Buffaloes over Singapore

[pierre the shy]

Given that its the 78th anniversary of the outbreak of war in the Pacific tomorrow it seems an appropriate time to start this thread.... 

They say that imitatation is the sincerest form of flattery so thanks to BigJackMac for the inspiration to bring this little project ot the table. I am playing this as a solo campaign as sometimes its along time between regular games for me and this offers a quick and easy gaming session for me without having to get any extra materials beyond what I have to hand already. 

Loosely based on the exploits of 488 Squadron RNZAF which flew Buffalos and later Hurricanes in the defence of Singapore between December 1941 and February 1942 I am going to be flying occasional missions with Kapito Squadron (which is an entirely fictional unit along the lines of Derek Robinson's Hornet Squadron) using the rules and modifications that Jack has kindly shared recently.

I had 90% completed preparing a Malayan campaign by adopting Two Fat Lardies "Their Finest Hour" Battle of Britain campaign supplement and was going to use TFL's Bag the Hun 2 rules, but the rules that Jack's been using allow for quicker games without lots of cards for each formation and also sufficently differentiate between different aicraft performances (might add a few minor tweaks of my own as well though) to forfil my aerial combat dreams 

Katipo Squadron will form part of the RAF's Far East Command and will up against the odds with mainly inexperienced pilots flying Model 339E Buffalos against both the Imperial Japanese Navy's experienced 22nd Air Flotilla (which includes A6M2 Zeros) and the Imperial Japanese Army's 3rd Flying Division (A mix of Ki-27, Ki-43 and even some pre-production Ki-44 fighters). Reinforcements in the form of tropicalized Hurricane IIB's armed with no less than 12 0.303 Brownings have been promised by London, but firstly they must be shipped halfway round the world through U-Boat infested waters, and no date has been given for when they might arrive. One squadron will not change the outcome of the entire campaign so I am keeping the basic historical timeline of the actual campaign - Singapore will fall on 15 Feb 1942 - but they will get the chance to make a difference.     

I don't have a blog to record every move of each game but I will put up something if there is anyone who might be interested and is still awake 

So watch this space.....and always check your six.

Tally Ho!
Peter
 

         

[paulr]

Looking forward to following this

Let me know if you want some non-solo games

[bigjackmac]

Fantastic, Peter, I can't wait!  Great concept, and I'm so happy to see my stuff has inspired someone else to move into something new.  As I've always said, it's really cool, and I'm just passing it on; if it weren't for four very influential (to me at least) bloggers, I wouldn't be here, doing what I do: Shaun's "wargaming in small spaces," Jeff's "6mm Republic of Prussia," Joe's "Platoon Forward," and Ronan's "2d6.fr" were the ones that got me into this 'lifestyle.'

And no pressure, Pierre, but if you're going to start running campaigns, you just gotta get yourself a blog!   C'mon, you know you want to!  Go over, get yourself a Gmail account (if you don't already have one), then get over to Blogger and create a blog.  It's completely free, and it couldn't be more simple.  And if you need any help, I'm right here (and that goes for anything with the rules or how I run campaigns, should that be of interest or helpful).

Very cool man, I'm very much looking forward to your campaign.

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Got the RAF counters completed....just need to do the Japanese ones now.

put together a working copy of the rules with Jack's amendments and some of my own tweaks to take into account the aircraft involved.

Blog set up.....very easy indeed to do.....now have to find time and content to maintain it I guess 

[bigjackmac]

Awesome, Peter, can't wait to see it!

And, for what it's worth, I'm right proud of you, and happy you took the leap!  There's no pressure, your blog can be whatever you want it to be.  But careful, don't turn in to me and let it take over your entire life!

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Completed 600 x 900mm MDF board and designing the Japanese aircraft counters finally. Now just need to print and mount the aircraft counters and its ready to go...

[pierre the shy]

Got to play a couple of small games with Paul yesterday....we used 6 fighters a side in each game, both of which turned into pretty bloody affairs with 3 or 4 aircraft lost per side.

Even though the rules are simple they do reflect very well the differences between the agile but quite fragile Japanese aircraft and the more solidly built, but slightly less manuverable Allied planes.....we used Hurricanes vs Ki-43's and Zeroes.

I can see why Jack likes these rules so much. We had a good talk about the game mechanics and morale in this type of game.... happy with the game mechanics as they stand so onto the campaign which I will cover in the blog.

If it goes well I have some further campaigns in mind to do that would use some of the existing aircraft counters but have variable outcomes using a VP system, starting with the Japanese carrier sortie into the Indian Ocean in April 1942.



       

[paulr]

Two very enjoyable games with simple, subtle and elegant rules

As Pierre the Shy mentions the three different types we flew all felt and performed differently

Bigjackmac, thanks for sharing your tweaks to the basic system, they represent the different aircraft types very well

In the campaign I suspect you will want to conserve aircraft. For one off games we could perhaps introduce a turn limit, representing limited fuel, to avoid games going down to the last pilot flying and not breaking off due to damage.

Pierre the Shy, let me know if you want more games

[pierre the shy]

With my son off to university and twins now back at school I finally had a chance to start this campaign today since I need to use up some leave days......It didn't start that auspicously for the Kiwis....you can find a brief report here:

https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/

If you want pictures galore like Jack's reports next time I will charge my phone properly before playing 

[toxicpixie]

That was a bit of a sticky debut! Still, probably better than reality 

[paulr]

Good to see this under way

Things are unlikely to get much better for the Kiwis

[Ace of Spades]

Interesting! looking forward to see some pictures.

Cheers,
Rob

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

In real life they removed most of the guns and the armour to get a half-way decent performance.

[toxicpixie]

Yeah, Ken Natt did an excellent piece for Blood Red Skies last year on the little plane that mostly couldn't

https://twtrb.blogspot.com/2019/04/brewster-buffalo-in-blood-red-skies.html?m=1

[bigjackmac]

First, let me say sorry, I've been out of pocket for a bit, but catching up now.

So the first thing is, HURRAH!  Congratulations, Peter, on getting the blog up and running!  I told ya it was easy   Looks great, already got three batreps up, which is more than I've done in the new year, so good on ya!

The squadron roster you're using looks great, and I like how you're tracking repair time for damaged aircraft, very cool.

And to you and Paul, it was my pleasure to share my rules tweaks, love to help out whenever I can.

V/R,
Jack