Warning: Gamer Geek Post!

I've been spending much of my (scarce) free-time since Easter (which was April 27th, remember) slaving over a hot game table, flying missions for the 20th Air Force in the Far East during WW2.

Mind you, I'm an old school gamer. That means a game board and charts and little cardboard chits, not a Wii of X-Box or even a computer.

The game is B-29 SUPERFORTRESS from Khyber Pass Games. It's a solitaire effort where you take on the role of the crew of a B-29 trying to reach your 35-mission requirement so you can head stateside.



It's an interesting system and an interesting game--a mix of geeky wargaming stuff and a spice of role-playing.

The job is to fly your plane, usually in formation with other bombers, from the U.S. airbase on Tinian to unload on various industrial and military sites in Japan in the last year of the Second World War. You have to contend with a plane that was incredibly complex and buggy, limited amounts of fuel, bad weather, navigation troubles, all that sort of thing. Oh yeah, you also have to fight off attacking enemy planes and try to avoid anti-aircraft fire AND drop your bombs on target in order to get proper credit for your mission.

At first glance, especially to someone who is not familiar with such games, this is a terribly complex piece of work. It comes with a 36-page book of tables and charts, for pete's sake!

However, most of those don't come into play until you're over your target, and once you've worked through the system on a couple of missions it becomes a fairly quick and simple game to play. I've run 14 flights since I got the game, on average spending 30 to 40 minutes on each.

Mind you, I've flown 14 times but I've only completed 6 missions to meet my mission goal of 35. The game system is unforgiving--it's pretty easy to have to abort your mission without accomplishing your goal. Sometimes it is even worse and you crash your plane. Enough said about that (no I'm not saying how many times I've done that :).

Anyway, that's where my [sarcastic mode on] "copious free time" [sarcastic mode off] has been going for a while now.

One of the cool things I've been watching related to this game are the After Action Reports from various other players. A number of people are posting these as letters home from a crew member or as stories. Another cool thing is the number of people who have reported going to the library or ordering books online to learn more about the era, the equipment, and the people involved.

My plane by the way is "Radio Flyer" and bears a nose painting of a cute girl riding a red wagon with her hair streaming out behind. :)

We're called for a mission this evening. Don't call me, I'll be in the air.

This is Capt. Nick Corbett signing off for some R&R before final briefing.

Link to my AAR: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@430.sA1NdT5K1zQ.100@.1dd267d5/349