Following the fun from last Thursday and the desire to put on Operation Harpoon I have given some though to determining how many aircraft are a) involved in an attack and b) actually press home the attack. Some are shot down or scared off before they get to drop their ordnance but keeping track of the numbers can be tricky.
This is especially true when all planes are involved as in late WW2 the carriers carried a lot of planes (not to mention land based aircraft getting involved). To try and base all aircraft involved would be a momentous task and also an expensive one! I know because trying to cost up the number of aircraft for Operation Harpoon was eye wateringly expensive.
So I thought that I'd try to address this in as simple a way as possible.
So basically any aircraft base denotes 3 aircraft (unless otherwise stated).
So any base on the table represents 3 planes. Of course some bases may actually have 3 planes on them but for some aircraft (like heavy bombers) its not easy fitting them all on so it will vary BUT in this case any base is 3 planes...until they start getting shot down or scared off.
When casualties start occurring, rather than taking planes off or using little dice to show the number left, I've used both thin plastic pieces OR some glass mosaic pieces (you can see them in the right of the picture above before they were painted). The latter are painted white and given either one or two dots (denoting the number of craft left on the stand).
So in the picture above, both stands now only have two planes on it.
The advantages of the plastic pieces is that they are flat, double sided (so they have 1 on one side and 2 on the other) and easy to see - and easier to produce. The mosaic pieces are heavier (so less likely to move, get blown off etc) and blend better into the base itself - but you need a supply of both one dot and two dot pieces.
Once the stand is reduced to zero, it is removed from play. Players with a collection of bases with casualties can merge them (so a base with 1 plane and another with two planes can be merged to make a full 3 plane base, or two 2 plane bases can be combined to make a 3 plane base and 1 plane base).
Feedback appreciated - especially whether card or tile is better.
This is especially true when all planes are involved as in late WW2 the carriers carried a lot of planes (not to mention land based aircraft getting involved). To try and base all aircraft involved would be a momentous task and also an expensive one! I know because trying to cost up the number of aircraft for Operation Harpoon was eye wateringly expensive.
So I thought that I'd try to address this in as simple a way as possible.
So basically any aircraft base denotes 3 aircraft (unless otherwise stated).
 |
| Both bases represent 3 planes. |
So any base on the table represents 3 planes. Of course some bases may actually have 3 planes on them but for some aircraft (like heavy bombers) its not easy fitting them all on so it will vary BUT in this case any base is 3 planes...until they start getting shot down or scared off.
 |
| Both bases have lost a plane each. |
When casualties start occurring, rather than taking planes off or using little dice to show the number left, I've used both thin plastic pieces OR some glass mosaic pieces (you can see them in the right of the picture above before they were painted). The latter are painted white and given either one or two dots (denoting the number of craft left on the stand).
So in the picture above, both stands now only have two planes on it.
The advantages of the plastic pieces is that they are flat, double sided (so they have 1 on one side and 2 on the other) and easy to see - and easier to produce. The mosaic pieces are heavier (so less likely to move, get blown off etc) and blend better into the base itself - but you need a supply of both one dot and two dot pieces.
 |
| And here only one plane per base. |
Once the stand is reduced to zero, it is removed from play. Players with a collection of bases with casualties can merge them (so a base with 1 plane and another with two planes can be merged to make a full 3 plane base, or two 2 plane bases can be combined to make a 3 plane base and 1 plane base).
Feedback appreciated - especially whether card or tile is better.
2 comments:
Let's give it a try on Thursday.
seemed to work OK - easy to keep track of!
Post a Comment