Blood Red Skies: Battle of Britain - Bomber Escort Mission (Part 1)

Somewhere over France 1940, the German Luftwaffe masses its planes for a strike into the heart of England with a deadly combination of single-seater (Me109s), twin-engined (Me110's) and twin-engined bombers (what looked to me as Dorniers, but I could be wrong. A vast armada of 15 planes against 12 RAF - six Spitfires and six Hurricanes (see below, which is good odds for the RAF in 1940):

The Germans place the bomber formation [3] on the table (middle left) with two pairs of low level escorts on table [2 x Me109 + 2 x Me110], with the remainder in two flights of "high escorts" [4 x Me109 + 4 x Me 110] that come into play as soon as a "boom chit" is placed on a German bomber (see below): 

Spot the difference? The inclination of a plane indicated its state - facing up means "at advantage", level means "neutral" and facing down means at disadvantage which means it is relatively easy to be shot down. The German opts to disadvantage his bombers but advantage his fighters as per the scenario specific options. The Spitfires (top right) and Hurricanes (bottom right) entered in three 'wing-man' pairs (see below, answers on a postcard):

The Spitfires (me) race in eager to press home an advantage on the Me109s by sheer weight of numbers. The planes are too far away from each other for combat (see below, note clouds do block line of sight and revert status to neutral which could be 'good' or 'bad'):

Another better photograph of the same scene (see below):

The Hurricanes "amble" in. Their opposition are the Me110's. I thought these would just be a liability however I was dutifully informed they pack a considerable punch and are not clumsy bombers but flown well can give Hurricane pilots sleepless nights (which was news to me). The British players played a special Radar card to allow them to improve their individual plane statuses (see below)

We were all set up and now about to enter combat range. It is not an IGYO system but dependant on skill level and status to determine "who goes next". This means random patches of excitement happen all over the board and the safe determinism of hex based board games is  nowhere in sight.

PS: Thanks to Renko for the hosting the game with very nice models and a much more complete understanding of the rules. In the words of Amazon and Whiskers if you like the above, nine out of ten cats who expressed a preference, also liked: https://twtrb.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/blood-red-skies-over-channel-tale-of-j.html?showComment=1526677918061#c7630556548291730388