VBCW AIR WAR HEREFORDSHIRE - ALGERNON PULLS IT OFF (IN BLOOD RED SKIES)

One way or another, we've done quite a few posts on 1930s Aviation (check the "Aircraft and Anti-Everything" label to the right to bring up all the relevant posts), yet the vast airfleets created for the Modelling Challenge 2020 have so far remained in their respective hangars.

RAF "Gloster Gladiators" and "Vickers Venoms" - grounded.

BUF Air Squadron - idling at Hereford Racecourse Air Field.

This has been partly due to the Covid-cancellation of the Spring Big Game 2020 ("Assault on Newquay"), which "Big Game" was intended to produce lots of ground strafing action in accordance with the WTDW rules (as amended) - but also partly due to an absence of truly satisfactory rules for air-air combat between competing VBCW squadrons. 

Now, a couple of the contenders for "VBCW aerial combat rules" came from the Too Fat Lardies stable - "Bag the Hun" (their WW2 variant) and "Algernon Pulls it Off!" (their WW1 variant) - a blend of the two might be just right for the VBCW. Both, however, were hex based games, rather more usable for 1/144 planes (or the like) on specialised bases, rather than our "somewhere around 1/55ish (maybe)" cheep Chinese plastic variants (mounted on salvaged round Tesco coffee jar lids, pretty much as expensive as the planes themselves). And to cap it all, while the Lardies were rumoured to be working on a "hexless version of Algy" some (in fact, many) years ago, nothing subsequently appeared, and then - for reasons unexplained and unfathomable - even the hex version of "Algy" disappeared from the Lardies webstore!

The front cover of the original Algernon rules - now very OOP.

But never fear! The aim is to restore the ground strafing "Assault on Newquay" game to the VBCW calendar as the Autumn Big Game 2022 - and, wonder of wonders for an air/air game, "Algernon Pulls it Off!" has finally been re-published!

Well, not re-published exactly. But, with the permission of the Lardies, and the good offices of the "Storm of Steel" podcast, certainly once more made available and downloadable:

This YouTube video,  as posted at Storm of Steel, contains a link to the full set of "Algy Rules" plus QRFs and other helpful material. And if you want to compare and contrast with the WW2 variant, "Bag the Hun", another extensive video will talk you through the gameplay:

A big thanks, therefore, to the Storm of Steel podcast for reviving the "Algy" rules, and to the Lardies for allowing them to be made available free, gratis and for nothing. If you're feeling as grateful, you could always visit the Two Fat Lardies webstore and buy a copy of "Bag the Hun", or quite as useful, a copy of Squadron Forward, a squadron based campaign system ideal for VBCW action. Both are supported by a Lardies message forum, and an 'official' list of Algernon supplements and scenarios, to be found HERE. 

While all this is great fun, it still leave us with the "HEX" problem. However, rules (or rather hints for rules) for playing "Hexless Algy" can be found HERE, part of Fat Wally's (sadly no longer updated) Blog, which also contains a lot of WW1 "Algernon" material. It might not be too difficult to build on Fat Wally's "hexless" work......

Or it might be better to default to a hexless system in the first place, and try out Warlord's "Blood Red Skies" rules:

"Blood Red Skies" (BRS) is designed for Warlord's own 1/200 scale aircraft, again considerably smaller than our VBCW types. While the system is hexless, and the rules have received praise (especially fulsome from Umpire Roo, who has actually played it) BRS nevertheless seems to require lots of specialist Warlord made stuff, like calipers and measuring sticks, action cards, theatre cards, trait cards etc. etc. - the costs are bound to mount up......

Or so you would have thought. However, in an interesting commercial move, Warlord have recently tied up with Airfix to produce a 1/72 "Battle of Britain" variant of BRS:

2 x 1/72nd scale Spitfires, 2 x 1/72nd Messerschmitt 109s, BRS rules and all the additional "gubbins" necessary to play "straight out of the box" (well, once you've got the glue and paint out and made up the planes) - all for a RRP of .................... £69!

With the 1/72nd scale kits retailing at £10 a pop, the official price of Airfix's "BRS" Battle of Britain box might be understandable to a company accountant, but its got to be doubtful whether they will sell that many at that kind of cost. Thankfully, however, we don't have to worry about the RRP, as precisely the same boxed set is presently selling on Ebay for £19 only (with free postage, too). At that price, what's not to like? And that's not an individual seller, either, but, in a curious twist, "Warlordgamesofficial" themselves!

More on VBCW air action when the "warlordgamesofficial" boxed set arrives at Campaign HQ.....