Making WWII Aerial Interception - Bomber Games Interesting

[zippyfusenet]

Here are my Corgi B-17s, flying in a CY6! game. The lead ship is actually a Chinese diecast toy, that I cut the little silver wheels off and repainted. It's obviously a knockoff of the Corgi model, the shape is exactly the same. I luvs me some prepaints and diecasts:

CY6Side by zippyfusenet, on Flickr

[von Lucky]

Mako - really depends on your audience. I ran a set of games recreating the Japanese air raids over Milingimbi (Northern Australia) at a convention a few years ago:


I kept things simple with me as the GM running the bombers, and the players each having a fighter (Japanese or RAAF). Everyone knew the targets the bombers were going for (e.g. the landing strip and AA guns), but only my escorts knew when I would start decending, etc.

Was run as a set of linked games (where one game's outcome would effect the next one) using modified Wings of War/Wings of Glory on a hex mat. Was a lot of fun (ran it again a few years later). Simplicity is the key for convention games, for club/home games you can add a lot more.

[MartinR]

This is giving me a sense of deja vu - I seem to remember a very old board-sort of game in which a player piloted one single aeroplane - I think there were 2 options, a British and an American bomber, and I can't remember which aeroplanes or even whether they were WWII or Cold War. I have an idea the game came out in the 1970s at the latest, and was extremely detailed with care taken to reproduce the actions open to each member of the bomber crew. It's out of print, but I have an impression there was a pdf somewhere for the rules and a multitude of cards and a representation of the bomber too.

Trouble is it's a very vague memory - sorry, not much help there...   
I do seem to recollect seeing it on Board Game Geek too, though, if that's any help.

That is probably B17, which later became a computer game.

We've run a couple of bomber intercept participation games, in both the players took on the role of the intercepting fighters. One was attacking a large box of B17s, and other was shooting down V1s. In both cases the bombers were controlled by the game system.

[flatpack]

If you want to try modern aircraft games, you could try "Target locked on" by Rory Crabb.
I've bought it but not played it yet. Looks simple enough to play.

[flatpack]

I do like the idea of ww2 bomber games and wondered if we could use the "Target for tonight" rules that I know are being tracked down, and adapt them for daylight bombing raids ?
I've got a few 1/600 aircraft ready to go, just need some nice rules.

I've attached a few photos

Bombers









Escorts







The enemy

[Tgerritsen]

I wish the moderators didn't close the original thread in Cold Wars as I would love to discuss this topic with you separately from WWII, as they are very different sets of challenges.

At Little Wars this year I ran two Cold War bomber scenarios (Western jets vs. TU-16s and IL-28s) and (Soviet jets vs. Canberras).  AAA and SAMs made it interesting for the aircraft going in, and players separated into escort and suppression roles (the SAMs wasted their missiles against the suppression aircraft- I had them roll for it as the operators were fairly inexperienced and shot at the first planes coming in) so that the bombers had no SAMs to worry about when they made their runs.

The game was fun, but the factors that made it challenging to run as a game master were-

Speed- Cold War Jets are pretty fast, so players have to be on the ball or they will lose their chance.  In one game, the players played it like a WWII game, going after the escorts first and assuming they could just chase in on the bombers afterward.  Big mistake- by the time they peeled off to take on the bombers, they were already over the target and dropping bombs.  In the second game, the fighters split into groups assigned to the escorts and groups assigned to the bombers and that made a world of difference.

SAMs- Historically, SAMs were just not as effective as you'd assume.  The Soviet trained air defenses that used the ubiquitous SA2 mainly overcame poor chances to hit by firing large volleys and fighting opponents who flew in a way that was to the strength of the SAM.  Pk on a single SAM was paltry at best, and once suppression tactics came into play, they went down dramatically.  In my game, I didn't have enough batteries.  I should have had at least 3 full batteries to make them more of a threat.  As it was, they fired at the suppression aircraft and scored no hits, making them useless against the problematic bombers who would have been easier targets.

Mission Kill vs. Actual Kill- Interceptors have to remember their goal- to prevent the bombing of the ground target.  Reminding players that their goal is to stop the bombers and that bomber kills is just a nice bonus, allows them to focus on the goal rather than the kill.  Once my players knew their primary roll, it made them think in ways to maximize their tactics rather than everyone on the table just looking to add stars to the side of their plane.  The guy who had the most fun was the guy in a Venom doing suppression runs on the AAA and SAMs.  He giggled with glee as his 20mm chewed up the ground, and it made the bombers he was supporting very happy as well.

I think that providing roles in the bombing run and playing to the tactics of Cold War bomber missions makes it more interesting than the typical WWII bombing raid.  How often do you play AAA suppression tactics in a bombing scenario in a WWII bombing game as part of the overall game?  (Usually I see that as the game itself- you are a doing ground attack for some off table bombing run that will happen later...)

[Mako]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the replies and info.

Been a while since I've posted here, but have been following with interest.

For WWII daylight bombing, I suggest checking out White Star/Blue Sky rules, if you can find a copy.  You'll need the actual rules too, which come with the Battle of Britain, and/or Pacific Theater set, IIRC, since WS/BS is just a supplement.

There's another free set that looks pretty decent too, but I can't recall the name right now.

Another alternative, for a more beer and pretzels game is "A Mighty Fortress" from Tumbling Dice.  They come with some 1/600th scale aircraft, are very reasonably priced, and look pretty decent too.

Thanks for the reply TG.  I'll post another article on the Cold War section, since there are many issues as you mention, which make them quite different from WWII.

What rules did you use for your games?

I'm interested in discussing tactics, gaming options, strategies, etc..

Think I now have some decent ideas for gaming scenarios.


Best regards,

Rob

[Mako]

Here we go, for WWII Daylight Bombing over Europe rules - "Bombers over Germany!" (free set of rules, which look to be quite good):

https://arsmwargame.wordpress.com/home/regolamentiwargame/

I need to give them a try, soon.

Here are some great pics, and a battle account, of a game in action, for those wanting to do a little 8th Air Force bombing:

https://arsmwargame.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/bombers-over-germany/


Enjoy!