Storm Above the Reich – After Action Report – Mission #8

We’re in the second mission of the second season of the Staffel Roy Storm Above the Reich campaign, and things aren’t necessarily going that well.

No more pilots have been lost and I did get a victory point last mission, but then I looked at the victory conditions for the second season.

Ten missions in the season, and you have to earn 30 VP to “not lose.”

Yeah, one point a mission is not going to fly!

Would Mission #8 do anything to alleviate that problem?

Or did I look at the victory conditions after doing Mission #8?

Only time will tell (well, I know, but you don’t know yet…)

Once again I’m doing the Advanced “Pursuit” rule, which means that if a bomber falls, I have to pursue it or I don’t get any victory points. Only destroyed bombers will count.

I think Kermit above has the right idea.

How did Mission #8 go? Will Ehrhoff ever get rid of his Green status? Will Clausen ever return to the Staffel or is he selling meds from his hospital bed?

Let’s take a look.

(Reminder, you can always click on a picture to see it full size. Also, for the specific rules of what I’m talking about, see the Mission #1 & #2 report and the Pursuit rules are detailed in Mission #7)

As usual, the first thing to roll when starting the mission is whether or not any of the wounded pilots return.

Sadly, Clausen and Grislawski are still wounded. I think Clio is correct and Clausen is sneaking out of his hospital bed for some “nocturnal visits” while a straw dummy is in his bed.

Grislawski better get well soon or he’ll learn some bad habits.

This time the roll for mission type means that we intercept them near the target! That’s good in that flak can also damage the bombers, but it’s bad because it can sometimes damage you!

We’re on Map 6 again and I only get 4 Operations Points because I lost an auxiliary fighter last mission. That really makes me not want to use them again.

Anyway, 4 Operations points mean that I bring in Ehrhoff (trying to get rid of his Green status and because Zilla Blitz is backing him!), Ahrens and Oesau, along with three more Bf 110 fighters. I mainly did that because four fighters doesn’t really do a whole hell of a lot, but six might!

Amazingly, there was no Escort this mission! I wouldn’t have to be dealing with any pesky Allied fighters.

The Sun was at the High Flank (2 – 4 o’clock side) so I could send some fighters coming out of the Sun. That usually helps.

One bomber had already fallen out of formation before I intercepted them.

I brought Oesau and a 110 in from the Nose direction. Ahrens and two 110s came in from the Tail while Ehrhoff came in from the Sun’s direction (got to get him as much help as possible since his Green penalty is changing mode when he’s hit).

On turn 1, I move the fighters into position and one bomber takes a Wing hit from flak (your fighters are safe from flak until they start approaching the bombers, which is a nice touch).

On turn 2, my pilots shifted to High in their respective positions while the 110s just went to Level.

Flak does 3 points of Fuselage damage to another bomber! That will help greatly.

On Turn 3, everybody attacks! They move into the Approach position, which can be deadly above the target.

Flak does 3 more Fuselage damage and misses the fighters!

Oesau and a 110 come at one of the damaged bombers. Oesau from the front and the 110 from the rear.

Ehrhoff and a 110 come at another damaged bomber.

Ahrens and the third 110 go at a third bomber from different levels as well.

Oesau misses his fighter completely! How did that happen?

His accompanying 110 knocks the bomber down with a Wing hit but takes two hits himself (Cockpit and Fuselage).

Ehrhoff does 1 point of Wing damage to his bomber but runs out of ammo! That’s not going to help him shed his green status. The 110 with him takes a hit to his Elevator but doesn’t do anything himself.

Ahrens and the last 110 have a Collision check which sends them both back to the Tail Return boxes without actually doing anything.

This is not looking good.

For Continuing Fire, Oesau’s 110 takes another hit! This time to the Elevator.

Oesau takes a Fuselage hit.

Ehrhoff took no hits and his 110 took a hit that was cancelled by the Position Advantage (earned due to attacking a bomber Element from two different positions).

On Turn 4, I had to roll for all of the damaged fighters.

Sadly, the 110 with three hits was knocked out by the Fuselage hit.

Oesau’s Fuselage hit was superficial, though. He gets to continue!

The other 110’s Elevator hit was also superficial. That’s good, because I don’t need to be losing even more Operations Points next mission.

Flak does 1 more Fuselage damage to another bomber that wasn’t damaged already.

On Turn 5, Ahrens decides to bugger off and pursue the already downed bomber. Gotta destroy it to get VP!

The other fighters are just moving into position. Wow, it’s nice not having to worry about Escorts.

On Turn 6, more maneuvering! I know it’s boring, but you have to try to maximize the damage you will be doing!

Flak does 1 Fuselage damage to another bomber, and the Element’s position loosens! That means that the Lethal Level for fighters attacking bombers in that Element will be less.

Here’s the situation after all of that.

On Turn 7, another attack formation forms. While Ehrhoff is out of ammo, he’s still attacking hoping to help earn various advantages for other fighters. He comes in Nose High while Oesau comes in Oblique High and the two 110s come in from the Tail.

Sadly, nothing happens on the attack, but Flak knocks another bomber down with an Engine hit! Unfortunately, it also does a Cockpit hit on Ehrhoff and Oesau as well.

They still continue the attack, though.

The 110s coming in from the Tail on another bomber almost collide and veer off instead to the Tail position.

Oesau does 2 points of Fuselage damage but also runs out of ammo!

Ehrhoff takes a hit but nullifies it with the Position Advantage. Neither fighter takes damage in Continuing Fire.

On Turn 8, it’s determined that Ehrhoff’s Cockpit hit is superficial, but Oesau’s knocks him out of the fight.

Flak doesn’t hit anything, as the bomber that’s supposed to be damaged is already Fallen.

At this point, the mission was over and my FW-190s were out of ammo anyway, so it was time for Pursuit (Ahrens).

The damaged bombers got to limp home safely.

But it was time for Ahrens to take on a Fallen bomber himself.

It’s too bad that there were two Fallen bombers but the other fighters had run out of ammo. One more turn and the remaining 110s would have been able to pursue it. Sadly, you can’t pursue from a Return box.

Thus, it was just Ahrens intercepting a bomber.

There was so much damage to the Elevator of the bomber, however, that it crashed before Ahrens could do anything.

Two VP! And Ahrens is safe.

The end result of the mission was only 2 VP, though.

This is not conducive to winning this season.

The after action stuff resulted in two rolls for knocked out fighters.

Oesau’s Cockpit hit caused a fire, but he bailed out!

The wounded 110’s Fuselage hit also caused a fire, but he also bailed out!

Sadly, the loss of Operation Points for the next mission is just for having the 110s get knocked out of the fight and crashing (or worse), so I still lose 1 Operation Point next mission.

That sucks.

But nobody died!

This was kind of an inconsequential mission and sadly it did nothing to further my success in the season itself. Something has to change or Staffel Roy will be disbanded due to being ineffective.

Stay tuned for Mission #9 to see if anything gets reversed on that!

Staffel Roy Campaign

1943 Early
Missions 1 & 2
Mission 3
Mission 4 & 5
Mission 6

1943 Mid
Mission 7
Mission 8
Mission 9
Mission 10
Mission 11
Mission 12
Mission 13
Mission 14
Mission 15
Mission 16

1943 Late
Mission 17
Mission 18
Mission 19
Mission 20
Mission 21
Mission 22