DVG's B-17 Flying Fortress Leader (Moar Info Pleez!)

[BanzaiCat]

Hi Dean,

First off, welcome to the GH forums. It's always good to get game designers in here. It's especially nice that you replied to a thread I started, as I do enjoy most of what DVG puts out there, and I also do a lot of the reviews for their products for this very site's front page. I do have some questions, even after perusing the BGG thread you mentioned.

If I may, allow me to quote directly from the B-17 Flying Fortress Leader page. This might mitigate some of the questions, though I'm sure it may generate even more:

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is a WWII strategic bombing solitaire game that takes place in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

In B-17 Leader, you are in command of the Eighth Air Force stationed in England, charged with reducing Germany's ability to wage war. Your primary mission is to destroy the Luftwaffe to ensure a successful D-Day landing, but multiple secondary missions are also required to help advance the fronts in multiple theaters.

You will have multiple historic Bomber Groups composed of B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, and B-26 Marauders. An optional B-29 Superfortress Bomber Group is included. Your Bomber Groups will be protected on their journey in Luftwaffe controlled airspace by Fighter Groups composed of MK VII Spitfires, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-38 Lightnings, and P-51 Mustangs. Your groups will be led by group Commanders that can progress in experience levels from Newbie to Ace, but could be killed or reassigned during the Campaign.

The campaigns included in B-17 Leader include:
• The Air War Begins (Aug 1942 – Dec 1942)
• Operation Pointblank (June 1943 – May 1944)
• Combined Bomber Operations (June 1943 – Aug 1943)
• Allied Invasion (June 1944 – May 1945)
• Oil Campaign (Aug 1944 – Nov 1944)
• Operation Argument – Big Week (Feb 20 – 25 1944)
• Operation Crossbow (Dec 1943 – Feb 1944)
• Transportation (Mar 1944 – Aug 1944)

You will be targeting many different types of targets, including Airfields, Aircraft Factories, U-Boat Pens, Ball Bearing Factories, Oil Refineries, and V-Weapon sites. Recon Aircraft can be sent to improve your aim point and allow you to pick the optimal path to reduce Flak damage.

Opposing you will be Luftwaffe Squadrons, generated from multiple Aircraft Factories, that will intercept your Escorts and Bombers to and from the targets. Luftwaffe Squadron Bandits can be BF-109s, FW-190s, BF-110s, and/or ME-410s. Targeting their Aircraft Factories will reduce the number of new Luftwaffe Squadrons deployed each month, but destroyed factories are quickly rebuilt, and new Aircraft Factories are periodically being added. Attacking and destroying Airfields helps reduce the number of deployed Luftwaffe Squadrons. Victory Points are earned for each destroyed Target.

Various German Defense Commanders will try different tactics and invest in various technologies in an effort to stop your campaign. Each German commander will also have a varying range of Luftwaffe responses to your attack, from Poor to All Out.

To help mitigate the Luftwaffe threat, you can accomplish Secondary Mission objectives that can advance the Mediterranean and Russian fronts to force Germany to send more Luftwaffe Squadrons into those theaters. You can also invest in various technologies to increase the odds of a successful mission, like Drop Tanks, Jammers, and H2X Radar sets. An option to invest and field the P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter is included. Once the Allied Invasion has begun, many Secondary Missions will help advance the Allies to Berlin to end the war.

Your Bombers will take damage and be destroyed, but monthly Replenishment units will help bring your groups up in strength.

If you have played other Leader Games, many aspects of B-17 Leader will be familiar. But due to the Strategic nature of your bombing campaign, new gameplay aspects are introduced.

This game has been designed from the ground up to support longer Campaigns (potential Kickstarter goal).

Also, here is an image of the map that you uploaded last December, for folks to see:



(1) Does the map look similar now? Do you foresee changes?

(2) The map reminds me a lot of Tiger Leader, as does the fact that you will have Commanders that can 'level up' experience-wise. Are there other similarities to Tiger Leader?

(3) I know the Kickstarter hasn't started yet (that I've seen, anyway - if this is not true then please let us know the link to it). Are you still working on stretch goals for it? I understand if you cannot speak to what those goals are, not until the page is up and running.

(4) Can you speak to what a "Replenishment unit" is?

(5) I see that the Campaigns listed are limited in timeframe (e.g., Aug 1942-Dec 1942, June 1944-May 1945, etc.). Are there going to be any optional rules for extending Campaigns, as you could do in Fleet Commander Nimitz?


Thanks again for posting. I look forward to your replies. And please, anyone else, ask away.

[grumpyoldgamer]

Hi Dean,

First off, welcome to the GH forums. It's always good to get game designers in here. It's especially nice that you replied to a thread I started, as I do enjoy most of what DVG puts out there, and I also do a lot of the reviews for their products for this very site's front page. I do have some questions, even after perusing the BGG thread you mentioned.

If I may, allow me to quote directly from the B-17 Flying Fortress Leader page. This might mitigate some of the questions, though I'm sure it may generate even more:

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader is a WWII strategic bombing solitaire game that takes place in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

In B-17 Leader, you are in command of the Eighth Air Force stationed in England, charged with reducing Germany's ability to wage war. Your primary mission is to destroy the Luftwaffe to ensure a successful D-Day landing, but multiple secondary missions are also required to help advance the fronts in multiple theaters.

You will have multiple historic Bomber Groups composed of B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, and B-26 Marauders. An optional B-29 Superfortress Bomber Group is included. Your Bomber Groups will be protected on their journey in Luftwaffe controlled airspace by Fighter Groups composed of MK VII Spitfires, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-38 Lightnings, and P-51 Mustangs. Your groups will be led by group Commanders that can progress in experience levels from Newbie to Ace, but could be killed or reassigned during the Campaign.

The campaigns included in B-17 Leader include:
• The Air War Begins (Aug 1942 – Dec 1942)
• Operation Pointblank (June 1943 – May 1944)
• Combined Bomber Operations (June 1943 – Aug 1943)
• Allied Invasion (June 1944 – May 1945)
• Oil Campaign (Aug 1944 – Nov 1944)
• Operation Argument – Big Week (Feb 20 – 25 1944)
• Operation Crossbow (Dec 1943 – Feb 1944)
• Transportation (Mar 1944 – Aug 1944)

You will be targeting many different types of targets, including Airfields, Aircraft Factories, U-Boat Pens, Ball Bearing Factories, Oil Refineries, and V-Weapon sites. Recon Aircraft can be sent to improve your aim point and allow you to pick the optimal path to reduce Flak damage.

Opposing you will be Luftwaffe Squadrons, generated from multiple Aircraft Factories, that will intercept your Escorts and Bombers to and from the targets. Luftwaffe Squadron Bandits can be BF-109s, FW-190s, BF-110s, and/or ME-410s. Targeting their Aircraft Factories will reduce the number of new Luftwaffe Squadrons deployed each month, but destroyed factories are quickly rebuilt, and new Aircraft Factories are periodically being added. Attacking and destroying Airfields helps reduce the number of deployed Luftwaffe Squadrons. Victory Points are earned for each destroyed Target.

Various German Defense Commanders will try different tactics and invest in various technologies in an effort to stop your campaign. Each German commander will also have a varying range of Luftwaffe responses to your attack, from Poor to All Out.

To help mitigate the Luftwaffe threat, you can accomplish Secondary Mission objectives that can advance the Mediterranean and Russian fronts to force Germany to send more Luftwaffe Squadrons into those theaters. You can also invest in various technologies to increase the odds of a successful mission, like Drop Tanks, Jammers, and H2X Radar sets. An option to invest and field the P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter is included. Once the Allied Invasion has begun, many Secondary Missions will help advance the Allies to Berlin to end the war.

Your Bombers will take damage and be destroyed, but monthly Replenishment units will help bring your groups up in strength.

If you have played other Leader Games, many aspects of B-17 Leader will be familiar. But due to the Strategic nature of your bombing campaign, new gameplay aspects are introduced.

This game has been designed from the ground up to support longer Campaigns (potential Kickstarter goal).

Also, here is an image of the map that you uploaded last December, for folks to see:



(1) Does the map look similar now? Do you foresee changes?

(2) The map reminds me a lot of Tiger Leader, as does the fact that you will have Commanders that can 'level up' experience-wise. Are there other similarities to Tiger Leader?

(3) I know the Kickstarter hasn't started yet (that I've seen, anyway - if this is not true then please let us know the link to it). Are you still working on stretch goals for it? I understand if you cannot speak to what those goals are, not until the page is up and running.

(4) Can you speak to what a "Replenishment unit" is?

(5) I see that the Campaigns listed are limited in timeframe (e.g., Aug 1942-Dec 1942, June 1944-May 1945, etc.). Are there going to be any optional rules for extending Campaigns, as you could do in Fleet Commander Nimitz?


Thanks again for posting. I look forward to your replies. And please, anyone else, ask away.

Thanks for the welcome.  :)

(1). The map is basically still the same.  Dan at DVG will have an artist make it look a lot better than my prototype though.  :)

(2).  I pulled bits and pieces from all of the Leader games to give it a similar feel.  The prototype has been modified so the Groups level up in experience (similar to Hornet Leader), but "Renown" Commanders can be purchased that can enhance a Bomber or Fighter group with special abilities and tactics.  The combat system is similar to Hornet Leader regarding bomb values and bandit attacks.  Also similar to Hornet Leader is the selection of targets to attack versus the battalion approach of TL and TAL.  So overall, HL is the inspiration for a lot of the game approach and flow.  But there are a lot of unique aspects that I think make the game feel like a Strategic Bombing game, including a heavy focus on the German aircraft industry (similar to the actual war).  Especially for longer games, ignoring aircraft industry targets will greatly increase the number of Luftwaffe squadrons you will face as you progress through the months.

(3).  Dan is responsible for defining the stretch goals, although I have provided some ideas.  I have some insight into his thinking (cough... Minis), but I don't think anything has been definitized yet.

(4).  B-17 Leader consists of Bomber and Fighter Groups that can suffer Strength losses due to Bandits and flak.  I am NOT using the Stress model, which makes more sense for individual pilots or Commanders.  So as groups take damage, they lose strength.  Similar to other Leader games, the groups can become Shaken or Unfit as their losses mount.  Replenishment points basically restore losses suffered by a group.  I look at it as getting new crews and aircraft.  You only get Replenishment points at the end of the month, which can consist of up to 4 weeks of missions.  So some groups can be in bad shape as the weeks go by.  Often times the amount of Replenishment points isn't enough to return all the groups to full strength, but leftover SO points can be used to buy additional Replenishment points (if you were smart enough to save them).

(5).  The current set of campaigns run from one month to one year (except for "Big Week" which is 6 days).  I had hoped to have an entire War campaign, but I'm still testing the current set of campaigns.  The only potential limitation is the number of Aircraft Factory targets available.  I currently have 30, but I haven't tested enough to know if that is enough to cover the entire war.  I will look into this while the game is getting published and could post a War Campaign if everything works out.  I built in some rules to support longer Campaigns, such as the potential for the experienced groups to be reassigned out of your command... Which really sucks when it happens.

I would be happy to answer any additional questions.

Dean

[BanzaiCat]

Excellent. Thanks for the thorough answers. I. Hoping to review this for GrogHeads when the time comes!