In our 1st Action Point covering Battle of Britain from PSC Games, we looked at the two types of Attack options for the RAF in Interception and Dogfighting.

In this Action Point, we will look at German Mission Assignment and an example of a Bomb Run.

Mission Assignment

During Turn 1, none of the Luftwaffe flight’s will have a mission assigned yet. The process starts with the Luftwaffe player shuffling the deck of 50 Mission Cards. Mission Cards simply identify targets that the Luftwaffe has been ordered to bomb. These targets include specific named cities, a specific airfield or radar stations. These targets will be identified by the Group Area the mission is located in on the map and the number of successful bomb hits needed for each target to be destroyed.

Both airfields and radar stations require only one successful hit to be destroyed and both can be repaired by the RAF player during their British Production and Repairs Phase. A city Mission Card pictures an industry icon (which shows how much that it produces for the RAF player) and takes three successful hits to be destroyed. Cities cannot be repaired and once destroyed will not produce their production value each turn.

London is a special city target as it has multiple sections that can be destroyed. There are two London Mission Cards; Port of London and London and they each share the same space on the map but are different targets. Each will take three hits to destroy and each produce three production points.

At the start of the game during Turn 1, the Luftwaffe player will draw 10 Mission Cards. After reviewing these cards, one Mission Card will be assigned to each of the 7 Luftwaffe flights. This will leave 3 Mission Cards remaining that the player must hold onto and this will be the start of their pending mission hands.

In future turns, for each flight that returns home, the Luftwaffe player will draw one new Mission Card and add it to their pending mission hands. From this hand they must now select a new Mission Card for the flight. This can be a challenging decision as some of the missions are more difficult than others and have a higher chance of failure.

When a Mission is stopped by the RAF player, they will gain 2VP for that failed mission at game’s end while the Luftwaffe player only gets 1VP for each completed mission. We liked this element as it really felt like the orders that were difficult were choices of the high command and the player has no choice but to attempt to do them.

Bombing Run

Now that we have covered Mission Assignment, we will now go into how to execute a Bombing Run.

When a Luftwaffe flight enters a space where they have a Mission Card assigned, they will place a bombing run marker. When they have started the Bombing Run, the flight must have at least one or more bomber squadron cards.

The Luftwaffe player then takes all remaining squadron cards in the flight’s squadron box and totals the bombing strength of all of the bomber squadrons. The bombing strength is found in the lower right hand corner of the cards.

Notice that the fighter squadron cards, like the BF 110 and BF 109, have no bombing strength and will not contribute to the bombing run. One black die is then rolled for each point of bombing strength and each RAF symbol rolled is a hit. When one or more hits are rolled on a radar station or an airfield they will be destroyed. These hits can be tracked on the German Targeting & British Production track as seen in the picture below.

When three or more hits are scored on a city, place a knocked out marker on the city damaged box and when one or two hits are scored you will place the corresponding one or two hit markers. Remember that the Ju 87 or Stuka dive bomber will get to roll one extra bomb die for each in the Bombing Run.

One other thing. When the dice are rolled, for each Iron Cross symbol rolled the RAF player will one white die and for each two Iron Cross symbols they roll will shoot down one bomber with the Luftwaffe player choosing the casualty. This represents defensive anti-aircraft fire.

In the picture shown above, this Bombing Run contains only three planes, two BF 109’s and a DO 17 bomber. Because it has at least one bomber, it can continue with the bombing run but only rolls two dice as its bombing strength is a 2. The Luftwaffe player rolls two Roundels and inflicts two hits. The target was a radar station located at Foreness so only one hit was necessary and it is destroyed. The Luftwaffe player will place a knocked out marker on the map and on the German Targeting & British Production track. The mission was a success and will gain the Luftwaffe player 1VP at game’s end.

I hope you enjoyed this Action Point and can see how important squadron health and makeup can be when the Luftwaffe player is assigning Missions. In our final Action Point, we will look at the British Production & Repairs Phase as well as the finer points of squadron management.

-Grant