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 ...

1943 - The Landing at Bonanza

Gordon's WW2 28mm Bolt Action Pacific collection PLUS terrain was on the table (two of them), and what a spectacle! David, Peter and myself were drafted into the service to the emperor tonno (from the pizza), while Alisdair and Gordon fought for the American deep pans, Mike and the second wave would come and join later ...

We had a plan! Don't let them come nearer. And so our sortiment of veteran troops, buried tanks and mortars and secret tunnels were awaiting the yankees for a hot welcome at our beloved beaches. We would also after they passed a certain secret tunnel sortie to do a surprise attack behind their backs - bonzai!

First Captain Alisdair concentrated his forces on the left and David shot the troopers to meatballs. By this time we also were informed that most of their tanks were practically made out of card board.

With the flank in tatters and some turned and burning vehicles, Captain Alisdair turned to the centre, but my samurai squads turned the tanks to scrap metal and the platoons to sashimi. Similar bloodshed (but freshly made!) happened Peter San's flank as well. As a last wild card the one and only Sherman tank appeared in front of my half buried tank and I shot him back to Detroit!

At this moment it was clear that Mike and the second wave didn't arrive and that Alisdair and his men would die at this beach, food for the sharks, with tanks made out of beach wood. We ended the massacre and accepted the indignant surrender of the weak westerlings to help us built some bridges.

A clear victory for the emperor - Bonzai! Bonzai! etc...

I really enjoyed the whole lot, something different than the endless Normandy sagas ...

Samurai Nikon did some panorama shots for the first time in the war, to testify for the glory of the emperor!

The left bank ... beach ... were Peter San was defending

The right with David San ...

The centre with my troops and my tank!!

The American vehicles are coming to the beach ...

Captain Alisdair tries a little New Orleans Voodoo ...

... but his dice rolls weren't magic ...

I just waited ...

While David San just attacked and fired ...

The complete beach ...

More Americans coming in ...

But we started to fire ...

And more and more vehicles got turned/burned ...

That was when I shot the Sherman! ...

Americas hope was gone ...

The last men dying on the beach ...

Our secret tunnel platoons not even deployed...

The entry to our secret tunnels ... or simply a loo.

1940 - The hunt on the Scharnhorst ...

 ... or how the Royal Navy lost by points.

Well, after my death ride of my Tirpitz last game seem to have made a veritable impression of the fans of the RN - it wasn't allowed back on the table again, what a bummer! 

So the scenario was that, I don't know ...  go get the British (Tim, Peter, Alisdair and Gordon) again, even though they were already concentrated on the centre of the table and we (da Germans - Bart, me, Andy and Mike) came in from all four corners of the winds ...

What could possibly go wrong.

The Brits tried to concentrate on Mikes Scharnorst and tried the whole time to sink it - while we Bart and me shot some smaller vessels at the periphery and f*** off while we had the chance. Mike wanted to fight with his Scharnhorst, but really couldn't because his, well, everything was blown away from board... BUT

... they didn't get him in the end. He made it to the table edge. 

Remember, guys to concentrate fire! And to throw better! The rest of the Kriegsmarine left the table mildly amused.

Point wise a German victory. Strategy wise a German victory. Gunnery wise a German victory. But the British catering was a exquisit.

The Royal Navy huddled together ...

The Kriegsmarine coming in for the kill ...

Scharnhorst under attack ...

The RN in line to catch and destroy it ...

But the Scharnhorst is still capable ...

They did not hit well today ...

So we left with a point victory the field ...

1941 - getting the bombers to England again ... and all without tailing!

Yet again - we just had to play the scenario again - mind you the victory conditions were at best cloudy - being unclear even about that - the clouds. The only thing we managed to get right was the bomber morale last time, but hey!

This time Bart brought his tiny Hurricane Polish squadron, it had less effect on the outcome that in real history, but we all learn. Some spitfires were from Tim, and I supplied Bf 109Gs and 3 He111s as yet again in fear of the better stats, I wasn't allowed to field my FW190. That has to wait until the British have better planes, as we cannot have scenarios not in favour of the Brits.

So Bart, Tim and Peter played for the British and Alisdair, me and Mike for the Reich. Alisdair and Bart had an ace in their tiny squadron. I took the bombers and Mike the rest of the Messerschmidts.

We should win if my bombers destroyed the TWO (Oil tank objective???). Apart from nobody knowing what and how exactly that should have played in the rules the British fighters outnumbered us in actual machines and points. But hey at least they agreed to fight us.

So we just started through and mike dived into 2 squadrons and did his best before they shot him down and he had to return with the rest.

Alisdair did a very large flank advance, but eventually arrived until he too was shot down and had to return to base with the rest of the krauts.

I was just lucky enough to do cloud jumping with my bombers and actually did not get a hit on any of my machines until the very end of it. Only one of my bombers though made it into the 6" range of one target and then missed. One got shot down, but my squadron morale was still intact. i don't think with only two bombers two objectives are possible but otherwise they wouldn't have dared to come against me I guess, hahar!

We had again tremendously fun ... until next time! We certainly do it again.

My HE 111 start cloud hopping

Alisdair does a detour to buy some snickers ...

12 British fighter arrive before us and the objectives...

Barts beautiful desert squadron lost on the English coast ...

Tims fighters close in ...

My bombers free of the clouds ... no hits ...

Winning dog fights is tooo distracting ...

And my bombers can shoot too ...

... some little village (unkown) ...

The TWO objectives ... unfair ...

My best bomber at the front ...

and another about to get down ... peasant pawn ...

In between the dog fights ...

... my bombers were spotted ...

Going in and out of the clouds ...

Finally one had to go down ...12 vs one ...

Last and only chance to drop the bombs ... a miss!

And then we had to stop the time ran out again, because Peter is always so slow. :)