Operation Torch - Angels 20/Bandits High Game Night

 I recently ran a game at our club game night. The scenario pits American Wildcats escorting Dauntlesses dive bombers flying in to support the upcoming American invasion by attacking Vichy gun positions and an airfield. Here at game night we had three Americans facing off against two French players. The French divided the forces into a squadron of three MS406’s and another of two D520’s. The American players divided their forces into a group of one Wildcat and two groups of a Wildcats and a Dauntless. The game proceeded well.  There were two new players and three veterans. We have great gamers in our club and within two turns the players had the rules down and were running the game themselves. 

The Wildcats are a really tough aircraft in this rules set and I tried to balance the forces by giving the French some positive pilot skills. The American players did a good job for the most part of holding the Vichy fighters off the Dauntlesses, but as one of the American players lined up a gun position for a bomb run and a Vichy D520 forced him to abort with a hit. The other Dauntless managed to hit and destroy the other gun position.

The Wildcats eventually shot down both D520’s and one of the MS406’s. One of the Wildcats ended the games crippled. This was definitely an American victory.  We did learn a lot by playing through the scenario. I’m preparing another D520 and will go with a French force of Three D520’s and two MS406’s in the next game. With the pilot skills, this should be a much more balanced force. 

Here are some photos of the game:

The furball forms as squadrons come together. 

A Wildcat takes on an MS406 at close range. 

I like the game mat. It is really for the Pacific, but works for my fictional scenario off the coast of N. Africa.

A crippled D520 tries to engage a Dauntless.

A Wildcat destroys a D520 with a vital hit roll.

My thanks to Gordon and Phil (Vichy players) and Kevin, Ralph and Michael (American players). This was a great game and I look forward to the next one at the Mayhem gaming convention in April. 

Cruel Seas Playtest

I had an opportunity to run a play test of my Cruel Seas scenario for an upcoming local gaming convention in May.  The scenario that I am running at the convention is based on the D-Day convoy crossing the English Channel on June 5, 1944.

Allied forces are American and British and include PT Boats, Fairmile D's, US Submarine Chasers, and a Corvette escorting some landing craft, a trawler and a tanker.  The Allied objective is to move their convoy across the long table edge without being sunk.

German forces are based around 6 S-Boats (2 x S38 and 4 S100), a Minesweeper and a Flakship.  The German objective is simply to sink as many Allied ships as possible.

Highest number of points is the winner - nice and simple for a convention game.

Here are some photos of the play test that I did at our local gaming store:

The Germans begin to chase the Convoy which is just out of the photo to the  right.  Allied escorts move out to engage the German torpedo boats.

The rest of the picture above showing the relative position of the Allied convoy.  Sort of dangerous for the Corvette to be heading out towards the torpedo boats as they would be launching their fish in an all-out effort to sink as many of the convoy ships as possible (of course)!

Shots being traded in a very high number!  Many of the boats were down to ten or less hull points by the end of the game.

Torpedos about to strike home on the LCT (G).  The results would be devastating and the LCT was quickly on the bottom of the English Channel.  At the bottom of the picture is the remains (flames and smoke) of a US Submarine Chaser which had been sent to the bottom by gunfire from a couple of S-Boats.

The melee continues.  At the top of the page two S-boats collide.  This would result in one of them sinking.  Above them, a US PT-Boat collides with the German Flakship which resulted in the PT Boat sinking!

We learned several lessons to incorporate into my game next month.  I will change the deployment of both sides in a couple of ways in an effort to speed up the first two turns of the game.  The convoy also has to start the game a ways down the table edge if they expect to exit any boats off the table by the end of the game.  Time will be limited in the convention setting.

Overall I think we should be able to get a good game in for participants.  I will keep you posted on how the game goes!

War at Sea Game

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to apologize for being away for so long!  Work and family have really taken over this summer and kept me away from the gaming table, and the painting table.

But we are back on an even keel (no pun intended as you will see) and I am back at the hobby to a degree.  The game to get me back into the swing of things was to host an Axis & Allies War at Sea game for my club game night last month.  The game was supposed to be for four players each controlling a small task force from the British, American, Italian or German forces available.

Due to a lack of attendance at the event, only one other club member and I were available to play the game so I took the Italians against Ross with the Americans.

In a word, Ross gave me good drubbing!  I only got away with the Roma (my battleship) and one cruiser meaning that I lost two cruisers and four destroyers.  I only managed to sink two of his destroyers and two cruisers. Additionally, I lost three of my four aircraft and Ross didn't loose any aircraft.  Oh well, we had a great time and it was good to play the game again.  It reminded me that it would be really fun to run a campaign using this rule system for the battles.

Here is a link to my friend AJ's blog with some photos of my game and other games during the event.

AJ's Blog - August 2016 Game Night Photos