Bag the Hun RAF v Luftwaffe

Jerry and I returned to Bag the Hun, this time using his models and the introduction scenario from the rule book which sees four Spitfires climbing to intercept four ME109's. The British have an advantage in that one of their pilots is an 'Ace' (Biggles of course!).

The chaps (Biggles, Ginger, Algy and Bertie) climb over the Kent coast while looking out for the Huns

Enemy in sight! Tally Ho chaps!

Both sides are eager to get to grips with each other:

Two of the 109's get behind the British, the other two fail to follow and fly off into the distance:

There follows much jockeying for position with neither side getting a shot off:

At last one Brit manages to open fire!

More firing:

An ME109 manages to get on a Spitfire's tail:

Biggles tails one of the 109's:

First blood to the RAF, Biggles shoots down the 109:

A confused melee continues with planes flashing past in all directions:

Biggles tails a second ME109:

He strikes again and the ME109 is shot down:

The Spitfires close in on another ME109 which is tailing Ginger, fortunately for Ginger Biggles is already on the German's tail himself:

One of the earlier ME109's that was shot down finally splashes into the Channel. The pilot managed to bail out though:

Biggles claims his third victory in the encounter! The final ME109 is also damaged but manages to limp home:

BtH is certainly an interesting and comprehensive rule set which I think you'd have to play a lot to get the best out of. As usual we forgot some of the rules (running out of ammo for instance which certainly helped Biggles as he wouldn't have had enough ammo to shoot down three Germans!).

Having an 'Ace' was a huge advantage, the hardest part of BtH is actually getting to shoot at someone, most of the game consists of zooming around and failing to get a shot. The extra action card for an ace allows you to shoot or move doubling your change of getting off a shot at the right time.

Jerry's planes and the mat with the coast on it looked great, looking forward to playing again perhaps with some bombers next time.

Wings of Glory Battle of Britain

Following on from the AWI naval game we had a couple of games of Wings of War set around Dunkirk. I had an ME109 and a Stuka which was attempting to bomb a sailing boat while Dave and Gary had a Spitfire each.

ME109 and Stuka:

Achtung! Spitfire!

The Stuka closes in for the kill while the Spitfire tries to save the day!

In both games the Stuka managed to bomb the ship, also in both games Dave's Spitfire exploded leaving him cursing his luck!

RAF Museum Hendon

Having not been to the RAF Museum in Hendon for a long time I thought I'd take a trip on the Northern Line for the day. I started off in the Battle of Britain area:

ME109

Hawker Hurricane

Hendon has started off a 'sit in a Spit' experience for £10 so I took advantage of that. While interesting it was not as good as the Biggin Hill 'Sit in a Spit' experience I tried last year which was fantastic. Actually flying in a Spitfire must be amazing.

Spitfire instrument panel

The award for the shiniest plane in the museum must go to the Bristol Bulldog!

Next I moved on to the WW1 display area. The progress of aviation really had been remarkable, just over a hundred years ago this was cutting-edge technology!

Caudron G3

In a couple of years progress was already rapid.

Albatross and Fokker DVII

Finally having been an avid reader of Captain W.E. Johns 'Biggles' books when I was younger and having revisited the WW1 books recently it was great to see the Sopwith Camel on display.

As regards gaming we used to play 'Wings of War' in both the WW1 and WW2 versions but have not played for a long time. The WW2 version seemed a little lacking compared to the WW1 version which was great fun. The new 'Under Blood Red Skies' system from Warlord Games looks interesting but so far I have resisted the temptation to invest in it!