Books and Mats

So I was pleasantly surprised that Noble Knight games delivered my battlemat for the desert three days early. In addition, Amazon delivered my copy of Black Cross, Red Start three days early. The mat is 6'x4' with a very apparent hex pattern. The reverse side is plain. I may be able to use both sides depending on how my desert and cowboy terrain looks on it. The felt is fairly heavy and the hex pattern does not go all the way through. Very excited about these two purchases.

The book looks to be in great shape. I couldn't justify the cost of a new copy and instead reached for the used, very good copy. I am glad I did. Other than a former owner's name in the book, it looks perfect. There is lots to dig through. The first chapter is on the air doctrine of the Germans and Soviets. I am really looking forward to reading this. The book is much larger than I thought it would be.

Operation Battleaxe - Review of the morning, Reinforcements.

Of the six battles that I had rolled for on the day, four have taken place. So far only the Italians have taken no casualties nor damaged aircraft. The RAF suffered the worst with 4 killed. The South Africans had one killed and two aircraft damaged. The Germans lost two pilots and the Italians have lost no one.

I received my order of Tumbling dice Ro37s over the weekend. I was happy to get them. I also ordered a new desert game mat off of eBay. That should show up on Thursday. I have plenty of planes to paint at this point. I think my next aircraft to target with be German Hs126s, Italian Ro37s and British Lysaners. This will give me observation aircraft for each force. The next priority will be German Ju-88s, British Blenheim Is and some Italian Ca310s to add more bombers to each side. The 3rd priority will be German Bf110s, 4x Bf109s and Ju-52s. At that point, all of my German aircraft will be painted for the desert. I will have a full staffel of Bf109s that can take to the skies at once.

The British still have my Gloster Gladiators and Blenheim IVs to paint up. I own some Spitfires but may save them for a different project. Either Battle of Britian or Malta. I would like to buy some Wellington bombers. These were heavily used across East and North Africa. But that is a future problem.

My Italians are in the best shape of the bunch. I have some new fighters to paint up: G.50, Cr.32, and Cr.42. I have between 6 and 8 of each. I also have a pack of Ca.310s as mentioned above. If I were to get any other aircraft, I would pick up some float planes. But that is distant future. I may have a few extra MC.200s that I could paint to get a full Squadriglia of fighters as well.

This is achievable to have all of this painted over the summer. Which brings me to my next excersize - Operation Barbarossa. I really want to get Germans and Russians for this campaign. I have some Bf109s already. I would just need all of the Soviet aircraft. My plan is to paint the Gemans that I have and place an order for just a single pack of fighters to get started. I am thinking of getting the I-16s as there were a large number of them. Then as I get a pack painted, order one pack for each side as I paint. I have a 6' x 4' Monday Knight Productions flocked game mat already that is a green grass. That would work for the campaign. I have ordered a book already, the Christopher Bergstrom Black Cross, Red Star Vol 1: Operation Barbarossa. I am just waiting for it to come in. Christopher Shores Co-Authored a couple of east front books that I am looking at as well. But will go with the Bergstrom book for now. I am looking at the Niehorster site for the order of battle. I am looking at the same axis of attack that the Battle for Ustilug took place on.

Anyway, just enjoying playing games regularly again.

Operation Battleaxe - Day 1 Game 4

Finally got to get the next game in for the campaign. The British were to escort a pair of TacR Hurricanes. I had two flights of four P-40s escorting them.I was going to use the recommended special article to determine starting positions but just never had time to digest the article. That is on the to do list though.

The game started with the lead group of British aircraft (White) flying at altitude 6, THE TacR aircraft flying in the center at altitude 5 and the second flight (Red) at altitude 4. Across the table was two schwarm of Germans Bf109s.

The British:

Pilot	Status	Notes
Flt Lt Carter	Veteran	Fkight Leader, White I
FO Carr	Regular	White II
PO Morgan	Sprog	White III
Sgt Pearce	Sprog	White IV
FO Hunt	Regular	Flight Leader, Red I
PO Moss	Regular	Red II
PO Read	Regular	Red III
Sgt Harper		Red IV

The Germans:

Status	Notes
Jr Ace	Schwarm Leader, White I
Sprog	White II
Veteran	White III
Sprog	White IV
Regular	Schwarm Leader, Red I
Sprog	Red II
Regular	Red III
Sprog	Red IV

The game began with a series of terrible die rolls. The first shot of the game was truely terrible. I think it was the British who fired and failed. My notes at this point were not very good.

This led to a firer side slip. The tide started to turn in the British favor though. Sergeant Pearce gets the first kill of the game by landing a hit on the pilot of German White IV, killing him immediately. This pilot had a character card and was removed from the game.

Flying Officer Hunt fired on German White II (Sporg) causing temporary loss of control which was recoved from. He failed his ontail test.

British PO Morgan fired on the German White III and missed. Then FL Carter lined up behind Yellow IV and poured fire on it causing fuel line damage and was activated again and caused it to explode for the second kill of the game.

Now the Germans started to get momentum. German White III gets on the tail of PO Moss. Then German Yellow I fired on PO Morgan causing engine damage.

The German White I pulled behind FL Carter and fired a burst that caused catastrophical structural damage. A picture was missed for this, but next the German White III pilot fired from on tail position and causes fuel line damage.

Then German White II, who recovered from out of control, gets a shot on a plane but only scores minor damage. Flight Lieutenant Carter's card came up and he failed to parachute and his altitude dropped further. German Yellow III fired on Sgt Harper but only gets minor damage. Throughout, a number of the d10 rolls were poor. FL Carter attempts to bail out again and fails to do so, dropping ever lower. German White I gets a shot on FO Hunt and forces Hunt to hard evade. In the picture below, Carter is in the upper left corner.

At this point, the British are in serious trouble. PO Read takes a shot on German Yellow III but side slips. Sgt Harper fired on German Yellow I and just wases ammo. FL Carter attempts to bail out yet again and fails. The ground is approaching him rapidly. German Yellow III fired on PO Morgan and scored a lucky hit on the pilot, killing him instantly. He was so close to escaping off the table. Morgan is the burning aircraft on the far right.

Close up of PO Morgan's fall.

FO Hunt fired on German White III causing the German to evade. PO Read fired on White I in passing, scoring minor damage. The German Ace (White I) fired on PO Read and gets a pilot hit. PO Read didn't survive and his plane plunged toward the earth. FL Carter has his final attempt to bail out but fails again. His aircraft hits the ground with an explosion, killing him instantly. Lastly, German White III gets a shot on PO Moss and Moss' aircraft explodes. (No pictures). At this point, the surviving British pilots break contact and head for home. Several Germans had run out of ammunition by this point and they decline to pursue.

The British took a hard loss. Four pilots killed including one of their best pilots. Two kills were scored but FL Carter was one of those. This puts the roster as follows:

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

I now have to plan for the afternoon battles. The Germans and the RAF were slated to have afternoon missions.

Reinforcements and Musings

I just received my miniatures from Pico armor. I really like Pico Armor miniature. They seem to be always be clean casts and have very little flash and have crisp look to them. This time it seems something changed. Two of the packs that I received were 3d prints instead of metal miniatures. That was a surprise that I wish they would have mentioned on the website when I ordered. I ordered some Gloster Gladiatoers, Lysanders, Ju-52s and some G.50s. Of these, the Gladiators and G.50s were 3d prints that still had their supports attached.

Appologies for the horrible picture. But you can clearly see that the 3d prints are still on their supports. This is always the hardest part with 3d prints is removing the supports without damaging the model. For a biplane, I was really hoping for a cast metal model. I will see what I have to do.

From Raiden miniatures, I ordered some old FightsOn! items. I picked up a pack of damage indicators. They are basically black and white pipe cleaners. Still, I like them.

Also from Raiden and FightsOn!, I grabbed a table edge indicator for showing where the sun is. These are simple hexes. Not 100% necesary but they are interesting.

I am considering ordering their pacific airfield model as well. It is a shame that many of the old FIghtsOn! items are no longer available. They had 1/600 scale bailed out pilots. That would have been fun markers to litter across the table. At this point, I am waiting on the shipment of my Tumbling Dice order. I ordered a flak position and some Ro.37s from them. They are on their way. This should give me all the aircraft I need for North Africa. The only thing I may want is some additional German bombers (Do17z or Ju88A). I have a pack of German bombers that are unpainted that I need to paint up still.

A friend is lazer cutting some additional dice holders for my aircraft stands. Thus far, I am really happy with the samples that he sent me. Here is a sample one.

He is printing a whole sheet of these for me that should give me more than enough to work with.

Musings.....

I started looking at my miniatures for Operation Barbarossa. I am thinking of playing through my Ustilug campaign as a solo campaign and possibly updating it to Chain of Command 2. In doing that, I have started looking at what it would take to get a few East Front airgames in. The Soviets have a very interesting mix of aircraft. There were biplanes as well as more modern fighters. For the Germans, the Bf109E-7 was very common. I just happen to have 8 unpainted Bf109 models in my miniature tray. I also have Ju87 dive bombers that are unpainted. So I already have a start. I read an article that when the Italians showed up on the Eastern Front, the aircraft that they sent were still painted for the desert. This would take me into the Fall of 1941 for the campaign. I really would only need to purchase some Russian aircraft. I would be looking to paint up models for use over the Ukraine. This would bring in the possibility of having some Romanian aircraft as well. Once my current desert air campaign is over, I may look into starting an East Front Campaign.

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.