Force on Force over the Baltic. AirWar C-21

Hi everyone,

Like I promised in my last post I finally played my first game of AirWar C-21 at the club.  Soren and I met up on Friday afternoon to play two games of AirWar C-21.  The first game was to learn the rules and learn to fly the jets and get a feel for the rules before launching into a scenario that I call "bump and grind". I will post a separate AAR of the Russian vs.Swedish air battle later.

Red one against Black one start in formation

First draft aircraft cards with special maneuver cards and missile markers.

All the stuff needed to play.

 Before we started the game I reviewed the basics of the rules and reviewed the details that are on the aircraft card.  I would fly one JAS-39 and Soren would fly the other. We started in formation and broke off to experiment with the flying rules.  We maneuvered and used some of the special maneuver cards to see how they worked.

Out for a training flight.

Position before the simulated missiles start to fly.

 Over all the flying is not that difficult and the turn template makes it easy to know how far to turn.  The rules are not complex but there is good detail in the aircraft and weapon data. Once we were far enough away we started to shoot at each other. I was able to get the first missile off to shoot at Black One.  I tried to get a lock with two missiles but I was only able to get a lock with one of my IR missiles.

After getting a lock with one of the AIM-9 Missile we have the first missile away.

Closing in on the target.

Black One escapes damage by doing a break turn and dropping both chaff and flares.

 The rules are good as they allow for special maneuvers that gives the plane defensive bonuses when being fired at. In this case my AIM-9 IR missile goes off target since Soren dropped both Chaff and Flares as well as successfully conducting a break turn. 

Now Black One fires two AIM-120 missiles at me.

Time for Red One to try and shake some missiles.

Red One drops chaff and flares as well as pulls a split s to try to shake the missiles.

Red One shakes one of the two missiles but the second strikes Black One.

 After Soren did his break turn to avoid my missiles he placed himself on my six and he was able to fire two AIM-120 missiles. I did a Split S and dropped both chaff and flares and I was able to shake one of the two missiles but the other missile hit home and the total damage was more than my JAS-39 could handle.

How the plane would have looked if this had been a real fight but it was just training.

In the end this was a good way to play through the rules.  I had forgot to print off a players aid sheet that comes with the rules so that will be printed for next time. I had it on my ipad since I have an electronic copy of the rules but it is better to have a print copy of the reference sheet.

Overall the rules are easy to learn and play, it requires some work to play since the game does not come with data sheets and or the missile markers or the special maneuver cards and the turn templates. The game was fun and we moved onto the next scenario that I had created based on a real world situation that occurred over Swedish Airspace.