IN THE AIR TONIGHT: A Nighfighter Ace AAR

[bob48]

Interesting, thanks 

[bob48]

Can we hope to see some more of this? I've missed it, as I'm sure other people have.

[judgedredd]

Yeah...I've been eyeing some of these air games.

[bob48]

Aye, was getting quite gripping at times 

[BanzaiCat]

Can we hope to see some more of this? I've missed it, as I'm sure other people have.

I had been doing this on my work laptop, with Photoshop. In the past few months, I've had zero time to work on it thanks to work; there were days, unfortunately, where I had nothing to work on, and my boss would not be in, so I'd sit there and write these up. I've had project after project come in that's had insanely tight deadlines and that's pretty much been the story of my life since November.

I do want to get back to this! Especially because you guys like it so much, which I greatly appreciate. I'm hoping things will quiet down here soon. Things have not been quieting down lately because my workplace recently acquired another company and all my projects for this were fast tracked from months to days. And when I get home after 10-12 hour days and 3 hours' worth of commute, I just don't have the motivation to open my work laptop.

But, like I said, I really want to get back to this. Especially because Interceptor Ace, Zeppelin Raider, and now Amerika Bomber are all..."waiting in the wings." 

[bob48]

OK, we do understand - that's one heck of a working day, BC.

......................waiting in the wings?

If I didn't know you better I say that was a weak attempt at one of the punne thingies.

[Sir Slash]

Who do we need to straighten-out for you BC? Horse's head in the bed next to them when they wake-up? I know a couple of Voo Doo Queens looking for extra work. Just say the word man. 

[bob48]

Yeah, we can send Spiney Norman in if we have to.

[judgedredd]

Isn't Amerika Bomber like Queen of the Skies?

[bob48]

Not sure if it uses the same basic system or if its completely new. I remember playing B-17 with some buddies a long time ago. Great game.

[judgedredd]

I think I might have jumped to that conclusion from the title - Amerika Bomber:Evil Queen of the Skies. 

[Staggerwing]

Amerika Bomber:EQotS is indeed based on B-17:QotS. The game designer tales about it in the game notes. he's added a slight RPG element and adjusted the rules a little but make's no bones about the link between the two games. It's also got a few elements of B-29:SF as well though not nearly so many charts (from what I hear of B-29:SF).

[BanzaiCat]

What Stags said.

I'd add that it also has elements from Interceptor Ace and Nightfighter Ace (both also Gregory Smith designs), with promotions and awards and such. I think Zeppelin Raiders does the same, though I've not yet gotten that one to the table.

I played a single mission yesterday just to get a feel for it, and it very much is B-17 at its heart. Nothing wrong with that. I posted some minor issues to the Solitaire Wargames group on FB yesterday and think Gregory wasn't entirely happy with my post, LOL. Didn't mean to make him mad, I was just making some observations as to how vague the manual was in places. (That's what they get for not asking me to proof it, ha.)

My mission was not great - rolled up the shipyards at Newport News, Virginia, as my first target, in Zone 6 (which is the furthest Zone). Got all the way to Zone 5 before we finally were intercepted by a pair of P-80s. One, my top turret gunner destroyed, but the second one was missed; that second one ended up killing my top turret gunner (our flight engineer) and destroying our bomb sight (which automatically makes any bombing result 'Off Target'), not to mention damaging the hell out of our starboard wing and getting a hit on the fuselage to boot. There are three ranges - Long, Medium, and Close, at which enemy interceptors come at your bomber, and they start at Long. They then move to Medium, and you exchange fire, then Close, and you exchange fire, and then if the interceptor is still 'alive,' it breaks off. The bad thing is, this second interceptor came in from 9:00 high and my top turret was the only gun that could attack it. With the Flight Engineer dead, there would be no way for me to fight him off, and unlike B-17 I don't think you can move crew to replace others on the plane, so I gave up at that point. The interceptor would have gotten two free attacks on us with no chance of retaliation on my part (the Me-264 I was flying only has four gun emplacements, and none of the other three could target it), and I didn't see the point in pushing to the next Zone, having to go through another interception round, then AA fire, then an off target bomb run, then more AA fire, and then more interception chances. I figured we'd be dead meat. But I got a feel for the game - lousy luck losing a gunner AND the bloody bomb sight on our first ever interceptor attack.

In any case it's quite fun despite me having my Schnitzel handed to me.

[BanzaiCat]

My other option is to set up this game (taken from VASSAL images and done entirely in Photoshop) in real life and continue to play it that way, but the issue with that is space. I have Space Infantry: Resurgence up on my game table right now as I try to learn its ins and outs (there's a LOT to it, and I also have the expansion to the game, so...). That would be ideal but I don't know when I could get to it because it would need to be set up for a while.