Mark Booth has been writing a series of articles on air wargaming based on the idea that there are many air battles to game. I would like to add that air combat also has many scenarios in which the situation is adaptable to solo techniques. Let's look at a few samples.
Many solo players use a programmed opponent. Even without a computer it's fairly easy to set up a series of rules that control one side in a battle. Then the player is free to choose his approach. This technique fits a scenario which has fighters attacking bombers.
In World War II, the Japanese bomber attacks over Burma and China were flown in a predictable pattern. They flew a rigid formation, a large V made up of smaller vs of three planes. If a plane was shot down, they simply closed up a bit. Given that predictability, a solo player could try his hand at flying an Brewster Buffalo or an AVG P-40 against these formations. Later in the war, Allied bombers over Germany used different formations, the bomber box, etc. 01 but again the soloist can try his tactics with a Me 109, Fw 190, perhaps Me 262. The ultimate programmed "bomber" was the V-1 buzz bomb. As a missile it had no mind of its own; thus the defending fighter pilot had a programmed target.
In Vietnam it was more a case of a programmed defense. American aircraft flew against targets defended by Soviet SAMs, surface to air missiles. The missiles were, of course, flying a predictable course to intercept. It was up to the attackers to develop effective counter measures.
Some solo players like to program both sides of a battle and enjoy seeing how it all turns out. A scenario which fortunately is not based on history fits that pattern well. Assume in about 1953 World War III starts and the Soviet Union sends a bomber strike. The intercepting fighters would be nearly as programmed as the bombers. First they would be guided to the bombers by ground control; then as they moved in for their attack, they would be flown by computers on a path to launch missiles or rockets.
Solo systems often use a series of counters on a map with some of them dummies. These counters help add a challenge to planning combat. Which forces are real and which the decoy? Some of you may recall that Tom Clancy in Red Storm Rising has the Soviets use a decoy attack on the American fleet. In that case the decoy pulled the American fighters away while Soviet forces hit from the other side. The US Air Force Strategic Air Command also has decoys. The B- 36 of the 1950s carried a drone designed to reflect a radar signal like a bomber.
Solo players will often try to even up their contest by* developing a system that lets the other side add to its forces in unpredictable ways. This kind of nasty surprise is routine in air combat. In fact 80% of the pilots who are shot down and live to tell about it report they never saw the plane that got them. They were the victim of an opponent who was an unexpected addition to the enemy forces. It can be a Hun in the sun in World War I or a SAM over Baghdad.
The above techniques, programmed enemies, decoy counters, and surprise additions to the enemy are devices for the soloist who does not battle a live opponent. The solo player who battles a live opponent plays his battles by mail. I have played some air combat systems that adapt well to postal play. Ace of Aces, a game that uses a set of books as the play mechanism, works very well. In face-to-face games, players of Ace of Aces call out numbers to tell each other moves. In the postal system, they simply mail the numbers. In my experience it works pretty well. There are other air combat games that can be converted to postal as well.
As you can tell by my examples and Mark's more detailed information, air wargaming covers a wide range of possibilities. I hope more solo players will take off into air wargames. It is, after all, the one subject for wargaming where the sky is the limit.
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