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The second game of WotM 027 Scattered Resistance saw different approaches by both German and Russian. Instead of the Big Left circle that put the interceptors a mile behind the bomber, the Russians went for a Right circle. Much better, came in behind a little over a half mile out. And the Germans, instead of going forward, hung back, shooting each interceptor down in turn at no cost to themselves. Still, on landing, they may have got chewed out, I dunno what the historical escort tactic was here. It could be said that rather than Escorting the bomber they used the bomber as bait. |
I wanted time to get a height advantage on the Ju88 so initially did a gentle looping turn to the right to build up speed before the climb. My basic plan was to ignore the fighters and get the bomber. I-16#1 with the Vet Ace would hit the Ju88 first and absorb the attention of the fighters while #2 came in a turn later. With a max level speed of 5.0 the Sovs have a minimal speed advantage over the Ju88 cruising at 4.0. The 109’s killed their speed through a couple of idles and snap-rolls right down, before ending up quite far to the rear of the Ju88. As my boys approached they accelerated up to more reasonable speeds. Even so I thought Hank made a minor error in keeping them just a bit too far back. I-16#1 took a 60 degree shot and got 3 hits/ non-threatening critical. Then lined up behind the Ju88 while the 109’s lined up behind him. Tactically sophisticated it was not. He lasted 3 turns before the odds caught up with him, while inflicting 12 hits and 4 crits on the Junkers – tail hit, minor fuel leak, torn skin and 2 weapon stations disabled. I’d fluffed I-16#2’s approach so had to flash in front of the Ju88 turn left and race after him. The escort were speeding up – again I had a shot before they could really intervene but couldn’t stop them getting on my tail afterwards. Mistiming meant the escorts could defeat me in detail, even though the I-16 is fragile enough with 5/8 hits that the Ju88 might knock it out on its own. Coming in I took 3 hits from the rear gunner straight away which was not an insignificant chunk of total damage. To move things on…the 109’s took it out again after a couple of turns firing. I-16#2 did 8 more hits, taking the Ju88 into severe damage with a steady fuel leak, rudder out and trailing/damaged landing gear. Overall looking at both games Hanks play was superior. The Germans shouldn’t really lose any Bf109’s in this. It was poor play on my part in Game1 to lose a fighter – the cardinal error of slowing down too much to limit your evasive options and concentrating too much on getting a kill. (Read the historical literature dumbass! – you know this!) I was saved by a lucky collision. In Game2 – I fluffed the approach a little so that the 109’s could take the I-16’s on one at a time, and gave the Ju88’s too good shots. The Ventral guns have double the FP of the dorsals so you attack from above. For a normal fighter, don’t sweat it, for an I-16 when 6 hits = severe damage you have to limit your exposure as much as you can. I do think that Hank should have used the performance advantage of the 109’s to intervene further out in Game2. The Ju88 could have died which would have lost the scenario…. (In fact I did a post game roll for an OP mission scale landing for the Ju88. A dice roll of 9 meant roll on landing incidents table, a dice roll there of 82 with all the +’s for damage and crits meant it blew up on landing killing all the passengers. It doesn’t count as it was a combat scale scenario but gave me some satisfaction….) I’m still trying to see the optimum Russian strategy – possibly one I-16 does a head on at the Ju88 and then concentrates on disrupting the fighters (won’t catch up with the bomber in time) while the other I-16 goes for it. [Craig Benn, the Russians here] |