After the visit to the Czech air museum I started mulling over the possibility of a solo air war game. This is an idea I’ve tried before but never really got beyond the prototype stage but the more I looked at this the more it seemed like the previous stumbling blocks weren’t present.
Firstly it’s a simple set-up: high altitude combat between single types (FW 190 and B-17) so there’s no map.
Secondly there’s no real agency required from one of the sides, the B-17s fly straight and level in formation firing at any target in range. That leaves the solo player in the FW 190s to close in and attempt to damage them enough to fall out of formation.
Finally, Two Fat Lardies Bag The Hun WWII aerial combat rule set works on a card draw system for turn sequence so it’s not going to be a deterministic, chess like, I-go U-go procession.
Without wanting to put the cart before the horse (something that has scuppered previous attempts) there are good options for an MVP and iterations up to a full campaign scenario covering the whole battle with the fighter escorts.
I’ve chosen “Pauke! Pauke!” as the working title, it was one of the attack code words used by the Stürmbocks and is the title of a painting of the battle by Martin Novotny on display at the museum.