The Bomber Will Get Through

Adding Bombers to Mustangs

By Paul Hannah and Dave Schueler


Several years ago Avalon Hill published an introductory air combat game called Mustangs, which covered fighter vs. fighter combat during World War II. The relatively simple mechanics of the game made it easy to convert into a miniatures game. While Avalon Hill released an Expansion kit and published several articles with fighter stats in the General, they never came out with any rules for bombers. After spending a lot of time playing fighter on fighter games, our group decided that we needed to figure out a way to include bombers in our games and started working on some bomber rules. The rules for bombers have gone through several revisions to get the correct feel. We have found the following rules provide the best balance for playing games with bombers.

General Bomber Rules:

  • Bombers move like other aircraft, except that the Bombers must indicate maneuvers and altitude changes before all other aircraft. Maneuver, speed, and altitude information for the bombers is given in the Bomber Classes section below.
  • Bomber damage is noted and allocated in the same manner as the Mustangs optional damage rules (Rule 13b), except that the bomber defense factor is not reduced for each hit.
  • When attacking a bomber, the fighter gets a +1 big target bonus for each engine on the bomber (Example: when attacking an Italian SM-79 bomber which has 3 engines the attacking plane gets a +3 bonus). Exception: fighters armed exclusively with 30mm cannon do not get this bonus.
  • For each hit by a fighter armed exclusively with 30mm cannon, mark off two boxes for the area that is hit on the bomber.
  • Skilled Pilot Attack Option: Experienced or Ace pilots that are attacking a bomber head-on or directly from the rear may use this option. If this option is selected, the attacking fighter does not use the big target bonus modifier (all other modifiers still apply), but may choose the area hit by the attack. The fighter may choose Engines, Fuel (tail only), or crew (head-on only). However, if the bomber rolls an unmodified 10 for the defense roll it is an automatic miss.
  • Bombers can fire their defensive guns each impulse, even if the bomber or no other planes move in the impulse. Note: For simplicity, in these rules bomber gunnery focuses on the chance that an attacking fighter will be hit by making one roll for each fighter rather than having a bomber attack with each gun or turret.
  • When bombers attack an enemy fighter, a die is rolled for each fighter in range of any bomber (not for each bomber that can shoot at the fighter). The type of die rolled for the bomber attack depends on the Bomber Class and the position of the fighter. If a fighter is in range to more than one bomber, the die type used is the one that is the most advantageous for the bombers. The player controlling the bombers rolls the appropriate die type. If the result is a 1, the fighter takes at least one hit. The fighter may take more hits depending on the bomber class and proximity to other bombers, see the appropriate Bomber Class section below for more information on the damage done by bombers. If the fighter being attacked is jet or rocket powered, the next higher type of die is used, but never more than a D20. The die types used for bomber attacks are (from lowest to highest) D8 - D10 - D12 D20.
  • A bomber is crippled if it takes 1/2 or more hits in any one area. Bombers that are crippled must jettison their bomb load, have their maximum speeds reduced by one, have their gunnery reduced as described in the appropriate Bomber Class section below, and must dive at least one level during the next Change Phase.
  • Fires: when damage causes a bomber to catch fire, the normal Mustangs rules for putting out fires during the Change Phase are used. However, a bomber is not automatically destroyed if it does not put out the fire. Instead the burning bomber takes an extra hit in the area that is on fire (Example: a bomber that caught fire due to an engine hit would take another engine hit if it was unable to put out the fire). If the fire destroys the last hit for the area that is on fire, the bomber is destroyed. Bombers may only dive 2 levels when trying to put out fires, except for Single Engine Light Bombers, which may dive 3 levels (use the Dive 2 Levels chart for speed changes).

    Bomber Classes:

    We have broken the bombers of World War II into eight general classes. This means that some subtle distinctions between bombers may be lost when using these rules. The Bomber Classes are: Single Engine Light Bombers, Obsolescent Bombers, Fast Medium Bombers, Medium Bombers, Late War Medium Bombers, Early Fortress Heavy Bombers, Late Fortress Heavy Bombers, Superfortress Bombers. Each class has characteristics and special rules associated with it. Each of these classes and examples of planes are given below.

    Bombers Charts and Tables (extremely slow: 569K)

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