The Battle of Britain

[Der Leiter]

BATTLE OF BRITAIN

BACKGROUND

The Battle of Britain, the first major air battle of the war, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to dominate the skies around Britain, in a prelude to Operation Sea Lion. While it began with the Luftwaffe's intent of destroying the RAF bases, the goal was eventually shifted to the destruction of England's cities, which became known as the Blitz. This battle can be used to represent either phase.

CHOOSING SIDES & BUILDING ARMIES

For a 2-Player game roll off 2D6; the higher number is the Luftwaffe, and the lower is the RAF.
The Luftwaffe selects 9 planes, the RAF selects 6.
These numbers can be scaled up or down, as long as the 3:2 ratio is maintained.

GAME MAP & DEPLOYMENT

The defending player sets up a 3x3 map; there must be at least 7 town hexes on it.
The Bofors AA guns may only be deployed in city hexes, but can be deployed on any city hex on the map.
All aircraft begin the game off of the map. The British chose which side they will arrive from; the Luftwaffe arrives from the opposite side.

OBJECTIVES

The Luftwaffe scores 1 points per disrupted town hex.
If it is damaged they score 3 points instead, or 5 instead if it is destroyed.
The Luftwaffe Score 1 point per British aircraft destroyed.
The British score 2 points per Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed.
Whoever scores 20 points first wins.

SPECIAL RULES

City/RAF Base Hexes: Town hexes have a defence of 5/5, and can only be attack at close range; use the aircrafts anti-vehicle dice. They become damaged and destroyed as a vehicle.
Counters are not removed from the town hexes during the casualty phase.

Blitz: The Luftwaffe has 9 planes in reserve. At the beginning of your movement phase roll a D6 for each aircraft you have in play fewer than what you started with; for each 4+ roll you may place one of them on your map edge.

RAF Reinforcements: The RAF has 3 planes in reserve. At the beginning of your movement phase roll a D6 for each aircraft you have in play fewer than what you started with; for each 4+ roll you may place one of them on your map edge.

Aircraft Rules

Treat all aircraft as having Speed 3 instead of 'A'.
Aircraft may still move while disrupted, but at -1 speed.
All aircraft may defencive-fire normally.
Aircraft must always move at least two hexes during the movement phase.

During the assault phase, if an aircraft attacks it must move two hexes after the attack. (Similiar to Strike & Fade 2 - but the 'Fade' is not option')

Aircraft may only move into a hex in front of them; when moving into a hex the direction changes to facing away from the hex the aircraft moved from.
Once per phase an aircraft my Sideslip instead of turning - treat it as a turn but the facing does not change.

Aircraft that move off of the map have disengaged - they may be place on your map edge at the beginning of your next movement phase - this does not use up any of your reserves.

Aircraft may only attack through their front arc.

LUFTWAFFE

Messerschmitt Me 110

Bomber: When attacking a town hex this unit attacks all non-aircraft units in that hex. This attacks all non-aircraft in the hex.

Messerschmitt Bf 109E

Fighter : This unit has +1 Speed

Junkers JU 87B

Squadron 2: You may take up to two Stukas as a single Aircraft choice
Dive Bomber: If this unit is in a city hex it can attack that hex using 8 dice. This unit cannot otherwise attack town hexes.
Bomber: When attacking a town hex this unit attacks all non-aircraft units in that hex. This attacks all non-aircraft in the hex.

ROYAL AIR FORCE

Spitfire

Fighter: This unit has +1 Speed
Limited Numbers: Your force cannot be more than half Spitfires (round down)

Hawker Hurricane

Fighter: This unit has +1 Speed
Hurricane: Ignore the Rockets SA, and this units AT values are 3/2.

Bofors AA

AA Battery 3: You may take up to three Bofors AA Guns as a single Aircraft choice. AA Guns cannot be brought back into play with reserves.
High Altitude: This unit uses its AT values when attacking aircraft.

[Der Leiter]

For now I've decided to keep it relatively simple while it goes through playtesting. There are many many changes that could be made to make it more realistic, etc. But for now this will do.

[DocD]

Hi Leiter, it's docd. I was just wondering if you have managed to playtest this scenario? It looks good and I think I have enough planes to make it work.

Also, do cities suffer disruption and its effects (-1 defense, etc)

[Der Leiter]

Originally Posted by DocD

Hi Leiter, it's docd. I was just wondering if you have managed to playtest this scenario? It looks good and I think I have enough planes to make it work.

Also, do cities suffer disruption and its effects (-1 defense, etc)

I have, and there's a few changes I need to make... I think I have to make it a little more complex to be worth playing since it's almost entirely aircraft.

[TeToa]

looks good so far, keep it coming. but have you thought of radar sites? designate 1 or 2 towns as radar sites. each radar site has a defence value of 6/6. as long as the radar sites are not destroyed then your opponet playing luwaffe must tell you what side he will be coming in from with off board peices 1 turn in advance. e.g. he tells you, one whole turn of attack and movement. then he brings the peices onto the board.

[TeToa]

just thought i would toss that out there to be criticised

[TeToa]

and what about
may go into reverse hexes at -1 speed *signifying half loops and immelmens*

[Der Leiter]

Originally Posted by TeToa

looks good so far, keep it coming. but have you thought of radar sites? designate 1 or 2 towns as radar sites. each radar site has a defence value of 6/6. as long as the radar sites are not destroyed then your opponet playing luwaffe must tell you what side he will be coming in from with off board peices 1 turn in advance. e.g. he tells you, one whole turn of attack and movement. then he brings the peices onto the board.

The Town hexes can already be considered RAF Bases with Radar sites - and I'm not sure a higher defence would work too well. There were already enough problems against the 5/5 defence.

Also, the Luftwaffe only does come in on the one side. If I were to use radar I might just have a certain number of objective tokens placed on city hexes to represent that they are the base, and they would simply add +1 to reinforcement rolls or some such.

However, I'm not sure that's needed for this.

Originally Posted by TeToa

and what about
may go into reverse hexes at -1 speed *signifying half loops and immelmens*

"Instead of performing a sideslip you can use one movement to change your direction up to 360 degrees"

I'll consider that one, it could make things interesting.

[J.L.Robert]

1. I'm guessing the Hurricanes do NOT have Rockets, but otherwise have the same stats as the Typhoon?

2. The Stuka's Disengage SA...how exactly does that work, and can it be used more than once per game?

[Der Leiter]

Originally Posted by J.L.Robert

1. I'm guessing the Hurricanes do NOT have Rockets, but otherwise have the same stats as the Typhoon?

Correct

Originally Posted by J.L.Robert

2. The Stuka's Disengage SA...how exactly does that work, and can it be used more than once per game?

The Stuka's Disgengage was needlessly complicated in an attempt to represent that it only had one attack then had to leave (and another would take its place) - I've replaced it with the new wording from my URR - War Above so that they don't have limited attacks, but do have to be in the same hex.