In the Air and on the Sea

Carriers, assorted other naval hardware and plenty of aircraft - what’s not to like?

The aircraft counters - there are quite a few less than Flat Top!

The great counter punch out continues! After having completed Bismarck and Submarine I turned my attention to the pair of Avalon Hill Smithsonian series games - Guadalcanal and Midway, both designed by S. Craig Taylor Jr and released in the early 1990s.

Guadalcanal was originally covered via Flat Top whilst Midway was originally CV which of course used the same system as Flat Top (although it was an updated version of the original Flat Top).

I never thought I would say this but at first glance I reckon that the two Smithsonian offerings may well be an evolved and better option for my gaming in this period than using Flat Top or CV, in the much the same way as Mustangs (the WW2 aerial game from the series) proved to be a similar step up from the earlier Air Force/Dauntless/Expansion Set series. Much as the earlier games will always feature in my inventory one has to move with the times and besides, these are more solo friendly or rather they have a much smaller table footprint!

In each case the counter count is a lot less compared to the 800 of the original Flat Top, 1,200 for the Avalon Hill version and even more for CV. Again, this is better as it means a quicker set and take down.

I have a whole pile of other games that will need counters punched, labels applied, cards sleeved and even miniatures to paint but for now ‘punching and bagging’ is the order of the day - and I must say that I am rather enjoying getting these ready for action and will look forward to getting them to the table.

Part of the French contingent of my WW1 collection - nothing major, 4 x SPAD 13 (only two here) and a pair of BR 14s. 

I did not plan to build a French contingent for my WW1 aerial collection - in fact originally the French models I owned were offloaded - but almost by a process of osmosis (a pair of SPADs were included in a job lot I acquired) I now have a representative selection for 1918. This means that for the Allies I have sixteen single seat fighters - four each of SPAD 13, SE5, Camel and Snipe. The pair of BR 14s join pairs of RE8, DH4s and Bristol Fighters.

I would love to tackle the 1916/1917 period but sadly the models, when you can get them, are usually really expensive. One could make use of non ‘official’ models but these would of course not have the appropriate manoeuvre  deck nor the specific base.

I must admit that I am enjoying all these ‘gaming administrative issues’ and am sure it will get me back to the tabletop sooner rather than later!