I'd like to do a tabletop AAR just for funzies, and have wanted to do one on B-17: Queen of the Skies for some time, especially after the one PE did long ago, so here goes!
Since I gave up on the B-29 Superfortress AAR (which was a shame, because I really wanted to like that base game), it really made me pine more for B-17, a game I played quite often in the late 80s. I still have it, and it's still intact (I'm hoping all the counters are present, but I have not laid it all out to count to see. Doesn't matter...I can make do, and it looks like they're all here anyway.
I scanned the base material so I can do some basic Photoshopping to illustrate; it won't be quite as ambitious as what I tried to do for my B-29 AAR, but it will get the job done, I expect.
I went ahead and grabbed the list from B-29, of those of you that decided to attribute your names to that game, and translated it over to B-17. If you're still good with doing this, please post below. If you're not, please post below.
Pilot (CAPT): Banzai_Cat (because if this thing crashes, it'll be my fault, and I'm rollin' the dice, so...)
Copilot (1LT): JasonPratt
Bombadier (1LT): Nefaro
Navigator (2LT): mirth
Engineer (MSGT): Barthheart
Radio Operator (SGT): GJK
Ball Gunner (SSGT): Jarhead
Port Waist Gunner (SGT): UCG
Starboard Waist Gunner (SGT): bob48
Tail Gunner (SSGT): Staggerwing
In the Replacement Pool: Shelldrake
Only issue is, there's 11 spots in B-29, and of course only 10 in B-17, so one'll have to go into reserve. There's no Radar Operator position in a B-17, so I could just put UCG in reserve, but that's not terribly fair. So if there's that much interest, let me know.
Once interest is shown, I'll start the AAR, though it will be sometime next week. The pieces are in place, I just need to start the game once I know if you guys are interested.
As long as one crew survives, I'll continue the AAR. But if the bomber is lost with all hands, that will be the end of the saga. Also, any of you that know B-17 knows the game can be very slow for the first ten or so missions, but I'm okay with that. I am going to stick with the base, boxed game rules, with no add-ons or anything like that. Unless some of you know of something that would be absolutely essential to include!
I plan on taking it easy with this AAR. I have other writing/producing commitments but as I said, I've wanted to do this for a while now, and I'd reeeeallllly like to see this through to the end. So on with the show. Let me know what you think.
One of us could be an Army correspondent along for the ride. If one of the waist gunners buys it the correspondent can take over the position.
Quote from: Staggerwing on March 14, 2015, 03:34:18 PM
One of us could be an Army correspondent along for the ride. If one of the waist gunners buys it the correspondent can take over the position.
Hmm. An excellent suggestion! Where do you think he'd sit? That would make a difference if there's a dreaded BIP...
I hope Geek knows how to use that radar.
For some reason I recall that there was a fold-down seat somewhere in the cockpit or engineering section.
OK. I imagine UCG would not be terribly upset by being that extra crew, since his radar op position doesn't exist here.
Cool! UCG can have half of my seat and work the fire extinguisher for me....
He can have my spot once I bail out and spend the remainder of the war in Stalag 13.
Quote from: Barthheart on March 15, 2015, 06:22:56 AM
Cool! UCG can have half of my seat and work the fire extinguisher for me....
Please don't let that be a euphemism.....
Lmao - I'm currently bombing dams in the other Aar thread - I don't mind if I'm redundant here
I've been working on some graphics. I scanned the game boards which looked okay, but the pixelation really bugged the hell out of me so I redid the main campaign map and the fighters. I'll share tomorrow.
Might not start this campaign until the second week of April. The wife and I are headed out on a cruise a week from Saturday to Key West and a couple of islands in the Bahamas. :)
Here's some remade German fighter counters:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2FME109%2520Counter.jpg&hash=0cc55ce5d7d89eacbd1be64351277aa3e44abb32)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2FFW190%2520Counter.jpg&hash=54f5cb464ad52bc9999918283c63cce01d07fc84)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2FME110%2520Counter.jpg&hash=a6280a84e832f7da3f455214b24cba8fd2e16ee5)
I can't get the redone mapboard to upload, but I've had this issue at work before. I'll try later.
Damn those are nice!
Thanks for the feedback. I grabbed the plane images from an image search; I don't want to misrepresent myself. I didn't draw 'em myself or anything.
Here's the map, it's finally cooperating...pretty simple but the added color helps I think instead of just having a plain green for all landmasses.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2FMapBoard%2520Alt%2520Color_5.jpg&hash=428db859d0b7350f05ce09c807261a9871b50034)
And the board I'll use to illustrate German attacks.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2F4%2520Bomber%25202.jpg&hash=0fc95b311ded8376573e840f04dc968c40cee79c)
Sweet!
Although it would deviate from your very nice "historically accurate" artwork, I would personally fire zones for each sector with a legend that shows what gun can fire into that zone, and maybe even the to-hit rolls. I'd also a "vert dive" area on the map, only because I don't like stacking too many cards on the plane itself. But that's just me...I like seeing lots of info and data on the board so I don't have to check other charts. Love the target / zone map though...
Not sure if I mentioned this, but I have started but never finished a 200+ plane raid against the ball-bearing plant at Schweinfurt. My penchant for data collection just got too much (I was recording EVERY dice roll result).
Quote from: Barthheart on March 15, 2015, 06:22:56 AM
Cool! UCG can have half of my seat and work the fire extinguisher for me....
AND MY CHAINSAW!
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on March 15, 2015, 02:18:23 PM
Please don't let that be a euphemism.....
Just to show this is still on my radar, I redid the bomber display I'll use for the AAR:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1175.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fr624%2FMichaelE6%2FMap%2520Example%25201200_1.jpg&hash=8f5e360f86e18cb487228f17a930befcc167318b)
I changed the city overlay underneath to show a city by a river and one by a shoreline, just to change it up every so often. Also found some cool aircraft counters on BGG that gave me an idea to redo the fighter counters again.
Looks nice!
What's the difference between the red and white counters? Green v. Experten? Damaged v. full strength? I'd go dig out my own copy and try to sort it out but I'm too lazy busy right now.
Thanks!
No intended difference...I just wanted to see what they looked like together on the map. I considered doing different colors for each one to show pilot skill though; still not sure if I'll do that. One guy's file on BGG had different JG logos on them and tons of different aircraft, which made me realize exactly how deep the fan-made expansions go. I'm sticking to the normal rules; nothing special here other than the graphics I'll use.
I kind of like the red better than the white. There are counters in-game to mark veterancy, I think, for the Luftwaffe pilots. I might just go with that. Someone on BGG made some nifty counters. If I use them I'll be sure to credit whomever it is - I just cannot recall their name offhand at the moment.
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'll still have it on my to-do AAR list this summer, though. O0
I think I'm going to take this with me this week while I'm in class. Not sure how much solitaire gaming time I'll get at the hotel, as I could very well be putting in 16 hour days, but if I have free time I'm going to go with something simple. It's been on hiatus far too long (then again so have most of my AARs, lol).
Two things (if anyone's still interested, or cares, of course)...
One is, I had forgotten that I screwed up and was using the crew layout for B-29. I only did that because I had B-29 on the brain and was doing an AAR for that game a while back, at the same time. The B-29 has one more crew position so I had to cut one of the originals from the front page. Not that it matters, there probably will be casualties. I randomly chose a name, and Shelldrake, you're off (for now). I'm sure you'll be back once one of these udder guys gets plugged, no'mean?
Two, I got a mission in last night, and it was almost a slaughter (our slaughter). I took notes and just need time to put it into the mission format that I've chosen. I'll start a separate thread once I'm ready to start posting mission narratives.
Hope there's still interest out there in coming along for the ride!
I'm here, ready to sort bobs shit out
I moved things around, too...UCG, you and bawb are both in the waist. GJK, I moved you to the Radio Room. Hope you guys don't mind. Mainly, I did that waist gunner move because of the GH Combat comic. ;)
I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up as Navigator.
Quote from: mirth on January 25, 2017, 09:05:22 AM
I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up as Navigator.
Because the Army Air Corps trusts your judgement?
O:-)
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 25, 2017, 12:09:30 PM
Quote from: mirth on January 25, 2017, 09:05:22 AM
I'm still trying to figure out how I ended up as Navigator.
Because the Army Air Corps trusts your judgement?
O:-)
We'll see how well that works out.
Left a bit
Right a bit
Back a bit
Big ass b17 pulls up outside bar
Think of it as just another type of bombing mission.
Jaeger bombs?
One of the types of ordinance we will be using.
Do we have a bombardier?
Yep, front page of this thread has the info.
front page?
...read it again :nerd:
(removed to new thread)
It was nice to be able to play this after so many years. Though it's a lot stiffer than I remember - very linear, 'roll here, then roll here, then roll here, and voila you're dead' or something similar. But, the tension in the die rolls is pretty awesome, since you never know what's going to come up. A perfect game for random chance, actually. It was a little awkward playing it, too, since it had been so long and I had to keep referring to the rules, but I think I've got the hang of it again.
I had brought Kido Butai (still need to do a review of that one) and In Magnificent Style with me too, but I didn't get to them - only got the one game of B-17 in. But more will come.
I'm actually thinking now of backtracking...I had done a bit of research on this game's numerous variants on BGG and found several decent ones, but they seemed to make the game more insanely difficult, some of them.
There's one, though, that I kept checking out...Beery's Historical B-17 module (https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/116918/beerys-historical-b-17-module). In it, he stipulates that the game pretty much takes raids like the disastrous one at Schweinfurt and uses it as a baseline for the entire experience, making it much more murderous and difficult to get through unscathed.
He also adds dates to the game, giving you a start date and days between missions. This means our career could go into the later war years and we might encounter other enemy planes, including Me-262s. He does various changes to the charts and tables, too, and adds some varied lite-RPG elements to it. All things I'd like to add to the game, after my first playthrough in so long and seeing that it could use some of the chrome other players have built for it.