Operation Battleaxe - Delayed

Well weekends can seem to melt away. Was able to do nothing over the weekend. I am still waiting on the the orders I placed. I set up the Hs126 aircraft and am ready to glue the landing gear on them. Wasn't able to get that one. I have the aircraft sheets ready for the next game. Hopefully, I will be able to run the game ths week.

Operation Battleaxe - Planning for Game 4

Time to plan the fourth game in the campaign. The RAF quadron is going to be going out. They will have two missions as well. The first is an offensive mission. The other a defensive. The offenssive mission will be a reconnaisance mission. I do not have any Lyssander aircraft yet. But I do have Hurricanes. One of the missions assigned to Hurricanes was Tactical Reconnaisance (TACR). So there will be a single Hawker Hurricane that is being escorted by a flight of four P-40 Tomahawks.

For the mission, the following pilots will be flying for the RAF.

Pilot	Status	Notes
Flt Lt Carter	Veteran	1 kill in France
FO Carr	Regular
PO Morgan	Sprog
Sgt Pearce	Sprog

The TacR pilot will be a regular pilot. The TacR aircraft will enter the table from the bottom first. At the end of the first turn, the supporting aircraft of the RAF will appear.

The opposing force will be the Germns. They will be flying in three groups of two. The RAF will be flying in pairs as well. Each pair will have a character card. The Germans will be lead by a Jr Ace. There will also be a veteran, two regulars and two sprogs. This will be a tough fight for the RAF. This will also be the first game with an ace present. If I can get my larger hex mat rolled out, I may add some bogeys as well.

I have some more miniatures on the painting table but need to purchase some small magnets. I found the pack that I want and I placed the order. I also placed an order from Tumbling Dice for some Ro.37s. From Pico Armor, I ordered some G.50s, Ju52s, Lysanders, and Gladiators. From the Raiden webstore, I ordered a couple of FightsOn! items as well. I am thinking through a new mat. I am just not sure what to order. For the moment, I am going to use a flocked Monday Knight Production mat that I have and for smaller games I will keep using the existing small one.

I am hoping to get the next games done by this weekend.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1 Game 3 - The German Turn

I rolled on the random tables and the Germans will fight two defensive missions on the day. Lucky them. In rolling for the mission, both resolved in intercept missions. The first mission will have 8 fighters flying. The second will have just four.

The Germans began the mission with two groups of four aircraft. These were piloted by:

Pilot	Status	Group
Hauptman Hippler	Veteran	White 1
Lt Masing	Regular	White 2
Fw Lips	SPROG	White 3
Ofr Gebhardt	Sprog	White 4
OLt Grun	Veteran	Orange 1
Lt Von Braun	Regular	Orange 2
Fw ViermetzRegular	Organge 3
Ofr Ehrmann	Sprog	Orange 4

The opposingh forces was two groups of four Hawker Hurricanes escorting a group of three Martin Maryland bombers. Given the small hex mat that I was using, I put the opposing forces on the opposite sides. The bombers were between the two groups of Hurricanes. I have not added in bogeys yet as the table top is too small for that to really work. The two groups of fighters advanced rapidly on one another.

The Organge flight of Germans came face to face with the RAF Group 2, Pilot II. By luck of the draw, the Raf fire card came up first. He poured fire into the Ofr Ehmann's aircraft and landed a hit on the pilot, killing him instantly. The first score of the game went to the RAF. In that same section fire card, The RAF pilot Group 2, Pilot III fired on Fw Viermetz's aircraft and caused engine damage. Then RAF Pilot IV from the same section also shot but missed causing him to side slip.

the first group of Germans under Hauptmann Hippler closed in on the bombers. The bombers drew their fire card and missed. In the next turn, the bombers card came up and a bomber scored wing damage on Ofr Gebhardt's plane. The survivors of the German flight under OberLeutnant Grun circled around the bombers. The RAF red group attempted to do an immelman to turn around and catch up to the Germans but two of the four aircraft failed their rolls.

The Germans attempted to surround the bombers but the bomber move cards came up and they moved forward without taking a single shot.

The RAF Group 1 character fire on a german plane and side slipped. He fired again on the next card and missed. Then the RAF red desction fire card came up. Red 1 was positioned on the German Fw Viermetz. The result was engine damage. This was the second engine damage result that he had taken and his plane plummeted to the ground. Luckily, he was able to bail out later and reached the ground safely.

This brought the third turn of the game. The bombers continued their advance toward their target. RAF Red character had a shot on Ofr Gebhardt but only managed minor damage. But Gebhardt was not out of the fight. He was able to bring his guns to bear on RAF white #II and cause catastrophic structural damage. On the move card, the stricken RAF pilot was able to bail out and parachute to safety.

On the start of turn four, the bombers safely exited the map to their target. RAF Red IV got on the tail of the German pilot Lt Von Braun. His fire caused catastrophic structural damage leading to another RAF victory. Not to be outdone, the leader of red group fired on Fw Lips but timed his shot poorly and side slipped. Von Braun's card came up and he was able to bail out successfully.

The RAF leader of white group got a shot off on Hauptman Hippler. The veteran took damage to his instruments. The RAF fired again and his shooting was so bad, he side slipped. The German move card had them flying back to base with all haste. The mission was an abject failure. The RAF succeeded.

The Germans as they stand from this mission:

Pilot	Status	Group
Hauptman Hippler	Veteran	White 1 Instrument Damage
Lt Masing	Regular	White 2
Fw Lips	SPROG	White 3
Ofr Gebhardt	Sprog	White 4, Wing Damage, Minor Damage, 1 Kill
OLt Grun	Veteran	Orange 1
Lt Von Braun	Regular	Orange 2, Shot Down - Walking to base.
Fw Viermetz	Regular	Orange 3, Shot Down - Walking to base
Ofr Ehrmann	Sprog	Orange 4, Shot Down, KIA

The squadron is supposed to fly a second mission. However, they only have three undamaged aircraft from this mission and another four men back at base who can fly. Of the aircraft that returned, two are badly damaged.

The next mission will be my RAF squadrom.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1: Game 2 The SAAF Turn

The SAAF got a good start with some early move cards and advanced across the table. One German section had its fire card drawn before they could get close. The SAAF leader, Captain Pietersen, moved further ahead on his character card and separated from his wing man. He was lining up on the Stukas.

The Germans got their move cards and two fighters advanced directly at two South Africans. This left both sides open as they were squared off opposite each other.

The other pair of German fighters maneuvered to get a shot on the lone South African leader. The Stukas move came up and they moved away from the SA leader.

The Red Section (the ones with yellow beads) fire card came up. This was a completely different game than the first one. The Mc200s and Tomahawks had a mere 4 base fire dice. Both the Hurricanes and Bf109s had double this. While both South Africans rolled hits, the German’s maneuverability forced the fire to side slip.

This brought the German fire card for this pair. Only the leader had a shot due to the previous side slip. He took full advantage and netted a critical hit which result was catastrophic structural damage. I will have to see if Lieutenant Parker can bail out before he crashes to the desert below. The Luftwaffe claims the first kill of the game.

Captain Pietersen, now without Stukas to shoot at, had two Bf109s ahead of him. A German Sprog failed to quite circle around him.

The next card was the Lufftwaffe flight leader. He maneuvered to get behind Captain Pietersen. He didn't quite have enough movement to get on tail. Captain Pietersen's section fire card came up and he was able to take advantage of the German Sprog directly in front of him. A burst of fire netted him some Critical Instrument Damage on the sprog. He will need to break off and head for home.

Lieutenant Jonah Parker's card came up and he was able to successfully bail out and had his chute open. Since they were intercepting over friendly territory, he will likely make it back to base.

The Stuka card came up and they moved closer to their objective. As it sits, they may exit the table without taking a single shot. This would be more difficult if I had a larger game mat. I think this one is two feet by four feet so there is not much room for combat. Lieutenant Bertie Morgan moved to support Captain Pietersen rather than chasing the Stukas.

Captain Pietersen managed to take some fire and ended with a damaged fuel line. He would head for home rather than continuing to engage.

The second group of Germans began maneuvering away from their victory and moved towards the other South Africans.

They circled around and got on the tail of Lieutenant Parker's aircraft dead close. Things did not look good for the South Africans.

Lieutenant Morgan came in and got on tail of the German tailing Parker and managed to get on its tail. Now it was a race for fire cards.

As fate would have it, the German Fire card came up and the German poured fire into Lieutenant Parker. The critcal result was the plane exploding. Lieutenant Parker was KIA.

The British Fire Card came up next and Lieutenant Morgan poured out some fire on the Victorious German who had now claimed two kills in the game. However, his shots were no where nearly as effective.This resulted in some wing damage.

The Germans covered their pilot and came in for a shot on Lieutenant Morgan resulting in wing damage. After this, there was a slight bit of maneuvering and combat broke off.

For the South African's, the result wa srather grim.

Pilot	Results
Captain Pietersen	Fuel Line Damage
Lt Morgan	Damaged 1 enemy, wing damage
Lt Parker	Shot Down, Rescued
Lt Hill	KIA Aircraft Exploded

The Stukas made it to their target. The German fighters did well.

Pilot 1 - Veteran: No damage, no successes.
Pilot 2 - Regular: Critical Instrument Damage, returned to base.
Pilot 3 - Regular: 2 Kills
Pilot 4 - Sprog: Suffered Engine Damage, returned to base.

In the end, it was a fun game that had some interesting results. I really enjoyed the difference in the Bf109s and Hurricanes from the previous scenarios aircraft. I am looking forward to the next scanrio. This will feature the Germans squadron. Then the last mission of the day will be the RAF. Hopefully, I will get another game in this weekend.

Operation Battleaxe - Ba.65s and Martin Maryland Bombers

Seeing the need for some more variety, Managed to paint up some additional aircraft. I had already previously primed these aircraft. But what I noticed was that I had failed to glue any magnets to them. I had found my stash of small magnets and hoped i had some small ones for the Ba65s. I have six of these bombers. It is always tricky to get them as flush as possible so they won't look wonky on the flight stands. I really need a plastic pair of tweezers to do this with. But I don't have them. To ensure that i don't glue the magnets on backwards, I placed the new magnet on top of the flight stand and then slid paper between the magnets and lifted off the one for the aircraft. Then pushed the aircraft with glue on it, onto the magnet and flipped it over to dry. I only have enough magnets for 4 ot the 6 Ba.65s. I have more than enough for the Marylands.

The Marylands are larger and I have more larger sized magnets available. I am using AI to do the color matching. So far the colors selected by Ai seem reasonable. This has proved to be a big help to me.

I managed to finish the Ba.65s. The Marylands have their primary camo painted on. I need to paint the roundels and tail insignia. I probably need another 20 minutes of work to complete them. Mostly because I am a slow painter.

The Ba.65s:

And the Marylands:

Operation Battleaxe - Minor Update

I did not get a chance to get in a game last night as I was too tired. But I did get to purchase a set of beads for aircraft identification. I was able to set up aircraft for the next scenario with the ID beads. These were in a large bag for a whopping $2.00 at Walmart's craft section. The beads fit perfectly on the post for the bases. I figure that I will limit it to up to 4 aircraft per card (I have been using 2 per section card move/fire). The pack came with a number of colors that enabled me to make sure I have penty of options.

I also managed to identify a pack of aircraft that was in the drawer. Apparently, this is a pack of 4 Hs 126 observation aircraft. This will be a great addition to my Germans. I will need to glue the landing gear on but these should not be difficult to paint up for the desert.

I am pretty happy with the miniatures that I have. I have plenty of extras that I can use for other theaters. But that is a future project. I definitely want to do an eastern Front campaign at some point. I have some reference books already but will wait until I have painted up all of my Western Desert items first. I have a few items on deck for painting (Ba65s in particular). I do want to purchase some Ro37s for the Italians as well and some Lysanders for the British. But progress is being made.

The cards are set up for the next game. I have printed the aircraft record sheets. I am ready.

Operation Battleaxe - Notes on Day 1, Game 2

I am getting ready for the second game. This will be the first game for the South Africans in their Hurricanes. I ended up with an intercept mission. I made a quick determination if they were intercepting over the target, on the way to the target or on the way home from the target. The result was on the way to the target. Next I needed to determine who they were intercepting and that is the Germans.

Next I looked at my miniature collection and realized I only had Ju-87s painted for German bombers. I wanted to keep the game small so the scenario will feature three Ju-87s escorted by four Bf-109s. This will be a tough battle for the South Africans.

The Germans will have the fighter escort divided into two Rotte of two aircraft each. The bombers are in a single Kette. Each grouping will have a character card associated with it. For the Germans, the fighters will have one vetteran, two regulars and one Sprog pilot. The bombers will have one veteran, one regular and one sprog. The SAAF will have two pairs of fighters, each with a character card. I will have a veteran and a Sprog in one and two regulars in the other. This should have more variety than the previous game with no sprog pilots present.

Since the Germans are on their way to the bombing site, there will be no flak or ground targets to worry about. This should be a straight forward game. The German goal is to get the Ju-87s across the table for their bombing run. The SAAF are trying to shoot down as many Ju-87s as possible and prevent them from achieving their objectives.

The pilots I picked for this flight are:

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
2	Captain Rudi Pietersen	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill in East Africa
6	Lieutenant Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
8	Lieutenant Jonah Parker	Regular	0
12	Lieutenant Dexter Hill	Sprog	0

These are the pilots that i created in the original post of the campaign.

All of this is with aircraft that are already painted. I think I am missing the national roundel on the side of each of the Hurricanes but it should be fine. I may fix that or I may leave them as they are as i remember painting those on the P-40s and it was painful. The Hurricane is a slightly smaller model.

I hope to get to a craft store today and buy some beads to mark the aircraft before playing. I will also pick up some white and black pipe cleaners to use for damage markers. Hopefully I will get to run this on Wednesday night.

Operation Battleaxe - Preparations

The game mats that I have work better for Europe than North Africa. I want to purchase a new mat. Possibly something from Battle Mat Bazzar but I am undecided. What I really want to get is some ground attack markers. I am thinking of some 2mm vehicles to use as ground targets. There used to be a company called Fightson that had some but their website seems to have gone away. There are a couple of items left on the Raiden website but not many. What they do have, that I want to buy, are some parachute markers to mark downed aircraft. That could be fun to have on the table. I also need something for bogey markers. I am undecided on that as well.

I have 90% of the aircraft I want for the campaign. The aircraft that I really want at this point is the Italian Ro.37 for an observation aircraft. Also some Westland Lysanders for the RAF and SAAf. Another interesting aircraft would be the Caproni Ca.310 for the Italians. These were more transport and liason aircraft and really should have no business over the front.

Over the weekend, I managed to paint up three Br.20s that I used in the game that I previously posted about. I also finished painting three more German Ju87s for the Luftwaffe. I have some extras that I may repaint for the Italians as they move away from the Ba65 to the Ju87 for dive bomber duties. Speaking of Ba65s, I managed to prime a group of 4 of those as well as three Martin Marylands for the British. I also cleaned the flashing off of some Blenheim Is.

I will be headed to the store this week and buying a pack of beads to use as markers on the bases for aircraft Identification. I had a hard time following who was who during the course of the game.

Operation Battleaxe Campaign - Day 1 - Game 1: Italian Turn

I started my campaign. The first game had a flight of three Mc.200s escorting my newly painted Br.20 bombers. They were doing a bombing run on a convoy moving across the desert.

The defenders were two flights of two RAF P-40s that were to intercept the incoming bombers. Each group of two had 1 character card and the Italians similarly had two character cards, one with the fighters and the other with the bombers.

The Italians were lead by Tenente Gualtiero Titone, a veteran pilot. He was accompanied by two regular Pilots, SottoTennente Michael Mariano and Gergente Rocco Botti. The RAF pilots were a veteran pilot and three regulars. The bombers had a veteran crew and two regular crews.

I don't have a desert game mat. I did find a rather nice Hotz mat that I don't remember buying. It is possible that it was Terry Haney’s. I also don't have suitable ground targets. So three washers had to do.

What became evident as the game moved was that I need a better mechanism to ID which plane is which as it got confusing once the formations broke up. I have an idea on how to fix that.

The altitude stands mostly worked well. The die holder in the back did great for altitude. I tried to use the pointer to indicate the aircraft but it moved too freely and didn't work out. I will replace the pointer with a numbered bead going forward.

The Italian flight leader, Tenente Titone (veteran), quickly pulled away and intercepted a pair of P-40s. He quickly pulled behind the flight leader and got on his tail. His section fire card came up next and shot down the P-40 with a result of aircraft explodes.

The RAF was not idle. The other pair maneuvered and were soon on the tail of a Br20. The pilot had 4 separate shots on the bomber but only managed to score minor damage. The tail gunner managed to cause the pilot to loose control temporarily and break off.

The lead Italian circled back around looking to save the bombers. He was able to get on the tail of the second flight leader. It took two attempts, but this one too exploded.

A P-40 managed to get on the tail of the Italian flight leader and caused minor damage before he was shaken off his tail.

The bombers only had one aircraft to get close to the target and drop it's bombs. They missed.

The Italian flight leader lined up one more shot and caused some engine damage before running out of ammo.

At this point, the Italians broke off and headed for home. The P-40s didn't have a great outing. The Italians only had one aircraft that did anything scoring 2 kills and one reported probable.

The bombers claimed great success despite not hitting anything.

. Now I need to prepare for game 2 of day 1. This time it will be the SAAF’s turn.

-------------

Aircraft Notes:
RAF - 2 AC shot down (1 Veteran, 1 Regular). 1 Regular with engine damage and minor damage. 1 Unscathed.

Italian Fiat Br.20s - 1 Successfully Bomb, 1 Damaged Cockpit and 2x Minor Damage, 1 2x minor damage.

Fighter Squadriglia: - 1 with 2 kills and minor damage all ammo expended (veteran), 2 with no shots fired. --------------

Italian Score Board

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Capitano Mirocleto Gerbino	Jr Ace	5	Spanish Civil War Veteran
2	Tenente Gualtiero Titone	Veteran	2 (1)	Squadron XO. 2 Kills Day 1
3	Sottotenente Tarso Isola	Regular	0
4	Sottotenente Urdino Peduzzi	Regular	0
5	Sottotenente Michael Mariano	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
6	Sottotenente Abramio Giacinto	Sprog	0
7	SergenteMaggiore Lavinio Lico	Veteran	2
8	Sergente Cristian Piccoli	Regular	0
9	Sergente Romano Garafalo	Regular	0
10	Sergente Rocco Botti	Regular	0	1 Mission Flown
11	Sergente Rodolfo Scalese	Sprog	0
12	Sergente Neoterio Sciulli	Sprog	0
13	Sergente Girardo Rizzi	Sprog	0

Operation BattleAxe - A Bag The Hun Campaign

I pulled out all of my Bag the Hun miniatures again for the first time in a long time. I took stock of my miniatures and have plenty of painted aircraft. So I pulled out my air campaigns and started to look through them. The idea would be to do a solo campaign but for four separate fighter squadrons based on the miniatures I have painted up.

The thought is that each side will get an action during the day randomly rolled on a table that will target a specific force. The sides to this will be the SAAF & RAF against the Luftwaffe & Regia Aeronautica. Each game will be played independently between the squadrons unless a force randomly rolls an opposing mission against a side that is attacking them. This way, mostly the opposing forces would be other random squadrons with the occasional opportunities for them to clash head to head. Or so is the idea.

I plan on keeping the games on the smaller side with between 4 to 8 fighters per side with a small handfuls of supporting aircraft (4 or less). This should make the games manageable and faster for solo play. Operation Battleaxe was a short operation lasting only 3 days. That gives a total of 12 games for the full campaign. Note, that the squadrons are ficticious but based on real squadrons of different numbers. Each side will have 3 characters of the 13 member squadron. This will be the Squadron Leader and two other members of the squadron - chosen randomly. Of these, at least one must be a Sprog. Each of the squadrons will have a relatively similar experience levels.

Meet the Regia Aeronautica

For the Italian forces, I am looking to run a Squadriglia of either MC.200s (In june 1941 there was only 1 in North Africa), Cr.42s (I have 4 planes painted), or G.50bis fighters. I have more MC.200s painted than any other Italian aircraft so I will likely go with them. Pulling from some of the historical formations I have made the following Squadriglia of 13 pilots.

377^a Squadriglia

They are flying the MC.200 aircraft. Apparently, these were uncommon over North Africa at this point of the war. But I have 8 of them painted up. The squadron has 12 total aircraft at the start of the battle.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Capitano Mirocleto Gerbino	Jr Ace	5	Spanish Civil War Veteran
2	Tenente Gualtiero Titone	Veteran	1	Squadron XO
3	Sottotenente Tarso Isola	Regular	0
4	Sottotenente Urdino Peduzzi	Regular	0
5	Sottotenente Michael Mariano	Regular	0
6	Sottotenente Abramio Giacinto	Sprog	0
7	SergenteMaggiore Lavinio Lico	Veteran	2
8	Sergente Cristian Piccoli	Regular	0
9	Sergente Romano Garafalo	Regular	0
10	Sergente Rocco Botti	Regular	0
11	Sergente Rodolfo Scalese	Sprog	0
12	Sergente Neoterio Sciulli	Sprog	0
13	Sergente Girardo Rizzi	Sprog	0

These fighter aircraft will support squadrons fielding Ro.37bis and Ca.310 reconnaissance aircraft (I need to buy a few), Ba.65 aircraft (liason/observation and light bomber), SM.79 bombers and some Cr.42s fighters in a ground attack role. I own SM.79s with one nearly painted. I also own some B.65s but they are not even primed. I have three Cr.42s painted up and ready to go. I own some Br.20 bombers as well but they are also not painted. I do have some G.50s painted but they may need some decals to complete them out. I think I also own a pack of Ca.310s provided that my aircraft recognition skills are up to task.

Meet the Luftwaffe

For the Germans, I have a bunch of Bf109s painted up and ready to go. So these will be my base force. I own some Bf110s but they are unpainted. I have at least 4 Ju87s painted up as well which would make a great support. I think I have some bombers (likely Ju88s) but I didn't see them when i checked the tray. They would be unpainted if they are there. That would cover nearly all of the aircraft for the campaign. 3.II JG 28 These are flying the BF109E-7 trop aircraft. They were the most common German fighter aircrat over the western desert. I have 8 painted and another 16 that are unprimed. The squadron has 12 aircrat at the start of the battle.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Hauptmann Magnus Hippler	Veteran	4	Kills scored in the Battle for France.
2	OberstLeutnant	Veteran	1	Squadron XO
3	Leutnant Edgar Masing	Regular	0
4	Leutnant Erik Von Braun	Regular	0
5	Feldwebel Marc Viermetz	Regular	0
6	Feldwebel Fritz Lips	Sprog	0
7	Feldwebel Jacob Staudenmaier	Veteran	2
8	Unteroffizer Stefan Kellermann	Regular	0
9	Unteroffizer Jacob Kindl	Regular	0
10	Unteroffizer Christopher Schulberg	Regular	0
11	OberFahnrich Benedict Stoltenberg	Sprog	0
12	OberFahnrich Karl Gebhardt	Sprog	0
13	OberFahnrich Claus Ehmann	Sprog	0

The fighters will support the Ju87s of a nearby squadron as well as escort the Ju88 bombers of other squadrons. Occasionally they may protect spotting aircraft (I found an unpainted pack of Hs126 that I can get going on).

Meet the RAF

For the RAF, I settled on a unit equipped with the P-40. I currently have eight of these aircraft painted up. There were still unit equipped with this fighter deployed in North Africa by June 1941. As supports, i own some Blenheim Is and IVs, none of which are painted. I also have a pack of Martin Maryland bombers as well that need paint.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Squadron Leader Troy Holmes	Veteran	1	Kills scored in the Great War.
2	Flight Lieutenant Caleb Carter	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill Score in France
3	Flying Officer Toby Hunt	Regular	0
4	Flying Officer Deacon Carr	Regular	0
5	Pilot Officer Wyatt Moss	Regular	0
6	Pilot Officer Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
7	Pilot Officer Ernest Khan	Veteran	2
8	Pilot Officer Thomas Cole	Regular	0
9	Pilot Officer Gabriel Read	Regular	0
10	George Foster Douglas	Regular	0
11	Flight Sergeant Elliott Harper	Sprog	0
12	Sergeant Stanley Pearce	Sprog	0
13	Sergeant Adam George	Sprog	0

I have started the clen up process for some Blenheim Is and primed some Martin Marylands to give these fellows something to escort. I need some form of observation aircraft. The fighters themselves may be pressed into a ground attack role. I don't think it will take long to get the support aircraft ready.

Meet the SAAF

For an allied contingent for this campaign, I added a squadron of SAAF flying Hawker Hurricanes. They will use the same support aircraft as the RAF. The paint schemes are more or less the same between the RAF and SAAF. So what gets painted for one, is done for the other.

No.	Pilot	Status	Kills	Notes
1	Major Zayden de Beer	Veteran	1	Kills scored in the Great War.
2	Captain Rudi Pietersen	Veteran	1	Squadron XO Kill in East Africa
3	Captain Adiel Hertzog	Regular	0
4	Lieutenant Androw FitzSimmons	Regular	0
5	Lieutenant Francois van Wyk	Regular	0
6	Lieutenant Bertie Morgan	Sprog	0
7	Lieutenant Wincuf Pinckney	Veteran	2
8	Lieutenant Jonah Parker	Regular	0
9	Lieutenant Luca Hanekom	Regular	0
10	Lieutenant Archie McKenzie	Regular	0
11	Lieutenant Josh O'Brien	Sprog	0
12	Lieutenant Dexter Hill	Sprog	0
13	Lieutenant Stephen Reynolds	Sprog	0

I have 8 Hawker Hurricanes ready to go. In addition to the Blenheim Is and Martin Marylands that I have, I also found a pack of Blenheim IVs to paint up. I also have a pack of Spitfires but they may not end up in this campaign. I also think I might have a single pack of Gloster Gladiators languishing unpainted. They might be interesting to have make an appearance.

I have already played the first game but this post is long enough.