1918 - at the end of the Michael Offensive ...

28mm, WW1, Fire for Effect plus amends and Gordon had to umpire me and Peter fighting for Gott, Kaiser und Reich, while Tim and Ben were defending France for King and Country.

The Stormtroopers (Peter) and the normal mop up (me) were just jumping into the first line of defense whil an elite platoon of tommies were already set into the second line, barrages were out of ammo/silenced (just to make it simpler) so the carnage could begin ...

We actually never had a chance, but that was to be expected ... my normal troops made quite good progress but had to sacrifice a lot because of it. The Mark V with all LMGs didn't help there either.

If Tim or Ben would have a better dice day It would have even stopped at the beginning...

Still - the rules are dead easy (pardon the pun) and it is a real pleasure to play WW1 with this system again - will do this more often - this is how a platoon game in WW1 should be - easy quick and veeery bloody!

My casualties after the first turn already ...

Tims right flank fleeing finally ...

The way to Paris ...

Stuck in the mud ...

... next to Lotti AV7 ...

My flame thrower team advances ...

Tims platoon is colecting hits ...

 ...the frustrations of trench warefare ...

Tims right flank ...

My left flank marching up ...

Peters stormtroopers ready to go ...

Everybody over the top!

Advancing through the connection trench ...

Tims platoon awaiting us ...

... especially with MMGs ...

...which inflict heavy damage ...

... even stormtroopers have to dug in ...

... and give fire protection ...

my Granatwerfer ...

Bens left flank gets hits ...

While the stormtroopers get nearer ...

Bens hill looks brittle ...

My flame thrower are clearing out the Tommies ...

And the Stormtroopers are nearly there ...

but it could have been more ...

... the entire field ...

... so close ...

Tims flank is crumbling ...

But the centre is solid ...

Finally they run away ...

sadly just a little part of the trench ...

Somewhere on the English coast on the channel at the battle of Britain right after tea time...

 Blood Red Skies it was after a long time, with mine and Tims collection, we decided to just play a pick up game with the aircraft cards and two theatre/doctrine cards each. Tim and Alisdair were defending the white cliffs with 3 Spitfires, 3 Hurricanes and and 2 mosquito against me and Peter with 6 Messerschmidt 109s and 3 Junkers Ju 88.

The setup / and planning was easy, kill for a thrill. I was so mean and diverted only one Ju 88 to Peter and head on attacked Tim with a mighty force of evil. I got shot OK but after we came to dogfight distance it was clear that Tim's squadron would bleed badly. After Tim discovered how bad his dice rolling was today, it was a nearly clear sky over that part of Britain. His remaining squadron (1 Hurricane) had to retreat. You couldn't time it better, overpowering plus very bad (abysmally bad) dice rolling of the defender equals disaster. At least for a while it looked like a victory.

Not until Alisdair the sneaky pincer mover came to harass Peter in his, even though he had the better ME109s, and Peter insisted on say Napoleonic tactics, the victory was snatched from us and turned into a draw.

We had a lot of fun, and I can only recommend this ruleset.

P.S. Apologies on behalf of Tim, he still didn't came around to apply his British national decals ... ;)

Initial set up ... ze Germans

Initial set up ... ze Tommys

My squardons clash with Tims ...

Peter tried to fight ...

My Ju88 kill Hurricanes ...

While Peter ...

The Ju88 were more sturdy than ever ...

At the end only one mosquito could "help" Alisdair ...

But Peters Squadron had to leave too...

1941 - End of September - a clear sky, robust machines and no clue what to do with them ...

It was Blood Red Skies time again ... and I wanted to out my freshly painted Heinkels and Junkers on the table, PLUS it was also the first time for my FokkeWulf 190... against Tims and Barts Hurricanes, Spitfires and Mosquitos - what could go possibly go wrong?

On the wrong side of history was me and Alisdair, while Tim and Bart fought for a free Britain. We ze germans had to cross a long side of 8x6 AND Bomb two targets ( I wanna see Tim doing that... ;) ) while the British just had to shoot down bombers (haha! which they did, but just one and only because Tim did all the preparation for Bart ...)

We, errm had no plan, which isn't unusual, but explains a lot. We just advanced until we clashed. Then my fighter Ace Pip Priller, or something, shot a Mosquito down! Huzzah! But on the other side Alisdairs 4 plane FW190 squadron was taken out by Tim and Bart... he didn't had a chance, mainly because wasn't an expert in the rules... and off you go, one flanking guard gone.

Out of time reasons we had to close. everybody was moaning about the size of the table was preventing us from the real dogfight, but I would argue a bit more preparation and less squadrons would handle that quite well. I guess more than two squadrons are difficult to handle, so extra points to Alisdair for managing that!!!

A well earned British victory in the end, and next time we will try to incorporate the doctrine cards/ and or theatre cards. Maybe we do a night fighter scenario with my Ju88s, stay tuned!

The Luftwaffe at the start

The RAF at the start

The Polish Hurricanes

The bombers are coming!

The FW190s

Against the Mosquitos

And in the background the rest vs Alisdair

The "Bomber salad" in the centre

which had difficulties separating

And the battle of the unknown island

Short before the clash

Alisdairs FW squadron goes down ...

Prepping my Mosquito target

they are VERY robust ...

Clashes in the middle

And then I had my shot!!!

The mosquito went up in flames ...