Game: Mustangs

Thread: Re: Rules

badinfo — 2008-11-23T03:45:28+00:00

Try here
http://www.warflag.com/mustangs/

and here

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Air-Pirates/?yguid=12935...

Thread: Rules

kamixx — 2008-11-22T13:55:09+00:00

I would like to ask if someone could send me digital copy of manual book for this game? I lost mine some time ago and now would like to play again, but with just basic rules it seems little flat.

Thanks
Kamil

Thread: Re: Rules from The General (30/5)

alfredhw — 2008-09-03T20:46:26+00:00

Dang--that does sound like a must-have. Thanks for the info!

Thread: Re: Rules from The General (30/5)

OutpostGamma — 2008-09-03T15:10:56+00:00

hoop wrote:
Issue 30/5 of the General is definitely worth tracking down if you can find it. 25 pages of new scenarios, optional rules (including those for rocket-powered aircraft) and stats for virtually every aircraft model used in WWII (21 variants for the ME-109 alone!).

John

I sure hope that info can get posted on BGG somehow without violating any law or writ. Maybe in an updated or condensed format.

Take Care,

Gene Z

Thread: Re: Rules from The General (30/5)

hoop — 2008-09-03T14:55:08+00:00

Issue 30/5 of the General is definitely worth tracking down if you can find it. 25 pages of new scenarios, optional rules (including those for rocket-powered aircraft) and stats for virtually every aircraft model used in WWII (21 variants for the ME-109 alone!).

John

Thread: Rules from The General (30/5)

alfredhw — 2008-09-03T03:03:55+00:00

So, I just got a copy of Mustangs off eBay. The seller didn't describe it very well...I was expecting a copy of the base game. So I got that, but along with it I got a copy of the expansion set and the variant planes from the General. I also got three 1:144 scale plastic tanks. If he'd actually listed everything he had, he'd have gotten a lot more money...

Anyway--are there any new rules or anything I need from the relevant issue of the General? It looks like an interesting issue on general principles (har!), but are there new rules or whatnot for rocket-powered planes and so on?

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Beorndog — 2008-07-24T17:47:36+00:00

Back of Mustangs variant markers for "The General" issue 30-6

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Beorndog — 2008-07-24T17:46:36+00:00

Mustangs variant markers for "The General" issue 30-6

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Beorndog — 2008-06-24T02:54:00+00:00

More Avalon Hill General Additional counters

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Beorndog — 2008-06-24T02:17:36+00:00

More Avalon Hill General Additional counters

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Beorndog — 2008-06-24T02:11:55+00:00

Additional Counters from Avalon Hill General

Thread: Re: Rules Question

Rick Sciacca — 2008-05-11T19:22:03+00:00

Thanks, Patrick!

Thread: Rules Question

Rick Sciacca — 2008-05-10T10:41:58+00:00

Could be I'm just getting old, but couldn't find these on either the rules sheet or in the Campaign Manual...

1) What is the modifier (if any) for 2 planes in the same hex shooting at each other?

2) What happens if your plane is in mid-maneuver at the end of a turn, and you increase speed such that it would lengthen the time of completing your maneuver? Do you get sort of a "freebie" in this case? Or would you readjust your manuver marker?

Thanks.

Rick

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binge gamer — 2008-01-13T00:07:58+00:00

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binge gamer — 2008-01-12T23:13:50+00:00

Thread: Re: Mustangs in Miniature - Beaten by my kid!

GROGnads — 2007-11-02T09:13:47+00:00

Slotracer wrote:
Please provide us with pictures of the miniatures and thetelescopes.
Did you make them yourself or where did you buy them? It sounds to ME here, that he had gotten some of those "telescoping with attached magnet tools" that mechanics use to 'fish' out metallic parts from beyond their reaches. As for the aircraft, then you could also get some in 1:600th 'scale' from these folks here:

http://brookhursthobbies.com/vaportrailsaircraft.htm

They are much cheaper and you can end up with MORE from that.

Thread: Re: Mustangs in Miniature - Beaten by my kid!

Slotracer — 2007-11-02T09:03:23+00:00

Please provide us with pictures of the miniatures and thetelescopes.
Did you make them yourself or where did you buy them?

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bleakgeek — 2007-07-18T22:11:52+00:00

Thread: Re: Miniatures

kamixx — 2007-03-13T21:59:09+00:00

Thanks a lot, nice page

Thread: Re: Miniatures

goldenboat — 2007-03-06T06:05:53+00:00

kamixx wrote:
Hello,
I would like to ask, which miniatures do you use with this game, and on what do you stick them, to show height and maneuvers and so on.

Thanks Kamil

details here: http://www.warflag.com/mustangs/

Mustangs is AWESOME with miniatures, genuinely one of the best wargame experiences I've ever had. I played several times with Paul Hannah's group up in Seattle and had an absolute blast.

Thread: Miniatures

kamixx — 2007-03-06T02:58:44+00:00

Hello,
I would like to ask, which miniatures do you use with this game, and on what do you stick them, to show height and maneuvers and so on.

Thanks Kamil

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Jimcampanella — 2007-02-05T14:03:40+00:00

Thread: Mustangs in Miniature - Beaten by my kid!

rickbill — 2006-08-15T16:28:07+00:00

My son (11 yrs old) was ready to play another game of Memoir '44(6th game in 2 days) when I told him we needed to try something new. I asked him if he wanted to play "the airplane game" (I have set up Mustangs on telescoping magnetized part pickup tools and 1:300 scale miniatures) he consented.

We set up a simple 2v2 Me109G vs P39-J (I was the hated huns). I use a couple of variant rules (half-loops are either immelmans or splitS with an appropriate altitude/airspeed change, no 8 turn limit, and manuevers are not revealed unless you are being tailed, and some other less important rules associated with fate resoultion)

I got on his tail early and often but I don't think I rolled anything over a 5 for the entire game. My wingman set up for a scissor as our planes prepared for a beak to beak pass (since his wingman was flying abreast of his leader, he was able to take a shot with both planes as he passed on either side of my leader). That's when he scored his first hit on my engine. Luckily, no fire but his engine was smoking and my ability to manuever him in the vertical was seriously hampered for the rest of the game. I began setting my leader up for a split S as my wingman settled in behind his Lightnings took his shot as the bullets flew harmlessly by. He pulled both of his planes into an immelman and increased his throttle. Once again setting up a beak to beak with my leader while my wingman continued to tail him (but now he broke his wingman off to try and challenge my attacking wingman). On the next beak to beak (-3 drm) shot he was able to score 2 hits with both hits lodging on my wing. Unfortunately, the leader was in the middle of an immelman at the time of the damage and the added stress caused the wing to break off and the first Messerschmidt plummetted to the french countryside - at least the pilot was able to bail out. So, now the wingman was all alone against the 2 P-38s. I was able to score a hit on the leader but my aim was not true as they pounded his fuselage. As he worked his pair in opposite direction and set up low percentage high angle of attack shots he scored single hits on about 30%
of his shots. He scored a hit on my rudder and made my plane much less agile so that finally he scored the second required hit on my rudder and my second plane spiraled to its flaming hole. Unfortunately my second pilot was not able to successfully bailout and rode it to the ground.

So, my son (besides scoring his first victory against me in MEMOIR '44 against me the previous day) had handed me a resounding defeat. But, in reality I think we were both winners 'cause now that he knows he can beat me he comes and asks if we can play "the airplane game" a lot more often!

Thread: Session Report

manowarplayer — 2004-11-03T17:27:24+00:00

We had another big turnout this past Friday (10 altogether) and most wanted to play Diplomacy, so 3 of us went off and played some other games that people had with them.

Dave had brought Mustangs and wanted to play, so Chuck and I joined him even thought the two of us had never played before. We were kind of the "anti" Diplomacy group as none of us were really interested in playing. Chuck and Dave had both played it before and were lukewarm on it, while it has never really appealed to me (even though I own a copy).

Dave sat us down and took the Axis side (two Zero's) and controlled two planes while Chuck and I each took a single Allied plane (Hellcat). We used a combination of the basic rules along with the advanced damage, ammo and breaking contact rules - but we decided to leave out the spotting rules as this was our first session.

Gameplay is actually very easy and Dave taught us the basics in just a few minutes. Chuck and I started several hexes away from each other, but I manuevered closer each phase until we were right next to each other and heading straight at the two Zero's onthe horizon. Dave kept the sequence marker for the first few turns which makes you move first, but also allows you to fire first. Chuck was shot at a few times early on and immediately was hampered as his plane's fuel line was hit and caught on fire. Dave's 2nd Zero and I traded some shots but either one did much damage.

Chuck and I quickly found out that our Hellcats were not a match in a tight turning battle with the Zero's but before we could do much about it, Chuck took a 2nd hit to his fuel line and was blown out of the sky. Luckily both Zero's were low on ammo and I managed to damage one fairly well without taking any hits myself before he broke contact and got away. Before I could get a bead on the 2nd damaged Zero, he buggered out too and Dave walked away with a minor victory.

Chuck and I both enjoyed our first game - even if we did get beat-up a bit in the process. Dave mentioned a Yahoo group that had a bunch of player aids and also that had some suggestions for converting the game to miniatures.

The Central Valley Wargamers has a history of converting typical board games into a miniatures version - and often make up some alternative rules for our enjoyment as well (The CVW has already done this to Mississippi Queen and renamed it Mississippi Gunboat - I should post some pics...)

I would definately play Mustangs again and the next morning I got out my unplayed/unpunched copy and perused the contents. I was most happy to see a copy of the expansion as well with 60+ more planes to use.

Thread: User Review

antiussentiment — 2004-10-13T16:00:15+00:00

it would be very hard to do an air warfare game with any realism without lots of book keeping. when you think about the problem, by the time you have records of altitude, speed (or more correctly energy) and damage for every plane involved, you'll have a lot of notes on paper or counters on record cards and a game that is a headache for all but the most hard core war gamers. i should point out that at this point we have still not started to simulate how each particular aircraft design should behave. CRIKEY!!! this is why i have very few air warfare games in my collection.

the back of the Mustangs box makes all sorts of claims about simplicity, fast play and only two pages of rules. and this from a company that on a good day need their rules translated “from English to English”, as my sweetheart puts it. i had to spend the coins just to see if it was true.

each player in Mustangs can control one or two aircraft. with four players you could therefore have eight planes in the dogfight. i think just playing with one plane per player to start with is a good ploy for the newby though (if you're not watching you tend to get you two planes mixed up). as you would expect, you do have a record card with score chits to keep track of how things are going with each plane. but this is well laid out and not crowded like some of these can be. also some nice grafix on the score card prompt the player as to the uses of the racks. it's an ok layout really. the chits, the board and cards all look very nice and maintain the good standard of production that AH were setting at this point in time.

to simulate the flight each turn is broken up into 6 major movement phases and one altitude/speed change phase. a plane travelling at the maximum speed allowed in the game (6 spaces/turn) would move on each of the movement phases. a plane travelling at say two spaces /turn would only move on two of the six. the two phases that the plane may move on are marked on the card. because both these planes only move one space in each phase, at the end of the turn each plane will have moved the same number of spaces as its speed. this mechanic works really well when combined with the way a plane is manoeuvred.

on the player aid card there is a table that shows how far each plane will move as it completes its given manoeuvre. the planes all have a colour/shape code on the bottom of the plane chit showing how good/bad that particular design was in turns, rolls and loops. you find the shape/colour on the table, cross reference the speed and get the number of spaces you need to finish the manoeuvre. you then place a chit that many spaces in front of the plane. when the plane reaches the chit, you reposition the plane if the manoeuvre involved a heading change and select the next manoeuvre you want the plane to do. there are only five manoeuvres (one being to fly straight) so that is really quite simple. it is simple enough for a newby to grasp and works well. if at the end of your manoeuvre you have an enemy in you field of fire, i.e. in front of your plane, you blaze away.

combat is handled using ten sided dice. both players add a few simple modifiers to their dice roll and if the attackers roll is higher he/she scores a hit. if the attacker doubles the defenders total they score two hits and so on.... each aircraft design can handle a set amount of damage before going down in flames and the last team still flying wins.

like all the AH Smithsonian games this one comes with a battle manual with optional rules and some historical notes which you will no doubt want to read. the complexity of the game is only slightly harder than simple but it is still fun to play. you should get a 4 player game finished in 90 minutes with some practice, so it's not a long game either. overall, this game is worth a good look if you're after a quick flight sim that you'll be able to get newbies to enjoy. if you can get your hands on the expansion that was published (more aircraft), do that also.

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tklemme — 2004-05-03T10:47:34+00:00

Thread: Session Report

ClosetOtaku — 2003-08-11T15:04:32+00:00

This session reports on a variant of "Mustangs" developed by the Yahoo "Air Pirates" gaming group. The variant is called "MiG Alley", and is played with aircraft that flew during the Korean war.

It's early April, 1951. Four F-86A Sabres, two from each of two squadrons, the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and its sister unit, the 336th FIS, had sortied from their base at Suwon. Their mission: fly into deep North Korean territory and lure the MiGs responsible for recent attacks on B-29s out into the open to engage them.

As things turned out, they were too successful. A total of 8 MiG-15s from bases in China jumped on the four USAF aircraft. Flying in from the 8 o'clock position, the lead MiGs made visual identification, and the fight was underway.

Two factors saved the American aircraft from certain annihilation: first, most of the MiG pilots were inexperienced or green, and had difficulty visually spotting the small F-86 aircraft from a distance. Second, ground radar had identified the bandits moments before they were within range. Visual identification was made just as the lead MiGs opened fire.

In a decidedly uncoordinated move, the two F86s from the 334th broke left, while the other two from the 336th broke right. The two lead MiGs chased the leftmost group, now headed west, while the remainder of the group -- the most inexperienced pilots -- continued on their heading north, following the rightmost group.

Despite flying slightly less maneuverable aircraft, the F86s in the left group turned in a great circle, diving to pick up speed and to remain just outside of the range of the powerful 37mm cannons. Moments later, they had outpaced the chasing MiGs and were now on the tails of the trail MiGs headed north.

One of the pilots (code name "Hot Flash" flew in below and behind one of the trailing MiGs. With a quick burst from his 50-caliber machine guns, the MiG's engines exploded, and the aircraft went down belching smoke and flames.

Hot Flash's thrill of victory, however, was short-lived. In setting up the shot, he'd bled off a lot of his momentum, and the MiGs chasing him were able to get in behind. The shrapnel from one MiG tore into the F86, and a fuel fire started. If he didn't do something quickly, Hot Flash would become the first F86 casualty of the Korean War.

Rubbing his lucky rabbit's foot, Hot Flash throttled up the engines to the max and pointed his nose down, losing what little vertical space he had left. The maneuver worked, giving him plenty of airspeed and putting out the fire moments before the plane would have exploded.

Figuring him for a goner, the trail MiGs broke away and followed Hot Flash's wingman (code named "Bugger All", given to him by his RAF friends during World War II).

In the meantime, the other F86 pilots ("Buzz" and "Chaz" were facing tough times of their own. Now engaged with five other aircraft, they flew in a close-quartered scrap, frequently unable to set up a firing solution because of the excessively high head-on approach speeds. This was definitely a change from the tactics they had used to fight the last war.

The only Ace of the group (and those victories picked up during WWII), Buzz was quickly hammered by a high-off shot, taking damage to his fuselage and engine. Fortunately, the damage was slight, and he was able to fly on. Chaz, for his part, was burning up his ammunition, damaging (but not destroying) enemy MiGs while taking a few hits himself.

The battle reached fever pitch. A couple MiGs, low on ammunition, thought it better to run, and sped off back to base to tell of the most recent engagement and newfound tactics of the enemy. This left five MiGs to four F86s -- the odds were quickly improving for the Americans.

As Hot Flash and Bugger All flew close to the deck again, avoiding most of the traffic, Buzz and Chaz did their best to outfox the MiGs. In an unusual twist, the MiGs pulled off slightly south, regrouping for another run at the Americans.

Weaving in and out of traffic, Bugger All was able to bring down another MiG that had become careless about its flight pattern. Much to their horror, though, Hot Flash and Bugger All had drifted north of the Yalu River. Were they to be shot down now, an international incident would ensue.

Quickly turning, they found themselves face-to-face with two MiGs engaging Chaz and Buzz in a tight aerial ballet. Opening fire, Hot Flash slipped and rolled, taking out both aircraft in short order. Chaz turned his aircraft toward yet another MiG and dispatched him. The last MiG ran for home, and the dogfight was over.

But that was not quite the end of the story. Suffering engine damage, Chaz's F86 quit over the Sea of Japan, and Chaz was forced to ditch. Owing to superior Search and Rescue operations by the U.S. Navy, Chaz was recovered and lived to fly again. The other aircraft returned to base without incident.

In summary, the Americans scored five kills of the eight enemy aircraft, with Hot Flash picking up a hat trick. No F86s were lost in the air, although one was forced to ditch at sea.

Overall, the "Mustangs" MiG Alley variant of the game was a pretty accurate representation of the tactics and outcomes seen during the Korean war (where MiG losses outnumbered American losses by about 9:1). The entire game took about 6 hours to play, with experienced players manning the MiGs, and two "newbies" flying the F86s.