Winter War Research

I've always liked the idea of wargaming the Winter War air campaign both with Bag the Hun and the Wings at War rules, the latter being a slow burning project for several years, but my knowledge of the conflict is a bit patchy. This Osprey Air Campaign title passed me by when it came out but it's now been added to my summer holiday reading list. I'm hoping it will give me some ideas for scenarios and potential directions for a Wings at War rules variant, assuming that it is feasible. Tally Ho! 

Wings at War South Pacific

One of the chaps on the Facebook Wings at War group has developed a really interesting variant of the rules for the South Pacific theatre, specifically Papua New Guinea and Guadalcanal. 

The nuts and bolts are built around Scramble for Britain but there are some very original mechanisms that have been decided for things like air sea rescue, torpedo strikes and ground targets. 

I've offered to do some play testing so will need to get some models painted up at some point, which I've already got in the lead pile. It's a diversion from my First World War focus but will be worth it if the rules end up being published. 

It still needs a suitable title, however, so answers on a postcard!

2024 Review - Scribbling Stuff

I had a couple of things published this year, which is a bonus given my lacklustre output at the workbench. After several years the Wings at War Corsairs and Cavaliers rules were published by Paul at Tumbling Dice, which is pretty cool. I wrote these as a lock down project and then offered them for free to Tumbling Dice, as I just did it for kicks and its not my system anyway. They were given a thorough check by the original rules author, Chris Russell, and have his stamp of approval, so I'm just happy to have a credit. I also had my Bag the Hun article published in this year's Lard Mag, which apparently makes me a Top Ace contributer, at least according to Richard and Nick, which is a nice way to wrap up the year. I don't really have any firm plans for rules writing in 2025 but you never know? 

Flame Out Above the Falklands

I was supposed to be playing a game of Flames Above the Falklands at the club tonight but I've had to postpone it until next week, as I've done my back in over the weekend. It's been giving me grief all day so I asked if I could shift the game along so that I can take part without having to stand up all evening. The car is also still stuck in the garage for repairs, so I'd have to ask the other half to pick me up, even though she's feeling unwell herself, so not really a good idea. I'm hoping the car and the back will be sorted by next week, as I'm keen to have another crack at Wings at War over the Falklands. 

Flames Above the Falklands Flight Stands

I have a game of Flames Above the Falklands next month so will get on with making some flight stands, previous games having used my naval wargame aircraft bases. I was supposed to have done this ages ago but didn't get round to it, so I have enough bits to make a set of eight bases in three levels. It's not a very exciting job but will be better than using dice for altitude.

MiG Alley Multiplayer Club Game

A frustrating and disappointing game of MiG Alley at the club tonight, made less enjoyable by some confusion over the rules due to my failure to explain them properly. I've been playing this game for years but not for a long time, so I was a bit rusty and this showed in the way the game played out. It was the longest game I've played as well, for some reason, so we only got to finish one game and didn't use the ground attack rules at all. I'm a bit fed up it didn't go as well as I wanted and will be sticking to Bag the Hun and other rules for club games from now on I reckon. Bugger.

MiG Alley Extras Finished

The decals were a right pain in the back side but I've finished the F-86A Sabres and F-51 Mustangs for MiG Alley at last. The decals were fiddly and I've realised that the wing roundels are at the wrong angle, but I can fix that another time. I still have more things to add to the MiG Alley line up but, for the moment at least, I'm moving on to other wargaming projects. 

Energy Management Explained

There's often a bit of head scratching over energy management in Wings at War, so here's a simple reminder of how it works. The key thing to remember is it is primarily at the end of a sequence of moves, when action point expenditure equals starting energy, that any energy problems are resolved (apart from stalls, which can occur during a turn as well as at the end)

1. Action Points = Energy at the start of a turn.

2. Don't change your Energy dice during a turn but do keep a separate track of Energy loss / gain (using tokens or counters is a good idea)

3. Aircraft are allowed to exceed their Energy rating during a turn, but....

4. If energy falls below 1 during a turn = STALL (the turn ends after this has been resolved using the stall diagram)*

5. Otherwise, the turn ends when all Action Points have been spent.

6. If Energy at this end point is less than 1 = STALL 

7. If Action Point/s spent for the final manoeuvre in a turn cause Action Point expenditure to be greater than starting energy = SPIN.

8. If Energy at this end point is greater than Energy Rating = AIRCRAFT BREAKS UP.

9. If Energy is equal to or less than starting energy (but obviously greater than 0) = Action Points available for next turn. 

10. Flip the dice to the new Energy level on the model's base at this point.

*Try to avoid making manoeuvres with a random energy modifier (D) as this can cause a significant loss of energy during a turn and is unpredictable. 

Almost There

The MiG Alley extras are almost finished, with the painting sorted and the decals ready to be applied tomorrow. The black and white invasion stripes are far from perfect but, at arms length, don't look too bad. I'm happy with the end result but want to wrap these up ready for the game on Tuesday at the club.

Indo Pakistan Air War 1965 Reading

This looked worth a fiver on eBay so I ordered it as a starting point for research into the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, specifically for more detail on the air campaign. I've also sorted out some 1/600th scale aircraft from my stockpile of Tumbling Dice lead, adding some Folland Gnats and a few more Hunters, Sabres and Vampires for good measure. It will be a good way to make use of some odds and sods from my other projects, while also giving me something different to do with the Wings at War rules.

Tarting Up Some More Storage Tins

I've been tarting up some more storage tins for my 1/600th scale model aircraft over the last couple of days. Here's a WW1 German tin to go with the RFC one I did earlier, as well as a second Soviet WW2 tin to use for Khalkhin Gol alongside the Japanese one. Not bad for a bit of a side line and very easy to do.

Wings at War Winter War Rules Project

I've been mulling over ideas for a Wings at War Winter War set of rules lately, based on various elements of the existing rules but designed specifically for this conflict. Here are my initial thoughts:

Table layout would be the usual 6' x 4' divided down the centreline as the front line of the Karelian Front, but with a 40cm wide area of sea on the western end to represent the Gulf of Finland.

Terrain placement would include scattered areas of forest at height level one, using the system in MiG Alley for hills.

Tactical targets would be deployed on both sides of the frontline by both players representing bunkers, trenches, infantry and tanks. 

Strategic targets would be deployed on the Finnish side closer to the Finnish baseline representing villages, ammo dumps, railway lines etc. These would be the targets for Soviet bombing raids.

The Finnish would deploy in flights of two aircraft and the Soviets in threes.

The Finns would have more ace pilots and the Soviets more green pilots. 

There would be restrictions on the number of specific Finnish aircraft that arrived late or were in limited numbers.

The Soviets would gain VP's for hitting strategic targets with bombers and tactical targets with fighter bombers, They will also get to sow mines in the Finnish half of the sea area. They may get points for shooting down fighters.

The Finns would gain VP's for shooting down bombers, hitting tactical targets with bombers and fighter bombers and for shooting down fighters.

Both sides will also be able to gain VP's for reconnaissance and artillery spotting as in Duel of Aces.

There may also be rules for Taran ramming attacks and air to air rockets for the Soviets.

.... definitely a work in progress.

MiG Alley Coastal Terrain

I made these North Korea coastal terrain boards last year sometime then forgot about them. With a game of MiG Alley in a couple of weeks and some USN, USMC and FAA aircraft to deploy, I thought I better finish them off. It's just done with spray paints but I think it looks not half bad.

MiG Alley Club Game

After a long delay due to work and family life, I've set up a four player game of MiG Alley for the 5th November. This will be for players with no prior experience of the rules, so I'm going to keep it user friendly but hope to get in at least two games on the night. I just need to finish off the sea terrain boards that I started on ages ago to complete the set up. Tally Ho!

1/600th Scale Souped Up Storage

I've been storing my magnet based 1/600th scale aircraft in metal geometry set boxes for years but hadn't thought of customising them until today. Here's two I've souped up for the Bag the Hun Continuation War models, with a quick spray in Halfords primer, a top coat in a suitable shade of blue and green, finished off with a spare decal for identification purposes and a brush coat of gloss varnish, having run out of the spray on variety. The finish isn't perfect but I'm quite pleased with the effect overall, so will probably go and sort out something similar for my other sets of aircraft. 

Korean War F-86A Sabres

I took my daughter to an Open Day at Reading University yesterday and we had a hour or so to kill before taking the train back home, so popped into Waterstones for a bit. Unlike most branches of this bookseller, they had a well stocked carousel of Osprey Publishing titles, one of which was this book in the dogfight series which I didn't yet own.

It's an excellent little book and has lots of potential scenarios for Bag the MiG or similar rules, with a breakdown of tactics and manoeuvres accompanied by full colour diagrams. It has inspired me to have a crack at some early war 4th FIW F-86A Sabres, complete with the D-Day style invasion stripes. My existing 1/600th scale Sabres are all the later F-86E version with the yellow bands, so I have a gap in my Bag the MiG and MiG Alley line up that needs to be filled. I already have twelve Tumbling Dice Sabre models in the leadpile, so it won't take long to paint up enough for some early war games. 

I've also decided to have a go at some 1/300th scale F-86A Sabres and MiG-15 fighters, using the Scotia Collectair models, a couple of which I ordered a few weeks ago just to check out. I thought they were really nifty, so have ordered some more to make up matching flights of four, along with some decals from Dan at Flight Deck Decals for the North Korean MiG's and from Scale Specialities for the 4th FIW Sabres.

Falklands War Photo Shoot

Paul from Tumbling Dice was looking for some good photos of Falklands War models to use in a Miniature Wargames review article, so I have done a quick photo shoot of my Falklands aircraft for him. I don't know if it's what he's after but it wasn't a big effort to do, so hopefully he will find them useful.

WW1 Wings at War Wishlist

I popped off an email to Paul at Tumbling Dice with a wish list of models that are missing in action from the WW1 Vapour Trails range. Most of these are French and/or American, so some pretty big gaps if you are hoping to fly for La Patrie or the good old US of A. Here's the list I came up with:

Spad VII

Spad XIII

Nieuport 28

Breguet XIV

Sopwith Pup

Salmson 2A2

I'm sure there are other aircraft to add but these are all pretty big omissions from the line up, many of which are listed in the Duel of Aces rules. I did source some Spad VII models from Oddzial Ozmy but they are much smaller than the equivalent Tumbling Dice models, so don't match up well. Here's hoping Paul has some spare time to have a crack at some of these?

Polikarpov Fighters in Action

I have a soft spot for the interwar Soviet fighters designed by Polikarpov, especially the biplanes, so was chuffed to get both of the Squadron Signal books for a bargain price on eBay. To be honest, I already have quite a few books on the subject, but you can never have enough!

Algernon Pulls It Off Once Again

I'm thinking of giving this project a reboot once I've completed the Bag the Hun Continuation War scenario thing, as I have the mid to late 1917 RFC and Imperial German aircraft painted already, some nice blue hex stands and my old blue hex cloth, so only need to sort out some turn cards and it's good to go. 

Just need some decals

Ready to go!

I do need to add decals to the German aircraft but that's just a matter of spending a couple of hours, so nothing too troublesome. This also has the advantage of being useable for Wings at War: Duel of Aces, although I do need to make a set of flight stands for that and some ground targets, so a bit more effort required. 

Tally Ho!