Aircraft rules for Operational Games

Following our discussion last Thursday about tightening up the aircraft rules for operational games I trawled through the blog and remembered the one's below from our WW1 game back in September 2017.  It was the game in which Mark took charge of the German airforce and relied on "The Force" to get him across the entire battlefield to attack the French back table - it failed!

Aircraft Rules for WW1 Operational Games

Aircraft attacks commence on the hour every hour.

Aircraft must be given a flight plan to their target including the tables they will cross.

Aircraft must have orders; escort, recon, attack.

Unescorted bombers are automatically destroyed by fighters.

Fighters automatically drive off other fighters or in a 2:1 dogfight drive off one and are destroyed by the second.

Fighters shoot down balloons on an unmodified 4,5,6 (minus 1 if under AA fire).

In addition, all Machine Gun units could conduct AA fire and as Mark's aircraft crossed the French held tables they were shot at by every French MG.

So, I propose the following;

• Aircraft attacks commence as usual every hour, or half hour by the player holding the airfield table.
• The CinC will write a flight plan indicating the route to and from the target.
• All ground attacks will be from the direction of the table edge the aircraft enters from and parallel with the left and right side of the table edges.
• Any table crossed that has AA of 37mm or greater calibre can attack the passing aircraft.
• Any calibre of AA on the table that is within range of the final air attack can fire.
• Bombers attack up to six consecutive units of any type in a 12" x 2" beaten zone and fighter bombers/light attack aircraft attack up to 3 units (but only the first can be armoured) in a 6" x 1" beaten zone.
• The CinC must also give a mission to each aircraft; Bomb, Escort, CAP or Recon.
• Aircraft that encounter enemy CAP or Escort fighters will conduct arial combat - fighters cancel out other fighters or fighter bombers, 2x fighters will shoot down one fighter or fighter bomber, one fighter will shoot down bombers and spotter aircraft.

Instead of players automatically selecting the best targets aircraft should have a priority list of targets based on what they can see;

1. Vehicles moving in the open
2. Infantry moving in the open
3. Artillery firing in the open
4. Vehicles stationary in the open

Target priority is in the order above and then nearest unit. If there are no other targets then the aircraft return to base without attacking anything - unless there is a Forward Aircraft Controller and then it can guide the attack onto any enemy it can spot, just like an Artillery FOO.  Again, the attack will still be in the direction of entry from the table edge and parallel with the other table edges.

Hopefully this should address Russ' concern that the aircraft attacks are too flexible and my concern that aircraft should be a potentially devastating weapon in a WW2 operational game.  It should also give the CinC a more prominent role in operational management.  With this in mind, I would also like to add the following rule;

• Each side can attack the other sides off table airfields.  As this is simultaneous it doesn't matter if the defending aircraft is present or on a mission as this represents its base facilities and logistics.  Off table attacks can be against single or multiple targets but each target gets a 40mm AA defence.

Please let me know what you think and whether there is something I've forgotten or if you have a great idea.