Tag: B-17 Flying Fortress Leader

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What to do?

When I get home tonight, do I set up one of the Leader games (Corsair, Hornet, Phantom) or a Sunday double header, Braves @ Giants, 1967?

I can probably play the double header tonight.

Any of the Leader games will probably be played over a couple of days.

And I found that I had been playing wrong, adding a phase that is only used in B-17 Leader.

I would include a round of homeward bound air/ground combat, which isn’t even listed in the sequence of play.

Whoops.

I was used to a phase like this because of playing B-17 Queen of the Skies for so many years, which requires a possible Luftwaffe intercept in every zone on the way back to base from the target.  Again, B-17 Leader has this step, the other games don’t.

Maybe this will speed up my games.  We’ll see.

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First Play: A Wing and A Prayer

Finally got around to trying out this game.

I played the short campaign, covering the early bombing missions from August to December 1942.  5 missions total.

Heavy damage was inflicted on the following targets:

  • St. Omer (aircraft factory)
  • Lille (industrial center)
  • Antwerp (industrial center)

The following targets were completely destroyed:

  • Cherbourg (aircraft factory)
  • Rotterdam (marshalling yard)

Of the 12 B-17F bombers under my command, the following 10 ended the campaign with better than ‘green’ crews:

‘crack’ crew:

  • Slavo Sally
  • Jersey Bounce
  • Queenie
  • Hell’s Angels (lead bomber throughout campaign)
  • Big Red
  • Demo Darling
  • Green Hornet

‘veteran’ crew

  • Chow Hound
  • Pueblo Vengence
  • Peoria Bell

12 Campaign victory points, resulting in:

Major Victory: War shortened by 3 months.  You earn the Silver Star and an eventual promotion to Brigadier General.

This is possibly my second favorite of the four B-17 bomber games that I own, right below B-17 Queen of the Skies, and ahead of B-17 Flying Fortress Leader and Target for Today.

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Target for Today: Mission #1 AAR

After Action Report: August, 1942

Target for Today: Amiens (Airfield)

Bomber: Super-X (Mission #1)
Group position: Low
Bomber #: 15

Good fighter cover to and from target zone.

Outbound:
Zone 1: Good weather, no complications during take off.
Zone 2: 50% cloud cover, no German fighter resistance.
Zone 3: Clear skies, moderate German fighter resistance, mostly driven off by fighter cover, until 2 fighters got through.  Both were shot down, 1xME 109 by Sgts Hayes and Stewart, 1xME 109 by Sgt. Martin.
Zone 4: Clear skies, no German fighter resistance.
Zone 5: TARGET ZONE – Clear skies, target slightly obscured, moderate German fighter resistance, driven off by fighter cover.  Light Flak, no hits to bomber.  Bomb run was on target, 50% of target damaged.

Inbound:
Zone 5: Clear skies, heavy German fighter resistance, driven off by fighter cover.
Zone 4: 50% cloud cover, no German fighter resistance.
Zone 3: 50% cloud cover, moderate German fighter resistance, driven off by fighter cover.
Zone 2: 50% cloud cover, no German fighter resistance.
Zone 1: Good weather, no complications during landing.

First mission under my belt, and I gotta say, I prefer this game to B-17 Flying Fortress Leader. I think both games play rather smoothly, once you figure out the mechanics of the rules.

I prefer to fly a single bomber in a group, instead of the entire group all at once.  That’s probably due to my playing B-17 Queen of the Skies for so many years.  TfT plays like an enhanced version of the original QotS game.

I’ll give the single bomber game in FFL a shot.

—

Zone 3

Long: “Fighter coming in, 1:30 high!”

Hayes: “There’s one on our 6, high!”

Stewart: “I see him!”

Stewart and Hayes opened fire, blasting the ME 109 to hell.

Stewart: “Ha!  Got him!”

Hayes: “No, I got him!”

Stewart: “Call it a tie?”

Hayes: “Yeah, okay.”

Martin squeezes the trigger on his right waist gun, obliterating the remaining ME 109.

Mitchell: “Hey, the kid got one!”

Thompson: “Nice shooting there.”

Martin: “Thanks, Chief.”

Thompson: “Don’t call me ‘Chief’.”

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B-17 Games: QotS vs. FFL

Comparison of the base games:

The main difference is, while Queen of the Skies focuses on 1 bomber, Flying Fortress Leader focuses on 1 or more bomber groups/squadrons, so the game play is more abstract.

There are rules for single-bomber play in FFL, but I haven’t gotten to those rules yet.

Each has it’s own mechanic for encounters on the way to the target, and somewhat similar procedures for fighters and flak, and bombing the target.  Many of the game mechanics from the other DVG Leader-series games are present in FFL.

Each is fun, in it’s own way.  It depends on what one wants out of the game experience, overall command of the mission/campaign, or the results of your own bomber crew during those missions/campaigns.

I’ll probably play a couple more practice missions before embarking on a full campaign.

And I’ll probably try Target for Today before I get to that full campaign.

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B-17 FF Leader

My first run through was such a complete and utter failure that I decided to wipe the slate clean and try again.

I even opened that B-17 coin for luck!

And I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to try again, when I get the miniatures for the game.

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Miniatures

Incoming!

Miniatures set for B-17 Flying Fortress Leader

According to the description, the set comes with:

3x B-17; 3x B-24; 1x B-26; 1x B-25; 1x P-51; 1x P-38; 1x P-47; 1x P-80; 1x Spitfire; 3x Bf-109; 2x FW-190; 1x Bf-110; 1x Bf-410; 1x Me-262

I’ll probably paint some if not all of them, at the very least the B-17s.

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Prepare for Battle

Okay, so, the counters have been punched and cards sorted for both B-17 and Alexander games.

Awaiting the large box for Warfighter WWII, should arrive this week.

Re-reading the rules for X-Wing Miniatures for Games night this Saturday.

Reading the rules for Bataan!, Shadow War: Armageddon and a couple of other games.

Deciding to play the next series of games in either the 1917 or 1967 baseball replays.

Picking up Injustice 2 after work today.

Games overload in full effect!

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Shipped!

I figure that it’ll be here in a week or so.

And yeah, Rogue One is an obvious choice for my bomber’s name.  We’ll see if I stick with that.