NIGHT MISSIONS - Bomber Stream

[limburger59]

NIGHT MISSIONS over the Med & North Africa in 1942 

Night Missions require us to fly in a Bomber Stream - a long line of bombers spaced approximately a mile from each other. There is no way to form up in a formation at night. The Germans are currently developing tactics and technology to counter the RAF Bomber Streams over Northern Europe, but short of catching your bomber in a searchlight beam long enough for a Bf-109 to find you, the odds of meeting up with bandits at night are very small. (The Tame Boar tactics and those using radio beacons and eventually radar did not exist in 1942.)

Some Bomber Stream missions (Mission 1) involve taking off at night, but the Bomb Run will occur after sunrise. The special rules do not apply with those.

These are the rules that apply for both TFT and QOTS over the Med:

a) The only chance of encountering enemy fighters is over the Target. The bomber stream has no Lead or Tail bomber, but each squadron will be assigned a section of the stream. The further back your squadron is, the better chance the Axis has of getting a searchlight on your bomber and having fighters scrambled to intercept you.
b) Additional Searchlight Phase - If the Target has NO Flak it will have no searchlights unless you are at 10,000 feet or less.

Roll 2d6	Not Spotted	Searchlight Finds You	If lit up, chance that a Wild Boar attacks you (1d6)
If Squadron in First third of Stream	2-10	11-12	5-6
If Squadron in Second Third of Stream	2-9	10-12	4-6
If Squadron in last third of Stream	2-8	9-12	3-6

- Bad or poor weather will modify the searchlight die roll by -1

If a Searchlight has spotted you and is fixed on your bomber!
......................... - Flak is increased by one. ie, Light Flak becomes moderate and so on.

......................... - You can immediately choose to begin evasive actions.

                                This will further impact both the attacking Wild Boar 109 lurking out there and your defensive fire.

                                This will negatively impact your bomb run (-1 for QOTS or -2 for TFT).


......................... - A "Wild Boar" might attack your bomber after Flak. Will a daring German Pilot take off anf follow the searchlight beam to your plane? Roll a d6

c) Resolve Flak Before-Over Target as per the basic game rules whether spotted or not.

d) Wild Boar Attack Phase
.......... - Roll direction of the attack like a SUCCESSIVE ATTACK (QOTS Table B-6 or TFT Tables 5-9 & 5-9A) to determine attack position.
.......... - Only one "Wild Boar" fighter will attack over the target zone, and will make successive attacks if applicable.
.......... - Only Average or Ace pilots are sent up at night. Any results of a Green pilot equals no attacker.
.......... - If an Ace German pilot, the first pass is a SURPRISE ATTACK! No defensive fire is allowed on the bandit's first pass.
.......... - All Offensive and Defensive fire is modified by -1. (A 6 in QOTS or a 12 in TFT is always a hit, regardless of modifiers.)

                    (Wild Boar attacks take place after Flak attacks, but before the bomb run.)

e) Conduct your Bomb Run as per the basic game rules.

.......... - For TFT use the -3 modifier for "out of formation and the Bombardier is bombing manually".

f) Resolve Flak After Target as per the campaign game rules.

Miscellaneous Rules:
a) The Tail gunner may not fire at German fighters attacking from the front as they pass the rear of the bomber.

b) As you will not be rolling for German Waves/Resistance The Random Events Table is never used. If you are ever referred to this table, roll again until you receive another result or ignore the reference.

c) If your bomber is forced to 10,000 feet by battle damage, roll for searchlights as you enter each new non-target land zone west of El Alamein. If a searchlight finds your bomber, roll 2D twice on the Light Flak column.

e) If your bomber loses one engine and you drop bombs to avoid spending two turns in each zone, your mission is automatically aborted, but still counts toward your tour-of-duty requirements.

f) There will be no Lead or Tail-end-Charlie for this mission, as we will be flying in a Bomber Stream, Nose to Tail all the way. Even though there are no Lead or Tail bombers, the squadrons will be assigned to the first, middle, or last third of the stream which does affect the odds of being spotted.

g) Since we are not flying in formation there will be no friendly fire accidents.

Sunrise:
Some missions over the Med begin at night, with the raid and return trip during the daylight.
Therefore:
a) At night you are not spotted.
b) Over the target, if it is still night, use the above rules. If it is daylight bomb run, fly per the "Out of Formation" rules for your game once the sun rises, except you may not Abort the Mission for the sole reason that you are out of formation (TFT Rule 4.7 or QOTS Rule 13.0).
c) You may use Evasive action.
d) Over water do not add the additional fighter to the attacking waves because you’re not in formation . (There were just not many enemy aircraft available to patrol empty miles of sea.) The E/A will make as many attacks as permitted for that fighter type allowed by your rule set. 

Navigator Down!:
If your Navigator is Seriously Wounded or KIA the other officers on board will do their best to get the bomber home. Roll 2d6. On a roll of "12" the bomber is off course, misses the landing strip, and crashes in the desert. (See the story of Lady Be Good.)
Roll a d6: 1= crew rescued by Bedouins and returned to Fayid
               2= only unwounded crew make it out of the desert after weeks and are invalidated home 
               3= crew rescued by Bedouins and turned over to the Germans. They are POWs.
               4 to 6= in the 1950s a British oil exploration team discovers the wreckage and bleached bones of the crew

ORIGINAL NIGHT MISSIONS VARIANT - for 8th and 15th Air Force - Do Not Use in 1942
Modified from ”The Battle of Berlin: A Variant for B-17” , Vol.28,No.4, TAHGC “The General” Here (Board Game Geek)

Our Adversaries:
Me-110 “Tame Bore”
Me-109 “Wild Bore”

1) Pre-Mission Preparations

a) Because of the bomber stream tactics employed by Bomber Command, your bomber has no formation position in the squadron. Your bomber is never considered to be out of formation, but it may drop to 10,000 feet due to battle damage.

b) Examination of the Flight Log Gazetteer Table G-11 (Provided in mission Briefing) is only necessary when your bomber is shot down and you need to know if you are over land or water.


2) Combat Procedures for Tame Boar Fighters;

..... ● When your bomber enters a non-target zone, the following sequence of play occurs:
.......... - Roll for Tame Boar appearance
.......... - Surprise Attack Phase (If achieved by Me110) - or –
.......... - Initial combat Phase (No defensive fire if surprise achieved)
.......... - First Successive Attack Phase (No Surprise)
.......... - Second Successive Attack Phase (No Surprise)
.......... - Move to next Zone (Repeat above procedure till you reach Target-O/B or Base-I/B)

a) Determine if you are attacked. Roll once on “Table B2[L]”

Zone	To Target	From Target
1-3	No Attacks	No Attacks
4	6	6
5	5-6	6
6-11	4-6	6
Target	3-6	5-6

b) Tame Boar fighter will always be a single Me-110 initially attacking from the 6 o'clock Low position.
c) The Me-110 will always make three attacks (Initial and both Successive attacks) unless destroyed or having received a FBOA damage result from Table M-2.
d) Spotting Phase
..... - Roll 1D
.......... 1–2 = Me-110 spotted by Tail Gunner.
.......... 3–6 = Me-110 approaches unseen.

..... ▪ If the Me-110 is spotted, then:

.......... - Follow normal rules for combat.
.......... - Bomber may take evasive action during Initial attack after defensive fire, but before offensive fire. This means that the Me-110 will be affected by the evasive action modifier, but the Tail Gunner will not (at least for the Initial attack).
.......... - Once the bomber takes evasive action, it must do so throughout all of the present turn's attacks. (See B-17:QotS Rule Book, Section 15, page 8 for Evasive Action Rules.)

..... ▪ If the Me-110 is not spotted, then:
.......... - Me-110 fires first in Surprise Offensive Fire Phase. Me-110 fires only once during this phase, and no defensive fire is allowed.
.......... - After Surprise Phase, Me-110 is considered spotted for successive attacks.

3) Offensive/Defensive Fire;
.......... - The Tail Guns need a die roll of 5 or 6 to hit the attacking Me-110.
.......... - If bomber is taking evasive action, all defensive fire from the bomber needs a die roll of 6 to hit attacking German fighters.
.......... - Me-110 needs a die roll of 4–6 to hit the bomber.
.......... - If the Me-110 surprises the B-17 crew, during this offensive fire phase, an Me-110 can roll a 3–6 to hit the bomber.
.......... - If an Me-110 hits the bomber, roll 2D on Table B-4 to determine number of hits.
.................... - Use 6 o'clock position during surprise offensive fire phase only.
.................... - Use Vertical Climb position for all successive attacks.
.................... - Do not add 1 to the number of shell hits achieved by an Me-110 Tame Boar.
.......... - For each shell hit, roll 2D on the Area Damage Table (B-5) to determine the area of the bomber which is affected:


4) Combat Procedures for Wild Boar Fighters
..... ● When your bomber enters the target zone, the following sequence of play occurs:
.......... - Tame Boar Phase (Same as above, treat as TO TARGET on Table B-2 [L])
.......... - Searchlight Phase
.......... - To Target Flak Phase
.......... - Wild Boar Phase
.......... - Bomb Run
.......... - From Target Flak Phase
.......... - Tame Boar Phase (Same as above, treat as FROM TARGET on Table B-2 [L])

a) Determine if you are attacked. Roll once on “Table B2[L]”
b) Wild Boar attacks are only over the target zone, and the Wild Boar fighter is always an Me-109.
c) The Wild Boar fighter attacks on a die roll of 6, or automatically if your bomber is spotted by a searchlight.
d) Attack Phase
.......... - Roll 2D on TABLE B-6 SUCCESSIVE ATTACKS (or, playtesters, B8.3b & B8.4b using the GAF-P Variant) to determine attack position.
.......... - Only one Wild Boar fighter will attack over the target zone.
.......... - If a Wild Boar fighter was generated by the bomber's being spotted by a searchlight, conduct normal combat procedures (initial and any successive attacks).
.......... - If a Wild Boar fighter was generated by die roll, only one (initial) attack occurs.
.......... - All Offensive and Defensive fire is modified by -1. A 6 is always a hit, regardless of modifiers.
e) Wild Boar attacks take place after Flak attacks, but before the bomb run.
f) Your bomber may take evasive action during the Wild Boar phase, but the bomb run is then modified by -1.


5) Target Zone Phase 

a) Roll for weather on the Weather Over Target table.

.......... - This has already been done, see mission briefing.

b) Roll for Tame Boar Fighter

.......... - Use same rules as mentioned in section 2 and section 3 of these rules.

.......... - Bad or poor weather will modify the possibility of attack by Tame Boar fighters and spotting phase die rolls by -1.

c) Searchlight Phase

.......... - Roll 1D

.................... - 1–4 = No Effect

.................... - 5–6 = Searchlight has spotted and is fixed on your bomber.

......................... - Flak is increased by one. ie, Light Flak becomes moderate and so on.

......................... - Bomber is automatically attacked by a Wild Boar fighter.

.......... - Bad or poor weather will modify the searchlight die roll by -1.

d) Resolve Flak Before-Over Target as per the basic game rules.

e) Roll for Wild Boar Fighter. (Only if a Wild Bore wasn’t generated by the Searchlight)

.......... - Refer to Section 4 and Section 3 of these rules.

.......... - There is no die roll for a Wild Boar if one has already been generated in the Searchlight Phase. Your bomber will be attacked by only one Wild Boar fighter while over the target zone.

f) Conduct your Bomb Run as per the basic game rules.

g) Resolve Flak After Target as per the campaign game rules.

h) Roll for Tame Boar Fighter

.......... - Use same rules as mentioned in section 2 and section 3 of these rules.



6) Miscellaneous;
a) The Tail gunner may not fire at German fighters attacking from the front as they pass the rear of the bomber (9.2).
b) Since your bomber is never considered to be out of formation, you may never abort a mission for this reason.
c) As you will not be rolling on the B-3 Table The Random Events Table is never used. If you are ever referred to this table, roll again until you receive another result or ignore the reference.
d) If your bomber is forced to 10,000 feet by battle damage, roll for searchlights as you enter each new non-target zone. If a searchlight finds your bomber, roll 2D three times instead of twice on the Light Flak column of Table O-3.
e) If your bomber loses one engine and you drop bombs to avoid spending two turns in each zone, your mission is automatically aborted, but still counts toward your tour-of-duty requirements.
f) There will be no Lead or Tail-end-Charlie for this mission, as we will be flying in a Bomber Stream, Nose to Tail all the way.
g) Since we are not flying in formation there will be no friendly fire accidents. Again we will not roll on the B-3 Table

7) For Use with the 509th
a) The German's did not develop the Tame Boar tactic until 1943. As such, any time a Tame Boar is incorporated treat it as a wild Boar encounter.
b) Target For Today does not have night missions in their rule set, Target for Today will fly using this rule set.

[linnyfish8]

I took the night mission rules and converted them to a .pdf (with some minor formatting/editing) in case anyone wanted to print them off to have handy, instead of doing what I was and running to my computer to look at things, then back to my game table.

Attachments:

TfT_QotS Night Rules.pdf (217.19 KB)

[Deleted]

Thank you for your effort!

[superbee]

Is there a DRM for bombing at night?

[crushedhat]

I'm not aware of on being applied before.

[limburger59]

The original variant from the General magazine did not have a negative DM. Probably because the night time targets were larger than the daytime precision targets.

I guess the Brits who bombed Tobruk before the 509th used flares and incendiaries, therefore we only needed to line upon the fires.

[superbee]

Thank you for your responses. Good thing too, as my bombardiers have had a hard enough time hitting targets as it is !