Introduction and Problems
The celebration of various events in World War 2 over the past few years inspired me to look again at this period as another area for wargaming. I picked up the excellent "Rapid Fire" rules for gaming encounters on terra firma. I have Paul Hague's book, "Naval Wargaming" which together with Arthur Taylor's "Rules for Wargaming" inspired a set of naval campaign rules (see Lone Warrior 111), but what about aerial combat?
I wanted a fast play system that dealt with the excitement of aerial encounter. I wasn't particularly concerned about how the aircraft came to find one another, but I was very interested in the dogfight. But how to deal with the three dimensional nature of aerial combat? When I first started to consider the dogfight I had in mind that we would have all the spectacular aerobatics, loop the loop, Immelmann turn, barrel roll and so on. However I found this to be far too complex and abandoned that idea altogether. Imagine my surprise, and gratification, on reading an article by Mike Spick which said that the aerobatics weren't really used in combat. They were largely a way to inspire confidence in the pilot!
OK, no fancy aerobatics, but we are still left with the problem of some aircraft being higher than others in combat. Quite predictably I started to think about two or three levels of "tabletop" one on top of the other. However I don't have a dedicated wargames room so it's not possible for me to have the table in operation all the time. Apart from that I'm not very practical in a handyman sort of way!
The problem is solved by the use of playing cards. For games like Bridge and Whist the suits are ranked clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades with clubs being the lowest and spades the highest. This is the key to solving the problem.
Playing the Game
Combat
Turn over a playing card for each aircraft and place it in the correct part of the grid. Once all the aircraft are in place, sort out combat beginning with the aircraft at the highest altitude and working your way down. Aircraft are obviously placed randomly on the grid according to the draw of the cards. The skill comes in determining which aircraft you are going to attack because you might have more than one option. The best way to explain how this works is to give an example. I have half a dozen 1:144 scale aircraft, 3 Spitfires (marked Echo, Lima and Tango) and 3 FW 190s (marked A, B and C).
Round One
| Club | Diamond | Heart | Spade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | Ace | Ace | Ace |
| King | King | King | King |
| Queen | Queen | Queen | Queen |
| Jack | Jack | Jack | Jack |
| 10 | 10 | 10 FW 190 B | 10 |
| 9 | 9 | 9 FW 190 A | 9 |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 7 FW 190 C | 7 | 7 Spit. L | 7 |
| 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 Spit. E | 4 | 4 |
| 3 Spit. T | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Remember to start with the pilot at the highest altitude and work your way down. FW 109 B is the plane at the highest altitude. He has the choice of target. Each level of altitude (suit) difference gives a score of four then add or take away the difference within the altitude level.
FW 109 B (10 Hearts) attacks Spitfire Tango (3 Clubs). +4 for each level of altitude difference = 8 + 7 (difference between 3 and 10), total 15 points of damage to Spitfire Tango.
FW 109 A is next highest (9 Hearts). He chooses to attack Spitfire Echo (4 Diamonds). +4 for the difference in altitude, +5 (the difference between 4 and 9), total 9 points of damage to Spitfire Echo.
Spitfire Lima is next to fire (7 Hearts). He has only one eligible target, FW 109 C (7 Clubs). +8 for the two levels difference in altitude. Both are on the 7 so there are no further additions or subtractions, total 8 points of damage inflicted upon FW 109 C
There are no eligible targets for the other two Spits so this is the end of the round. Deal out playing cards for all the surviving aircraft and begin again.
N.B. There is nothing to stop aircraft choosing the same target. In the example above the first two German aircraft could have decided on Spitfire Tango as their target. Had they done that Tango would have been shot down and taken out of play (15 points damage from FW 109 B, 14 points from FW 109 A =29. FW 109 A would have been credited with the "kill" as he was the last aircraft to fire on the target).
Round Two
| Club | Diamond | Heart | Spade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace FW 109A | Ace | Ace | Ace |
| King | King | King | King |
| Queen | Queen | Queen | Queen |
| Jack | Jack Spit E | Jack | Jack |
| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 9 Spit L | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4
Spit T |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 FW 109 B | 2 FW 109 C |
Highest aircraft in this round is Spitfire Tango (5 Spades). He chooses to attack FW 109 B (2). +4 for the difference in altitude, +3 (for the difference between 2 and 5), a total of 7 points damage inflicted.
The next highest aircraft is FW 109 C (2 Spades). He chooses to attack Spitfire Lima (9 Clubs). +12 for the difference in altitude, -7 (for the difference between 2 and 9), a total of 5 points damage inflicted.
Next in line is FW 109 B (2 Hearts). He also chooses Spitfire Lima as a target. +8 for the difference in altitude, -7 (for the difference between 2 and 9), a total of 1 point damage.
Spitfire Echo is the next firer and he chooses FW 109 A (Ace Clubs) as his target. +4 for the difference in altitude, -3 (for the difference between Jack and Ace), a total of 1 point damage.
The last plane eligible to fire is FW 109 A (Ace Clubs) and his target (the only aircraft lower than himself) is Spitfire Lima (9 Clubs). +5 (the difference between Ace and 9) is the total number of points damage inflicted.
This completes the second round of combat. Spitfire Lima was the target for all three German aircraft this round.
Round Three
| Club | Diamond | Heart | Spade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | Ace | Ace | Ace FW 109 A |
| King | King | King | King |
| Queen | Queen | Queen Spit L | Queen |
| Jack | Jack | Jack | Jack |
| 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 8
FW 109 C |
| 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 Spit T | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 FW 109 B | 2 | 2 | 2 |
FW 109 A (Ace Spades) chooses Spitfire Lima (Queen Hearts) as his target. +4 for the difference in altitude, +2 (for the difference between Ace and Queen), a total of 6 points damage inflicted.
FW 109 C (8 Spades) chooses Spitfire Tango (6) as his target. +8 for the difference in altitude, +2( for the difference between 8 and 6), a total of 10 points damage. This brings Tango's total damage in the game up to 25 and so he is removed from the grid. FW 190 C gets the "kill."
Spitfire Echo (Ace Hearts) chooses FW 190 B (2 Clubs) as his target. +12 for the difference in altitude, +12 (for the difference between Ace and 2), a total of 24 points. This brings FW 190 B's total up to 31 and he is removed from the game. Spitfire Echo receives credit for the "kill." As there are no eligible targets for the remaining aircraft this concludes round three of combat.
I think that there is sufficient detail here to show how the system works. It is a very fast play system and does carry the flavour of a dogfight with aircraft finding themselves in different places on the grid in every round, sometimes at a disadvantage, sometimes with a choice of target. It is possible for a numerically inferior squadron to win the battle given luck with the cards and a judicious choice of target.
You can add colour by having named pilots for "your" side. All pilots start as novices. If they survive three missions they become experienced. Once you have shot down 5 enemy aircraft you become an ace. Not many of my pilots have survived to become experienced! Good hunting.
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