Target for Tonight - Devon Wargames Group

[carojon]

One of the games played at this month's meeting of the DWG was a bit of a change from the usual fair of figure games with this WWII fictional raid on Derben in July 1943 as a flight of Lancasters attempt to get too and from the target successfully but unscathed.





If you would like to see how H-How, P-Popsey, S-Sugar, F-Freddie and B-Beer got on then just follow the link to the club blog

https://devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/target-for-tonight.html

Jonathan (JJ)

[zippyfusenet]

Thanks for this post. I read through the account of your game on your club blog. I'll play those rules if I ever have the chance. Is TFT always that bloody, or was this just an especially tough mission for B Flight?  You wrote that you switched to 1/300 models for the night-fighter vs. bomber mini-games. What other scale models did you use?

[Harry Faversham]

Any idea where I might obtain the rule set?

 

[Mako]

Looks interesting.

Thanks for sharing your pics, and info.  Looks like a great game.

Don't know what scales of smaller aircraft they used, but options include 1/1200th scale, as well as 1/700th, or 1/600th too.

I'm interested in getting a copy of the rules too.

[carojon]

Thanks for your comments chaps.

I thought the game might raise a few questions.

The game is not scale dependent, you could use any scale you like as they are there to add to the aesthetic of the game. I happen to use the tidly marker planes for movement on the bomber track and 1:300 for the combat and bomb run, but if you wanted to go large you could do 1:300 on the track with larger squares and 1:72 on the combat and bomb run.

Generally there is a 40-50% chance of something happening for each aircraft to move, with a 10% chance of something seriously not good which can be salvaged by crew skills etc. As mentioned novices throw twice for these events so getting a novice into and back from a deep raid is a challenge and might need tweaking, I just haven't played them enough to know.

Deep raids are very dangerous especially to the Ruhr and Berlin, with veterans and elites having a better chance to survive.

I don't know if the rules are still out there as I got mine about seventeen years ago, so I thought I would give them a good bit of publicity to see if the author or someone who knows him is still about in the hobby. As mentioned in the post I did a Google search and came up with a blank,but this post is on three forums and the club blog so if the author is about we might hear something.

We are planning to run a second game next month at the club so that might help keep them in the spotlight a bit and see if we hear back from the author.

Cheers
JJ

[Duke Donald]

That sounds like an interesting set of rules. Your battle report makes for gripping reading.

[carojon]

Thank you. They are a fun set to play and the narrative they create makes writing up a raid like the ones we played relatively straight forward.

Cheers
JJ

[Mako]

Hey Zippy,

Looks to me like 1/600th scale aircraft for this game, for the smaller planes, based upon the width of the boards, wingspans of the bombers, and size comparisons to the dice on some of the pics on the blog.

Here's another game that someone ran using these rules, for the Nuremburg Raid, a few years back, as you can see in the pics attached, if this works.

I'd inquired about them years ago, but never got a response to what rules were in use.  However, seeing the title of these rules, and the "clue" of the name printed at the top of the aircraft control sheets that one can just make out, when zooming in on it in one photo, that issue has finally been resolved - "Target for Tonight".

They're able to print out multiple aircraft on a single page, to keep track of crew injuries/losses, and I suspect other things too.  The seven little boxes at the top of the sheets for each aircraft (only 2 for the Mosquito), are for each member of the crew, with a single, or possibly two-letter abbreviation for their position.

No doubt, other things may be tracked too, like engine losses/damage, etc., etc..

These rules look to be somewhat similar to the Ruhr rules Donald Featherstone created, and published in his revised aerial wargaming book.

I like the abstract "map" layout of the raid shown in these two pics, since you can identify target cities (cross-hatched areas like are typically shown in many WWII historical books), the planned bomber route, and even Luftwaffe nightfighter airbases too (little green symbols on the map). 

[zippyfusenet]

Thanks for the follow-up Mako, and for the OP carojon. I haven't asked for a copy of the TFT rules because I know that I'd never be able to construct the flight path for a game, it's far beyond my level of craftiness. Looks great in the pix, it would make an impressive show at a convention. Seems to be basically a solitaire game, where the player tries to survive hostile dice rolls. I don't see exactly how player input determines the outcome of the game, but I think it would entertain me.

Duel In The Dark is an interesting boardgame on the RAF night bombing offensive. In Duel, the British player tries to evade and deceive the German defenses while he scores points by bombing assigned targets; the German player tries to penetrate the British plan and extract losses from the bomber force. Duel is played with cardboard miniature airplanes that could easily be replaced with 3D 1/300 or 1/600 models, but the graphics of the game are so good that I just play with the counters.

I don't know anything about Featherstone's Ruhr game. Should I look for his book?

[Mako]

Yes, I would check it out, if you can find a copy.

An inter-library loan is probably your best bet, and is free from some locations, or very low cost from others.

Featherstone's also got rules in it for gaming the following periods, in addition to his Ruhr set (which appears very similar to TFT), and looks quite good - very similar to these, as near as I can tell, without seeing them, e.g. Sturmstaffel rules for bomber box busting, and a set of Vietnam air rules too.

There are also some chapters on other aspects of aerial wargaming, which I have yet to read, or try out.

The Ruhr rules use 2D6, and some of the others use dice, and/or playing cards.

Mike Spick also published a book on aerial wargaming, back in the day, which is worth checking out too.  Not sure what the title for it is, but it's got some interesting ideas too, including flak rules, as I recall.

Might as well go for a two-fer, if you do the interlibrary loan thing.

Cheers!

[Mako]

Air Battles in Miniature - by Mike Spick

Donald Featherstone's Air Wargames: Revised Edition -- Wargaming Aerial Warfare 1914-1975 (edited by Jack Curry)

[Mako]

You shouldn't need much in the way of "craftiness" to set up a game, just a little cash to buy a playing mat, or the low-cost materials to make one.  Options are:

1. king or queen sized, flat bed sheet;
2. large piece of black felt - buy with a 40% - 50% off coupon at Joann Fabrics - get the double-wide material, which runs about 6' wide (can also buy other, lighter, black fabric, if you prefer;
3. Dollar Store poster board, or thin, foam-core, in black - just need to cut to size, and paint the edges black, or use a black magic marker on them (the latter may be best, due to the material they're made from) - I'd leave some pieces in strips, for less cutting, and so they stay together, and then just use a gray marker or pencil to line off some sectors;
4. or, thin, countertop, or floor tiles.  You might be able to find 6" x 6" ones, or to get someone to cut them for you.  I think I'd just go with the larger, precut, 12" ones, instead, since that's easier.  I imagine someone must make black tiles, but if not, Walmart sells spray primer for $1.00, so that's an easy fix as well.

Then, you can decorate the above, as needed/desired.

For the bomber route, you can use colored string or ribbon, and just weight, or tack it down somehow.  Pennies painted black, or red/yellow, for route markers should work.

For the cities and flak zones, make those out of cardboard, foamcore, posterboard, styrene sheeting, or, and probably the most durable, and less prone to slippage, due to their weight, the aforementioned floor tiles.  The thin stuff can be cut to shape surprisingly, with a good pair of scissors, and the edges take paint readily.  Use these for your flak zones, cities, etc., etc..

1/600th aircraft are very affordable.

If space is an issue, you can drop down to the 1/1200th scale minis, which are also quite nice.  Painting roundels, or even applying decals on them looks to be rather challenging though.  They cost about as much, if not more, in some cases, than the 1/600th minis, so personally, I prefer the 1/600th ones.

I hope that helps.

[Mako]

A number of other people and I are interested in purchasing these rules from the author, D W Thomas, as either hardcopies, or PDFs, if the latter can be made available.

I'd prefer a hardcopy myself, and am located in the USA.

We'd really appreciate it if anyone knows the author, and would pass our request along to him or her.  I believe the author may be from the UK.

[flatpack]

This all looks a bit of fun..
I'm up for a PDF copy if it becomes available.
Got some 1/600 B24's ready to go.

[flatpack]

Thinking about it, with B24's I would be looking at using the rules for American daylight raids, with plenty of Germans fighters on the prowl.
Would this be possible with these rules ?