Game: Duel in the Dark
Date: 10-Jun-2007
Location: Hume Inn, Albury after the Australian Games Expo
Players: Giles aka caradoc aka Group Captain Giles, Fraser aka Karlsen aka Oberst Fraser
Time: About an hour including rules explanation

Session report, background story and mini review.

Session Report

There was a new moon, the wind was blowing due East and there was heavy cloud across Northern Germany with occasional thunderstorms near Berlin, clearing to scattered cloud further South with some fog in France.

Group Captain Giles took off and lumbered due East heading for Northern Germany. Oberst Fraser scrambled two squadrons of Night Fighters ahead of the British formation and one further South on a Northerly intercept course.

As Group Captain Giles approached the European coast the Night Fighters, split between where the Mosquito implied the bombers were going and where Night Fighter Head Quarters thought the bombers were heading, managed a few hits more than the Mosquito did on the Night Fighters.

Group Captain Giles then started steering South East but the Mosquito was still heading due East. Confusion reigned at Night Fighter Head Quarters, so refuelling some squadrons seemed to be the most practical idea.

As Group Captain Giles settled in to his new course, the Mosquito suddenly abandoned its Easterly course and accelerated due South, reached a city and dropped target flares, and took out a search light. The newly refuelled Night Fighters were scrambled again and Oberst Fraser managed to get two Night Fighter Squadrons to defend the city.

Shock, horror! The Mosquito’s attack was shown to be an elaborate ruse as Group Captain Giles abandoned his South East heading and turned back to the East.

The Mosquito leapt ahead and used up its remaining bombs to destroy the flak and barrage balloon and still had one targeting flare left to help illuminate this second city. Due to fuel and weather considerations the Night Fighters at the first “target” city were unable to defend the real target. The other two Night Fighter Squadrons were able to reach it, but had the Mosquito to deal with as well.

Bombs Away!

With no flak or barrage balloons and less Night Fighters than expected Oberst Fraser was thankful that the new moon reduced the damage slightly.

Group Captain Giles now turned for home leaving the light of the burning German city in the background. The chase back to England really emphasised the impact of the weather. Flying in a Northerly or Southerly direction, Oberst Fraser could keep the Night Fighters in the air for three turns before they needed to refuel, but chasing Group Captain Giles due West the Night Fighters could only remain in the air for two turns and then would have to either land where they were or change course away from due West to be able to have enough fuel to land for refuelling.

The Mosquito continue to play merry havoc with the Night Fighters. Was it flying ahead to protect Group Captain Giles from the Night Fighters or was it pretending to lead the path for Group Captain Giles and thus leading the Night Fighters astray? During the trip back to England both tactics were employed.

The ground defences scored some hits on the bombers on their journey home, but Oberst Fraser never managed to get more than two Night Fighter Squadrons to converge on Group Captain Giles at any given time and often, one of those Night Fighter Squadrons was at low altitude, having just taken off. Hits were slowly accumulating, but Group Captain Giles reached the North Sea and was heading due West.

Chasing bombers back to England at night over the North Sea is a tricky proposition at the best of times, but chasing bombers that are flying directly into the wind is very risky indeed.

The Night Fighters managed a few more hits despite the Mosquito flying both interference and deception. Then Group Captain Giles tacked North! This effectively put him out of range for all the Night Fighters bar the Dorniers. The rest of the Night Fighters had to turn tail and run for the European coast. At least now the Easterly wind was a tail wind assisting them on their trip back to friendly shores. Just as well, since more aircraft landed on nothing more than a wing and a prayer, than with fuel in their tanks.

The Dornier made one last attempt to close with Group Captain Giles before it too had to reverse course and fly home with the tail wind reaching a friendly airbase with the fuel gauges reading Empty.

In the light of following morning after a review of the events it was decided that the night had been a victory for the British, not by much, but a victory nevertheless.


Some background to the session

Zev, the president of Z-Man games was present at the Australian Games Expo. One carton of Duel in the Dark had just arrived and he opened and punched one copy. Speaking to him during the day, he said that he would bring one to the evening games session after the expo wrapped up at 5 pm. All the people who were watching him punch bits and assemble pieces were admiring them.

When we arrived at the Hume Inn after dinner there were already a lot of games going. I sat and watched Yspahan for a while, I gather that there was a distinct lack of camels in that particular game. It was about 10 pm when I went over to the table with Zev, Giles and another guy to chat and admire the bits from Duel in the Dark.

Zev then said :Why don’t you play? I’ll explain it and you can play”. Giles took the British and I took the Germans.

A mini review or description

We only played the once and only with the basic rules so this is just a summary of my initial feelings.

The board is a night time pictorial representation of parts of Germany, France, Northern Europe and South East England. It is not a map per se, but a very thematic picture. To paraphrase Maxwell Smart, it has the second biggest hexes I have ever seen.

The most amazing bits are the aircraft, cloud and thunderstorm counters.

They are a standard cardboard counter with a plastic sprocket which is then mounted on a plastic stand. With the aircraft you slide them down to the bottom of the stand to indicate that they are landed, part the way up the plastic pole to show that they are flying at low altitude and up to the top of the pole to show that they are at high altitude. The clouds and thunderstorms are left at the top of the pole to show cloud cover where as the fog counters are just placed directly on the board.

The German night fighter fuel gauges are also very nice.

They look like they glow in the dark, but unfortunately they do not

Zev took about ten minutes to explain the components and the rules are then we started playing.

If I remember correctly (which given it was my third day of late nights and early mornings I give no guarantee):
The German player places his four night fighter squadrons.
Flip a weather card and set up the appropriate weather conditions including clouds, fog, prevailing wind, thunderstorms and phase of the moon.
The British player picks his target city and plots his bomber course using up to fourteen cards from the available plotting cards which are then put back on the top of the deck so that the German player doesn’t know how long, i.e. far, the mission is.
The German player places forty air defence units around German controlled areas. These include flak, search lights, barrage balloons, civil defence bunkers, radar, fuel trucks and fire fighting trucks.
The British player places the Mosquito and the Bomber at their respective airfield(s).
The game is afoot.

Each turn consists of three phases.

Firstly the British player moves the Mosquito and performs any actions that the Mosquito player wishes to take including dropping target flares or destroying air defence installations in the current hex.

Secondly the German night fighters move. Generally this involves moving to a neighbouring hex, or staying and circling in a hex you expect the bomber to move to. You may also change altitude, land to refuel or take off after refuelling. If German night fighters move into a hex with the Mosquito then the British player will probably be awarded victory points depending on local weather conditions. The night fighter’s fuel gauges are adjusted based on the move that they made.

Thirdly the top card from the bomber’s navigation deck is flipped and the bomber moves as directed by the card. If it moves into a hex with German fighters the German fighter will be awarded victory points for attacking the bomber formation varied by weather, altitude and accompanying air defence. If the bomber moves into a hex where there are no night fighters but with flak then the German player will be awarded some victory points.

That is basically the game in a nutshell. The basic game plays in around thirty to forty five minutes, you feel involved the whole time and at the end you feel like you have played a whole game. You could stop there and be happy or just play again, swap sides or try another mission.

Some of the advanced rules include special high performance fuel for one night fighter, the possibility of weather changes during the nigh and quite a few other things. I didn’t read the rules, but Zev flicked through them to show us that the rules include a fully illustrated and annotated example of play.

I have only played it once and with only the basic rules, but if Zev hadn’t wanted all six copies to take to Origins and other events I would have bought one from him then and there, as would Giles and quite a few of the crowd of people who stood around and watched.

Fraser McHarg 12-Jun-2007

Edit: Updated intelligence reports