Victor Valiant, Beaufighter Ace

A long term ambition for my Desert Air Force was to field a Bristol Beaufighter squadron.  However, even in 1:300, I'm not one to collect planes in Squadron numbers.  The very maximum number of Beaufighters I would be able to manage on table in one of my solo games would be four.  So that's what I went with, four models, that will represent Squadron Leader Victor Valiant's boys on table

If more than that number is needed in a campaign game the Squadron will come on in waves.  It's pragmatic and it's how I built up my whole WW2 Air collection.

Scotia- Grendel 1:300

Seventeen Beaufighter squadrons had served in the Mediterranean theatre by the end of the war.  Victor and his crews loosely represent the attachment from 252 Squadron that went to Gibraltar and then Malta and Cairo in 1941.  My Desert Air Force Campaign is currently buzzing around the German siege of Tobruk in early 1941 so it sort of maybe fits...

252 will be attached to fly missions across the area.  That will include bombing, fighter cover, anti shipping, anti submarine and special operations.   The end of the campaign will see Victor and the Beaufighters (great name for a band) raid the Italian Naval Harbour at Palermo in waves, seeking a battleship as their target.

Campaign cards
Missions
R&R
Fitters
Maintenance
Target
Planning
Training
Transit

Dice markers
Ord & POL
Aircraft Available

In a campaign if this type I would usually name the pilots and list experience and skills.  This helps me focus my solo game.   For this a Squadron card will also be needed, something like the chalk board for operations in Dawn Patrol, with pilots names, kills, Status etc...This will be a slightly larger index card that will ride along the missions track to indicate the current position  it will also carry the status dice.

The mission track,  no Squadron status card as yet.  Seven aircraft available.  POL dice of 3 means enough for one transit and one mission.  Better get the supplies topped up!

An individual mission, but it will need a transit card to get there, facing flak or enemy aircraft on the way. 

Its still a work in progress...

252 A FLIGHT 
Sqn Leader Victor Valiant, Beaufighter Ace
Flt Lt Cliff Robertson
F.O Mellion
F.O (AUS) Goodcliffe
B Flight
Flt (CAN) Lt Finch
F.O Church
F.O Archer
F.O (Nz) "Ned" Kelly
C Flight
Flt.Lt "Billy" Roach
P.O Young "Johnny" Briggs
P.O "Mike" Baldwin
P.O "Ken" Barlow

A Beaufighter in Desert Air Force Camo.   "V" for Valiant perhaps?

Scenarios

The Crippled Destroyer
Axis Convoy
The Benghazi POL dump
Over Tobruk
The Mas Boat pens
Lust, Sloth and Gluttony... Malta
Stukas on the coast
Valley in the Atlas
The Italian Raider
Battleship at Palermo

A Beaufighter of 252 Sqn being refuelled in the Western Desert.