Handley Page Sub Hunting

What a Handley Page!

Work in progress

Handley Page O/400 bomber D8345 of No.7 RNAS about to land

An adaptation of TFL's What a Tanker and Avalon Hill's solitaire B17

1.  Meet the crew.

I`m still researching the rank structure of RNAS Bomber crews but for now I will go with 207 Squadron's History and use the specialist Naval ranks.

Flight Sub-Lieuteant the Hon. David Niven
Gunlayer 3812 R. Attenborough
Gunlayer 3128 A. Guiness
Gunlayer 2799 W. Hay

2. The Missions

1. Anti Submarine Patrol out to the Dogger Bank and then due North to the Devil's Hole before returning to the Aerodrome.	4. General Patrol over the Long forties, returning to the Aerodrome once completed.
2.  Anti Submarine patrol over the Oyster Ground, North over the great Fisher Bank before returning to the Aerodrome.	5. Anti-Mine layer patrol, Farnborough Head northwards to the Devil's Hole, returning to the Aerodrome once completed.
3.  General patrol over the Norfolk banks. Return via the Silver pit	6.  Scout out over the German Bight for Enemy ship movements.

Mission Card

Mission Cards

Cloud

Cold Nose wind

Navigation error.

Engine problems

Perfect flying weather

Oil leak

Pusser's Kye

Target lost
German destroyer
German Minelayer

Oh Hell! Its one of Ours!
Navigation Landmark
U-boat on surface 
U-boat dived
Weather turns
Visibility
German aircraft
Is that a Zeppelin
Ship in trouble

Stop that pigeon 
A flock of Shitehawks

A card is drawn each turn.  Up to three cards may be in play, with the oldest discarded when a fourth is drawn.  Thus if a sub is spotted a Handley Page will only have a short window of opportunity to engage.  Crossing into a new patrol area wipes are all cards and dice.

Flight card
Each turn roll 5 Command Dice and Draw One Card
1. Pilot
2. Spotting 
3. Aim.
4. Shoot 
5. Navigation
6. Wild dice

Pilot
Move and turn, speed constant
Climb half movement or dive add half again.

Pilot needs to accumulate 3 dice to pass a stage and enter the next patrol area.

Spotting

Use three dice to spot and identify a target card.  When a target card is played into the mission cards area the player may roll these dice to spot.

Aim

The pilot needs to accumulate 3 dice from two consecutive rolls to commence the bombing run, or attack.

Shoot.

Bomb or Lewis, A simple D6 roll with any or all accumulated dice, 5 or 6 hits, 1 is a critical miss.   Used at the end of a bombing run.  Using all dice simulates the reload. 

Navigation: 

Pilot needs to accumulate 3 dice to move into next patrol area.

In an emergency may roll any accumulated dice 5 or 6 to succeed.

Wild card dice

Subsitute for any other dice.  Roll 2 and you must draw a second card.  Draw three and you must draw three cards and wipe all dice and previous cards.

Rather than Mr Babbage we face Herr Grün.

The Solo System uses the information on the target cards.  D6 rolls determine outcomes noted on individual cards, sometimes this affects the pilots dice on the flight card too.  Cards may also have an affect on mission cards already held.

If an enemy aircraft appears, such as a Rumpler float plane from the enemy coast, a sub game begins whilst the encounter is fought out.

Specifications (O/400)
General characteristics
Crew: 4 or 5
Length: 62 ft 10¼ in (19.16 m)
Wingspan: 100 ft (30.48 m)
Height: 22 ft (6.71 m)
Wing area: 1,648 ft² (153.1 m²)
Empty weight: 8,502 lb (3,856 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 13,360 lb (6,060 kg)
Powerplant: 2 x Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII inline piston, 360 hp (268 kW) each
Performance: Maximum speed: 97.5 mph (84.7 kn, 157 km/h)
Range: 608 nmi (700 mi, 1,120 km)
Service ceiling: 8,500 ft (2,600 m)
Rate of climb: 23 min to 5,000 ft
Endurance: 8 hours
Armament: Guns: 5 x 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Guns (2 on nose Scarff ring, 2 on dorsal position and 1 at ventral hatch)
Bombs: Up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs
Avionics: Drift Sight Mark IA, an early mechanical bombsight

Scratch building the Handley Page
1.144
Length 12.91cm
Wingspan 20.83cm
Height 4.58cm

1:600
Length 3.1cm
Wingspan 5cm
Height 1.1cm

Building the Handley Page 0/400

Heavy card, scored for formers below the canvas, balsa for the fuselage and undercarriage 

Nail scissors to cut out the wings. Note the smaller under wing, very much a feature of this aircraft .

Painted, and undercarriage added

Top down

And on its sea base.

My first game test.

Mission 1

General Patrol over the Long Forties, returning to the Aerodrome once completed.

Crew

Flight Sub-Lieutenant the Hon. David Niven
Gunlayer 3812 R. Attenborough
Gunlayer 3128 A. Guiness
Gunlayer 2799 W. Hay

HP serial 566

Air hours 3.

Maintenance check

Passed

12 gallons fuel.

Take off

Successful  into patrol zone 1.

64421

Card

Perfect flying weather.  Altitude 8000. Excellent start

Patrolling zone 1, 8000ft

54221

Card

Navigation Landmark.   Extra dice for navigation.

Patrolling zone 1 , 8000ft

54331

Card

A flock of Shitehawks.  One Pilot dice used to avoid birdstrike.

Three d5 means Niven and his crew can proceed to Zone 2

Turn 4, 

Into Zone 2  8000ft

Dice cleared, cards cleared.

Fuel use check 9 gallons remaining.  1 hour into flight.

42211

Card

One of Ours!   A Royal Navy destroyer below.  Niven waggles the Handley Page's wings but doubts they see him.

Patrolling zone 2

66521

Card

Pusser's Kye 

Additional card for double 6

U-boat dived.

Niven pours a cocoa and rum from his thermos, and almost spills it as he sees a U-boat sitting on the bottom, visible to an aircraft.  Clearly it means to ambush the Navy Destroyer.  He brings the Handley Page down to 2000ft and prepares his bombing run.

3 Pilot dice

3  Spotting dice

0   Aim dice

1  Shoot dice

I use the two wildcard dice to add 2 to the aim, hoping to fill the slot  and begin the bomb run next go.

Target spotted patrol zone 2.

64322

3 Pilot dice, 3 Spotting,  3 aim,  3 shoot.

Card

Visibility roll.  Costs me a spotting dice, but after that roll I have two spare.

Niven begins his bombing run.

I roll the pilots dice needing 5 after that roll nd 6 to succeed.  2, 4 and a 6, Niven battles the Handley Page onto the correct course.  Three spotting dice, need 4 to 6 and I roll two passes.  The aim needs five or six, since this is not a clear target.  I roll one pass, sufficient.

The shoot dice will tell me the effect.  I roll a one and two twos.  Niven fires his Davies recoiless gun into the water and misses by a clear mile

Turn seven

6 gallons remaining.  2000ft

Zone 2.  Cards in play 

One of ours, U-boat underwater, visibility.

One of Ours is discarded. The destroyer Captain thinks better of going anywhere near the Handley Page.

Niven has one last chance before the uboat vanishes.

Card

Weather turns...

Not so good.  Visibility goes down one, and requires an extra dice.

64211

Niven has two Pilot dice.  He has one spare spotting dice to add to the 2 just rolled.  He uses the pilot dice to the 2 begin his bombing run, rolls a 5 and succeeds.  He rolls and 6 and 4 to successfully spot the U-boat.

The wildcard 6 dice is used to aim, but he rolls a 1 and is busted.  The next turn will see the U-boat card removed.

Turn eight.  2000ft

With the weather turned Niven heads for home.  The U-boat card is removed.

52211

Card

Stop that pigeon 

Speckled Jim, one of our top birds passes the Handley Page, playing a salute on a tiny trumpet.  Just how much rum was in that Pusser's Kye  anyway?

Turn nine  2000ft 

4 gallons remaining

66321

Three Navigation dice, using the wildcards, allows Niven to return to Zone 1.  He needs three more to get back to the Aerodrome. 

Card

Visibility.

A spotting dice is lost.

Turn ten. 2000ft

Zone 1 all cards wiped.

Three gallons remaining at the start of this turn.

53321

Card

Oil leak.

Well that's torn it chaps. Niven realises that a fuel line is leaking.  He has only one Navigation dice.  It's going to be tight.

Turn eleven  

The Handley Page's engines are spluttering.  They will run out of fuel at the end of this turn.

64211

Card

Weather turns

It's beginning to clear but Niven still lacks a Navigation dice.  He will need to roll the two he has to attempt to complete the task and it's a 5 or 6 needed.  Desperately he manages a 6 and the Aerodrome comes into sight. 

He has three Pilot dice accumulated and uses them to make a good landing. 

He has been in the air for six hours adding that to the aircraft flight time. 

A D6 and the Handley Page needs 24 hours in maintenance for the oil leak.  No mission tomorrow.

What went well and and what needs changing?

The pilots dice can be used for altitude changes, 1 point for 2000ft.  Glide drops 4000ft per turn.  The Handley Page was a really reliable aircraft.

Rolling to succeed worked really well, maybe discard the "collect three dice" idea.

Take more pictures next time! 

Cloud cover card to make altitude more relevant.

Add a fishing boat card.

Range was 8 hours.  Use 32 gallons rather than 12, 2 gallons each half hour turn.  16 turns gives the pilot a chance to get home.

Herr Grün and his solo system works really well on the cards.  I need to tailor more interaction with the pilot dice since that was the key to the game.