Sunday, March 10, 2013

Planning for Enfilade 2013

After a short hiatus, I'm back to blogging and finally making plans for Enfilade 2013. This year there is a theme for the convention, "Warfare on the Silver Screen", but I don't think I'll be able to relate any of my games to movies.

Right now I'm looking at running (or helping to run) two games at Enfilade.

For the first game, Kevin and I are going to do Operation Tungsten, the Fleet Air Arm attack on the Tirpitz in April 1944.
Target for Operation Tungsten
We'll be using the old Mustangs rules with some minor modifications. The scenario will have some historical variance; the Luftwaffe didn't oppose the historical raid, but will be available for this one. I'll also add in some more options for both sides.
A photo from the real FAA attack
It will be interesting to see FAA Corsairs, Hellcats, and Martlets mixing it up with Luftwaffe FW-190s and Me-109s.

I'm still undecided about my second game. I'll be doing this one by myself and have been kicking around with the following ideas.

Idea 1: The 2nd Battle of St. Leonard's Creek: This would cover the breakout of Commodore Barney's gunboat flotilla from St Leonard's Creek into the Pawtuxent River off the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. This would be a mixed land-river action with units from the US Army and Marines supporting the breakout from the land side with some artillery, while the Royal Marines try to drive off the land guns so the large Royal Navy blockading ships can stop Barney's flotilla. The game would be 1/600 scale using the modified Sail And Steam Navies rules that I've used for other War of 1812 games.

Idea 2: Vietnam Air Rescue: This idea is a revamp of the game I was planning last year with A-1 Skyraiders leading a CH-53 rescue helicopter to pick up a downed Air Force pilot over North Vietnam. There will be some F-4 Phantoms acting as top cover, but they will have limited ammo/fuel. The North Vietnamese would have a mix of aircraft and ground forces to stop the Americans. The game would use the AirWarC21 rules and 1/300 scale miniatures.

Idea 3: Battle off Vila: This idea has Japanese destroyers, and maybe a light cruiser, unloading supplies to barges off the island of Vila when US forces (probably destroyers and PT boats) arrive to disrupt the transfer. This would be done with 1/600(700) scale ships using the Action Stations rules. This would be a little different from many of my usual coastal forces games in that it would be the first time I've really done a destroyer vs. destroyer game with the Action Stations rules.

Those are my main ideas. Right now I'm leaning toward idea 1, but it would be nice to know if anyone is interested in any of these ideas as games (feel free to leave me a comment about the ideas).