Western Desert Air Campaign June 1940 to February 1941 Completed

Well, the scenario book is finally done. It is called: The Falcon and the Gladiator: The Air War Over the Western Desert 1940 – February 1941.There are 38 scenarios covering a number of actions across the period from June 1940 to February 1941. The scenarios cover a number of different types of actions including: level bombing, dive bombing, torpedo bombing and of course fighter actions. The book weighs in at about 120 pages.

There is a campaign system included that is just like the previous Western Campaign supplement. Where available, the pilots for each squadron are included for the campaign system including notations on pilot quality. Included is a pilot progression system for both fighter as well as bomber pilots. There are orders of battle present for the start of the war, Marshal Graziani's September Offensive and for Operation Compass. There is data on squadron changes and squadron movements.

There is a brief potted history of the three covered campaigns. Also included is information on the progression of the corresponding ground campaigns.

One major change from the previous supplement is that the scenarios are fully Check Your 6 compatible and in a format that is familiar to Check Your Six players. They are still fully ready for Bag the Hun as well. There are some supplemental rules included for the campaign that cover the poor performance of Italian fighter craft in the early days of the war, specifically dealing with poor ammunition quality control and lack of radios in their fighter aircraft.

So how can you get a copy? Head on over to my PayHip store. It is also availible on Wargames Vault.

Below is a link to the aircraft required for the various scenarios: Falcon and Gladiator - Aircraft Needed.pdf

The Rick Memorial Games Day

Had a chance to get out and get some games in today. One of the local Atlanta gamers passed away last December and Mark put together a games day in his memory. There was a Napoleonics game, a Seven Years War game, two Vietnam Games, a couple of games of Wings of War and a game of Rourke's Drift.

I was able to participate in James' Vietnam game and played the VC. I had a platoon of VC supported by a Heavy Machine gun and a Recoilless Rifle. My opponent had a platoon of US troops supported by a machinegun.

The scenario was a simple meeting engagement. The VC entered near the village and quickly occupied some buildings. The Heavy MG set up in the edge of some heavy woods and the recoilless rifle deployed in front of a building. The US Advanced more slowly. I had a rough time getting my troops to activate. But when I did, they were VERY effective. During the game two US squads and the US machine gun ended up breaking and running to the rear. The recoilless rifle was used to destroy a hooch that was directly in front of it. This causes some casualties and some shock on the squad taking refuge in the hooch. The picture below shows the roof off of the destroyed hooch.

One of the US Squads advanced on the left of the village but was spotted by a squad of VC in a hut. They were fired upon and did not advance the rest of the game. The squad that fired on them did not activate for the rest of the game. In the end, the VC only lost one man killed while the US forces lost 10 men and had loads of shock.

The game was great fun and I would play the rules again. They moved quickly and seemed to produce a reasonable result.

The next game was a Wings of War game. I ran two Fokker Eindeckers, James had 2 DH2s (possibly?) and another player had two more Eindeckers. Three of the four Eindeckers were Mark IIIs and I had one Mark IV (dual guns). It was a fun and quick game. Both of my aircraft had taken some damage with the Mark IV loosing about half of its points. James managed to shoot down one of the other guys aircraft.

It was a fun day that I hope we make an annual event. Thanks to Mark for setting this up.

A Task Completed

Well I finally finished with my East Front supplement for the TooFatLardies Mud & Blood. I sent it on to Rich this afternoon. The supplement has 15 scenarios. It also has information for both the Russian and Austro-Hungarian infantry and cavalry. There is also a small bit in there on German cavalry for the Great War. I managed to check on when I started this project. Turns out I had been working on this since 2008. Wow! Did not realize that this one had been cooking for close to 4 years.

Now on to the next project. I have two that are over half way done. The first is a IABSM supplement for the Italians on the East Front. The second is another Bag the Hun/Check Your Six supplement that covers the Western Desert for the first few months of the war. I am not sure which I will work on first. I can probably finish the Western Desert one quickly. The IABSM project is more interesting to me though. Decisions, decisions. Any opinions?