Bag The Hun

Battlegames

2010-09-12T21:04:00.000+01:00

The current edition of BATTLEGAMES magazine
(http://www.battlegames.co.uk/) includes a well constructed piece by Tim Beresford on BTH2 which covers a review of the rules and two scenarios for the Battle of Britain. As the c lassical conflict that inspired BTH this is a great choice and I enjoyed the possibilities that Tim's scenarios provided - especially his inclusion of some 'flaming onions'.

This edition of the magazine also includes two obituaries to Paddy Griffith (one by my fellow Lardy Richard Clarke). Paddy was an inspiration to many wargamers of my generation, and I was lucky enough to help Paddy out, acting as Air Umpire in the three Duxford Kreigsspiels that Paddy ran during 2009/2010. These were great fun and gave me a chance to meet and work with the great man himself. It was a delight to see him in action - and somewhat of an eye opener! As chance would have it, this edition of Battlegames also offers a write up of the last one of these Duxford games, Weseruberung (The Invasion of Norway in 1940), that we played in May of this year*.

If you don't already subscribe to Henry Hyde's gem of a magazine then now is the perfect time to make amends.

*at the time of his death Paddy was working on an invasion of Malta game. This game will go ahead as planned at Duxford in October,as a tribute to Paddy. Places on the game are still available (book via Duxford).

Nothing beats the real thing

2010-09-06T14:16:00.001+01:00

Anyone seen Johnny?

Playing with 1/600th scale toys is one thing, but a day out at the Duxford's Battle of Britain Airshow to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain proves that you cannot beat the real thing.

I knew I was in for a good day when I got out of the car and found myself standing next to Johnny Danger himself. Yep, there was a fellow climbing out of a Ford Fiesta kitted out head to toe in the blue uniform, flying hat, flying boots and even squadron leader rank insignia to boot. As I found out later there were lots of renactors on site, staging Ops Briefings, sitting around in deck chairs, drinking tea and chatting up WAAFs with the same aplomb as was attempted seventy years ago.

There were plenty of other attractions too. My son headed straight for the Parachute Regiment Jump tower where he was kitted out by a moustachioed scouser (are there any other types?) and proceded to calmly step off a boody great tower in a fashion that John Frost would be proud off. I decided against it, opting instead to try an even more tricky manoeuvre at the Bacon Butty stall next door.

The Airfix tent provided great amusement, not only were they selling models hand over fist, but eager boys and their dads could sit at paste tables and make them on the the spot. What really made me laugh was the overpowering aroma of polystyrene cement and had anyone lit up a smoke inside that tent I am sure the whole airfield would have gone sky high!

The show was opened in some style by the Red Arrows, though sadly they were a man down after one of their fellows pulled out with engine problems, but the remaining eight put on a show tha had my son hooked from the moment they turned on their red, white and blue smoke. We also say some stunning displays of aerobatics from 1930's biplanes, Belgian Air Force F16 and even an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, which nearly blew my eardrums out. Stunning though it was, I have to say I was rather concerned at such high speed and powerful aircraft attempting twists, turns and rolls so close to the ground.

Noisy Bastard

But the highlight was still to come. First, europes only flying B17, the Sally B, swooned us with some graceful circuits (after the F16 I was amazed at how quite and graceful the Fortress appeared) and she was followed by the heartwarming sight of the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - a Lancaster in company with a Hurricane and Spitfire in close formation. I have seen this trio before and they always tug my heartstrings. Soon after, a Bf109 Bouchon (one of those used in the Battle of Britain film) took to the skies to be pursued by a finger four of Hurricanes. Now I am no girlie, but I have to confess that the sight of that finger four as it flew across the airfield put a tear in my eye. It was an evocative moment, made more so for me I think because the Hurricanes were all in a similar paint scheme, making it plausible that what you were looking at was a genuine section formation going into action (one of the Hurricanes taking part was a real BoB veteran). The loops, rolls circuits and skills that those five aircraft showed us truly demonstrated the grace and power of these veteran machines.

Bf109 Bouchon in 'Battle of Britain' Film colours (Yellow 10)

A stately fly by of RAF Hawks from No19 Squadron in a 'missing man' formation marked the start of a very well observed one minute silence from Duxford's biggest ever crowd (they had to close the gates with many still outside) and was followed by what the organisers had saved as their crowning moment: The 'scrambled' take off and fly by of sixteen Spitfires.

Dakka Dakka Dakka

This Spitfire fly past and display of sheer elegance and power was a truly breathtaking event that even awed my wife into silence. The sight and sound of those amazing aircraft will stay with me for a long time. I have seen plenty of Spits before, but never in this number. Watching them peel off for their individual runs across the display line was a delight. My kids, even the girls who had been playing cards ten minutes before, were spellbound by the beauty of their aerobatics, and for ten minutes the airfield was buzzed by Spits coming in for low passes from all angles. Never mind the X-Factor, if you ever wanted to see something truly spectular, this was it.

Stirring Stuff

There were many variants on display, including a SeaFire and a few dual canopy spits used for flying experiences, but the overall effect was phenomenal (have I said that enough?). Some people on the ground started to applaud, but that was bearly audible above the purr of the engines as the aircraft flew by.

Finally, and a full four and a half hours after the arrival of the Red Arrows to open the show, the finale was provided by the impressive Alpha jets of the Patrouille de France, resplendent in their red, white and blue, and we all went home happy, having had a great family day out for £50.

This was the Imperial War Museum's flagship event marking the events of that Spitfire Summer of 1940, and it did not disappoint. True to it's billing the show provided a fantastic day out, with trade shows and activities galore for all the family (but interestingly - no wargaming presence). Duxford looked superb, and seldom could there have been a more satisfying display of aerial entertainment or a more fitting tribute by the many, to The Few.I sank a few bottles in the mess that night as a kind of private tribute.

Mon Dieu! C'est la Patrouille de France

So well done to the guys at Duxford for organising such a fantastic event. I have stuck some images with this post, but the truth is that my skills in photographing even the slowest moving of aircraft serves testament to the fact that I would never, ever, have made it as an Air Gunner.

Lardy TV

2010-08-23T20:33:00.000+01:00

Well done to Rich "Kriegs-Spielberg" Clarke on the tutorial videos for 'Sharp Practice' rules that now been loaded up to You Tube. In the three short films Big Rich and the debonair Sir Sidney Roundwood demonstrate the key mechanisms in this increasingly popular rule set. Just go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhhsFI_CuBo or head off to youtube and search on toofatlardies.

A similar film on Bag The Hun is already in the pipeline and casting begins soon.

Battle of Britain Week

2010-08-16T19:12:00.001+01:00

The BBC is running a short series of what I assume are five reports on the Battle of Britain. The first is about four minutes long and can be heard online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8916000/8916623.stm

Lard Island News

2010-02-20T09:41:00.001Z

The latest updates to Lard Island News includes an interview with yours truly on BTH2. Read it at http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=105

BTH2 is now available.

2010-02-13T13:39:00.004Z

With the print version of BTH2 due for released on 22nd Feb Big Rich is now taking advance orders for BTH2 on www.toofatlardies.co.uk. The 78 page perfect bound hardcopy will set you back a competitive £15 with PDF at £9.

Rich is alo offering etched plastic 'bogeys' for just £5 a bag.

Get an independent initial view of the rules from Timbo here: http://timbo74.blogspot.com/2010/02/bag-hun-2-first-impressions.html

Dakka Dakka Dakka

New Cover Image

2010-01-25T18:46:00.002Z

Thought you might like to see the new cover image for BTH, a style that will be familiar to those who spent their pocket money on Commando comic books.

Dakka Dakka Dakka

Enjoy.

Modelling Malan's First Rule

2010-01-23T15:58:00.002Z

One of the changes we made late in the day in BTH2 relates to firing...gone are bursts of various seconds duration. Instead we have four options when firing. These are scientifically titled "Squirt", "Short Burst" "Burst" and "Long Burst", phrases that meant something to those whose whose actions we recreate. Longer bursts may make a hit more likely, but they can be wasteful on ammo (and are impossible at some angles of deflection anyway).

We settled on this reclassification as we felt it a little unrealistic that players always know exactly how much ammo they have remaining. By using these generic terms we were able to stop players becoming accountants rather than pilots. Instead, we use a cumulative totalling of the number of 1's thrown when firing to dictate when the ammo runs out. Thereby, once the fight gets going, you are never quite sure when the sound of guns pumping will be replaced by the dreaded out-of-ammo 'click' (although you will know when you are getting low). We found this added atmosphere to the game and gave players more to think about, making them more inclined to fire in shorter bursts.

This is in keeping with Sailor Malan's first rule of aerial combat:

"Wait until you see the whites of his eyes. Fire short bursts of 1 to 2 seconds and only when your sights are definitely 'ON'"

A Letter from S/Ldr Johnny Danger

2009-12-02T00:30:00.000Z

Dearest Majorie,

You will by now hopefully have received word that your husband and my dearest friend, Ronnie, is a POW in Italy, and I thought I might write you these lines so that you may understand a little more about the sequence of events that led up to his capture.

Thoughout the past months we Malta based Spitfires have had a rough time of it I can tell you, and hence have been keen to take any opportunity of putting one back on the nose of the Hun. So it was that I applied to the WingCo for permission to take a few chaps over to Sicily early one morning and drop a couple of bombs on the blighters whilst they were having their morning sausage. The Winco agreed, and I called for volunteers to go with me. Ronnie was among those who came and I was delighted to have him flying as my wingman, along with Harry Deadwood, whilst Sgt Barnes (you remember him from our days at Biggin Hill, he was the Barbadian chap that got the DFM in June 1940) and Teddy Cross-Batter tooled up with 500lb bombs with which to awaken the Boche. We took off at 0430 and made landfall in good time for daylight, but some miles further up the coast than I would have liked. We’d agreed previously that Sgt Barnes section would run in low and deliver the wake up call whilst Ronnie, Harry and I waited up sun to keep an eye out for any early risers. Lo and behold, just as the other pair made their run into camp I noticed the sun glinting off metal at 12 o’clock low, and spotted a group of four Me109’s at about 20,000 feet. I called Tally Ho and as we moved in towards them Ronnie called in that he could see another group moving round behind us from our 9 o’clock. I told him to keep an eye on them whilst we drew towards the first group. We held the altitude advantage and, as we were coming out of the sun it seemed likely that the Jerries had not seen us. We pushed over to make a diving run but they must have seen us, for they quickly pulled up and our two formations zoomed through each other. The closing speeds were so quick that I had scarely had a chane to switch off the safety on my guns, let alone perchance a shot. I ordered a hard break to the right and was relived to see both Ronnie and Harry were still with me. A glimpse over my shoulder showed that the first groups of Me109’s had broken into pairs and were manoeuvring back round behind us. Further below them I could see the other section coming round also. Over the R/T I could hear that Sgt Barnes had started his run over the airfield – in the face of some pretty fearsome flak to boot - and out of the corner of my eye I saw the smoke that was climbing skyward from a building that looked like it might have been a mess hall – Good old Barnes, looked like he’d been right on the button. I pulled the spit into a hard turn and saw Ronnie do the same. After a series of twists and turns I managed to get lined up on one of the second bunch of Me109s – This was one of the newer F, or “friedrich” variants that the Huns are using these days. I gave him a six second squirt and saw my tracer curve into his wing root. I felt sure I had got him when suddenly he exploded in a mighty ball of flame (when I arrived back at Takali I found a piece of his fuselage had embedded itself in my engine cowling!). The hun inside didn’t stand a chance, poor blighter. Sweating, I hauled the Spit back level to take a look around me.

Then a warning call from Ronnie alerted me that a Hun was on his tail. I had been so busy concentrating on my own target that I had not been able to help my wingman. In a flash I swung the Spit round and tried to line up on the Jerry but it was obvious from his manoeuvring that he was a crack pilot. I told Ronnie to break left so I could get a clear shot at the Hun but as I did so I saw tracer fly past my cockpit. In an instant I felt my aircraft shudder and had a feeling in my shoulder as though someone had walloped me with a cricket bat. One of the other Jerries had obviously lined up on me whilst I was about the pop the chap on Ronnie’s tail. This unfortunately threw me off my mark and the Hun behind Ronnie hit him with a long burst. Ronnie’s engine immediately gave up the ghost and his Spit performed a long, slow roll to port and began to loose altitude. A long trail of white smoke began to tail behind him as he descended. Quickly I pulled myself back together, and squeezed off a burst at the Hun, enough at least to send him scurrying out of the fight, gloating no doubt over his victory. I watched Ronnie’s aircraft as it descended about 10,000feet, willing him all the while to bail out. But he’s a strong fighter that husband of yours, I could see he was wrestling with the controls of his Spit right to the end, and as I swooped back low to evade the by now circling gaggle of Me109’s behind me, I saw Ronnie execute a textbook belly up landing in a vineyard – luck blighter. Risking all, I circled the field but could not find a landing site, and even if I had I am sure the Huns would have bagged me too. I saw Ronnie scramble out of the wreckage and wave me away as I opened up the throttle and headed for the coast. To my right I could see some buildings on the apron of the airfield were a smoking ruin and ahead of my I could see the rest of the flight as they tore off home at zero feet and at high speed. We all made it back to Takali, where I was able to get my wounded shoulder looked by a lovely Maltese nurse.

Later that day one of our photo reconnaissance Marylands flew over the airfield and got some great shots of the damage Sgt Barnes and Teddy had done with their five-hundred pounders. Ronnie would have been proud.

Yours as ever,

Squadron Leader Johnny Danger

Where are we?

2009-11-17T09:54:00.000Z

Have had to spend time reducing the physical size of the rules because there are simply too many pages to balance the finances when we go to print, so at the moment I'm reformatting to fit a quart into a pint pot. Rich is sending me through the last of the artwork today - so we're nearly done.

I will post latest aircraft data table to playtesters group and welcome feedback - especially re: duration of fire in seconds.

Nick
Sent by BlackBerry® wireless device

Remembrance

2009-11-11T10:34:00.000Z

Looking for something to do on the 11th hour of the 11th month? Spend two minutes planting a virtual poppy on the Royal British Legion Web page. Zoom in to an exact spot anywhere in the world.
Visit: http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

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Battle of the Lard Sea

2009-11-03T23:28:00.000Z

Worked up a final playtest this week that was played at Lard Island. It was a bit experimental because I wanted to know how big a game we could squeeze into a two hour slot. The game was set against the background of the Coral Sea campaign, and pitched a Japanese air strike against a US Yorktown class carrier, with a weakened escort of just four destroyers. The bulk of the US air strength was off on a simultaneous raid on the IJN fleet so the US players were left with a relatively light CAP. The relative strengths were as follows:

IJN Soryu attack force:
9 x Zero fighters
18 x Val dive bombers
6 x Kate Torpedo planes

USS Numnutz force
4 x Douglas SBD Dauntless on anti-torpedo plane patrol
4 x F4F-3 wildcats airborne on combat air patrol.
USS Numnutz
4 x large escort destroyers.
8 x F4F-3 on deck scramble.

The Japanese plan of attack was to split their dive bombers into two groups of 9. The first group was briefed to attack the destroyer escorts and suppress flak whilst the second group went for the carrier. The overall commander would come in last with the torpedo bomberts to deliver the coup de grace. The three shotai of zeros were to fly top cover.

Using radar, the USS Numnutz directed the patrolling aircraft onto the incoming japs, and the game started with the dauntlesses spotting the dive bombers. The SBD's, deployed in two pairs, climbed boldly to the rescue, but before they were able to make an impact the zeros, boasting three junior aces in the 9 aircraft deployed, exerted their superior influence and two of the scout planes were taken out (one exploding and the other suffering catastrophic structural failure from which the crew were unable to bail out.

Making use of whatever bonus cards they could, the Vals closed in on the closest escort destroyer, and although one was lost to flak, the ship suffered a near miss which proved sufficient to buckle her hull and she was forced to come to a halt.

In the meantime the Numnutz had put her head to the wind and launched 8 wildcats into the fray. These began mixing it with the Vals, but the interfering zeros protected the dive bombers well. Another destroyer was attacked by the Vals, but without effect and flak claimed another victim.

By now the skies were a swirling melee. The mainly veteran japanese crews holding their formations well amidst US attempts to break them up.

At this point time caught up with us and we ended the game. Reading back it may seem that we didn't get that far, but considering we spent time explaining various aspects of the new rules the consensus was that we had achieved a good deal.

So now it's final edits, adding examples, final artwork and we're done.

Lab rats to your positions!

2009-09-08T16:57:00.002+01:00

At last the playtest version has gone out to that carefully selected bunch of guinea pigs who, even now, are in their sealed cages connecting crocodile clips to their nipples ready to record their findings!

We now have a window of 4 to 5 weeks to refine and get the document print ready, and hope to have a first print run complete and ready to take to the Crisis show in Antwerp in early November.

I am hugely relieved to have got this far but am rather nervous about what our lab rats will come up with over the next few weeks.

Cricket stops play

2009-09-07T10:11:00.000+01:00

On friday I was handed two Grandstand tickets for the England vs Australia game at Lords - an offer too good to resist, hence there will be a further one day delay to the issuing of the playtest release. However, had I known that England were going to chuck it away like they did I'd have not bothered going.
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Malta Convoy Playtest

2009-09-02T08:05:00.001+01:00

Just completed another playtest game involving an attack on a Malta convoy by 9 Italian SM79s and 6 Macchi200 in a fighter bomber role. In addition to a Belfast class cruiser and a destroyer the merchantmen (a tanker and an oiler) were protected by 5 spitfire V from Takali. All went well - especially on the bombing and torpedo results. However I am still frustrated at the flak mechanism which, although OK from a results point of view is still unnecessarily complex and time consuming. Working today on fixing that!

Oh, and for the record the Spits did a good job - claiming 1 macchi confirmed and seen to crash and 2 SM79s as 'probable' after breaking off with damage. No ships were hit, mainly due to poor tactics and co-ordination from the Italians.
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Playtesting draft

2009-08-29T09:40:00.002+01:00

OK. With holiday silly season behind us, the cricket season winding down and the procession of family events that all combine to make the summer so busy finally winding down my attention has again been allowed to shift back to getting BTH2 out for playtesting. The main body of text and rules is complete, and I am now just tidying up formations and reformatting the aircraft stats into something that makes best use of the page layout. Atop that, Clarkey has a booked the print run time so we are now on our final approach.

Sub Strike

2009-08-29T09:01:00.001+01:00

Our most recent BTH2 playtest involved a strike by coastal command on a crippled submarine limping its way home along the coast of Norway. It may have sounded like a walk in the park for the guys of the Strike Wing but they hadn't reckoned on the Norwegian based Bf-109s that were able to give the Beaufighters a pretty hairy time.

Initially the beaufighters attention was drawn to a surface ship. It was definitely a minesweeper or sloop of some kind but was it the RN speeding in to finish off the sub or the Kreigsmarine hurrying to the aid of their stricken chum? An overfly soon drew a barrage of flak that convinced the fliers that this ship was no chum of theirs. The flak activity drew in the 109's and soon most of the beaufighters were tangling with the nasty little fellows, and only some terrible shooting by the Jerries saved them from what could have been a nasty mauling. Luckiest of all was Wing Commander 'Winko' White who twice found himself squarely in the sights of Ace Otto Plebb only to have the Luftwaffe man roll so bad that all Winko got was a cracked windscreen.

Meanwhile, a section of Beaufighters that had become detached from the main group sighted something in the water off to the south - the sub! Heaving round in a steady turn that kept them out of the melee further north, Basher Bishop and his four rocket armed beaufighters piled in on the flak firing sub and piled on the damage. A good fun game and a very pleasing playtest.

Sturmgruppen Playtesting

2009-07-12T08:54:00.000+01:00

The cricket season is reducing the amount of time available for playtesting at the moment, but as England's Ashes hopes begin to dwindle after only two days, the prospects for more BTH2 work are brightening. In the couple of tests we've managed this week we've gone back to fighting late war actions with Luftwaffe Sturmgruppen versus the combat box B-17s with fighter escort.

With Tail Gunner cards aplenty the Combat Box is something to be reckoned with

Round One

In the first game, (March 1945) escorting Mustangs put in a great show and tussled really effectively with the Germans and tested just about all the available new manoeuvres on the way. But they were unable to stop a group of Me-262 who made it through for a stern attack with rockets. The R4M rockets are tested in a fashion akin to the old Donald Featherstone 'canister cone' method, with rolls made for all targets in the zone. The attack had some success, taking down one of the giants and forcing another out of formation. We made some tweaks to the procedure - and that's all part of the playtesting.

Round Two

In the second outing the Jagdfleiger did even better. Led by Top Ace Otto Plebb the germans, waiting at high altitude, were able to bounce Bob Uppendown's escorting Mustangs, taking down two before Bob knew what had hit them, but Bob recovered well against the bogey attack (the Fw190's had not been spotted which made Bob's life really tricky), and through some fancy flying was able to provide an effective defense, despite his reduced numbers, and bagged a hun in the process.

Not looking good for this big fella!

The fighter duel enabled some Fw190 Sturmbock armed with WfGr21 rockets to break through and unleash their deadly load , although they obtained no hits, they forced one B17 out of formation where it became the focus of attention for the surrounding hounds. Luckily for the Big Boys Bob Uppendown had shaken himself free from the fighter tussle and raced to the rescue, taking down an Fw190 that was closing in on the by now wounded B17.

Back to the text this week with a dedicated effort to get a draft out to the playtesters.

Wargaming and saving the planet all in one!

2009-06-26T17:11:00.000+01:00

A great idea came to me the other day, quite literally in a flash. I was at a kids birthday party (well, I don't get out much) and the kids had indoor sparklers. Jolly fun and cheap as chips. Mrs Pitts was just about to throw out the left over sparkler sticks when I realised they were just perfect for smoke trails for damaged aircraft. Just snip off the excess wire, twist the end into a hook and they fit beautifully on 1/600th aircraft. Don't believe me? See the pics. You could even get away without painting them but they are a tad brittle so a PVA coating will firm them up and a white drybrush highlights them to perfection.

Just one pack of sparklers gives enough smoke trails for most games and the fact that you are throwing hardly anything away means less landfill and saves the planet. Hurrah.

PS: Don't snatch sparklers away from your kids until they've gone out. It really upsets them.

Summer Special

2009-06-26T00:06:00.000+01:00

If you haven't see it, the TFL Summer Special includes a preview of BTH2 as well as an article on the Winter War of 1939/40. www.toofatlardies.co.uk (great new website too btw)

Playtests of BTH2 have been going well but I would like to hear from guys prepared to playtest some of the new concepts before we get to the final published version.

Also got some great new drawings today from Clarkey - good enough to truly whet the appetite.

Next week at Lard Island we'll be testing Luftwaffe Sturmgruppen versus the 8th Air Force...should be a good one!

The Perils of Word

2009-04-04T11:38:00.000+01:00

Well, if it ain't our old friend the corrupt file. BTH seems to be plagues with this. An article I wrote a few years ago on Hurricanes in Russia became corrupted when it was alost complete and I had to rewrite the whole blooming thing. This time, my BTH2 file has become corrupted. Lucky I learnt my lesson last time and so have a backup copy saved, but even so I have lost some sections on Bombing, weather and clouds which will have to be rewritten.
Could be worse.

Kriegsmarine Coastal Forces

2009-01-17T19:43:00.000Z

A ha! Another goodie from the postman this morning from Amazon.

Kriegsmarine Coastal Forces is the latest offering from Osprey and is a must have for anyone intending to game the actions of the Coastal Command Strike Wings, or indeed any air games on German Coastal forces. The book provides limited - but sufficient - detail for the wargamer who wishes to include flakships, raumboote, minesweepers and the like in his games. Includes reasonable detail on AA capability and deployments, as well as helpful illustrations for seeing inspiration for a quality paint job.

Well worth a few quid.

Google Books

2008-12-09T19:55:00.000Z

What an excellent resource the Google Books search facility has turned out to be. I've been using the search facility quite extensively ove the past weeks to seek little extra snippets of information for use in the new edition. There's plenty of stuff to get sidetracked with, including some wonderul WW2 era magazines that contain the true spirit of the period. Good stuff

Johnny Danger

2008-11-23T05:39:00.000Z

Lard Island ace S/Ldr Johnny Danger will appear throughout BTH2. We'll be using him to give examples and other comments in the text in the same way as we've used Hugh Jarce for IABSM. Another cracking picture from Clarkey.

Artwork

2008-11-22T06:01:00.000Z

Richard sent over some tasters for the artwork he's been putting together for BTH2, which we have decided will be in cartoon format similar to the classic Commando cartoon style that we all know and love.

I plan to include 'cut out and keep' cards in the rules and will be using Richard's illustrations for those plus - possibly - on the cover as well. Above is a taster of what we can expect. Superb.

What scale ships?...and Torpedo rules

2008-11-14T21:22:00.000Z

OK, I have decided that I will be recommending the use of 1/1250th ships for the anti-shipping side of BTH2. We have tried a few playtests with 1/600th - including a game where a 1/600th HMS Ajax took on the role ofa Japanese cruiser targeted by some Avengers. 1/600th target ships, whilst lovely, (see picture) just look too large against the same scale aircraft, so I have decided instead to go with 1/1250th and have shot off an order for some Hallmark ships from Magister Militum.

In the same playtest as the Ajax we gave the torpedo movement rules a good test. Torpedo movement will hapen on the turn of the unit's card that dropped the weapon and we will be using a neat dice throw combination to determine the path taken by the torpedo.

This gave an excellent result each time we tested it.

Dom's Decals

2008-11-12T22:40:00.000Z

Received another batch of decals today from Dom Skelton at Dom's Decals, this time for my Russians and some NAVY and ARMY markers for Korea. They are tip top. Have also been finishing off some Beaufighters and searching out some ships for them to attack.

Bogeys

2008-11-12T15:00:00.000Z

One of the key modifications made to BTH2 is the extra emphasis that I am placing on 'Bogeys'. Anyone who plays TFL rulesets will probably be awar of the concept of the 'blind' - a marker on the table that represents an unspotted unit. In BTH1 I used blinds to mark unspotted aircrfat but it was all pretty basic. In BTH2 the blind has been rechristened the 'Bogey' with individual bogey markers for each aircraft (or dummy aircraft). I have added greater depth to the concept of moving, spotting and even combat with blinds. Combat with an unspotted aircraft may sound odd but what we are really talking about here is the unspotted enemy who assails you from behind. Endless accounts of air combat make reference to apilots being shot down by the enemy you never see and in BTH2 we have introduced some mechanisms that will enable this to be recreated on the gaming table.

For playtesting I have had some hex counters made by Litko, overprinted with 'Bag the Hun' and these work really well.

Ready for Take Off?

2008-11-11T17:40:00.000Z

Here we are, all tooled up and ready to go. This blog will be my scratchpad for ideas and discussions relating to Bag the Hun wargames rules - and most especially the second edition which I am working hard to complete early in 2009 and which will again be available from www.toofatlardies.co.uk

The first edition of BTH was initially aimed at gaming the Battle of Britain and early war combats, but due to popular demand the rules are used by many to wargame all periods from the Spanish Civil War to through to Korea (see the Bag the MiG supplement in the TooFatLardies specials).

So, what's in the second edition? Well, as well as a few tweaks to the gaming mechanisms (principally to reduce the pilot control tests and simply dice rolling) the second edition will include updated aircraft statistics that make greater allowance for relative performance factors, as well as a number of additional manoeuvres. On top of these there are new sections handling 'bogeys' (unspotted aircraft), clouds and weather, more depth to the bombing rules anti-shipping attacks, and an additional section containing optional rules for character traits and ways to add fun to your games.

So keep your pipper firmly marked on this blog and keep track on the updates.