Welcome to Platoon Forward!

Welcome to the site where the story of the battle is as important as the battle itself. Here we will focus on men thrust into extraordinary situations of life and death. They must lead other men with duty and honor to meet their countries objectives. Some will be blessed with great skill, some will carry great shortcomings. No matter what nation, no matter what war, no matter what theater, they are all called to move their Platoon or Squadron forward!

These are their individual stories as played out using my various campaign rules . Hopefully these stories will entertain and inspire you to use your own troops, airmen and sailors to accomplish your own great heroics.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Aeronautica Regala Romana

I have wanted a Royal Romanina Air Force since I got into miniature aircraft about 2 years ago. Scotia does the IAR-80 aircraft but I could not find decals and did not feel I could free hand the Maltese Cross like markings. Enter Mike Grant Decals and I could see my quest becoming a reality! The following has nothing to do with Platoon Forward but thought it was too cool not to post. Hopefully you will agree...


Ready to Bag the Ivan!
59 Escadrile of 8 Grupul 22 June 1941 Time to take the Squadron Forward!
Capt Sandru Likeable Veteran CO
Lt Hapaianu agressive
Lt Macri Pleasant
SLT Alexiu Pessimistic (shys away from combat)
SLT Nicoara Cunning
Adj Sef Grecu
Adj Stag Fortu Glum Sprog
Adj Stag Toma Obnoxious
Adj Stag Chera Mecurical Dead eye Sprog
Adj Baciu Cunning Sprog
Did not roll up the first battle as I had worked too hard on these planes and pilots for them to get smoked their first time out. 6 plane patrol that would meet 6 I-16s Tip 10s. Capt Sandru takes the rookie Fortu as his wingman, Lt Macri takes Toma (even though he is obnoxious hopefully he will make a good wingman in combat) and the SLts take each other. No one knows that Alexiu shys away from the guns at times yet. Lt Hapainu and the Flight Sergant Grecu stay behind to provide leadership in case we do get smoked.
I do dice for spotting and postion and we bounce the I-16s!
SLT Alexiu gets the first shot in for the FAAR!
SLT Alexiu gets a good bounce in but manages only to damage an I-16. The russians break and a swrilling dogfight ensues. Alexiu's wingman's plane gets damaged so he stays on the fringe of the fight after that to protect his wingman. Capt Sandru, being a veteran, manages to down 2 I-16s and damage another!
Capt Sandru showing how it is done!
The next mission was as escort to a reconnassance aircraft. 4 IARs participate and encouter 5 I-153s. ( I did dice for this mission) The rookie Baciu bags an Ivan so elevates to average status. Adj Chera is shot down but is reovered by romanian troops. Unfortunatly Adj Sef Grecu's plane is seen to explode during the battle with no parachute seen. (The IAR-80A had no self sealing gas tanks)
The third battle again sees Capt Sandru on a free hunt. Unfortunatly due to combat losses and damaged planes (we started with 8) there are only 5 IARs available. This time we run into 10 SB-2 bombers escorted by 6 I-16s.
Third battle over a lake
Outnumbered by the escort the romanians fail to knock a single bomber down. Capt Sandru does add anther I 16 to his score but Adj Stag Chera (sprog) looses his leader and is shot down during the melee. Word is recieved that he is safe and should return to the unit in 1-2 days.
So our squadron has shot down 4 aircraft, damaged 4 and we have lost 3 aircraft of our own. We currently have only 4 planes ready and 8 pilots available. Capt Sandru has 3 kills and Adj Baciu has 1. A new Flight Sergant, Adj Sef Ionescu has just joined the squadron. He is a veteran flyer and use to be the wing commander's wingman when the old man was a Capt. Will he be an ally or spy?
Am formulating Squadron Forward campaign rules slowly and it seems to be coming together. Am figuring out how much in the weeds should the player be regarding fixing of aircraft. Am using Bag the Hun by Too Fat Lardies as the tactical rule set.
Just spray painted my ME-109Gs (from I-94 enterprises) yesterday but anxious to see how this new flight sergant is going to work out!
Enjoy
Joe




6 comments:

  1. Nice work. Slightly OT, but about ten years ago when I used to play Warbirds online, I was XO of Grupul 7 Vanatoare for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ken
    That is neat! Did not realize Warbirds had Romanians.

    Joe

    ReplyDelete
  3. At the time, they technically didn't. I think Warbirds III, the current version, can use player-supplied skins, so there could be now. We didn't have IARs modeled either, so we flew whatever German aircraft were recorded as having been used by the Romanians.

    101 Squadron of the Israeli Air Force did much the same, and my squadron (it was Number 10 RNAS, the Black Flight) in Dawn of Aces, the WWI version, did also. Had to use one's imagination a bit....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nothing wrong with using your imagination!!! That is what this site is about. We are talking about inanimate metal here.

    Joe

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joe,
    is mike taking custom decal orders again?

    is that how you got the crosses done?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob,
    They are not custom per say; he can print them off but you have to e-mail him as they are not on his web site. Dom's decals has also just come out with Romanian decals but I have not seen them.
    Joe

    ReplyDelete