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.

Four More Aircraft for AirWar C21 Baltic Conflict

Good Evening all!
I know it has been some time since I have posted and painted anything. Well this weekend I am doing both. I have painted up four more aircraft for my upcoming games of AirWar C21 at the club focusing on what if air battles over the Baltic.

A view of the 12 aircraft I have painted so far

The Russians are on top include, SU-27's, Mig-29's and SU-24's. The Allied force are Swedish JAS-39 Gripen's, American F-16"s and Finnish F-18's

Another view of the full force.

One of the first scenarios I will run at the club is based of the incident that took place in Sweden last year when two SU-24's entered Swedish Airspace south of the island of Orland. Check out the link to an article about the incident. The Aviationist website

So for the scenario I needed some SU-24's and I was able to order two from Tumbling Dice. 

SU-24's ready for action

For another scenario I have been following the news about a joint, Swedish, Finnish and US training exercise involving JAS-39's, F-16's and F-18's. Check out this article here about the exercise Joint Exercise.

F-18's ready to intercept the Russians

Top down view

There has been an increase in air activity around Sweden and recently Russian TU-22's and SU-27's were flying towards Sweden at supersonic speed while not using there transponders. Here is an article about the recent activity Recent Activity.

Stay tuned for a game report, I will be trying out the rules this coming weekend.
Time to start shooting!

Naval Thunder at the Club!

Hi everyone,
Yes I am still alive and kicking. I have been recovering from my cold/cough that would not go away.  This past Sunday I got to play Naval Thunder at the game club with Soren and Joakim.  Both are members of the club and are fellow bloggers. please check out there blogs, Soren has Black Powder Games and Joakim has The Miniatures Man.  We had a fun game and it was the first time Joakim had played the rules and also Naval Wargaming.

The British protecting the coast

The Americans

The German fleet

We had three forces, the British and Americans against the evil empire of Germany. I commanded the US forces, Joakim had the British and Soren the Germans.
The Germans had the following ships:
Battleship squadron- Fredrich Der Grosse, Konig, and Ostfriesland
Battlecruiser squadron-Von Der Tann, Moltke, and Derflinger

The Germans split there force while under fire.

The British had:
Iron Duke and Warsrite.

The Royal Navy protecting the coast!

The US had:
Arizona, New York and Rhode Island.

The British and US Force was made up of all battleships.

The Americans steaming to support the British!

The objective was for the Germans to shell and destroy two towns along the British coast. Each town had a specific number of hull points. Both towns were able to escape with no damage as the Germans had there hands full with the combined US and British battleships.

The German Battlecruiser squadron breaks hard to engage the US ships.

The Germans split there force into two groups and focuses on the two separate parts of the allied fleet. The British had to hold off the three German Battleships while the Americans were fighting there way down the coast to support the British ships.

The Germans had to fight two fires on this ship.

Both sides engaged in fierce gun battles and a lot happened in a short amount of time. First both sides suffered damage to engine rooms in a number of ships which slowed almost all the groups of ships.

The first big event happened when the HMS Warspite was hit on turn 3 of the game with a critical hit. Soren rolled 20 on 2d10 and this was a magazine hit on the Warspite. The ship went up in a ball of flame. The people in the town were shocked by the explosion and may windows had to be replaced because of the massive explosion.

He rolled what!!!!

The death of the HMS Warspite

This did not stop the British and Americans from fighting the advancing Germans. Both sides were taking damage and eventual the Germans also suffered a massive explosion on board the Battleship Ostfiesland. She had taken a lot of damage and was about to sink when she also exploded from a shell from the US ships.

Finally the US gets some good dice rolls!

Still in line!

As the game progressed both sides lost ships, the US lost the USS Rhode Island and the New York and Arizona both took a beating. The British lost both of her ships in the battle. The Germans did not do much better as they lost three battleships and one BC.  The remaining BC's were also heavily damaged.

The British Fight to the end

The Germans start to lose ships

The death of the USS Rhode Island

A view of the US line as the Rhode Island goes down.

More German Ships go down.

The last British Battleship sinks defending the homeland!

In the end the game was a victory for the British and US players since they were able to protect the coast and the Germans were not able to shell the towns.

The losses were heavy take a look at below charts for some details on the damage.

Overall statistics

The German details

The British details

The American details

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to have more game reports in early April.
A big Thank you goes out to Soren for setting up the game!

Mig-29's and F-16's for the Baltic Battles!

Hi everyone!
     Well I had to go to the Urgent Care today because this cold is kicking my ass!  Oh well now I am a little off because of the medicine with Morphine in it.  Well I hope it will help me get better.  In between coughing and going to the Urgent Care unit I was able to paint up two F-16's with an aggressor paint scheme that I figured would work well in the Baltic Battles that I have planned.

F-16 in a new paint job

Joint force, JAS-39's and F-16's on patrol

I did some research and the upcoming exercise that will involve the U.S., Sweden, and Finland will participate in this coming March.  The US will be using F-16 during the exercise. So I figured I would paint them in the aggressor paint scheme. 

Mig-29's

To go with the F-16's I painted up two Mig-29's to help improve the Russian's force.  I have some more surprises coming for the game.  Enjoy the pictures and I look forward to any comments.

Russian task force on patrol looking for a fight

F-16's moving in for a shot.

Have a good week.