Bag the Hun playtest

So we played a little modded version of Bag the Hun. A group of Stukas and an escort fighter pair supported the ground attack on a Ruslander relief force. The Reds came about led by Ivan Protkov, an ace of the Karelian Invasion flying an Airacobra. They had two pairs of planes including the very flat Ratas on the left upper corner.

Some dogfighting inbound, Ivan jumped his burning plane, his partner shot down a Stuka whose crew also managed to bail out: the German fighters sent one Rata escaping towards a friendly base and shot down another.

From a referee's point of view this is an interesting and exciting game with plenty of luck factor. The players did not like it because they had to think ahead instead of just tailgating someone and rolling dice until they were dead. During a turn you may not know when is your turn to shoot or move: the enemy may make a loop and get right behind your tail before you get a shot, and then probably you get to shoot before moving - this turn order calls for precise planning for every possible outcome of the turn (card) order.  

We used the Inter Arma air rules previously, which were pretty good if aircraft had a supportive role and the focus was on ground operations. But with a little tweaking Bag the Hun could be preferred. For example, to have the height advantage, fighter groups may be flying on two different heights (the leader of the Rotte at combat height and his wingman one degree above to hold superiority). As the height increments are very broad I've given up allowing the players to dive attack: they may gain height during the previous turn and dive on the target's tail when they can. Then there's the simplified ground bombing/strafing that would be incredibly easy to just swith over to IA's 'roll to hit' version.