Lucius and I played a quick game of Wings of Glory. It’s a short one, but was fun to play. I’m thinking of getting some more Wings of Glory planes to expand the range of missions we can run. The rules are simple and fun, and for a pick-up game are just the thing. The set-up we used was simple. It was 1940. A JU-87B had to make it across the 6′ table, escorted by 2 x BF109s. The opposition was made up of 2 x Spits from 610 Sqn. We laid out my Cigar Box Ocean Battle mat (which looks great in my humble opinion) and started to move. The battle is described in the pictures below! If you are reading this blog on email, this is pretty picture heavy and depending on your data plan I recommended going to the site itself :
610 Squadron’s Spits come out to playThe Little Stuka that Could (and supporting cast)The Spits veer to the west, so the 109s move to meet them. The Little Stuka that Could keeps steady on courseAlmost in gun range. What are the Brits thinking?My 109s catch the closest Spit. While I tried to concentrate firepower here, sadly I only got half of my guns in. Still, a smoking, damaged enemy is a good start. The other Spit, named “Tapey” for the bit of tape on its base has broken off, probably to get behind the escort and attack the Stuka (that could)The melee that followed was intense. The smoking Spit got behind Yellow 5 and hammered him hard. White 13 immelmanned and went to engage the other Spit that wasn’t able to get behind the Little Stuka that Could without presenting a juicy target to White 13. I had considered the strengths of the Stuka, and had decided that the best place for a Stuka to be was BEHIND a Spit – it would be very hard to shoot down. The Spit wouldn’t be able to out turn a slower aircraft, and who knows, the Stuka might do significant damage! As long as my escort downed 1 Spit, I figured I’d win. But then something bad happened.The air became filled with a swirling fight. White 13 misjudged his pass and got hit and drew 2 damage markers. 6, ouch… and explode. The first kill and my undamaged escort is blown up. Yellow 5 has 14 damage (and only 17 health to draw down). Luckily, you can see the Little Stuka that Could hanging on behind that smoking Spit and pouring what little fire it could into her as the Spit hung on to Yellow 5 like a bulldog. Tapey Spit was having a hard time turning to get behind the Little Stuka that Could but I knew that it wouldn’t be long…The smoking Spit stopped smoking and tailed Yellow 5, jinking with him and doing a lot of hurt. But the plucky Stuka that Could didn’t miss and shot down Spit! Turning tightly together towards Britain, the Luftwaffe outraced the remaining Tapey Spit to the table edge and victory!MVP: The Stuka’s rear gun did some damage, but its forward facing armament hit many times. With only A category damage it didn’t do much, but over time it made all the difference in the world: 8 of the 18 damage that the Spit took was from the Stuka. Lesson learned – slow aircraft are not as vulnerable as we may think, and used in combination with other assets can really punch above their weight!
So where do you get your game mats and what size is it?
Cigar Box Battle Mats – they’re pricey but good!
Just realized I missed a part of the question: they are 6′ x 4′