AAR19: First Shots of a New War

Since the ground war had died down, there had been numerous encounters in the air, with both sides poking and prodding, but no serious engagements as both sides were trying to minimize losses.  Mugabia had become quite curious about Uwandan movements along the border, and had been kept somewhat up to date by the Soviet intelligence sources.  But Mugabia's president was not content to rely only on his friends for information.

Mugabian spies had crossed the border at various times, and other informants within Uwanda materialized as well.  Since Uwanda's failed advance to the south, Mugabia had managed to sneak several cells into Uwanda with various objectives in mind, including spying.  Additionally and by chance, in the hours prior to Uwanda's H-hour, Mugabian aircraft had become more active in their prodding.

Uwanda's air patrols were constant, but resources limited.  The ability to respond to intrusions was often left to ill-suited ground attack aircraft, and there were often holes in patrol coverage due to the limited number of aircraft available.  As fate would have it, Mugabia's curiosity would peak only hours prior to the Uwanda's H-hour, and thus started the new war prematurely.

Map of the border between Uwanda (west) and Mugabia (east).

The area inside the black dashed line is occupied by Mugabia and the ULF.

First Shots
The two UAF (Uwanda Air Force) F5s patrolling near objective A37 dropped down to get visual contact with a Mugabian Mi4 flying along the border.  Once they located the Mi4, they were surprisingly denied permission  to shoot it down.  So they watched it bumble about the border for a bit and then began to climb again.  As they made their assent, they were jumped by three Mig17s, which had penetrated Uwanda airspace looking to track Uwanda's ground movements.  The Mig17s managed to get a couple of shots off on the surprised F5s, before fleeing back across the border.  The F5 pilots would return home with only their pride hurt.  Unknowingly, the Mig pilots had fired the first shots of a new war.

Mugabian Mig17s.

 

Near objective A60, two G91s moved to intercept two Mig17s.  In the next two minutes, the Migs out-maneuvered their Uwandan counterparts, successfully shooting one down and badly damaging the other.  There were no other airborn Uwandan aircraft able to intercept, so two F5s were scrambled from the base at objective A46.  By the time the F5s could close with the Mugabians, the Mig 17s had penetrated near the Uwandan army build-up just west of objective A60.

The F5s climbed and closed with the Migs, trying to intercept before the Migs could site the troop build-up.  In a short time the F5s had an advantage in altitude and speed.  In addition to their 20mm cannons, the F5s each carried a pair of AIM9B sidewinders missiles.  As they closed, the Migs started to turn away, and then back towards the the F5s, while slowly climbing.  The F5s streaked ahead, believing  their speed would keep them safe, and planned to wingover into a position for missile shots. 

A pair of Uwanda's F5Es.

Misjudging both the advantage of their own speed, and the turn rate of the Mig17s, the lead F5 quickly found himself in a desperate situation.  The F5 pilot stared through the top of his canopy, as the Mig17 lined up for a shot.  He felt a warm sensation in his flight suite as the massive burst of the Mig 17s guns passed both above and beneath his plane.

The Mig17 pilot couldn't believe his luck when the F5 delivered himself as a choice target, and then couldn't believe his luck again, when he missed the shot.  Realizing that he had fired the last of his ammunition, having expended most of it on the G91s earlier, he broke off the fight, and dove away from the F5s and toward the Mugabian border.

The Mig17's wingman did not break off the engagement and seconds later, was able to line up a shot on the lead F5.  He did not miss, watching as his tracers blew out the bottom of the F5's cockpit.  The F5 pilot dead, the smoking jet quickly dove to its final destination.

The second F5 could have turned away and ended the engagement, but filled with rage over witnessing the death of his wingman, the pilot turned into the second Mig for a face to face encounter.  The Mig had no way out and lined up on the F5, pulling his trigger as he saw the enemy's 20mm guns blaze. An instant later, he saw the tail of the F5 disintegrate and the an ejection seat blow clear of the aircraft. He had felt the shudder of the 20mm rounds going through his left wing without considering the cause, but it took only an instant, before he realized that his aircraft was no longer responding to his control.

 

The Mig17 fires on his second victim of the day, his first victim can be seen

diving to the ground in the background

 

He watched the F5 pilot's parachute collapse into the tree tops, as he gently descended, suspended below his own.
___

The second encounter above was my first game with my new air combat rules.  For the most part it worked out well, though I still need to work out some details a little better.  Managing the four aircraft wasn't as hard as I had expected, and the game ended up far more lethal than I had anticipated.

The Russian aircraft cannons are beasts, putting out a ton of lead.  At fairly close range, they were just wickedly lethal.  A good die roll offset  the odds from the bad deflection shot on the first kill.  Plus a half dozen critical hits resulted in two pilot kills in a plane with one pilot. Hopefully, I will learn a little about air combat before Uwanda runs out of F5s.

I am bummed that the F5s didn't get to fire a missile, but I still have that to look forward to in the next game.

The result of the air combat is that Uwanda has lost four aircraft, three permanently, to Mugabia's one.  The tricky p[art is that two of the F5s provided top cover to the impending ground attack are now part of the past.  The Migs penetrated deep enough into Uwanda to discover the troop buildups near the border, and have confirmed the Russian intelligence.  But, it comes so close to H-hour, that Mugabia can do little with the information.

Hopefully I'll have a better table cover next time.  I had to use my ocean water sheets as I don't have anything appropriate for the air war.  It was so dark that it caused my camera fits with the light colored aircraft. 

More to come...

Got a Few Tanks Off Of My Painting Table

Last week, I managed to finally finish (kind of) painting a few 15mm tanks for Africa, a platoon of Vickers Mk3 from QRF and one of my Mugabian T34 conversions with the ZU23/2 mounted in place of the turret.  I love the Vickers Mk3s, they are just such nice sculpts.

 

 

The Vickers Mk3 is the newest tank in Uwanda's (African imagi-nation) inventory, with only a very small number serving in a few units.  It will eventually replace the aging Fireflys and Centurion IIIs.


And here is my T34/23 conversion (totally fictional by the way ,for my African imagi-nation, Mugabia)

And the unit pictured together with ammo supply vehicle.

There are just a few of these in the Mugabian inventory to try to provide mobile rapid air defense for the President's armored forces.

One Step Closer: A Second Mugabian Infantry Company

Early this month, I got part of a day free and hurriedly painted a second Mugabian infantry company.  All of the infantry are Peter Pig figs from the AK47 range or Range 17.  The Sagger ATGM and crews from the support section are from QRF.  I finally got the bases labeled (underside) and am ready to box them, so thought I'd take a couple of pix.

 

 

 

 Extremely basic paintjobs, but at least I can get them on the table. 

Another Air Combat Rules Update

Well, I've tinkered a little more with the air combat rules, making some changes before my first game. The scale went to 1/2940, though turn length is staying at 5 seconds for now.  I think I have decent mechanics for working out basic maneuvers such as wingovers,  chandelles, and loops with the stands.  We'll have to see if they give reasonable representations of movement.  The gun tables, shooting, and effects are hammered out, as are basic IR missiles.

I updated the aircraft stand and made a few more with all the required markings for movement and deflection shots, and made turn gauges.

So far, I've only managed to paint the four planes needed  for the next encounter in my African imagi-nations war, a couple of F5s for Uwanda, and two Mig 17s for Mugabia.  I haven't had a chance to make decals in scale yet, and probably won't before trying out the planes and rules.  Right now, I 'm hoping that I have a successful day casting on Saturday, so that I can have Sunday to try the first game with the airplanes.

Hopefully, I'll have an AAR in a couple of days.

More Tinkering with 6mm Air Combat Rules

I've continued moving along with my idea for modern air combat rules.  Both before and during the time that I've been working on this, several sets of rules have been suggested to me. Unfortunately, they have either been out of print, or were not as detailed as what I am hoping for.  I am keeping a couple as back-ups in case my effort proves to be futile.

So, I've been re-learning a bit of physics, and doing a fair bit of research, when I can find time.  I have roughed out most of the stats for the aircraft involved in my African imagi-nation campaign. 

Basic characteristics of the game are (any of this could change):
Scale:1/2288
Turn: Represents 5 (probably going to change to 6) seconds, and consists of three impulses.  Movement, shooting, and damage is resolved each impulse.  Sighting and speed changes are made at the start of each turn.
Movement Point: Equals 1/2 inch, with the speeds ranging  2-21 movement points per turn so far, with the Mig21F being the fastest jet currently included.

Thus far, the characteristics for each aircraft include the following:

Speed:
Minimum - Under which, you fall out of the sky
Cruise
Maximum -level flight
Terminal - Max dive

Roll Rate- applied per movement point
Turn Rate- applied once per impulse
Acceleration/Deceleration-
Dive and Climb speed gain/loss-
Gun Table- Number of guns x appropriate gun type, number of hits are a function of pounds per second of ammo thrown at the target.
Max Hits- Each aircraft will take a number of hits (ranges from about 30-75) with critical hits being scored on every eighth hit and on each hit beyond maximum (criticals range from losing range, speed, or controls, to pilot dead or plane exploding).
Bursts-
Sighting table-
Ceiling-
Range-
Radar-
Missiles-

Radars will have to detect targets, missiles will have to lock on, successfully fire and then track or be guided to the target.  There will be a period of time required for lock-on, which for some early missiles can span more than a turn.

I'm trying to find mechanics and compromises that minimize calculations for energy loss or gain during the turns.  I  think that I've found a way minimize the number of turn gauges needed for aircraft relative to speed, but will have to experiment with it in 3-D maneuvers.

 I've also roughed out a couple of prototype flight stands for working out the mechanics.

The stand is two feet tall, with a weighted two inch square base

 

The clip uses a miniature clothespin with brass wire inserted into a jet nozzle. 

The clip allows roll and pitch to be depicted.

In early July, I ordered a number of 1/285 and 1/300 airplane models from I-94 Enterprises and Scotia.  Both offered great service, and I am quite happy with the models.  Haven't had a chance to do anything with them, so here they are straight out of the box.

From I-94 Enterprises, I picked up the following from the Raiden line:

They are Mig 21, Mig 17, Magister, and F5A.

Dave Winfree was fantastic to deal with in getting these, with exceedingly fast service, and great communications.

Scotia provided the following, and despite being across the Atlantic, got the models to me inside of two weeks, with notification of each step in the ordering and shipping process.

Vautour and buccaneer.

Initially, I was extremely surprised and happy to find that everything jet needed for my games was available, but then found that Skyraider was out of business  They had a G91, and I was going to use an MB339 as a proxy for the Strikemaster.  But now it looks like I will may be getting into the 1/285 model aircraft industry, as I will be scratch building these. 

Some years ago (like maybe 12), I tried making some models for the Arab-Israeli wars, as there wasn't much available then, and ended up with these unfinished masters:

They are Magister (with damaged tail), Super Mystere and Ouragon

Though I never completely detailed them (my adversary for the mid-east wars moved away), the process went very quickly, so I expect that mastering these two won't be a big delay.

The goal is to allow three dimensional dogfighting with jets and short range missiles on a tabletop, where individual aircraft maneuver to take advantage of performance advantages.  Additionally, I hope to also manage beyond visual range engagements if needed (they will be rare in my games). 

Hoping to try the first run-through in the next few days. Sorry some of the pix are so crappy, working with yet another camera.

Preperations for War...Almost

It wasn't supposed to be this challenging, just the next battle in my modern imagi-nation campaign.   A 15mm rescue mission that requires a hospital be built, and the next confrontation along the edge of disputed territory needing a few more tanks, I thought. Not too bad.

Some dice were rolled, and the "fate tables" dictated the path, that of total war.  Total what??  This started out as a skirmish campaign.  Oh well.  Plans were made, some more die rolls, and everything solidified.  I  need to build some more buildings, like 20 of them,  a few businesses and a bunch of houses; some fortifications, bunkers, and lots of barbed wire; still needed the hospital, but that wouldn't be the first battle, as I had expected.  Nothing is as I expected.

The ground war now starts with an air war, but I didn't plan for an air war.  So I had to order some airplanes, decided to go 6mm and found most of what I needed.  But now I have to scratch out a couple of masters, and cast a few planes, G91Rs and Strikemasters anyone?  And my air combat rules really didn't do the game justice, so I looked for a more detailed set, only to find that no such set was currently available, so now I'm creating a set of air combat rules to interface into my imagi-nation campaign.  Did you know that GHs23 spews out like 36 pounds of bullets per second?? Holy crap!!

The current state of my air combat rules,

30 pages of notes and a partial airplane stand.

 

On the ground, the required forces quickly became larger than I had ever intended or expected.  So I need to add more tanks, some tank destroyers, more air defense, and at least another company of Mugabian infantry, and a few more 1/100 airplanes for ground support. Battles are getting big, probably should do some in 6mm, which would require new terrain, buildings, emplacements, infantry...  6mm?? Dude, don't even go there!

And I need trucks, a bunch of trucks, like 30 trucks, should probably master those and cast them, but I have no time.  Work got stupid busy, and instead of running sprints at my painting table, I'm taking baby steps.  I have packages that came in three weeks ago, that I haven't even looked at, and somewhere in the midst of my African imagi-nation craziness should be a batch of 28mm grey aliens...  Do what?

My painting table, after cleaning it off.  Vickers MkIII  front left with a couple of T34s, some 1/300 Vautours and buccaneers in front of that, Mugabian infantry based on the tray to right, packages behind, clutter everywhere.

Time to take a deep breath and try to get a grip.  Along comes the weekend, I think I'm gonna make some progress, take a day to make molds and cast a little, then take a day to build, paint, maybe even test some rules.  Then a tire breaks off one car, that car hates me, and the starter dies on the other, those cars have always hated me.  They broke on purpose!   It just never ends.  Maybe next weekend?

The Uwanda/Mugabia War: Quiet Before the Storm (Modern Third World Imagi-Nations)

Back in January, I made preparations for the next phase of the Uwanad/Mugabia War, which included planning, ordering more miniatures and making new terrain.  Unfortunately life interfered as it sometimes does, and set me back six months.  But I'm finally getting around to the next chapter in the story, so here is the current situation...


The president of Uwanda peered out the window, taking in the bright sunshine glistening off of the tree tops.  "A shame that such a magnificent day had to be scarred with preparations for war", he thought.  He turned to face his staff, "Gentlemen, this is how we're going to go about solving our Mugabian problem once and for all..."

Since the ULF had increased its attacks, Uwanda had greatly increased the frequency of troop movements, using methods that had countered the attacks, allowing the ULF little success.  Though expensive, these movements also helped to hide the build up of troops and equipment nearer to the border. 

The plan involved a two pronged attack, with one force advancing roughly at the center of the border, just north of the Mugabian occupation, and the other force attacking from a point farther north, where no action had yet been taken.  This northern attack was actually the primary force, with most of the central force being something of a feint, intending mostly to hold Mugabian forces in place. 

Eventually, it was hoped that some of the central force would mate up with the northern force in a run for the Mugabian capitol.  The belief among Uwandan leadership was that the Mugabians would not expect the scope of the attack, nor the northern attacking force at all.  And that due to the nature of the Mugabian command structure, that the Mugabian forces could not respond quickly enough, and would be outrun in a race to the capitol.

__________

The Mugabian president was as concerned with policing his own leadership, as he was the Uwandan border.  He believed that Uwanda would avoid all out war at almost any cost.  Their effort in the south had failed terribly, despite Uwandans remaining on Mugabian soil, and the President was convinced that his forces were quite capable of keeping the situation under control.

The Cubans had helped prepare the Mugabians to be a better fighting force, and the Soviets, while hesitant to put troops in Mugabia, offered equipment and intelligence, though sometimes neither was used properly.

The president stood, viewing the satellite photos of Uwandan forces with the Soviet advisers, yet he did not see the what the Soviets saw.  "Mr. President, Uwanda will invade...here, here, and especially here...everywhere!  You are making a terrible mistake; it is in both our interests that this not happen."

"My dear comrade, please forgive me, if I do not seem so convinced as you.  This is not NATO, this is Uwanda, and we have already seen what they can, and cannot do.  I have spent a lifetime learning about my neighbors, you have barely spent two years.  Despite your resources, I think that I might still know them better than you." 

__________

In the skies along the border, jets took part in a delicate dance, alternately lunging forward, and dodging the occasional shot.  After earlier exchanges and losses, each side was hesitant to be the next to roar.  But when the time came, even if only a cub, the Mugabian lion did roar, and the Uwandan fox ran, whimpering from its wounds.