All quiet on the northern front...

Blog-wise, it has been a very quiet week (in case you did not notice). No painting. No modelling. No updates.
That does not mean I have been idle!

This week, I finished Leo McKinstry's impressive book on the Avro Lancaster, a review will likely be posted at some later date. Also, on the suggestion of a toofatlardies Yahoo group member who saw the "Stuka Pilot" review, I have gotten a hold of the very technical yet very interesting "Luftwaffe Combat Reports" and so far find it a very involving read. Well, I guess I must be something of a tech geek to be intrigued by this book - though I did find it interesting to get to know, amongst other things, that the Luftwaffe used either 84- or 100-octane aviation fuel. And that, no, they were not interchangeable. Again, a review is likely to follow once I'm done with the book.

When I posted last, I still had some work to do before being able to play:

• Getting on tail and staying on tail tables, if possible reducing these to one table (chapter 10)
• Cheat sheets covering deflection (chapter 10 end), firing (chapter 11), air gunner firing (chapter 12), crash landings (chapter 13 end)
• Aircraft record sheets for Hurricane, Spitfire and Bf109E
• Print and prep all game aids and cards

Since then, I have been able to finish the gettting on tail and staying on tail tables, and yes - they were reduced to one table. On the reverse side, I managed to squeeze in the entire shooting procedure on one page, which was no mean feat (if I may say so myself... Ah, modesty...)! Squeezing and shuffling the tables around, the page now holds - in sequence of use - a list of the firing procedure, fire arcs, deflection diagram, gunnery table (condensed into one table for both fighter aircraft and air gunners), dodge table, gun jams, ammunition depletion, and something I spent part of Christmas getting done: My one-column damage table, which is used by rolling 2d6 and adding modifiers from my revised hit effect table.

Last night, I wanted to make aircraft record diagrams yet ended up having trouble with the format. How does one conveniently squeeze in aircraft information and up to four fighters on a single A4-sheet, while having something that is still aesthetically pleasing? Finally, I got the idea to make aircraft record cards instead. After fiddling around with my standard format (using Excel), I wound up with the example below - and cannot say that I am displeased!

Feeling smug: Front and reverse of my first aircraft record card.

Feeling humbled: Well, blast, I just noticed that the pilot skill text boxes need adjustment, and I forgot to underline the MAN...

The card image and section identification is identical to the Section Move and Fire cards, making identification easier. There is no need to record damage on the card itself, as I have made cards for the damage effects that can be placed next to the record card. On multi-engine aircraft, the diagram will contain tick boxes over each engine to record damaged and destroyed engines, and on aircraft with gunners each fire arc will be drawn in with separate Fire Factors. My one sincere regret is that I did not get space to fit in a separate box detailing armaments - vain, I know, yet I already miss the line "Armament: 8 x .303 Browning MG in wings" on the card... Well, in my revised Bag the Hun 2, playablity always comes first - and anyone gaming with me will be only too familiar with the armament and other trivia of the involved aircraft by the time a game is done...

Tonight, if time allows (it's Friday after all), I will twiddle with the Excel format. I have found that I might be able to squeeze more cards onto a single A4 sheet, yet we shall see... I will also have to make cards for at the least two or three vics plus a schwarm or two before I can get gaming. Maybe I'll be able to print and cut out all the revised cards and material this weekend, and I could aim at getting a game in maybe this Sunday or next week!

Oh, and the crash landing rules? The reason I am working on my BtH2 Lite rules is that I want playability over details, so once I read over these rules a second time I realised that no, I really did not care whether Jonny managed to land his damaged and burning Hurricane safely in the field or not. As a result, these rules were dustbinned. At a later stage, I am considering typing up a table to determine what became of damaged and withdrawing fighters. For now, destroyed is destroyed, and that is that!

Have a nice week-end, or as the Lardies are fond of saying: Dakka, dakka, dakka...