Wooden Ships & Iron Men

I really didn't get on with Wing Leader (too abstract, a bit clunky, some funny rules) so have put that to one side and decided to try out a classic Avalon Hill naval game, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, which is already much more my cup of tea just from the initial set up. I've had an unpunched copy in excellent condition for years but hadn't played it, perhaps because I didn't want to punch out the counters, but I've now bitten the proverbial bullet and set up a simple two ship frigate duel scenario. If that goes well and is good fun, I'll crack on and punch out some 74's for a larger game.

Wing Leader

 

I'm going to try to get my head around Wing Leader over the next week or so, having a first edition copy of Wing Leader: Victories to play about with. It's supposed to be relatively straightforward to learn but that in itself is quite a relative thing and in my experience doesn't always turn out to be true. It should be interesting to find out but I do have a low pain threshold when it comes to learning a new system, so I'll have to grit my teeth and get stuck in.

Warfighter WWII: Tank Hunt

This mission ended up going horribly wrong after what seemed like quite a promising start. I had three GI's, a player soldier with an M1 and a bazooka, an NPS with an LMG and a squad soldier with a carbine plus grenades. The objective was to knock out a tank parked on step four of the track, which is obviously why I carted the bazooka along for the trip. This bit of kit ate up a load of load out points and prevented me from taking some useful things like grenades or a first aid pack, which was probably my downfall. 

Unfortunately, it all went pear shaped on the second location card, when an irritating enemy officer kept bringing reinforcements on after I had already knocked out the ones that were there in the first place, eventually leading to all my soldiers being wiped out. I couldn't get rid of him as he was screened, much to my frustration. The German body count was very high but this didn't make up for my entire squad being eliminated in the space of four turns. Talk about being pinned down! 

Warfighter WWII: Break Out

I played another mission today, this time using two British squaddies, player soldier Corporal Hastings with a sten gun and non-player soldier Private Lee with a Bren. The mission card was Just Another Day which only gave me 23 resource points but also placed the objective on step three of the track, so not far to go. The mission was a success and once again the LMG was very effective, Private Lee racking up 6 XP's by the end of the game. Corporal Hastings was wounded and very low on ammo but also managed to complete the mission with a 2 XP bonus. As this was an escape mission, I was supposed to work my way back to the start but, as I'm only just learning the system, I decided enough was enough. Good fun! 

Warfighter WWII: Capture the Bridge

 

I played a first game of Warfighter WWII today, thanks to isolating with Covid, and it was really good fun, if a little confusing to start with. I assembled a squad of four GI's, one player soldier with an M1 Carbine, one non-player soldier with a scoped rifle, another with an LMG and a squad soldier with a rifle. The objective was a bridge on step six of the mission path, which looked a long way off but was reached in the last three turns, only to be heavily reinforced before it could be captured. I lost the squad soldier early on but the rest of the team made it to the end, with the LMG gunner racking up seven XP's, even after spending some along the way. I"m sure I got some things wrong, in fact I know I did, but nothing too wayward to tip the game over or negate the outcome. I really enjoyed it after a wobbly start and I'll be playing another mission tomorrow, now that I'm stuck indoors with nothing better to occupy my time. 

IAF Leader 1967: Mission 5 Wipeout!

That's it! The fifth and final mission ended up just like the last two, with one hit less than required on the target and one aircraft shot down by enemy fighters. I'm not sure how you're supposed to win this campaign as the VP targets are pretty high (eight VP for only a Poor rating) while the targets often only have 1 to 3 VP's, at least the ones I've had to go for, not helped by the fact that the Recon track stays on 1 for most of the time. I have been unlucky with my dice in a number of games but even so it's a tough campaign to do more than badly at. My final score was a pathetic 1 VP and I ran out of SO's before I could get a crack at the sixth and final mission. Better luck next time perhaps but still great fun even if I got soundly thrashed!

IAF Leader 1967: Mission 4

 

This campaign is going from bad to worse and beyond. On the fourth mission I lost two Mirages shot down and only managed to get one hit on the target, which needed eleven to be knocked out. One of the Mirage pilots is MIA and the other one unfit to fly, while two of the three Vautour pilots have so much stress they are basically unusable for the rest of the campaign. Terrible! 

IAF Leader 1967: Mission 3

 

That was another total balls up by the IAF, with an attack on some Egyptian infantry going completely pear shaped. The strike package of two Vautours and an escorting Super Mystere had to deal with three defending fighters, with the Mystere damaged and then shot down on the way to the target. The Vautours got through to drop their bombs on the infantry positions but rolled absolutely terrible dice and only scored one of the four hits required, scooting off at low level to escape from the Egyptian fighters. The shot down Super Mystere pilot was picked up in no time, however, so scraped a single XP. A bad day for the IAF and with no chance of a secondary mission to scrape back a few VP's!

Red Winter

 

This is that latest of the second hand games that I've managed to get hold of via eBay and I'm really excited about this one, as it is a subject that I'm fascinated by, especially the air warfare side of the Winter War. Although this game deals with a specific battle in some detail and doesn't include any air component, it's still a very unusual and interesting conflict and the game itself is excellent, with a beautiful map and some very nice counters. I've heard that it's not too difficult to grasp either and ideal for solo play, which is what I'll be doing when I get round to it. Nice!

IAF Leader 1967: Mission 2

Mission 2 was a strike on some Egyptian Komar FAC's in the Gulf of Aqaba, which looked fairly straight forward as I was able to remove the two defending fighters using an event card, but ended up being a bit of a flop. I had loaded out the three Mirage with one AIM-9 and one Mk83 each which meant that they cost me extra SO's for the AAM's but then didn't have much hitting power when it came to ground attacks. In the end, I scored three hits with bombs and ground strafing but needed four to knock out the missile boats, so the mission was an embarrassing failure. The pilots did get an XP from the after mission event card, however, so it wasn't a total waste of time, even if I still only have one VP after two days of missions.

IAF Leader 1967: Mission 1

The first mission of the 1967 Six Day War campaign was a strike on an urban target in Jordan, with two Vautour fighter bombers escorted by a single Mirage III fighter. The event cards on the way to the target allowed me to remove the three defending AAA sites for the cost of an extra stress point, but this still left three fighters to deal with. One Su-7 was shot down by an AIM-9 fired by the Mirage on the approach to the target area but in the following turn, the Mirage itself was damaged by a MiG-19, forcing it to jettison the last remaining Sidewinder, leaving cannon as the only defensive armament to take on the enemy fighters.

The two Vautours and the damaged Mirage had now entered the target area and the flight leader - callsign Sky - dropped his four bombs on the town, causing a total of five hits on top of three hits that had already been caused by pre mission sabotage and successfully evading attacks by the enemy fighters at the same time. The only thing for the Israelis to do now was get out as fast as possible, while evading the enemy fighters or shooting them down with their guns.

One of the Vautours now jettisoned it's heavy bomb load and, rolling a ten modified up to an eleven, gunned down the MiG-17, with the other Vautour finishing off the MiG-19 on the way out of the target area. All three pilots racked up quite a lot of stress on this mission, so will need a good rest before they sortie again, but I did gain 1 VP toward the fifteen that I need for a good evaluation. It's a long shot to say the least! 

IAF Leader 1967 Six Day War Campaign

I'm starting a new IAF Leader campaign this week, a six day long Six Day War skilled level set of missions, with a squadron of four Mirage III fighters, two Super Mystere fighter bombers and four Vautour bombers. I'll set up the first mission tomorrow and will be playing the campaign over the next few days, with the aim being to complete a mission every evening. It's going to be a tough one but I'm looking forward to taking on some MIG's and SA-2's.

Warfighter WWII

 

I won an eBay auction for a copy of Warfighter WWII last week and was a bit worried that I had paid over the odds for it, spending about £48 on the deal when postage was included, especially as there were no photos of the contents. I was very pleasantly surprised this morning when I opened the box to find it was all in pristine unpunched and cellophane wrapped condition and included both of the upgrade card decks for the UK. What a bargain! I'll be exploring this game over the next week or so, but want to get another IAF Leader campaign for the Six Day War underway too, so I'm going to be pretty busy.

IAF Leader 1948: Mission 4

 

I forgot to take any photos of this, the last game in the short 1948 campaign but it was a blast, with seven Israeli aircraft including P-51's, S-199's and a B17 bombing an enemy HQ target. The defences were pretty tough with both fighters and AAA in abundance, but the IAF hit and destroyed the target for the loss of three of their fighters, two of the pilots MIA and one recovered. The reward was a very handsome 5 VP's, four for destroying the target and an extra one for overkill, giving me a campaign total of 8 VP's. This equates to a Good outcome, so I am very happy to have turned what looked like a disaster into a definite victory, much like the 1948 war itself. What a great game!

Down In Flames: Zero!

                               

I finished the IAF Leader 1948 campaign this evening, with an after action report to follow, and I'm now having to take a break, as the desk in the spare room where I set out my games is going to be occupied by the lad at the weekend back from university. In the short term I'm only able to set up something that I can quickly pack away, so I'm thinking of having  a go with GMT's Zero!, which I've had for a few years but haven't actually played yet. It's another second hand game but in excellent condition and, as it's card based, won't be difficult to set up and take down afterwards. I'm not sure how or even if it will play solo but I'm going to give it a try. 

IAF Leader 1948: Mission 3

                  

I pulled yet another Invasion target card for this mission, so had little choice other than to run it, even though it was only worth one VP again. I took the B-17 along for its bomb load capability, together with two escorting fighters, one P-51 and one S-199. The mission went well and the enemy bandits were successfully shot down, with the bomber doing most of the work, so that the target could be hit with enough bombs to wipe it out. I ended up with lots of stress again but the squadron as a whole benefitted from some downtime and is now in much better shape for the last sortie of the campaign. I also acquired a couple of extra SO's from the event cards, so I have enough to splash out for the final mission. 

IAF Leader 1948: Mission 2

                            

This was another Invasion target meaning I had no choice but to select it or see the invasion track go further to the right, causing all sorts of problems. It did allow me to select six aircraft but, as a downside, it was only worth a crappy one VP. The fighter cover was also nasty and I lost another P-51 shot down by a Spitfire on the way in, although the target was successfully destroyed with the help of the B-17. The squadron gained loads of stress and a lot of the pilots are now shaken, which limits my options unless I spend SO's to give them a temporary morale boost. I did pick up another P-51 pilot, however, and the one that was shot down also returned, so I can at least use some of the new pilots to stand in for the worn out ones. 

IAF Leader 1948: Mission 1

I'm short of time this week so my next campaign is a short 1948 War of Independence one, with a squadron of four Avia S-199, three P-51D and one B-17. The first mission I selected was a fighter sweep to shoot down four AT-6 Texans, escorted by a couple of Spitfires and with AAA in the form of two HMG sites.

The Spitfires closed to intercept but were swiftly dispatched, although not before damaging one of the Mustangs, with all three Israel fighters also having acquired some stress counters on the way to the target. Moving into the target area, the AT-6 Texans were now engaged and all four shot down, three by one of the pilots alone. 

The last one, however, managed to score a second damage hit on the already damaged P-51, which was shot down, the plot being swiftly returned to the squadron with a total of eleven stress! I only gained one VP as well, so it was an expensive first mission, but as a bonus I have gained another green pilot and his P-51 as a reinforcement due to the moderate pilot loss rating of the 1948 campaigns.

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 6

For the sixth and final mission of the 1956 Suez Crisis campaign, I had to go back and attack the convoy of APC's that cost me so dearly before. This time, however, I was really lucky with the site counter draw and ended up with only a single AAA site and a single MiG-15 bandit. This was quickly shot down and the target blown to bits with rockets and bombs, only needing a single hit due to a bonus on the infrastructure track.

Overall the penalties imposed by having three aircraft shot down and from the escalation card, meant that I only scraped a measly six VP's at the end of the campaign, a poor result but better than I expected in the circumstances. I had a blast though so dint really mind if it went a bit pear shaped at the end. I'm now moving on to a 1948 War of Independence campaign, to see if I can do any better? 

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 5

                           

This was a tough one, at least on paper but I was lucky to get a really good event card which made it a lot easier. I had to attack a convoy of tanks but this time could take six aircraft, almost the entire squadron, so had a much better chance of knocking out the six hit target. I also turned over a Sabotage event card which enabled me to remove five AAA sites before the mission, which left only the three bandits and a lone HMG to deal with. 

I managed to evade and shoot down the bandits, although it cost me a lot of stress particularly on one pilot, then hammered the tanks with rockets and light bombs to knock them out. The flight out was a breeze but the squadron was a mess of stress, so I gave then downtime before the next and final mission to recover a bit. I also promoted the newbie pilot to green, which is better late than never. It's going to be a very tight margin on VP's if I'm going to get more than an adequate end to this campaign. 

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 4

This mission was a total FUBAR with both of my aircraft shot down by enemy bandits on the approach to the target, not helped by the fact that they picked up two stress points on the first event card. One of the pilots is now MIA but the other has been recovered and is back with the squadron but unfit to fly, so I spent some SO's on R&R to boost the whole squadron up and return him to duty. The target was an Invasion and Escalation one, so I'll have to go back and whack it sooner rather than later. I've now lost two VP's due to the escalation card, which added an extra day to the campaign as a prolonged conflict, and another three due to destroyed aircraft, so it's all not looking so good. 

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 3

Mission 3 was another ground attack strike on a supply convoy, with the same two aircraft combination of a Mystere and an Ouragan, as this seemed to work well last time. Coming in high, they evaded and then shot down the two defending bandits, before dropping down to eliminate the target with a total of eight hits, despite only needing four. Another swift, high altitude getaway followed but I only gained one VP and loaded lots of stress on both pilots in the process. At least no one was shot down this time? 

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 2

 

This was a strike mission against a supply depot, defended by loads of AAA sites and two bandits, once again a MiG-15 and a Vampire. The four aircraft attack flight of three Ouragans and one Mystere approached at high altitude to avoid some of the flak but were attacked by the enemy fighters, although these were successfully evaded and subsequently shot down. Unfortunately, the Mystere pilot was also shot down by AAA, which wasn't a major issue as I had that 'get out of jail' card from last turn that I could use to return him to the squadron at the debrief. 

The remaining Israeli fighter bombers then dropped to low level and successfully wiped out the target, gaining an additional VP for overkill. It was a swift exit at high altitude and then back to base for some XP's and stress management. Most of the other squadron pilots had made a good recovery, so they will be ready for the next mission. Another good mission, only slightly marred by the Mystere pilot having to take to the silk, with three more VP's added to the bag for a running total of eight.

IAF Leader 1956 Suez Crisis: Mission 1

The first mission in the Suez Crisis campaign is pre-set as a VIP shoot down, with two Il-4's in the target area protected by up to four bandits and eight AAA sites, depending on the counters you draw. I ended up with a single AAA gun and two bandits, a MiG-15 and a Vampire. The three Israeli Mysteres selected for the mission made short work of all of them, although picking up some stress due to evade moves and damage. I also lost one VP to the Escalation Card but picked up an event card at the debrief which can be used to return a shot down pilot to the squadron at a later date, which will be very useful. The three pilots are now pretty stressed out so will get some down time next mission in which to recover. A good start with 5VP's in the bag! 

More Gaming Goodies

The latest and very positive additions to my ever expanding second hand game collection, which is now threatening to overwhelm the cupboard where I have them stashed!

IAF Leader: 1956 Suez Crisis Short Campaign

 

As a bit of a change and to build on my experience with Phantom Leader,  I thought I'd have a go at a slightly more developed and later version of the DVG Leader system, IAF Leader, which I bought second hand for a really good price a couple of months ago as a birthday present. I'm kicking off with a 1956 Suez Crisis medium length campaign and have assembled a mixed squadron of Dassault Mystere and Ouragon fighter bombers for the missions, rather than deploying earlier aircraft like the Mosquito and Meteor. I'll get it all set up and then hope to run my first few games at the weekend.

Phantom Leader War in the South USAF: Mission 4

 

The fourth and final mission in my medium length early war campaign was a basic ground support sortie, with two aircraft lined up for the task, which required eight damage points on a soft target defended by four AAA sites. I decided to load up with AGM-12's again for this one, as none of the AAA sites could target high altitude aircraft and I could happily ignore then while blatting the target. The mission went very smoothly and I gained three more VP's, giving me a campaign total of six victory points. This was number crunched by an IBM mainframe computer in the Pentagon, with the overall verdict being Good, which must mean that we're winning the war? Either way, I really enjoyed this short but challenging campaign and will be re-running it with different aircraft at a later point.