MicroBattle Across the Ages

So far this month I have experimented with MicroBattles in the ancient and horse and musket periods. Can I expand the concept to later eras?

Modern

First up is a "modern" battle using some 2mm sci-fi miniatures.

There are some differences between this and the ancients / horse & musket version:

• Larger battlefield - I was able to figure out how to fold an 8 x 10 mat so that it fits into a pencil box
• Forces are more mobile - armies get more activations per turn and each unit can move further
• Longer ranges - units can pack a wallop at longer distances

These changes gave the game a more-free-wheeling feel, which seemed appropriate for the era.

Air Combat
I then played around with an air combat game.

I used a modified version of the Tiny Air Combat rules that I played with in December/January. Like my modern battle I used an 8 x 10 grid. I used half-size forces and cut movement down.

In this experiment I used a mixed squadron of bombers - one light, one medium, and one heavy.

 Because the board is so short I had the bombers traverse a second board before getting to the target.

The bombers had to face a new wave of interceptors. Unfortunately, the escort was lost in the first engagement. However, I applied losses from the first wave to the second, which made it a bit easier.

 All three bombers made it to the target. Amidst exploding flak, the squadron dropped their bombs on target, doing heavy damage (13 points out of 30)

How did it work out?

• I actually like the shorter board and smaller forces. It was easier to set up and quicker to play.
• As I mentioned, I tweaked the rules because of the shorter board.
• Medium and heavy bombers only moved 1 square a turn while the light bomber could move 2 on a roll of 4-6.
• Fighters would get D6 movement points. I upped the cost of movement - to move straight cost 2 points per square, a diagonal move cost 3, and a 90 degree turn cost 4 (essentially costing 1 more than in the original rules). This cut down the speeds, keeping the battle on the board, but it made it much harder for a fighter to turn. I may have to tweak the movement points a bit.
• Nevertheless, I felt that the game was a success and will merit more experiments.