VBCW Cheep Airforces

[leadboy]

So I went slightly mad in the last phase of lockdown and put together some VBCW "Cheep" Airforces, which I've now put up on the Hereford1938 Blog:

BUF: http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2021/01/lifting-off-out-of-lockdown-buf-airforce.html
RAF: http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2021/01/lifting-off-out-of-lockdown-raf.html
Red: http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2021/01/lifting-off-out-of-lockdown-reds.html

All I need now is a simple set of bigger scale aircraft duelling rules - any suggestions welcome!

Cheers, leadboy

[Doug ex-em4]

Totally, wonderfully, outrageously spiffing. I lurve them all.

Great work, Sir....!

Doug

[Bearwoodman]

Superb!  ("Spiffing" is the most appropriate adjective but has already been used).

Is it true that the BUF painted its machines black to give them a vital psychological advantage over their opponents: the black paint made the BUF planes appear as if they were constantly in silhouette (i.e. whatever their foes did the fascists were always coming out of the sun!)?

[zippyfusenet]

I'm a fan of cheap diecast and plastic toy airplanes. Luv what you've done here.

For wargaming with my toy airplanes, I still use the Air Pirates adaptation of the old Avalon-Hill Mustangs boardgame, available for free via download from the estimable Ian Croxall's website. It does require a hex mat, I have several about 8 foot X 6 foot, laid out in 5 inch hexes:

http://www.warflag.com/mustangs/

[Roo]

Bravo Clive, incredible productivity, three entire air forces wonderful the skies of Herefordshire will be throbbing with the sound of props when time allows.

[leadboy]

Many thanks all.

Zippyfusenet: many thanks for the rules recommendation, especially as its playtested and free! I shall fiddle around with it once I've made up a hex playing surface.

Bearwoodman: an evil idea. This will undoubtedly lead to all the BUF players claiming a +1 advantage in all circumstances (and whatever the ruleset)....plus ca change, as the Bishop of Ludlow's French military advisers say. PS. Am still a big admirer of "40KShoddy in Space" especially the Nurgle-isation of your Super Shoddy Tank!

DougEm4/Roo: the BUF fighters were originally designed to fly off the BUF Escort Carrier, the Charles A. Lindbergh, at the Assault on Newquay Spring Big Game 2020 (sadly cancelled by reason of Covid). The rest of the airforces kind of grew from there. I prepared (from the same cheep Chinese source) another squadron of FAA fighter/bombers painted up to fly off HMS Argos, the Royalist Carrier, for the same game, but am keeping them back while the carriers get a bit of a refit! (actually, they are off chasing the Red Aircraft Carrier commanded by Captain Commissar Connery, the "Red Invergordon", but that tale has yet to be concluded (or even worked out):
http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-bristol-fleet-in-difficulty.html

[zippyfusenet]

Since you want to try Air Pirates, please indulge me adding a few thoughts about those rules:

1. Mustangs was originally designed as a two-player boardgame. The baseline rules involve the two players passing an initiative chit back and forth to determine who takes the first action in a phase. I prefer a simultaneous movement variant of the game. There is no initiative chit. I use single-sided order chits that players place face down, then simultaneously reveal. All actions are taken simultaneously. This variant speeds play and better supports multi-player games with lots of models, since there's no need for the players to dither over when would be most advantageous to pass the initiative chit.

2. You'll have to work up game stats for your Vickers Venom and Elstree Mongrel aircraft, but that shouldn't be too hard to fake. If you poke around that website you'll find data sheets ready-rolled for the Gloster Gladiator, Fairy Battle, I-16 and many others.  You will find two different versions of some of these airplane stats. Standard Mustangs uses a speed scale of 1 hex movement = 100 mph, but for 1930s airplanes, I prefer the variant that scales to 1 hex movement = 100 kph. It makes Golden Age airplanes much livelier and more entertaining to fly.

3. Think about whether you want to use 5 inch hexes or 3 inch hexes. It's challenging to fit an airwar game with big models onto a practical sized game table. Models must fit into hexes, game mat must fit onto game table. My 8 foot X 6 foot mat with 5 inch hexes is about 20 hexes X 15 hexes. This is tight; a fast plane moves 5 hexes per game turn, so can cross the table in just three game turns. Mustangs suits big models better than most rules, because the game turn is played in impulses, one hex of movement at a time, and most games finish in 8 turns or less. (This contrasts with a rule set like Check Your 6!, where a fighter may move 5 hexes every turn over a 20 turn game; CY6! is better played with 1/300 models, fitting into 1.5 inch hexes, giving a 45 X 30 hex playing area on a 6 foot X 4 foot mat.) I also usually focus my games around a bomber formation which moves slowly across the map, so fighters don't zoom off at high speed in random directions. I use 5 inch hexes to accommodate multi-engine bombers, but if your single engine models fit easily into 3 inch hexes, then an 8 foot X 6 foot mat laid out in 3 inch hexes gives you a bigger area to play in, about 32 X 24 hexes.