In our last article, we set up the first mission. In this article, we will look at some examples of play. The first two turns of the first mission and most of the third will play out like a regular dogfight, and have been skipped over in this play-through. Let’s say that the turn order is one element of Hurricanes, then the German planes, then the other Hurricane element. You will be using the campaign sequence of play shown on the back of the campaign book, but you’ll notice that most of the steps that have been added to the basic dogfight sequence can be skipped in this mission. The only other thing to note is that the Allied player needs to have his planes at Low or Very Low altitude by the start of the Over Target turn in order to strafe [21.7].

So, assuming that you have made it through the first two turns and are at the end of the third (the Turn Marker is on the Target-Bound “1”), there are some things to do in the Final Step of the Sequence of Play. It first talks about formation aircraft (bombers), which are not in this mission. Then it talks about fighters breaking off or going over target, and references 23.2.1. What this means is that anyone who is not attacking the target (the German planes in this mission) are required to break off, while the strike aircraft can choose to break off or continue. Let’s say the Hurricanes are all in good shape more or less, so all four of them continue over target. You can put an Over Target marker on them if you wish, to keep track.

If you look at where the the Game Turn marker is on the turn track, you will see it says “Area Flak”, which means that all planes continuing over-target (friend and foe alike) are subject to Flak attacks. The rules for area Flak are in 22.1; you check your target’s Flak rating on the target card (our Airfield target has an Area Flak rating of 1), which gives you a base number of cards to draw from the defender’s Action Deck. This base number can be modified in a few ways, principally by the Strike Chart on the Campaign Display card above the turn tracks. Our striking Hurricanes are going to carry out a strafing attack at Very Low altitude, so we see from the chart that we draw 1 less Area Flak card—meaning we don’t have to draw any at all.

Now we’re up to the Over Target turn [23.3.1]. This is where the Hurricanes will strafe the airfield target; the German planes that broke off at the end of the previous turn will only do their Altitude, Discard, and Draw steps, as there is nothing else for them to do. The Hurricanes strafe during the Air Strike step [21.7]: The gist of it is that each attacking aircraft will draw a number of action cards equal to their burst rating (Wingmen use their Leader’s burst rating), and determine hits based off the starburst symbol in the lower right corner. They then come under fire from the target Flak [22.2], which can spoil their run or even damage them. Here’s an example of how it all works:

The first Hurricane Wingman and Leader each draw one card for their strafing run, and both are hits. The Axis player looks at the Target Flak chart on the target card and sees the base number of three. However, he must remember that on the Campaign card, there was a footnote on the Mission Target Matrix stating that Target Flak was only 1 instead of 3 for this mission (footnote 1). So with a base value of 1, the Axis player then looks at the Strike Chart on the Campaign Display, finds the altitude and bombing mode of the planes (Very Low and Level Bombing/Strafing, respectively), and sees that there is a +1 modifier. Finally, the Allied player reminds the Axis player that the Allied resource this mission included “Small Arms”, which the bi-fold Resource Card says gives a -1 modifier to target Flak. Hence 1 + 1 – 1 = 1 Target Flak card to be drawn for each striking aircraft. Neither of the Flak cards drawn have a Spoiled Attack symbol [20.5.5], so the Allied player places a 2 hit marker on the airfield card. The Hurricanes then elect to strafe once more [21.7.2.v], so they follow the same procedure again. This time the Wingman draws a miss and the Leader a hit. The Target Flak against the Wingman produces nothing, but against the Leader is an IN MY SIGHTS 2 hit card. There is no spoiled attack symbol [20.5.5], so the Leader can choose to either stay on target and take the two hits to land its one strafing hit, or try to respond [22.2.2]. It chooses to respond, playing a TIGHT TURN card from its hand to evade the Flak, which will mean that his hit on the target does not count [22.2.2]. The element takes its Leader, Discard and Draw Steps, trying to optimize their hand for the journey home. They would then normally suffer Area Flak before their turn is over, but since it has a base value of 1 and there is a -1 modifier for it at Very Low altitude, it is skipped.

Now, after the German element has taken its turn, the second Hurricane element will strafe. Both planes draw misses, and the Flak on the leader is an IN MY SIGHTS 2 hit card. The leader responds with a TIGHT TURN to avoid it; both planes strafe again, and both draw hits. The Flak against the Wingman shows a Spoiled Attack symbol, negating his hit, but there is no effect from the Flak on the Leader and he scores 1 hit. Thus, after both elements made two strafing runs, the total amount of damage they dealt to the Airfield was 3. The element takes its Leader, Discard and Draw steps, and the Over Target game turn ends (remove all Over Target markers).

On the last turn of this mission, the German fighters that broke off before the strike aircraft went over target can reengage the Hurricanes. Again, since these are all fighter craft, standard dogfighting rules apply. In our example, let’s say the Hurricanes manage to score a few hits on the German BF110C fighters, but nothing substantial.

At this point, the first of the three missions is finished. If we return to to the Land Campaign Sequence of Play, we are now up to 24.3.C.6, where we calculate the victory points for the mission. The rules for this are in 24.7, and there is a summary table on the bottom of the Campaign Display card. In our example, the Axis player did not score any points, while the Allied player scored 3 for the hits on the Airfield (see 21.8.8 and the second footnote on the Mission Target Matrix), plus 2 points for each of the four fighters that went over target and came back undamaged, for a total of 12 points—a good start.

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Articles in this Series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3