HOUSE RULE: RED TAILS - Tuskegee Airmen

[blaird]

I know most people don't have open office, but here are the rules for the use of the Red Tails, and while we won't encounter them until April 1944, I thought I'd post the rules for them now that I have talked to Magnus Kimura and gained permission for use of his rules for them.

if open office doesn't work try www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/56902/the-tuskeegee-airmen

To simulate the 332nd Fighter Group in B-17: Queen of the Skies:

99th Escort from October 1943 to June 1944
The 99th occasionally escorted bombers when they were attached to the 79th Fighter Group.

When the 99th appears, fighter cover in the zone is FAIR and Table M-4, Fighter Cover Defense is +1. Fighter removal during the Successive Attacks is also rolled on the first column, using the number outside of the parentheses.

Roll D6 once per mission Out and Back:
1-2: 99th in Zone 2-3. (P-40 Warhawk).
3-6: Normal Fighter Cover rules. (In May and June 1944, roll again on 332nd Escort May and
June 1944 below. If both the 99th and the 332nd appears in the same zone in May and June
1944 Fighter Cover is GOOD and Table M-4, Fighter Cover Defense is +1. Fighter
removal during the Successive Attacks is also rolled on the first column, using the number
outside of the parentheses.)

332nd Escort May and June 1944
In May and June 1944, the 332nd will escort bombers of the 15th Air Force.

If the 332nd appears, there is always GOOD fighter cover and Table M-4, Fighter Cover Defense is +1. Roll normally for fighter removal.
Roll D6 once per mission Out and Back:
1-2: 332nd in zone 2-4 and in the first turn of Zone 5 going to the target, or second turn on the return route. (P-47 Thunderbolt with red tails)
3-6: Normal Fighter Cover rules

332nd Escort from July 1944
From July 1944 there is always GOOD fighter cover in the zone where the 332nd appears. Table M-4, Fighter Cover Defense is +1. Fighter removal during the Successive Attacks is also rolled on the first column, using the number outside of the parentheses. (For Target for Today, either add or subtract 1 from your roll on Table 5-4.)

Roll D6 once per mission:
1-2: 332nd is escorting the group the whole mission, to and from the target. (P-51 Mustang
with red tails).
3-6: Normal Fighter Cover rules

[crushedhat]

I notice that the Red Tails rules contain the following note:

15th Air Force Strategic Movement Map Board:
The zone width on the 15th Air Force Map Board is approximately 100 miles, twice that of the zone width on the original B-17: QOTS Map Board. This means that a plane must spend two turns in each zone when flying out of Foggia. The 332nd Fighter Cover Maximum Range is based on the width of the original B-17 map.

Does that mean we are going to have to spend 2 turns per zone with our B-17s? Should we have been up to this point - the 15thAF rules amke no reference to it?

[blaird]

I never saw a reference to it either, I'll say no, as when talking to Magnus he said that there are two sets of rules for the 15th, the one we're playing is out of General Magazine, the other one is an expansion that someone else created, I'm guessing that its from that expansion.

[crushedhat]

As you say, the other set may reference it. I've got the copy from The General and it doesn't. I'm not going to complain about spending less time in hostile territory.

[blaird]

Magnus said:

The 509th is a great unit Bryan! I visited it now. Have you flown 3 missions so far? I'd like to participate, but I don't think I am able to at the moment.

I found a comment on the zone width on the 15th AF map. The map in The General has a zone width of aprox 100 miles. There is no reference to that in The General, I can t remember now where I found it, maybe it was on the 88th BG site or 99th, which are no longer running. No one that I know of has flown two turns in each zone, but I wanted to make a note of the width in The Red Tails because of the range of the fighters, and that is why the P-40s have only a range of 2, if I remember correctly, and not 4 zones.

From the designer of the rule for the use of the Tuskegee Air Men.