machine guns (these are assumed to be for self defence).

They may drop one bomb per turn and may carry up to four bombs of the same type.

A bomb load may consist of H.E. or Anti-Personnel bombs. These count as Heavy High Explosive (p24) or Shrapnel (p23) respectively.

To make a bombing run, the aircraft must have flown directly over the target in the movement phase. The rules for misidentification of friendly troops apply (p17).
To hit the target, the bomb aimer must roll two less than the aircraft’s Tactical Rating i.e. if the Tactical Rating is 4, a roll of 1 or 2 is required to hit.

If the bomb misses, roll for deviation using the rules for Opportunity Fire (p23). The area of impact is a 'beaten zone of 4'' radius from the point of impact.
Any troops in the open in the beaten zone of a High Explosive Bomb are hit on a die roll of 5 or 6.

If a building or bridge is hit by a High Explosive bomb, a D6 should be rolled with a 4, 5 or 6 resulting in its destruction. If a field fortification is hit, a roll of 5 or 6 will destroy the feature. An armoured vehicle, pillbox or blockhouse requires a roll of 6 to be knocked out.

If a building, armoured vehicle or fortification is hit by an anti-personnel bomb, there is no effect. If there are troops in the open within the beaten zone they become casualties on a score of 5 or 6 if moving, or 6 if stationary throughout the turn.

Air to Air combat rules apply (p17).

Bombers cost 200 points.

Any suggestions or constructive criticisms would be very welcome.

 

[Ignatieff]

Boggler

These are great additions to the CLA aircraft rules, which are in my view amongst the weakest parts of the rules.

We just drop match sticks at the moment, but I think I'll find a way of inclusing these in my 'Setting the East Ablaze' rules.

good stuff.  Many thanks

[twrchtrwyth]

Cheers for sharing those rules.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

really interesting, could be useful for our summer game

[Boggler]

After a bit of thought, I've changed the hit die roll for AP bombs to 4, 5 or 6 for troops in the open, leaving out the 6 for troops that are stationary, just to make things a bit more effective and straightforward.