A Chenaultesque pass through the excellent reference magweb.com
or
Borrowing scenario ideas from dissimilar rules systems.

It's called kit bashing when you swap out parts from different models, so we'll call it scenario bashing or research, or plagarism. When you game in a familiar rules system sometimes there are gems of scenario ideas that must be plucked from other systems. This is the case with "Swarm in Burma." To breathe life into one of our Swarm scenarios we researched our newest hangout on the internet -- magweb.com -- and came across one of our favorite "furballs." Japanese vs. The Flying Tigers AVG!

There is a very interesting article by Jimmy Sperling in The Naval Sitrep, featuring the Flying Tigers in Burma 1941. This informative scenario is written for the CaS (Command At Sea) rules system. It is written well and gives the reader an anticipation of playing the game. The article includes variants and a bibliography to give it extra mileage in the gaming world. Quality work that didn't go away after we read the piece. We will now convert the scenario to the Lion's Den Gnatz/SWARM system.

The following TO&E was taken from the encounter mentioned in the Sperling article:

Allied Forces 3rd Pursuit Squadron

American Volunteer Group Nationalist Chinese Air Force "Hells Angels." 16 @ P-40C
67th Squadron Royal Air Force 20 @ Buffalo I.

Japanese Forces

10th Hikodan (Air Brigade), Japanese Army Air Force
54 @ Ki. 21- II b (Sally)
20 @ Ki. D - I b (Nate)

The Japanese are performing a large air assault on the city of Rangoon. The air assault began at 1100hours December 23, 1941. The allies are scrambling their fighters to intercept the Japanese force. The previous listed forces have been assigned values on the Swarm (Squadron) Aircraft control sheet. Interestingly, the scenario fits well onto two control sheet evenly divided. They are included for completeness at the end of the article.

There is a case to be made to allow the AVG pilots an additional modifier on the evasive action roll. I would allow a +1 to the AVG squadrons. If you count pips on the control sheet you will see that the AVG planes are credited at 2 pips per plane and the RAF at one. The Japanese bombers count in at one also, however, check the additional line below the squadron strength. We have added a line to record bomb load. These rules are covered in the addendum in the original rules set.

All of the aircraft except the AVG are limited to speed one and two on the control sheet. The level three band has been crossed off to indicate the speed cannot be chosen in the game. The Buffalo and the Sally aircraft have defensive guns in rear firing areas. These are covered in the addendum rules of the original set. The terrain should be set up to include the bombing objectives for the Japanese Air Force. Include an airfield from which the AVG & RAF planes take off. These should start with one of those increasing 1D6 rolls where they need a six to take off on the first turn then a 5 or 6 etc. Also, include port facilities for the city of Rangoon. I would make these 5 hexes of buildings and docks. Each hex being worth a set number of victory points- the airfield would also have a point set for it's destruction.

The original set of Gnatz/Swarm rules were published in Penny Whistle #29. Good luck with these squadron level rules. They should prove interesting and very adaptable to solo gaming.

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