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?