The Second World War, Bag the Hun, 1/300 scale 

We’ve had a dearth of games lately, for various reasons – largely because it’s summer, and people are off doing summery things. Anyway, Nick and I managed to play a game, and as a treat he brought in his vast 1/300 Battle of Britain collection. I think he bought these on e-bay for peanuts, then spent months repainting the planes and adding transfers. He was quite excited, as this was their first real outing! It certainly looked very spectacular.In this game I was the Luftwaffe, with a bomber force attempting top reach Dover, just down the coast to the west. I suppose from the angle, we were flying in from somewhere between Dunkirk and Ostend. Nick produced a lovely aerial gaming mat of this very area, with 2″ hexes laid over the top of it. In all there were six Dornier bombers in my force. They were escorted by two staffels (‘flights’) of Me-109 fighters, deployed ahead of the bombers, and on their northern side, as they approached the coast near South Foreland. Oh, there was also an ace, Juri Garland, who was flying on his own, as an extra escort. For my Korean War flying games I use wire stands, but Nick cleverly used  Lego, adding extra clear cylinders to represent different height bands. Essentially, every two Lego cylinders represented a height bands, up to a maximum of 6 – if your plane could fly that high). That means the ‘staffel’ of lovingly-painted ME-109s above are flying at height band 2. Like I said, each of these hexes is 2″ across – and the bomber models take up most of that. As the bombers approached the coast near South Foreland they spotted three flights of three RAF Hurricanes approaching from the direction of Dover. Nick played the RAF in this one, and I think he deliberately kept his own force small, to give me a fighting chance. In truth he should really have given himself a fourth flight of Hurricanes, as stopping well-formed up bombers was harder than it looked. His Hurricanes though, really looked the part! Nick divided his three flights, with two heading up the coast from Dover to Walmer, to work its way around the back of my bombers, while the other flight did the same to seaward of them. Inevitably I sent one staffel of Messerschmitts off to face each threat, while my ace stuck close to the bombers, who kept on closing with the coast, heading for Dover. The bombers kept in a tight formation, so to make the most of their rather limited defensive fire.The first clash came to seaward. One of the strange things about Bag the Hun is that whole flights can stay still at a crucial time, as their movement depends on the turn of a card. It’s the same with shooting – you can be in a perfect attacking position, and then the enemy move card comes up before your firing one, and the chance to fire slips through your fingers. Its all very frustrating, but entertaining too, as long as you don’t take it too seriously!Sure enough, in this dogfight Nick didn’t get to fire before I turned my own staffel in behind of him, and tried to tail him. the round counters next to the base mean that the aircraft is tailing its opponent. So, even when he moves, unless you roll badly, you’ll stay on his tail. This time the cards worked in my favour, and one of the Hurricanes was badly damaged, and another shot down. Meanwhile, Nick’s second flight had got in behind my bombers. This was a tricky situation for me – and for the British – as a lot depended on the way we manoeuvred, or when those shooting cards turned up. My second staffel still kept fighting the seaward flight of Hurricanes. Meanwhile, my ace (base no. 1) also took on the seaward flight, as my other ME-109’s headed off to protect the bombers. Major Garland got in behind the Hurricanes, and shot at the leading one, which was badly damaged,and headed for home.As it broke off and limped away trialing smoke – Nick very effectively used black pipe-cleaners for this – Garland gave chase, and finally managed to shoot it down, somewhere to the left of the bomber formation. Okay,it was a bit mean, shooting at a damaged plane, but that’s still another easy kill for Garland! Nick had a victory too though, as his remaining Hurricanes -now reduced to a six aircraft – kept chipping away at the Germans, taking on both bombers and fighters in the spreading dogfight. One of my Me-109s was shot down very spectacularly – the plane exploded in mid-air, after the seawards flight of Hurricanes got a move and then a fire card, at just the right moment. Still, all credit to Nick – it was a daring manoeuvre that really paid off! Back in the bomber fight, whatever they tried, those attacking Hurricanes couldn’t break the German bomber formation. They managed to cross the coast, and now there was nothing to stop them reaching Dover, and dropping their bombs. Nick’s main dogfighting flight had already broken off and turned for home. So, this spirited game ended in a German win, with two Hurricanes shot down for one Me-109. It was all a bit crazy, to be honest, but great fun! 

Tags: Bag the Hun