The Beaufighter vs ME110 duel

Scenario 5.  The ME110 Vs Beaufighter duel.

Victor Valiant and his squadron are out over the Axis Convoy lanes and have run into a flight of Stukas from the Vulture Squadron and a pair of escorting ME110.  This could be interesting.

The Beaufighters come on table and spot the Stukas 

Victor Valiant gets on the tail

D for Digby, the squadron sprog, downs the last Stuka.

The ME110s intervene but the Beaufighters are quick to respond

The second ME110 gets put into the sand.  A win for the Beaufighters...

Roger Ramjet, he's our man.

Roger Ramjet and his chums
Fighting for our freedom
All the French and Native guys
Know they cannot beat him

My 28mm Rebels and Patriots games are about to get going, with Ramjet's Rangers now complete.The first game 2d6 rolled was 6-4, "a long way from home."

British Rangers
3 Small units Aggressive Veteran Light Infantry @ 8 points each (Rangers)

Native War Party – fighting for the French
1 Skirmishers that are Sharpshooters @ 6 points (Coureur des Bois)
3 Units Aggressive Natives @ 6 points each (Huron tribe)

SCENARIO J: A LONG WAY FROM HOME

Magwoo, the short sighted Huron has been out on the border raiding with his boys.  The Native Americans are marching back to their camp along a track. Ramjet's Rangers have spotted them and set up for an ambush with a smaller force.  

SET UP

The Abenaki have a 24-point Company. The Rangers have an 18-point Company.
Table size 48" x 48".
The track runs from the NE Zone to the SW Zone through the Central Zone. The remaining gaming board is at least 50% covered in forest, but no forest within 3" of either side of the road.
The Huron place all units on the road from the SW corner of the Central Zone in to the SW Zone. The Rangers then split their  Company in two equal parts, one part deployed in the NW Zone and the other in the SE Zone.

SPECIAL RULES
The Huron units are removed from play when the first model touches any table edge in the NE Zone. These units count as ‘escaped’ for objectives. If one of the Ranger units has to retreat, they always retreat to the closest board edge.

ENDING THE SCENARIO
After turn 10, roll a die and add the turns already played, if the result is 16 or more this was the last turn.

The Game

The back woods

The rangers attack the head of the French and native line of march

And that thar' is good shootin'

With the French weakened the Natives surge forward.

But Lootenant Bucky Barnes is hidden on the flank and he gets four hits

I may not be able to focus my camera properly but that is a great miniature. 
Magwoo is standing on one of the jigsaw joins for the new tabletop here. 
It vanishes unless you actually look for it!

hand to hand on the flank as Bucky makes them pay...

Roger Ramjet he's our Man... just look at that huge cleft chin!

The French break, and the natives follow them off.  Magwoo makes a run for it in totally the wrong direction

The Rangers are left holding the backwoods, and its a victory for Ramjet and his boys...

The new tabletop

Here in Cyprus my table is 3ft by 6ft.  It's that 3ft width that concerns me of course.  To rectify this I needed a tabletop that packed away, and having done the terrain board route, the hex time route and the big 6 by 4 Scenic grass MDF board route I wanted to try something new.

Wandering through Jumbo's in the Pathos Mall I spotted a likely option, interlocking soft floor tiling, available in 30 cm or 60cm squares.

Having bought both a 30cm and 60 cm pack I have enough to cover my 6 by 4.  Actually I'm happy to go with a 4ft square board and use the remains tiles for contouring.

There are a couple of 1:300 Italian fighter  aircraft in the centre of this mat!

Now clearly the wood effect isn't what I'm going for so the  next step is painting.

The top gets woodland greens and browns

With two sides to these mats I went for greens and browns as the top or "stippled" side, and desert beige and sand colours for the reverse.

Fitted together and with painting complete the "joins" vanish...

The completed board

My French Indian War setup, with every tree I have!

Catch the Pigeon, with a Beaufighter

Scenario 4:  Intercepting the Vulture Staffel or... 

"Catch the Picceones."

Major Von Dastardly has flown his Vulture Stuka Staffell From Sicily to Tunis.  Meanwhile the Picceone Armoured Battle Group "the Desert Pigeons," have landed and are preparing for the drive to Tobruk and the front.  Dastardly also means to get to the front lines and wreak havoc.

All that stands in Dastardly and the Pigeons way are the Beaufighters of Victor Valiant's 252, armed with bombs for this mission.  

For the second time my campaign rolls had two Beaufighters turn back to Malta.  I avoided the flak over Tunis but couldn't find the tanks.  Eventually I ran into the Stukas...  The Beaufighters drop their bombs to gain performance and attack.

The Beaufighters speed makes this relatively easy.  Klunk and Zilly are caught and the rear gunners performance leaves some questions as to Vulture Squadron's training...

Muttley escapes the debacle as the two Beaufighters down three Stukas.   Still proud of those scratch built Stukas!

With no sign of the Italian tanks its only a partially successful mission.
The General will not be pleased...

Beaufighters vs the Axis convoy

Scenario 2  Attack the convoy

The Axis convoy makes for Tunis, lead by the heavy cruiser Sophia Loren...

The Beaufighters head down the garden in pursuit

B for Brian and C for Colin head straight in dropping torpedoes...  but the flak from the Loren is too much for Brian and he goes in...

The Italian fighters show up and try to bounce the Beaufighters.   Better shooting needed.

Squadron Leader Valiant leads the Beaufighters in a dogfight against the Fiats, killing one and driving the other off

D for Dan drops a torpedo sinking one of the Merchants.  Its a good haul.

A good result for the Beaufighters and Rommel will be cross!

Scenario 3  Welcome to Tunis

The campaign rolls for this game indicated that two Beaufighters turned back to Malta with engine problems, and that the Italian fighters failed to show up.  As a result a boring turkey-shoot game.  The trouble is that as a solo player I have to take the dice roll seriously or not bother, so whilst I was tempted to fudge I didn't. Pity really since even the Flak was poor...

  

Two torpedoes at an oil tanker sinking it... its still a result.

The Beaufighters: Scenario One Coastal patrol

The Beaufighter Coastal patrol.   As part of my Desert Air Force Campaign the Beaufighters are on patrol looking for Italian shipping, but have made contact with the Regio Aeronautica.  An SM79 bomber.  Tally Ho! 

252 Squadron come on table.  The Beaufighters survived the journey to the Mediterranean. .. quite literally since that reflection is my garden...

The SM79 Sparvieto dives down trying to avoid the Beaufighters

Victor Valiant gets on the tail and puts a long burst into the Italian.   Down in flames.

Two G50 Fiat fighter aircraft finally show up...They bounce into the Beaufighters.

Victor gets a good deflection shot.  The Beaufighter is really well armed, but that Fiat is too quick for him to get on the tail.

A bad moment as one of the Fiat attempts to  lock on,  

But the Italian over plays his hand, and the random d4 add on sees him scoot past the Beaufighter and end his turn in front of its waiting guns.  Not smart.

The remaining Fiat runs for home. Game over.