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Thursday, June 18, 2020

5075th (Valhallan) Tactical Air Wing - the Ice Skulls

Guys... Gals... I did a thing...

again...

It seemed like a good idea at the time...



Elements of 3rd (Blue) Squadron - including the Squadron Commander, Major Zasha Yellenich, and the Leader of the Third Flight, Lieutenant Manya  Smirnov



Major Zasha Yellenich, Commander of 3rd Squadron



Lieutenant Manya  Smirnov, commander of the Third Flight within Third Squadron.



Somehow I was envisioning the Wing as having about 100 aircraft in 10 Squadrons, each Squadron breaking down into a Squadron Commander and three flights of three. The numbering on aircraft indicate the squadron and craft within the squadron. The first digit is the Squadron number (1-9, the 10th squadron is the Wing's Command Squadron and the number designators all begin with X). The second number indicates the craft within the Squadron (0 is the Squadron commander, 1-3 is are the first flight, 4-6 are the second, 7-9 are the third - the first number in each grouping of three - 1,4,7 - are the flight leaders) So, above, 30 and 37 are the Squadron Commander of the Third Squadron (30) and Flight leader of the Third Flight within Third Squadron (37).

I'm just making this up as I go, though... so it may all change!

I have no current plans to actually ADD to this squadron at all... I just picked up the started box and... wow... it really is just a STARTER... It doesn't really even have the full rules for the aircraft included!?

There are these two Thunderbolt Fighters and three Ork Dakkajets... and then there aretwo Imperial Navy Marauder Bombers and two Ork Fighta Bommas... but there aren't any rules included for ground attacks or anything. It says they'll be included in... other books... There is only one scenario: Dog Fight. Other scenarios will be available in future books. The suggested play area is 3'x3'... they include a 2'x2' paper map in the base set... You can buy a 3'x3' one separately... Ugh...

I had grandiose plans about multi-level scenarios with dogfights to determine air superiority... which could determine who gets to do a bombing run and has air support available for a ground scenario... and then a bombing run to knock points/power level off the enemy force for a ground scenario. But I'll have to make up my own bombing/ground attack rules?! (or... break down and buy MORE stuff for this - which I am loathe to do at this point... I mean... Dark Alliance and War or the Spider comet this weekend... and the new Fabius Bile miniature - which I am debating about whether I really "NEED"...)

Part of the reason I ended up breaking down and buying this was a brief moment of nostalgia for FASA's Top Gun: the Board Game, which, I think, I picked up used for something like $10 around the summer of 87 or 88 and me and a friend played SO MUCH of it that summer... I knew there was probably better "simulations" out at the time (Like GDW's Air Superiority and Air Strike - which another friend had and played tonnes of!) but Top Gun itched that scratch we had at the time and had the right amount of maneuvering and dog-fighty-ness and speed of play that really captured the flavour of modern jet fighter combat (as portrayed in the movie, at least...).

Also, I've been holding out for a release of Battlefleet Gothic, but recently read an article that stated when the specialist game design team was questioned about it earlier this year at one of the BIG REVEALS and they apparently said it was definitely still on the "To Do" list... but exactly zero work has been done on it, and it's "at least a couple YEARS out..." so... with that knowledge and $100 in my pocket and moment of weakness...

I hope it will itch the dog-fighty scratch of yesteryear and that will be that... no building complete airwings!?

(Part of me does hope the game sticks around long enough that they make some Aeldari aircraft, though! AND CHAOS!!!!)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The Ork Dakkajets! So we can start some Dogfighting!

T'au stuff...?

Blackstone Fortress

I don't know...

5 comments:

  1. Ha ha - of course you did a thing! lol

    My "did a thing"s these days is I keep seeing people doing cool stuff on youtube (like terrain building, other arts and crafts, legos, etc.) and then buying stuff to try my hand at it. And not getting a whole lot of anything done. :P

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    1. Things are indeed fun. With money being a little tight this year, I'm having be a little judicious in my things this year. I've been pretty good as my most recent things (magnets and Mod Podge) I have been actually using.

      My Mad Money is being saved for O Group when it comes out later this year, although it is getting harder and harder to resist the Infamy Infamy package that is currently out. Yeah, TFL historicals are my Warhammer crack.

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    2. Oooh! Is that was the Battlefront 15mm WW2 minis are for? O Group?

      A friend picked up I Ain't Been Shot Mum ages ago and tried running it a bunch of times. Had some really interesting ideas - I can see TFL are so very popular. I picked up one of the Great War Sets... but it wasn't really the scale of action I was looking for at the time, so haven't fully explored it. I probably should!!

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    3. Actually, I was planning on using my extensive collection of 6mm GHQ for O group. The 15mm are just because I have them. Though I suppose that if I have them, I could game in 15mm or 6mm. Why limit myself to one scale (as all gamers say in justifying collecting the same armies in 5 different scales would say)?

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