Air Wargaming of the Garden Variety

I had hoped to get my Battle of Britain campaign rules all written up this week, but hat was not to be and they currently remain a collection of notes and scribbles on a first draft that still needs to be written as a second draft. I also wanted to play-test a bomber scenario, this will help with the design of for some of the campaign missions.

The game set up on the lawn with the target industrial complex in the distance. Two Hurricanes can be just seen patrolling in the upper right of the photo.

As my tabletop was already occupied with a game and the weather being fine and sunny, I decided to take the Blood Red Skies game outside. This is something I have been keen to try out for a while, as it gives the game more space and the aircraft do not feeling as crowded as they do on my 6x4 foot tabletop. I had earlier in the week made some larger bases for the telescopic rods to slot into, they keep the models stable on the lawn, so most of what I needed was already prepared. (Information on the making of the telescopic stands for indoors can be found here.)

The only question I needed to answer was how to represent clouds in an outdoor setting? In the end, I used quilt batting, which is the soft material used between layers of fabric on a quilt. Fortunately, with my wife is an avid quilter and there is always a ready supply of offcuts. She helped me find some suitably sized bits of white batting, which I then cut into cloud shapes for the game.

White quilting batting being used to represent the clouds.

The Scenario

A single Heinkel 111 bomber is being escorted by two Messerschmitt 109s. All are flown by regular pilots. Their objective is to bomb an industrial target.

Intercepting them were two Hurricanes on patrol. One is flown by a regular pilot and the other by a veteran pilot. In Blood Red Skies the pilot skill is important when it comes to the activation order of aircraft, additionally it helps provide an edge with both shooting and dodging any hits.

To represent the target, I used some factory buildings and flak gun emplacements I had made a few years ago (2020!) from wooden blocks for a St Nazaire raid game (info here). The buildings were laid out on a board to create an industrial complex. The complex is defended by two flak positions.

The Rules

For this game I used the Blood Red Skies rules from the Airfix Battle of Britain boxed set, which are a slightly cut down version of Warlords rules without the tactical and doctrine cards. When playing on my tabletop, I have adapted these rules to work on a hex grid, but for the outdoor game I switched to free movement, treating 12 inches, or one foot, as the equivalent of one hex. While I did have a measuring stick, I did on occasion use my feet to measure out distances. This was very convenient as it saved me always having to bend down to measure.

Although I do not have Warlord Games full Blood Red Skies rulebook and supplements, I was able to glean enough information from various quick reference sheets (QRS) found online to pull together a workable set of rule mechanisms for the bomber.

Game Report

As the Heinkel 111 with its bomb load, droned steadily toward its objective, it was sighted by a pair of patrolling Hurricanes. The RAF pilots wasted no time in turning to intercept the incoming raid. In response, the Messerschmitt escorts broke formation and began accelerating forward to engage.

The Messerschmitts move to engage the patrolling Hurricanes. While the Heinkel maintains its course towards the industrial complex.

The Messerschmitts and Hurricanes climbed and engaged each other in a tight dogfight, each pilot jockeying for position. Using a bank of cloud as cover, one Hurricane pilot using the aircraft's agility, slipped into position and shot off a burst or fire that cause minor damage to a Messerschmitt. An unexpected but useful blow.

A Hurricane uses the cloud to its advantage.

A Messerschmitt takes light damage.

Seizing the initiative, the veteran Hurricane pilot broke away from the dogfight and made for the bomber. The German fighters, recognising the danger, abandoned the dogfight and gave chase, using their great dive ability to close the gap and get in behind the Hurricane.

A Hurricane breaks away from the dogfight to threaten the Heinkel.

Pressing home his attack, the Hurricane pilot manoeuvred to tail the Heinkel and fired several quick bursts. The bullets stitched across the bomber’s fuselage, and soon smoke began streaming from one of its engines. The advantage was short-lived, as the Messerschmitts fell in behind the Hurricane and attempted to drive it off as it dodged their bursts of fire.

The bomber takes a hit on one of its engines.

Messerschmitts attempt to drive off the Hurricane.

While the first Hurricane weaved and jinked the tailing Messerschmitts, the second Hurricane had not been idle. Appearing out from a cloud bank, it lined up the stricken bomber and delivered a well-aimed burst of fire. This proved decisive, the bomber's second engine faltered, and it began a steep, uncontrolled descent.

The Heinkel is shot down by the second Hurricane.

With their bomber lost and also having taken light damage, the Messerschmitts saw little point in prolonging the engagement. Breaking off, they turned for home, leaving the skies to the RAF.

Outside on a sunny day wargaming. So enjoyable!

Hopefully this game report provides enough details on how the game progressed. When dogfights occur in the game and aircraft are going up, down, left, right. and centre. It is very difficult to describe all the different manoeuvres which are going on. Anyway, the game worked out well and now I have all the pieces I need to finish off writing up the campaign rules.