Angels 20....Game Number 6, Part 3

Summer, 1940....Somewhere over Southern England at Angels 10 (10,000 feet)....


Squadron Leader Harry 'Chips' Ramsden eased back on the throttle of his Spitfire as he surveyed the two accompanying Hurricanes at two o'clock. Thus far the sweep had been singularly uneventful despite the constant stream of reports from the various ground stations. Jerry was about for sure but not so far anywhere near where he was. Just as well really, he mused, with a Polish pilot barely able to speak two words of English and the other fresh out of OTU and certainly with down still on his cheeks. He dipped first one wing and then the other as he continued to scan the skies for any sign of the enemy.

Sqn. Ldr. Ramsden's Spitfire (bottom right) and the accompanying Hurricanes on patrol (the white markers indicate the size of the game map and so were used for deployment purposes on the larger area the game was fought over)

Hauptmann Walter Mainz was not happy. It was bad enough that the fighters only had a limited duration over England but to also act as chaperon to one of those Bf 110 'Zerstorer' was adding insult to injury. The much vaunted Bf 110 was described as a long range fighter but was woefully inefficient when up against a modern single seater. Acting as an escort to an escort was simply too much in his opinion. He nervously scanned the skies and his fuel gauge with equal attention as a swim in the Channel was not a prospect he relished. His wing man, Leutnant Hugo Furst, was dutifully on station and so Mainz was confident his back was covered. He checked his watch and saw that only ten minutes was left before they had to head back home.

Hauptmann Walter Mainz (the yellow nosed Bf 109) and his wingman Leutnant Hugo Furst in company with the much maligned Bf 110 'Zerstorer'

"Bulldog leader, this is Bluebell control over" The RT crackled into life and Ramsden was immediately alert. "Bulldog leader receiving, what's happening Bluebell, over?" His scan of the skies assumed a new urgency. "Bulldog leader we have ground reports of possible bogeys in your area, estimated Angels 10 and ahead of your position over!" Ramsden's attention naturally went to the area ahead and to his left as the Hurricanes were to his right and he was sure that had the Pole seen anything he would be haring off into the attack like a whirling dervish. "Roger Bluebell control, I will keep my eyes open and....."

His voice trailed off as several things happened at once. To begin with the RT suddenly burst into life with a stream of what sounded like mumbo-jumbo. "Niemcy, Niemcy - Jestem atakuje teraz - opłata!" (for the benefit of the uneducated I shall translate: "Germans, Germans - I am attacking now - charge!") Ramsden did not need a translator to work out what was being screamed across the airwaves as both the Hurricanes immediately increased speed and roared across his front to his left. "Bluebell control, Bandits Angels 10 in sight, I am attacking now, Tally Ho!" Ramsden straightened his flying goggles, settled into his seat and flicked the gun safety off to the firing position whilst simultaneously dipping his port wing and bringing the Spitfire round in a fast but lazy turn.

With the enemy in plain sight each side attempted to gain an advantage and so the turning for firing position began

Mainz had spotted the enemy fighters almost at the same time as they had and he instinctively turned into the opposition whilst applying extra power. Furst followed suit immediately and the lumbering Bf 110 accelerated to full power and tried gamely to turn its nose to the enemy.


Ramsden cursed the impetuosity of the Pole and his wing man as in attempting to jump the opposition he had sprung the trap too soon and as sure as the sun came up in the morning a well handled 109 was always going make a Hurricane struggle. Even the 110 would give them a run for their money in a straight line but there was no time to worry about it now. He stared helplessly as the Hurricanes continued their turn into the enemy - an enemy that was faster and so was able to choose exactly where to attack. 


In the blink of an eye the sky was full of whirling, screaming machines; simultaneously intent on engaging the enemy and avoiding the same fate befalling them.

Under fire from a brace of 109s, Ramsden's Spitfire opens up on the Bf 110 but to no effect

The Germans had virtually turned 180 degrees and were in a tight formation (the 109s had gone around the outside of the 110 using their superior speed and turning ability) whilst the Hurricanes had simply not been able to keep up. Ramsden had turned into the enemy and instead of facing a single machine had managed to find himself in the middle of a swirling dogfight and receiving the undivided attention of a pair of 109s. Machine gun and cannon fire boomed out as the lead 109 opened fire at the Spitfire. Ramsden felt the pinging of machine gun bullets plucking at his fighter but it was a poor deflection and so although damaged it was nothing serious. He opened the throttle wide and pushed the stick forward to gain some airspace.


Meanwhile, with the Pole in the lead, the two Hurricanes turned as tightly as they could in order to engage the Germans. In doing so, the lead Hurricane found itself with a grateful 109 on its tail and a 110 at point blank range in its eight o'clock arc. Both fighters fired and the Hurricane staggered under the hammer blows of machine gun and cannon fire. The rugged fighter, belching smoke and glycol, was crippled but was miraculously still in the air.

A young Hurricane pilot learns the hard way

Ramsden saw the stricken Hurricane and immediately turned back to engage the enemy and hopefully distract their attention. At full throttle the Merlin engine roared as he sped into the attack, the lumbering 110 his target. He opened fire, clenching his teeth as the eight machine guns shook the fighter with their recoil. He was rewarded with seeing bullets stitching the fuselage of the big fighter but there was a sting in the tail. The rear gunner - who happened to be the Staffel gunnery champion drew a careful bead on the incoming Spitfire and let fly. Ramsden new something was wrong as the windscreen suddenly obscured with a milky-white fluid. Glycol! The cooling system had been hit and so his fight would soon be over. He slid the cockpit open a fraction and put the nose of the crippled Spitfire down.

The crippled Hurricane attempts to get away whilst pursued by Leutnant Furst whilst Ramsden comes to grief from the rear gunner of the Bf 110

With both his wing man and the accompanying Spitfire out of action the gallant Pole reluctantly puts his nose down and dives away from the action. There will be another time and hopefully the odds will be better.

Meanwhile, the two 109s continue to harry the crippled Hurricane and Spitfire. With smoke and glycol pouring from the Hurricane, the controls dead but with the aircraft still staggering along, the young pilot, fresh from OTU, readies himself to take to his parachute. Leutnant Furst, confident that the situation is fully under control reduces his speed sufficiently to bring himself into the optimum firing position against the battered enemy fighter. A quick jaw-juddering burst and the Hurricane noses over and begins the long plunge to the earth. A bundle falls from the cockpit and a mushroom of silk follows with an ungainly dangling figure forlornly hanging beneath the billowing canopy.

Furst of the few....

Ramsden frantically looked over his shoulder, praying that he would be able to sneak away from the fight and so be able to nurse the Spitfire home. It was not to be. A yellow speck on the horizon grew rapidly into the shape of a 109 at full speed. He did not wait for the inevitable. Quickly unbuckling the harness he slid the  hood back just as the 109 opened fire. He was already tumbling free from the crippled fighter when, under the impact of the fusillade of cannon and machine gun fire, the Spitfire disintegrated above him. The 109 described a lazy circle around him and as it turned for home the pilot waggled his wings at him, seemingly in salute for the recent fight.

Ramsden has his chips....

As he swayed beneath the parachute Ramsden wondered who the mysterious pilot of the 109 was and if there paths would ever cross again. Somehow, he was sure they would....

Angels 20....Game Number 6, Part 2

A 'Vic' of three Spitfires - looked good at air displays but not a great deal of use in combat

Before taking to the skies for game number 6 I thought I would take the opportunity to introduce some of the cast and the background material I have been reading over the last week or two. I am still waiting for a second starter set to complete the set up prior to the repaint but am now considering acquiring another two of these and a brace of Spitfires for some additional theatres (e.g. the Med) but this is opening up a route that I may not want to follow just yet....I did say JUST YET!!!

"Never, in the field of aerial wargaming, has so much information been contained in so many pages for so few pennies!"

The book I have read covering the Battle of Britain is a 50p boot sale acquisition from some time ago and what a gem it has turned out to be! The Battle of Britain - The Jubilee History covers the entire period of the battle together with a lot of background concerning the earlier fighting over France. It is a very balanced account in my opinion and after having read it one cannot but wonder at the narrow margins by which success or failure is measured. To borrow a phrase from another famous battle it was a 'near run thing'. There are lots of maps, orders of battle and some anecdotal paragraphs from some of the participants which all contribute to making this very much a 'complete' history.

Thus far I have eight models - the six contained in the starter set and an additional pair of Spitfires allowing me to field a 'Vic' of three aircraft should I feel the need to give the Luftwaffe some target practise....;-)

The backbone of Fighter Command in 1940 - a brace of Hurricanes

The Hurricanes are painted in the early war France scheme and the later Battle of Britain version and the latter represents one of the Polish 303 Squadron aircraft...."Repeat please....!"

Bf 109s - the colour scheme used on the right hand model has completely foxed me!

The two Bf 109s look good (except for the all grey 'wingman') but are certainly going to get a radical repaint. I am planning to paint them in the official 1940 scheme as used by the fighters in the film of The Battle of Britain - red spinners and green splintered top surfaces very clearly delineated from the light blue under surfaces. the markings have been 'sanitized' so no tail swastikas are in evidence.

Finally the Bf 110 'Zerstorer'. Promised much but delivered little during the battle but certainly made up for it as a night fighter against the RAF later in the war. Again, this will need a repaint and the temptation to put a shark's mouth design on the model will be very hard to resist!

So there you have it - the book I have been devouring for some background and the models I shall be using for the game. I will be fighting on the Hexon tiles and these have been set up to cover an area of 9 hexes by 14 which is larger than the game maps provided which cover a miserly 7 hexes by 11.

It will be a lot of fun methinks....;-)

Angels 20....Game Number 6, Part 1

One of the few

By way of a change I have decided that game number 6 in my man cave will be an aerial affair using my newly acquired (but yet to be repainted) collection of Battle of Britain era 1:100th scale aircraft. The game is of course, Axis and Allies: Angels 20 and the forces will consist of the inevitable Spitfires, Hurricanes, Bf 109s and 110s. I am willing to bet that most gamers 'of a certain age' could probably recite every technical detail of any of those aircraft courtesy of the thousands of Airfix models that have indulged in aerial combat over the years!

I shall fight one of the standard scenarios from the rule book and will of course be using my Hexon terrain although I made the happy discovery that the laminated maps I have kept from an earlier dabble in the land based Axis and Allies miniatures game are also usable - which is just as well really as the maps provided are pretty grim in my opinion.

I expect to fight with around 3 or 4 aircraft a side which will be plenty. I may even watch the film again - purely in the interests of research of course!

Back from the wilds of Norfolk

Don't you just love second hand bookshops?!

It has been a busy few days as we made the trek up to Sprowston, a small place just outside of Norwich and on the edge of the Norfolk Broads for an Easter break and family visit. A good time was had by all and the highlight was a visit to Cromer for the day although it was freezing cold - the wind straight off the North Sea can best be described as, ahem, bracing....;-).

Despite the cold we had a superb lunch at a beach side cafe - overlooking the pier as well - and yours truly was delighted with his crab sandwich featuring the famous Cromer Crabs - yum, yum and no mistake!

I also managed to find a couple of second hand bookshops, the first of which was not particularly inspiring but the second made up for it - as the picture shows.

The two English Civil War titles fill a nice hole in that part of the collection although I doubt very much if I shall ever game the period using figures. Perhaps something block based may be used in time but for the present merely owning the books is sufficient.

The Mongol title I have read many, many times and although a later edition was published I still like this one and so was very pleased to add this to the collection. Again, I doubt if I will ever throw any figures in this direction but perhaps as a block exercise it may feature at some point. In the meantime though, I have been carrying out some further experiments with wooden generic warships as well as reacquainting myself with the events of the summer months of 1940, high over the English countryside....;-)

Axis and Allies: Angels 20 - The Inevitable Sequel

"There I was, 20,000 feet and nothing on the clock but the makers name....!"

In between looking for another job, a DIY list of Biblical proportions, offloading my entire 1/3000th collection, messing about with pieces of wood for my 'Universal Warship' idea, acquiring paints for the North West Frontier and catching up on a lot of reading I have been and gone and done something rather rash....

On the back of a very good initial game at the club a couple of weeks back I have taken the plunge and acquired a starter set and a couple of singles for the new Axis and Allies: Angels 20 WW2 aerial combat game.  It is really good fun to play (the game last night especially so!) straight out of the box and indeed, should you wish to do so that would be fine but for me I will need to spend a little time on the models - purely for my own benefit. The aircraft are scaled at 1:100th and whilst the initial release covers 31 fighters or variants there is only a single two man mount - the German Bf 110. There are Spitfire Mk 1s, Hurricanes and Bf 109s so the Battle of Britain is covered rather well and for me that will suffice for the time being. The one thing I will do though will be to give the models  a fresh coat of paint as some of the schemes are a little unusual to say the least - the overall dark grey Bf 109 being a case in point. Being a gamer of the Airfix generation I can safely say that the Battle of Britain has long held a fascination for me and so gaming this using models at this kind of level (roughly a flight of 4 aircraft) has a charm all of its own and in truth, I have played a lot of WW2 aerial board games over the years - this is pretty much a board game with models after all. I will see about sourcing some decals for the models just to give them a little more of the 'wow' factor.

Somewhere over Southern England, Summer 1940....(OK, April 2012 but Rayleigh is in Southern England after all!)

The map sheets provided are paper and give a playing area of roughly 9 by 7 hexes which is way too small in my book - we played at the club last night on my Hexon on a 12 by 10 area which was okay for the six aircraft in use - and I cannot see me using them. The game counters are printed on card which is only slighter thicker than paper and so these will be replaced with something a little sturdier. The models are mounted on flying base with a ball and socket type head which means that the aircraft attitude can be accurately represented. The clear plastic hexagonal base is inscribed with numbers 1 to 6 for altitude purposes which can be inked or painted in for clarity (Mr Fox did this with his and very nice they look as well).

Sighing for a Merlin - "Stick to me like glue Simon!"

Game play is very straightforward and the combat system will be familiar to anybody that has played any of the Axis and Allies miniatures games. Essentially you roll a number of d6 depending on the range, apply any applicable modifiers and need to equal or better the 'armour' or 'vital armour' score of the target to score damage in the case of the first or destroy in the case of the second. The effects of deflection when shooting are taken into consideration which again, adds to the feel of the game.The usual aerobatics so beloved of most aerial gamers are all present and correct and require a successful dice roll using the aircraft ability as a modifier (together with any pilot ability). Initially I was a little uncertain about this but having played the game a couple of times; coupled with some reading on the subject I am now convinced that it adds to the flavour - I suppose a failure could be put down to hesitation on the part of the pilot or perhaps a distraction of some kind - bear in mind the high speed nature of a WW2 aerial dogfight - even during the early years of the war.

I like the initiative approach and so planes moves alternatively but the player moving first also gets to fire first  and damage takes effect immediately.

Bombers are represented by tokens (I have no idea if plans are afoot to produce any at some point) and in truth are pretty much just targets as this is designed to be primarily a fighter game. There are also rules for flak, clouds, night fighting and ground control as well as a conversion table for using the models with the Axis and Allies land based game.

So what does it mean for me then? Well, as mentioned I have a long association with anything Battle of Britain related and for WW2 aerial games in general so I guess this was a no-brainer in some respects. It will be nice to paint the models as I have not touched an aircraft kit for years and given that the numbers I shall be using initially are quite small this should not be too onerous - and that is coming from someone who has a pathological dislike of painting!

I have many sets of hex based aerial rules knocking around and so the longevity of this mini project is assured. I do not ever envisage using more than a dozen models on the table at any one time so the numbers will be kept to a reasonable level - my Battle of Britain set up will be 14 models in total - and going forward I could dip into other theatres on a flight of four aircraft as the basis for the set up.

This is certainly not a new period for me - just a variation on a board game theme.

The Universal Warship

Over the last few years I have dabbled with many different scales of model warship - starting at 1/3000th and working up to 1/600th via 1/2400th, 1/1800th and 1/1200th. That is a lot of scales - and does not even consider such smaller scales as 1/3600th, 1/4800th or even 1/6000th. It follows that different eras require different things in respect of how the models are used to fight our table top battles. For periods where ships get 'up close and personal' with the enemy then we can afford to use larger models as the space needed to fight over will be less. The other side of the coin is the 20th century where gun ranges reached miles and aircraft are able to cross a scale table top in the blink of an eye. Logic would then dictate that smaller models would be better suited to give the illusion of long range gunnery.

It is no secret that I enjoy many different types of naval game but also that I tend to operate rather off the mainstream in terms of exactly how I play my games. I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of weeks about how I fight my battles and how I intend to tackle other periods. The answer is a simple one (at least it is for me anyway) in respect of the models I shall use mainly because I have decided to look at he problem from the playing area upwards rather than from the model size.

For my personal use I will of course be utilising my Hexon collection and so this has given me a rather novel idea in respect of how I shall develop my nautical adventures. A Hexon tile is 10cm across the flat sides. This means that any models I want to use for whatever era need to fit on a single tile. So far, so good. Of course this happy state of affairs takes no account of the different sizes of ship in use in an 'average' fleet. My thinking in connection with this problem was to maintain relative size differences between types and his was exactly how I tackled the ACW fleets. I am now not convinced that this was the most effective approach as it generated vessels that were neither scale models nor true gaming pieces. Many years ago I used to game battles set in the Star Trek universe using the models produced by Micro Machines. These were usually available in boxes of three models and the size of these was determined by the packaging. It did not matter if it was the shuttle Galileo or a Borg cube - they were sized to fit the box.

So be it.

My models will be sized to fit a Hexon tile - which will mean roughly 9 cms in length. Now fairly obviously, and taking the pre dreadnought era as an example, what about the differences between destroyers, cruisers and battleships? Well, I have thought about this and have come up with a solution that owes much to the 'cartoon warship' concept that Bob Cordery has been championing on his blog Wargaming Miscellany

The basic idea that Bob has been working on effectively compresses the length of a model but exaggerates
the height with the result being able to be used without too much problem on a table top in conjunction with 15mm figures. I have no such problem as I do not own any 15mm figures - only a lot of blocks! However, I am mindful of the fact that this state of affairs may change at some point and so it would be prudent to prepare for the eventuality.

And it goes like this....

I have drawn up three basic hull shapes, all of which are 3 3/4" long but with varying widths -  1 1/2", 1 1/4" and 1" - and depths - 3/4", 1/2" and 1/4". These sizes will allow for he illusion of size between types - at least in two of the three measurable dimensions. It does mean that smaller vessels will appear larger but this could be explained by the fact that smaller vessels tended to operate closer inshore than bigger vessels so would appear larger (tenuous I know but good enough). The superstructures and fittings will be kept as simple as possible so the end result will be almost toy looking rather than model like. I am still experimenting with simple shapes for use with this idea but, and here is the kicker, there is absolutely no reason why these hull sizes could not be used for ships from a variety of periods. All that would be needed would be to make he unique features for the type to be represented (a good example would be things like stern galleys or outriggers for galleys) in such a way that they could be easily added to the hull to make something perfectly serviceable for the ship required. These are not scale models - they are gaming pieces used to represent the ships as required for the period. They will be simple to put together and with detail kept to a minimum.

This 'home made' approach will not suit everybody but for me it offers a number of practical advantages. Besides, it is fun mucking about with bits and pieces and seeing what comes out at the end!

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye....

A blast from the past

This is the end of week four of my unemployment but despite the lack of paid employment I have certainly not been idle! SWMBO has a list of DIY jobs that seems to get longer each day but the accrued brownie points will be put to good use; of that you can be certain! I have 95% completed the repaint of the shed and have jet washed the decking as well as weeding the front drive. Luckily the weather has been unusually mild!

Enough of this domestic trivia and on with the good stuff!

I am saying hello to a copy of a 1973 vintage WRG rules set covering ancient naval combat from 1,000 BC to 500 AD by Richard Nelson. I was really pleased to get these as ancient naval is something I would like to try at some point (along with the 16th century). The rules themselves seem fairly straightforward and are also hex based which was something fairly radical for a set of miniatures rules 'back in the day'. One note that caught my eye though was the fact that for sources of models the rules stated that Miniature Figurines produced a 1/1200th scale range. Methinks I shall have to take this up with Dave Ryan for sure!

On another old Minifigs slant I am reminded of the fact that many years ago they produced a range of troop blocks for, I believe, the ancient and the horse and musket era. I have seen some of these in use for a Napoleonic battle a number of years back and unless I am much mistaken Tony Bath used them for some of the larger actions of his famous Hyborian campaign. Again, another one to take up with Mr Ryan!

I have waved goodbye to a vast chunk of 1/3000th scale nautical kit as I am abandoning using this scale for my naval games. The only reason for this is simply because I now find them to be too small which seems odd when I am looking at using models that are considerably over scale for my nautical fix. This means that the Turks, Greeks, Russians, Spanish Civil War and North Atlantic convoy set up are no longer. The proceeds have been earmarked for a number of ideas - one of which will be the acquisition of some of the newly released Minifigs ships as well as some building materials and large chunk of acrylic paints.

I am also looking at Axis and Allies: Angel 20 simply because it is far too good a game to turn down and has an inbuilt limiting factor in terms of the amount of models you could realistically deploy on the standard game map. At the present time it would be a fairly small project but I am quite sure I am not the first person to say that - or the last!