I hosted a game of "Mustangs: Pacific Dogfights" at War Party. I was asked to write a short After Action Report for The Herald -- I can do that. I'll also take this opportunity to thank Rich Smethurst, Ernie Baker, Jim Fox and Bob Schmitt for organizing, promoting and managing another great Cincinnati historical wargame con. They just keep getting better and better, guys.

Mustangs is the classic Avalon Hill boardgame of WW II fighter combat. It has been extended and adapted for miniatures play by the good fellows of the Air Pirates Yahoo group (Air-Pirates@yahoogroups.com). I highly recommend joining the Air Pirates if you have an interest in air wargaming. Air Pirates has more than 300 members. Discussion of all airwar eras and wargame rules is welcome, although the main focus is on Mustangs. All the rules, data sheets, order chits and other paper components that I used in the game were downloaded free of charge from the Air Pirates website. It's not necessary to own a copy of the Mustangs boardgame to play the miniatures game, although owning the boardgame is a convenience and helped me get off to a quick start with miniatures.

Mustangs can be played using models and hex mats of various sizes. Many gamers use 1/300 airplanes. I play on a pair of old Battle Masters hex mats, with 5" hexes. I use diecast toy airplanes that I find already built and painted in the toy departments of discount stores for a few dollars each. The models' scales vary from about 1/120 to 1/180, but the games look good, as long as the fighters generally match in scale, and the bombers aren't too much smaller of scale. The diecast airplanes are very robust -- you can hardly break them. And if they get scratched up a little, they just look better! I use the low, single-piece flight stands that come with the toys. I display each airplane's altitude and speed on a pair of 6-sided dice next to its flight stand.

Using these components, it's easy, fast and inexpensive to put together a set of models and mats for gaming. I can practically buy the planes off the rack, and play with them on the table the same day. Setup and teardown is fast, and the whole lot packs into a single crate for travel.

Mustangs is a fairly detailed dogfighting game, originally optimized for two players flying a pair of fighters each. I usually hold the size of the game size to no more than six players, flying one or two fighters each, plus a cell of four bombers. The bombers are non-player characters; sort of a mobile pinata for the fighter pilots. Sometimes I include a bombing target in the scenario, but more often I don't. The bombers' job is to fly slowly from one table end to the other, while escorts and interceptors battle around them.

At conventions, I expect to get mostly players with no previous Mustangs experience. I planned the Pacific Dogfights scenario for War Party as a "training" game, to teach the players how to fly and shoot, and how damage affects planes. I wanted every player to do some damage and have some fun.

I set up a cell of four B-25J medium bombers at one end of the table in a diamond formation, at their maximum altitude and level speed (height 4, speed 2). No escort fighters, so no fighter-on-fighter dogfighting. This game would feature Japanese fighters blasting unescorted American bombers.

I got five players. One was a crony of mine who often plays Mustangs, the other four were noobs. I gave the new pilots one A6M5 Zero each, my old pal got a Ki.45 Nick to fly (a twin-engine plane that's heavily armed, for a Japanese fighter, and maneuvers like a furniture truck). I gave them all "ace" pilots with combat bonuses out the wahzoo. I set them up in a loose gaggle, facing the bombers, about eight hexes out, at height 5, speed 3. The players would have a game turn to jockey around before diving into their first head-on pass at the B-25Js.

The game worked out much as I'd planned. By the time the fighters got into range, the players were learning how to move and place their maneuver markers. As the first Zeros tore into the B-25J leader, the players observed the results, and a couple reserved their fire (limited ammunition, you know) until they could maneuver into more favorable tailing positions on the bombers.

By game turn three all the fighters engaged, and first the trailing, then the lead B-25J were chopped out of formation. Bomber defensive fire was copious, but mostly ineffective. One Zero took a burst in his rudder, which demonstrated the concept of "damaged" maneuver rating to the players. Meanwhile, the bombers displayed a more varied range of damage effects, having crews and engines shot out, dropping out of formation "crippled" from fuselage damage, and catching fire from fuel hits.

By the middle of game turn five, when the fighters finished wiping out the B-25Js, all players had pretty well caught onto the rules. The game took about two hours to play out. The big toy airplanes I use are colorful, and we got a fair amount of rubber-necking from passers-by.

Now that I've introduced some HMGS-GL players to the Mustangs rules, I hope to include escort fighters in my next con event. I've pledged to run Mustangs twice at Advance The Colors, this September. If you want to fly, I'll have a cockpit for you.