Strafing

[prestontfe@gmail.com]

Hi, converting a scenario from another set ( boo hiss). Where a couple of Hurricane 1’s strafe grounded SM-81’s

Unless I am reading the rules wrong ( never strafed before )
It’s fire factor, less a d6 die roll ( difference), then check against the target table on page 44. To do any damage you need a minimum of 9.
Our Hurricanes only have a Fire factor of 8. This could take a while….

Assuming I haven’t got this entirely wrong.

Unless every aircraft with. FF of less than 10 can’t strafe? Can I suggest the following
Grounded aircraft have 3 (arbitrary) hit points
Score of 7-8 - 2 hits
Score of 5-6 - 1 hit
Everything else the same

Otherwise our Hurri’s and any other low FF aircraft can hammer along all day with no hope of doing damage.

Please correct me if I have this all wrong

[JimLeCat]

Hi,

I can't recall ever using the strafing rules, but looking at the book I think you're reading them correctly.

There is the adjustment for pilot quality, so a Top Ace could reduce a roll of 1 to a -1 and get a total of 9, but that's a bit of a stretch!

Firstly, I would suggest simply interpreting at least some of the 'S' results as indicating damage that must be repaired before the target aircraft can fly - in other words a mission kill for the scenario, although the aircraft would return later in a campaign.

Secondly, I would suggest an adjustment, say +2 or +3, to the total for aircraft designated as fueled up and armed, when there is something to cause an explosion, as opposed to aircraft not ready for immediate flight, when it would be difficult to destroy them without explosives. Doing that would mean a regular pilot in one of your hurricanes would destroy one of those aircraft on either a 1 or a 2 on the d6, depending on the adjustment you chose.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Jim

[Archdukek]

Hi,

Like Jim I’ve never used the strafing rules and have just reread them. I agree that you seem to be applying them correctly. It seems that you need to employ cannon firing aircraft and/or very good pilots to permanently damage aircraft on the ground. All that a standard Hurricane can do is stop any aircraft trying to take off.

I do like Jim’s suggestion for handling fuelled and armed aircraft which should be at greater risk of explosion.

John

[prestontfe@gmail.com]

Thank you both
Cheers.

Steve

[tinfish]

I had the same issue with level bombing. You may find your best bet would simply be to invent some rules that work. Treating trucks and tanks etc like aircraft when it comes to shooting. Roll your dice against them, let them roll some dice to defend themselves,2 for soft + 1 if moving for example, if you score 2 hits it kills a soft target, 4-6 would take out a tank depending on type. Just experiment.

[Baldie]

Love the BTH rules and have great fun playing 4v4 games
We have tried a few Stuka raids on bombing targets but very rarely get a good damage result, it all looks so easy in the films.

[Munin]

The rules for level-bombing, dive-bombing, and strafing reflect the difficulties of actually getting ordnance on target. In level-bombing especially, there's a reason the allies sent dozens of B-17s at a time against any particular factory/bridge/installation, and that's because getting a hit that actually does lasting damage is really hard.

[prestontfe@gmail.com]

Sorry for the late response. Strafing with a Hurricane isn’t hard, it’s literally impossible.
I get the others being hard. I actually enjoy the frustrations of being a bomber pilot. I find dive bombing the easiest, but against a target with flak, decidedly chancy

[Tomm]

You could do exploding 6's? Roll again with a 6 or something