Recently, Julian picked up his copy of "Scramble", a set of rules that he's had for over a decade but had not tried.
Reading them, he was enthused. Working through them, carefully, over a day, he was 'a devotee' of them. Yesterday we caught up, chez-il for a play test.
Julian gave me the rules to read prior to the game. I could see what he meant. They are well written, organised logically and even include a fabulously humorous 'aside' with 25 'rules of the air'. These include:
"In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium going hundreds of miles an hour and the ground going zero miles an hour, the ground has yet to lose."
And,
"A ‘good’ landing is one from which you can walk away; a ‘great’ landing is one after which they can use the plane again."
The rules are sufficiently detailed so as to model flight of the little planes and to provide mobs of decisions and considerations for we ground-pilots as we move our miniature version around and try to get hits on our opponents. You are not adjusting ailerons, rudder, throttle and flaps, but the effects of these to turn, climb, dive, bank, roll, fly straight ahead; or various combinations.
Being our first game with the rules—and my 'virginal' flight during World War II—he devised a relatively simple scenario; sufficient planes and types to make it interesting, but not so many for two 'rules novices' to handle.
A flight of Mk VC Spitfires had another idea. |
Julian tracked the movements of the planes on a piece of paper. |
Both sides successfully spotted one another. I climbed and turned, right and left, with the two Me-110s, while the He-111s flew for home as fast as possible. |
The Spitfires descended and came in for a long-range shot at the bombers. |
"Air wargames where there are huge casualties are just of absolutely no interest to me at all.... So, all the proposed changes below are intended to try to get closer to history, which will probably mean no casualties at all in most encounters. Fine by me!"
Julian had allowed the Germans a 'little surprise' in the form of two FW-190s that could 'march to the sound of the guns'. Now was their time. |
Not quite as intended, but a really interesting ten seconds! The two Me-110s are to left and right, just off the mat. One of the FW-190s is at the same altitude, at the back left of two of the 'rearmost' Spitfires, which in turn are behind, but to the right of the first FW-190. Ahead of the latter are the other two Spitfires, behind the bombers. |
A closer view shows the FW-190 at higher altitude (out of focus), two 'rear' Spitfires targeting the other FW-190, with remaining Spits and the He-111s furthest from camera. |
Another view from behind the two 'rearmost' Spitfires. |
The two other Spitfires took their shots at the right-most of the bombers in the photo. It was able to return fire. The FW-190 behind the Spitfires had the angle for a long-range shot. |
Bursts of machine gun and cannon fire from the 'forward' two Spitfires brought the damage on the right-most bomber (in the photo above) to 11, while killing one of the crew and causing damage to the plane's rudder (acrobatic factor (AB) reduced by one). The bomber returned fire, with the 'tiger in the tail'—anyone else recall that issue of the Commando comic?—but he missed.
The FW-190 at lower altitude, the one that had survived the attack of the Spitfires behind him, was able to fire at one of those to his front (see angle in photo). Julian made him an ace (but not ace of aces), so he had a gunnery factor of six. He was not 'on song' on this occasion—i.e. I did not roll high enough—so missed... 'by that much'.We did not have time for another turn, so 'talked it through'. It turned out to be of no matter. I would have continued to fly the bombers home, tried to bring the FW-190s in a position to fire at the Spitfires and brought the Me-110s around and forwards more so as to (hopefully) be in a position to dive on the Spits in the turn following. For his part, Julian's flight CO would have called time and the Spitfires would have got out of Dodge, or Dodgeton-upon-Sea, as it was likely called!
Action over. It had been an action-packed 30 seconds!!
Not to mention a fabulous day spent working through the rules and enjoying the aerial 'contest'; as well as plenty of side discussions, mirth and general friendship. A bloody marvellous way to spend a Thursday. Thanks so much Julian!
I super excited for the next action.
I am sure that, for example, we could handle a full B-17 raid, with fighter escort and 'boggies' coming in from above. In time, it would be marvellous to do a ground support action with "Scramble" for the aerial part (blink of an eye) and ground rules for the rest. Alternatively, Julian is thinking about a carrier action, provided he can find a decent set of naval rules:
"finding a decent set of them has eluded me these past fifty years (literally), but with your help I think the quest might yet find its goal, especially if a set can be modified. Victory at Sea, General Quarters and Stations Manned & Ready (the A&A set) are all potential candidates. Watch this space!"
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!