HMS HOOD

For the fourth in our series of Bag the Hun games I wanted to introduce ships. Some time ago (2005 in fact) we put on a BTH game of which I still have many fond memories and which was notable for the sheer amount of laughter around the table. Yes, for those in the know, I’m speaking of the infamous Stuka attack on Capt. Geest’s banana convoy. If I recall correctly, the earlier version of the rules did not contain any actual ship rules and we just used static ship markers as targets. So with that in mind I was keen to see how the latest version dealt with ships and it just so happens that, a few years ago, I was given a small collection of 1/1200^th ship models by another club member (thanks Stan!).

The premise of the game was that a German high altitude reconnaissance plane had spotted a British warship (HMS Hood – or so the label on the bottom of the model tells me) moving into the Channel. So the German objective was obviously to sink the said warship.

Rather than predetermine the opposing forces I wanted to include a measure of planning for both sides. Hence the Germans were given a list of available units from which they could select three (although at least two units had to consist of bombers). Units consisted of 6 bombers, four fighter-bombers or four fighters. If truth be told, the scenario is really about bombing ships but I included the fighters as a comfort blanket for those who needed it. Each of the bomber units was also pre-assigned a mode of attack, taken from the bombing options in the rules:

He 111 – may ‘level’ bomb

Do 17 (in this scenario, a unit of low level attack specialists) – may ‘skip’ bomb

Ju 88 – may ‘level’ bomb OR dive bomb (bombing type must be chosen before the game)

Ju 87 – may dive bomb

Me 110 – equipped as fighter bomber – may ‘level’ bomb

Me 109 – fighters only

The Germans were also required to predetermine their entry point (from the south or south-west), their altitude and their turn of entry. As predicted, the Axis side chose the comfort blanket option and added the Me 109s to their bomber force of dive bombing Ju 88s and skip bombing Do 17s. The plan was for the ‘fast’ Ju 88s to enter at altitude level 4 from the South West, followed by the Do 17s on move two. The fighters would appear from the South on move three. The Axis missed a trick here as if the Dornier low flying specialists had stayed down at altitude level one they would have escaped detection by the Chain Home RDF stations.

The British started the game with a patrol of 3 Blenheim 1Fs on patrol and already on the table. Surprisingly, with the whole table to deploy on, the 3 Blenheims and 3 dummy bogies were deployed at the table edge and in close vics. The British were then informed of the altitude and direction of the hostile raids representing forewarning from the Chain Home stations. They could then scramble a further section of 3 fighters with which to reinforce the Blenheims. These were to be chosen from Defiants, Hurricanes or Spitfires. Defiants, if chosen, would arrive on turn one and Hurricanes on turn two. If Spitfires were chosen there would be a chance that they would arrive on turn two but there was also the chance that they would not arrive until turn three.

Disregarding the wonder that is the Defiant (ahem), the British instead chose to scramble a section of 3 Hurricanes choosing to enter from the north at the maximum altitude of six.

Ju 88 Bogeys enter from SW, yellow ship Bogeys and red RAF patrol Bogeys in the distance

HMS Hood was soon spotted by the forward Ju88s which in turn were themselves spotted by Bomber Braddock’s Blenheim patrol.

HMS Hood spotted

Bomber Braddock’s Blenheims cleverly used an intervening cloud to get around behind the leading kette of Ju 88s. Unfortunately, German defensive fire was heavier than expected and the rear of the bomber formation was a distinctly unhealthy place to be. There followed a tense few moves in which the Blenheims were subjected to either air gunner fire or their own flak from HMS Hood.

Braddock's hidden Blenheims circle the lead bombers

Eventually the inevitable happened and Braddock’s Blenheim exploded in a ball of flame.

The small central cloud is actually Braddock’s exploding Blenheim

By now Charlie Foxtrot’s unspotted section of Hurricanes were swinging around the flank of the bomber formation. Too late to stop the Heinrich Winkler’s lead kette of Ju88s dive bombing the Hood though. Two out of three bombs hit but did little damage.

The Hood under attack

Bravely the remaining 2 Blenheims commenced a head on attack to break up the remaining bomber formations whilst Charlie Foxtrot’s Hurricanes attacked from the rear. Unfortunately, Dieter Hasselhof and a schwarm of 109s had been waiting for that very moment sweeping down and bouncing the unsuspecting Hurricanes.

Charlie Foxtrot bounced

Within seconds, two of the Hurricanes, including Charlie Foxtrot’s were spinning down into the channel. In the distance one of the remaining Blenheims was also now on fire.

British fighters in trouble

Back at the ship Heinrich Winkler’s Ju 88s were driven off by the weight of very heavy flak from HMS Hood. The Hood then swung about to present a harder target for the remaining  dive bombers. Unfortunately they were now beam on to Wolfgang Fokker’s low attacking Dorniers – a perfect target for the Dornier’s skip bombing attack.

The Hood beam on

Meanwhile back at the rear, with one Hurricane gone and Charlie Foxtrot spinning out of control, Dieter Hasselhof led his pair of 109s in pursuit of the remaining Blenheims. However, with perfect timing, the sole remaining Hurricane latched onto his tail and with a long burst the 109 exploded – it seems that having a character card is akin to a death warrant in this game!

Hasselhof's demise

With the table edge in sight, the Hood had once again changed course and  headed for safety, or maybe she was actually weaving to avoid the bombers. In response the 2^nd wave of Ju 88s changed formation into line ahead in preparation for their bombing run in front of the Dorniers which had now dropped to wave top level.

Ju 88s in line ahead

While the Ju 88s struggled to find the best line of attack, the Dorniers commenced their bombing run. Both formations were, however, subjected to a veritable storm of flak

Bombs versus flak

Although two Dorniers did achieve hits on the Hood, causing minor damage, several were driven off and two plummeted out of control into the drink.

Time to deploy the dinghies boys! 

It was now left to the remaining Ju 88s to finish the job but the next card turned out to be ‘Ships Move’ and the Hood sailed over the table edge to end the game.
A Victory for the British then but this was always going to be a tough target. Maybe the Axis should have gone for more bombers after all?

Pseudo Night Fighting

Over the last few weeks we have been introducing some new players to Bag the Hun. The first game was simply a clash between two fighter forces but in the second we introduced dummy bogeys and bombers. For the third game I wanted to include clouds and flak plus the opportunity to play with some different aircraft. To this end the scenario I came up with was a trifle fanciful but hopefully fun. The reason that I call it fanciful is that it is based upon night fighters, which I strongly suspect never fought in a manner likely to give a good game in the traditional sense. At the moment, I'm part way through a book describing night fighter actions over the east coast of England and it strikes me that these are largely affairs of single aircraft. Not much good for a multi-player game then. My solution was to run a small scale bomber escort game, more typical of day time actions, but simply substitute appropriate night fighter aircraft.

The bomber force was represented by six Heinkel 111 bombers and the Axis objective was simply to cross the opposite table edge with a full bomb load. The escort force consisted of two pairs of Me 110 twin engined fighters. This time around there would be no aces or sprogs so the Me 110s were led by veterans Hermann Grossburger and Franz Strudel; the remaining pilots all being regular.

Opposing them were a section of three Blenheim 1F night fighters, under Bomber Braddock, and a section of three Defiants led by Trafford Park. Once again the 'characters' were classed as veterans with the remaining pilots being regular.

A couple of points on table edge were designated as flak positions and dotted clouds were randomly placed at altitude level 3.

To increase the uncertainty associated with night fighting each side had a number of dummy bogeys equal to the number of real bogeys.

There are no rules for night fighting, except a single spotting modifier in the spotting table, so I made a few rule tweaks for this game. The formation bonus cards were now redesignated as bonus bogey cards as formation flying doesn’t really fit with the night time feel.

To begin the game the Germans deployed first at an altitude level of their choice and the British deployed second; allowing them to react to the German deployment in this way seemed a simple way to simulate the tracking of the intruder force by radar, searchlights or whatever means available.

Unfortunately, the Germans deployed in the most unsubtle way possible and placed everything at the maximum altitude level of six. Hmmm – a bit of a slip up in scenario design here I think!

Axis deploy on a broad front; everything at maximum altitude - subtle!

This was most unfortunate for the poor player running the section of Blenheims, as their ceiling height is only level five! However, the Blenheims gamely played on, slowly climbing to their maximum altitude and making spotting attempts on the opposing bogeys.

Allies Deploy; Defiants at altitude 6, Blenheims at 4

The Germans made surprisingly quick progress across the table using the longer bogey move plus the occasional bogey bonus to push their bombers forward. They had covered more than half the table before a kette of 3 Heinkels was spotted by Trafford Park and the Defiants (a good band name there!).

Heinkels, flying in very close formation, spotted by Trafford Park, 

The 2nd kette of Heinkels were spotted, very soon afterwards, by Bomber Braddock's Blenheims.

Another close formation of He 111s - very dangerous at night!

Unfortunately, having spotted their quarry the Blenheims were unable to climb high enough to reach the Heinkels. To make matters worse they were now being targeted by their own flak. Up above them, the Defiants put up a good show with their turret gunners pouring lead into the enemy bombers. However, these beasts are remarkably robust and escaped with nothing more than scratched paintwork.

Defiants circle around their prey - watch those rear gunners boys!

Unfortunately, the Defiant’s attack had brought them into range of an escorting pair of Me110s led by Franz Strudel. 

Park's End

The latter turned out to be a born killer; even at long range he managed to roll an unnatural number of 5s and 6s causing Trafford Park to lose control of his Defiant. To add insult to injury, this was swiftly followed by Strudel’s character card that allowed another shot at the stricken Defiant. Once again a crazy number of hits were achieved, inflicting engine damage on the falling Defiant.

By now the Heinkels had almost left the table so we decided to call it pub o’clock with a decisive win to the Germans.

 So a fun game but slightly flawed. I had foreseen the potential problem with the height limitation for the Blenheim but was still surprised and taken aback by the Axis deploying everything at maximum altitude. Apparently, their rationale was to cross the table with maximum height and then dive, thereby gaining speed, to cross the table edge. OK, within the limitations of the game, fair enough but very much a gamer's tactic; an artefact of wargamer's edge of the world syndrome. In retrospect perhaps I should have stipulated that they needed to leave the table in level flight at altitude 3 or 4. Oh well lesson learnt. I do, however, wonder whether we should try out the optional rule for 12 altitude bands?

The Fattest Pilot

This week saw us take to the skies once more with Bag the Hun 2. Fired up with enthusiasm, after last week, I was inspired to not only create an electronic play sheet for my Kindle, but also put together a new card deck. The old cards were my original version one cards and were now looking a bit worn. As a consequence the game has now acquired a new cast of characters with the likes of Max, Ludwig, Eddy and Mickey leaving us for a well earned retirement. Let's see if the new guys can equal their exploits.
After last week's fighter fest I wanted to introduce some bombers so this week's game was substantially larger, although, with five players I felt that we could handle it, even with several novice players. However, best laid plans and all that..........we only had four players on the night. Never-mind, we were able to go ahead after a bit of last minute reshuffling but it did mean that the game was a bit slower than it should have been but everyone seemed to enjoy it.
This time around the scenario was loosely set during the Battle for France with the Axis attempting to destroy a vital bridge.

The Bridge

Once again we diced for altitude but this time the die roll was modified so that the Allies had the advantage. Unlike last time each side had an allocation of dummy bogeys.
The Axis strike force consisted of 9 Stukas commanded by Herman Grossburger (the fattest pilot in the Luftwaffe), escorted by two Schwarms of four Me 109s under the command of Top Ace Dieter Hasselhof and Junior Ace Heinrich Winkler.
Facing them were  9 Hurricanes commanded by Junior Ace Victor Valiant and Veterans Johnny Danger and Charlie Foxtrot.
Starting at altitude level 5, the Allies chose to use their dummy Bogeys to suggest the presence of a fourth vic of fighters.

The Allied Deployment

On the Axis side, the Stukas came on at a respectable altitude level 4 but the supposedly escorting fighters were at a miserable level 2.
The Axis chose to add a dummy bogey to each Kette of three Stukas to disguise them as Schwarms of fighters, leaving 2 dummy bogeys deployed as a lone pair.

The Axis deployment - Stukas in the centre.

Early moves saw the Stukas head directly for the objective whilst the escorting fighters climbed for height. The Axis ruse was fooling no-one as Charlie Foxtrot led his section in a headlong charge into the Stukas - that's certainly one way to spot them! Unsurprisingly, the lone pair of Axis dummies was insufficient to prevent Johnny Danger swinging around behind the Stukas.

Charlie Foxtrot surges ahead whilst Johnny Danger flanks right.

With two of the Stuka Kettes spotted, the third was able to slip unseen, between the Allied sections, and position themselves perfectly for a bomb run on the bridge. But no.......wait a minute.......where is the bridge? Not finding their target the Stukas were forced to circle the location before locating their prey - OK I forgot that you have to spot ground targets before bombing them.
Whilst the unseen Kette was busy messing up their bomb run the other two were struggling to stay on mission assailed by Hurricanes front and rear. Johnny Danger, in a perfect tailing position, downed the first Stuka which promptly exploded. The neighbouring Stuka, flown by Hermann Grossburger was severely buffeted by the blast and was knocked temporarily out of control, diving to the right. Unfortunately for Johnny Danger he was too close to his victim when it exploded and he too lost control diving to the left.
But where were the Axis escorts during all this mayhem? You might well ask; I certainly never saw them!

Johnny Danger makes the first kill

The Stukas doggedly attempted to complete their mission, even with the Allied Red and Yellow sections amongst them. One Stuka did actually manage a perfect dive to deliver its bomb on target - only to discover that it was a dud - apparently. Meanwhile, another Stuka exploded under the guns of Charlie Foxtrot whilst Johnny Danger, failing to regain control, continued his dive and left the playing area.
Beyond the bridge, Grossburger was also struggling to regain control, heroically foregoing the chance to bail out - or could it be that he couldn't squeeze his fat backside out of the canopy?
As Red and Yellow sections were doing a fine job of dispersing the bombers, Green section under Victor Valiant had eventually found the escorting Me 109s. Or to be more accurate they had found him, sweeping down from above to latch onto his tail. Pulling out all the stops and executing several Split-S and Immelman turns was not enough to shake off Top Ace Dieter Hasselhof. However, his accompanying schwarm were dispersed as they struggled to keep up with their acrobatic leader.

Stuka chaos while Johnny Danger dives for home

Whilst Hasselhoff took on Valiant, Winkler had led his schwarm, still unseen, behind the swirling Stukas. Unfortunately, this was too little too late, as Charlie Foxtrot led Yellow section straight through the Stukas and lined up on the struggling Grossburger. Inevitably, after long burst which emptied Foxtrot's guns, Grossburger's Stuka suffered a catastrophic structural failure falling apart - or was it just the excess weight.

Winkler loiters at the back whilst the Stukas disperse

With Danger and Grossburger both out of action, another character was about to bite the dust; a long burst was enough to see Valiant's Hurricane explode.

A Valiant end!

Once again we had reached pub o'clock so we stopped there. The Axis were starting to gain the edge in the fighter battle but that bridge was not going to be bombed today. A winning draw to the Brits then.

An Old Friend

After umpiring what turned out to be a very tense Sharp Practice campaign I was really quite knackered and ready to take a back seat for awhile. Luckily, Cpt. Dundarse kindly stepped up to the plate and offered to put on an IABSM game. This was most welcome and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting one of my favourite games and actually getting to play for a change. This is despite  the fact that Quincy and myself, as the Russians, were decisively thrashed by new boy Alan. Having demonstrated his now legendary dice luck in the Sharp Practice campaign he now showed that this was no fluke but actually quite normal!
As we had such fun with an old favourite, this week we rolled out another old friend - Bag the Hun or to be more accurate Bag the Hun 2. For this I dusted off my 1/300th scale Battle of Britain collection. We had 5 players, of whom only Quincy and myself had played before. Truth be told, although we had played this a lot, we had played more with the first edition and hence were more than a tad rusty. As this would be very much a learning game I adapted the simple starter scenario from the rule-book. Hence, Dundarse, myself and Wee Archie, representing the RAF's finest, took to the skies against the evil Hun led by Quincy and new boy Alan.

Axis Bogies seen through the haze (OK the photo's blurred)

For this first game we didn't use dummies so the axis came on, out of the sun and with height advantage,  as a central schwarm of four flanked by two pairs.
The allies deployed opposite in three vics.

The Allies in outmoded formations

Making good use of a formation bonus, Top Ace Victor Valiant moves his section of Spitfires into a position to spot the Axis schwarm; now revealed as Me 110s.

Bandits spotted dead ahead - Tally Ho!

In turn, Valiant is spotted by Top Ace Max von Quincy, with his escort of Me 109s.

Looks like it's a head on attack boys

Just when it looked like a high speed game of chicken, another propitious formation bonus allowed Valiant to speed past the 109s and line up a shot on the 110s behind.

Just when things were starting to look tricky for the Axis, junior Ace Alan demonstrated that his luck had not left him and with the turn of the air gunners card let rip with his rear gunner. Pish and tush thinks I - it's only a single machine gun after all. Foolish boy - more hits than is natural, followed by less saves than is normal, topped of with a whopping roll for damage saw a Spitfire hurtling to the ground from the first shot of the game. With his formation now broken and accompanied by an unnamed Sprog, Valiant was now decidedly less cocky.

Binky trails smoke as he hurtles to the ground

Luckily, after this initial set back, Valiant was to demonstrate the value of an Ace, scything through the formation of 110s time after time, picking off the unfortunate prey one by one. An early casualty was junior Ace Alan, losing control and diving off the edge of the table.
Meanwhile, Wee Archie's section was broken up by Top Ace Max who was only thrown off the tail of his target because it exploded!
As Valiant wreaked havoc on the unfortunate 110s and Wee Archie fled from the attentions of Max, Dundarse, still on a bogey, had worked his way around a fleeing 110 to execute a bounce out of the sun.

Dundarse's bounce

The next few moves saw Binky fail to undo his canopy as his Spitfire crashed into the ground, most of the Me 110 crewmen jump for safety from burning craft and a swirling dog fight develop between Wee Archie, Dundarse and Max. Also the unnamed Sprog blindly flew his Spitfire into the clutches of the remaining 109 pair - those blue bogey markers really do work, I just didn't see them!
It was now pub o'clock although we'd only played five out of the allotted ten moves. However, a quick calculation showed that if the Axis didn't turn for home now they would run out of fuel. Also on the Allied side Valiant had actually completely emptied his guns, so the game was reaching a natural conclusion in any case.
The game could have gone quicker but as a learning game we didn't do too badly. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and were keen to give it a go next week as well. Dundarse even ordered a copy of the rules during the game -I think it was move two!

Endgame - the Hun turn for home