Somewhere Over The Gulf, 1991

[bigjackmac]

All,

Okay, on to something new and different.  I'm playtesting another set of rules, this time some air to air combat rules.  In this, my first game with the rules, we have a flight of four USN F-18 Hornets taking on a flight of four Iraqi MiG-29s.  For my purposes everything is equal: the planes are equally maneuverable, each carries four IR missiles, four radar missiles, and three sets of countermeasures, and the pilots are of equal quality (apparently these are the cream of the Iraqi Air Force, and a USN ROTC aerial club).  In any case, the action picks up with each flight at opposite ends of the table, over barren Iraqi desert...


Furball developing on the deck at far right, while the other two sets of fighters cautiously feel each other out at altitude.


A helluva dogfight breaks out.


Ultimately the US Naval aviators splash three bogeys.

The game was played with Picoarmor 1/600 jets on about a 3' x 3' table in about two hours and ten minutes.  I've already thought of a few tweaks to the rules, and if you've got the time I'd love it if anyone could give a read through and let me know what they think of the batrep.

Thanks for taking a look, and for the whole fight check the blog here:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/03/somewhere-over-gulf-1991.html

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very cool.
I'm a big fan of Tumbling Dice's 1/600 kit...

[petercooman]

Nice report and really like the 'counters'!!

Wich rules are these? You didn't mention them in the report i think  

IMO the counter measures add a nice touch, i you look at the report, the planes would have fallen much sooner without them. And i think if they can run out of CM they might be more fun in bigger games, givingyou some tactical options. (take some early shots to reduce the CM on the enemy, and later in the game , going after the ones who ran out or not could make a tricky desicion)

Although i can imagine that bigger games might take a long while  

[GordonY]

I dearly love Bag the Hun/Mig for this kind of game but unfortunatly it doesnt really extend fully into the high tech world of truly modern jets. I do have Thud Ridge stuff that I'm waiting to have a go at but that isnt really up to date either so I'd like to hear more thoughts on the rulesets available for this kind of furball (I really wanna game the shootout from Topgun  )

[getagrip]

This is really good; I love the parachute and, what my limited knowledge see Cannae tells me, are countermeasure markers.

Lovely looking game.

[Roy]

Looks brill'!

[Techno]

Ditto !
Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

Thank you gentlemen, I appreciate it, and I'm glad to see some folks interested in aerial combat gaming.  I wasn't sure how it would go over here

The rules are a playtest set I'm working on.  I, too, love Bag the Hun, but I'm always on the hunt for something a bit faster.  I really liked the card activation; it caused a bit of a strange situation every now and again, but my real problem was 'card management,' i.e., it was taking me a long time to figure out which cards were supposed to be in there, which weren't, then pulling certain ones out when a plane was shot down, etc...  It wasn't terrible, but it got a little aggravating for me.

And I'd say you could use BTH for modern jet-age stuff like this game.  There's nothing in these rules that's all that special to take into account modern day stuff.  It was funny to hear Top Gun mentioned, because that's exactly the type of fight these rules are meant for!  These are definitely not a 'super-detailed simulation' set, it's quick and dirty, roll over and fire a missile at the bad guy you're practically on top of already.  The proof is in the pudding; soon I'll be playing Brits vs Luftwaffe over the Channel, and USN vs IJN over the Solomons, with these same exact rules!

On second thought, I think Peter's right, keep the CM.  I may try lowering it from three sets to two, just to force more decision-making.  And Gordon, maybe I should buy up some F-5s and paint them black with big, red stars

Thanks guys.  Next game should be this weekend, Israelis vs Syrians over the Bekaa Valley.  Stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fox Two Reheat by A&A Games Engineering.
Great set of rules. Available from Wargames Vault too...

[bigjackmac]

Sounds interesting Lemmey, but I needed to see that before I started testing a new set of rules 

V/R,
Jack