Wings Over Malta Playtest

I was honored to be part of a playtest game run by fellow-blogger gaming buddies Kevin S. (A Gamer's Tale) and Dave S (Naval Gazing). It was an air war game with Italian bombers escorted by German fighters with several targets within the harbor at Valletta. I ran one of several bomber flights and managed to reach my primary target unscathed, avoiding flak and enemy British fighters. For a great review of the game please see Kevin's blog linked above. The planes were all hand-painted by Kevin, although he admitted to using decals for some of the markings. He also supplied the excellent looking gaming mat made by Tinymats.

That's my flight of Fiat BR.20 Cicogna (Stork) bombers on the far right of the table edge. A great choice as the British Hurricanes all came on table from the far left side of the table. The other bomber flights and Me. 110s were basically a blocking force for my bombers.

Our German fighter escorts tangling with the enemy Hurricanes. The game used die activation for players - lowest die going first.

The bomber flights being attacked by Hurricanes. My buddy Scott ran the bomber flight in the lower right and he took a lot of damage to his trail aircraft. One of his planes had to release its load of bombs prior to the target. Eventually he caused minimal damage to his target - a floating dry dock.

My flight, closest in the picture, just about to reach the target (warehouses) totally untouched by enemy fire. My buddy Jim's flight taking the brunt of enemy fire - note one of his planes trailing smoke.

The game was declared a minor victory for the Axis - no bombers were destroyed outright and having caused enough damage to some of their intended targets. This was probably only the second or third time I've ever played an air combat game, and it played very quickly and smoothly - thanks in large part to Dave's excellent GMing. The rules are based on David Manley's Airwar 1940. The actual game will be hosted next Sunday at the annual Museum of Flight Game Day. Kevin has coordinated this event for many years; I think he connected with the museum way back when, being a longtime educator with the state. I've been to several of these game days in the past, but this will be my first in a few years and looking forward to the games as well as putzing around the museum.