B-29 Superfortress (Hell Over Korea): Discussion Thread (On Hold)

[BanzaiCat]

So, the B-29 Superfortress AAR I intended to do kind of crashed and burned. The game seemed like an awful lot of work and fiddlyness for very little return. Then again, my expectations were more along the line of B-17. Despite knowing this absolutely IS NOT the same game, and that a lot of B-29's tension derives from fuel, storms, and navigation...it just wasn't my bag. However, that's not to say there isn't beauty in the system. It just didn't keep my interest at a level where I would want to keep doing a detailed AAR of it.

However, Legion Wargames also produced an expansion called Hell Over Korea, where the veritable B-29 would instead raid North Korean targets. Enemies are supposed to abound in this game, and combat is supposed to be much thicker. The thought of putting this huge, old warhorse up against Commie jets frankly piqued my interest and Legion Wargames was very kind to send me a copy of Hell Over Korea.

I intend to do a full review of both games in one article, but that might be April or May before it gets deployed. For now, this is the start of an AAR themed to this particular Korean War expansion, which will help me get into the game and try out its nuances before I commit to writing a full review of it and its parent game.

So I fully intend to keep the same information from the original B-29 game.

B-29 Name: Miss Punctuality

Because why change a perfectly good name?



The crew of Miss Punctuality will be the same as from the original AAR, although all of you are also in my B-17 AAR as well. If there's anyone that reeeeealllllly wants in on this, sound off in this thread! If nobody extra wants in for now, we'll just move right along when the time comes.

Pilot (CAPT): Banzai_Cat
Copilot (1LT): JasonPratt
Bombadier (1LT): Nefaro
Navigator (2LT): mirth
Flight Engineer (MSGT): Barthheart
Radio Operator (SGT): bob48
CFC* (SSGT): Jarhead
Left Gunner (SGT): Shelldrake
Right Gunner (SGT): GJK
Radar Operator (SSGT): undercovergeek
Tail Gunner (SSGT): Staggerwing

* Central Fire Controller

I've not had a chance but to skim through the rules, and it's immediately apparent that the rule book for this is meant to supplant/enhance the rules from the original B-29. Which makes sense, as this is an expansion and it requires B-29 to play. I will get to it as I have time over the next week or so, but I'm about to head out on a vacation in a week and will have zero gaming time built in that week. When I get back I'll start the missions.

I'm not going to make this Photoshop-heavy. I think that I tried to do too much in the last one - not past my skill level, just intending to do more images than I could actually comfortably produce. Still, as everything I did is still good, I'll be reusing a lot of the work I've already done. Might as well...saves time.

Finally: this is a discussion thread. When it comes time to start up the missions, I'll do that in a separate thread, and post it here.

Thanks, everyone.

[Barthheart]

Looking forward to it. Taking on early jets should definitely add to the game.

[BanzaiCat]

To show this is still on my radar (as is the B17 AAR), I've been working on a displayable map for the forums. I had to put it together from a B-29 display map and some from the HOK display map. Might be too small to see good detail on a 900-pixel-wide display, so I might work on further redoing this just for forum/AAR purposes.

[BanzaiCat]

I'm going to put this one on hold. I keep saying I'll get to it but shinier squirrels keep popping up, distracting me. I will be doing a full review of this game system + HOK, and I will do an AAR after that, sometime during the summer. O0