A most enjoyable game

While waiting for my new 1/600 miniatures from Dom's Decals, I decided to get started with a Campaign from my upcoming supplement for Bag the Hun 2 based on the North African Campaigns. I picked Operation Battleaxe as it is a short duration campaign. I was modeling the actions of 150a Squadriglia of the Regia Aeronautica and No 73 Squadron of the RAF.
I randomly rolled for the pilot status of each squadron then rolled for the number of missions for the day. Since the British were on the offensive for the short campaign, the British rolled for the missions. They had one offensive and one defensive mission to conduct today. Next I checked for what mission they would undertake. This would be a combat air patrol. Next I rolled for the size of the mission. The die roll showed that 4 aircraft should participate in the mission but since the British were still using the vic formation in North Africa, this dropped the participants down to 3. For the defending Italians, they rolled an intercept mission. Their die rolls were better and they would have 6 aircraft on this mission in 2 three aircraft sezione.

The game started out with the two sezione of Italians on the left and the one section of Brits on the right. Both entered on bogeys. Spotting rapidly, the RAF and first sezione of Italians were placed on the board. The second sezione of Italians would stay on blinds a while longer. Deciding to fire at long range, the Italian Squadriglia commander Capitano Alfredo fired on Pilot Officer Logan resulting in minor damage. PO Logan was able to return the favor but missed.

Both sides aggressively advanced towards one another. Two of the three pilots of sezione two were spotted but Sergente Ernesto would remain unspotted. From sezione two, Sototenente Celentano fired on Pilot Officer Ward causing minor damage. Sezione two's flight leader, Tenente Delgado fired on PO Logan and missed.

Turn 3 had Sergente Ernesto fail getting on the tail of PO Logan. Sergente Maggiore Callende managed to get on the tail of Flight Lieutenant Smith. Firing on the Fl Lt, the Sergente Maggiore hit the cockpit. To make matters worse for Fl Lt Smith, Tenente Delgado fired a deflection shot and caused a temporary loss of control that eventually would lead to the Fl Lt Smith exiting the board in unfriendly territory.
Turn 4 started with Sergente Maggiore and the rest of his flight continued pursuit of the Flight Lieutenant and he scored another hit resulting in wing damage. PO Ward tried an overhead attack on Tenente Delgado that resulted in a critical hit with instrument damage. The Tenente would point his aircraft at a friendly side of the board and head in that direction unopposed. Flight Lieutenant Smith would leave the table at the end of the turn on the enemy side. Sergente Eduardo was still a bogey with no one spotting him.

Turn 5 had a considerable amount of maneuvering. Sezione one of the Italians attempted to preform an immelman to get back towards the remaining British aircraft but the flight leader failed his hard maneuver roll.

Turn 6 let the remaining British pilots decide to get out quickly and they turned tail and fled. They were chased doggedly by both sezione. Sergente Eduardo - now spotted, failed a get on tail test, jammed his guns and then promptly ran out of ammo firing on PO Logan. Sototenente Celentano also failed to get on tail and also jammed his guns while attacking PO Ward.

The final turn of the game saw Sergente Edwardo break off his attack due to out of ammo. Sototenente Celentano fired again on PO Ward but to no avail. At this point the Italians decided to call it a day and broke off the attack while the faster Hurricanes sped away.

The Italians definitely won. Rolling for the results, Flight Lieutenant Smith crashlanded behind enemy lines and was captured.

Italians:
Capitano Augusto was credited with 1 damaged.
Sototenente Celentano was credited with 1 damaged.
Sergente Maggiore Callende was credited with one kill.
Sergente Eduardo gained some valuable experience.
Tenente Delgado was able to return to his home base safely.
Sototenente Biagio did not accomplish anything.

British:
Flight Lieutenant Smith was shot down
PO Ward was credited with one damaged
PO Logan returned with a damaged aircraft.

The next mission has already been rolled up. This will be defensive mission for the British. It will be a scramble mission. They will intercept an Italian reconnaissance flight. Stay tuned for more.