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Adventure for Flyers

G

gregcaires

SOC-12
All -- I'm thinking of taking a one off departure from the TTA campaign I'm running for my kids and I want to set them up as flyer mercenaries a la the Flying Tigers having Baa-Baa Black Sheep style adventures on the ground and in the air.

I'll have them role up Expanded Flyers per COAAC+errata (admittedly MT) and I'd like to know if anyone has any suggestions for source material (any source, any non-Traveller game even). I found some one page adventures from BGG that simulates F-105 combat missions in a simple but fun format -- I think I can modified those into something.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Greg
 
Ace of Aces

1_WP_20150603_001.jpg
 
If you go to this website, you can download the official US Air Force history of aerial combats over North Vietnam.

http://newpreview.afnews.af.mil/afhso/booksandpublications/titleindex.asp

Scroll down to this subject heading.

The United States Air Force In Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 series:

Aces and Aerial Victories : The USAF in the SEA, 1965-1973

Note, this is strictly the Air Force and does not include any US Navy records.

The actual reports should give you a good feel for how your aerial combats should flow.
 
timerover51 said:
The actual reports should give you a good feel for how your aerial combats should flow.
Click to expand...

He should hunt down the TV show "Dogfights" that was aired on the History Channel. The pilot episode is excellent, as it recounts, among others, some of Randy 'Duke' Cunningham's exploits in Vietnam (only US Navy Ace in the war, and, yes, he's also a disgraced congressman).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMFducE7mNY

That show was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen.
 
The Air Force Historical Studies Office also has the following two volumes available for download, which are very useful for actual aircraft costs.

Encyclopedia of U.S. Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems:

Vol. I: Post-World War II Fighters, 1945-1973
Vol. II: Post-World War II Bombers, 1945-1973

And at archive.org, the following book is available for download. Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to access it for copy and paste.

https://archive.org/details/FiveDownAndGlory

Gene Gurney's Five Down and Glory covers American Aces through the Korean War.
 
kilemall said:
I would go with FASA Top Gun for your purposes, its pulpy and would make Jim Dunnigan blanch, but it does capture the essence of air combat maneuvers in a very fast resolution.
Click to expand...

It's also essentially a subset of the battletech/aerotech rules.
 
The only actual RPG I know of that is specificaly for playing pilots and air crew is Night Witches, but it's got a very specific and idiosyncratic setting and flavour. It's also powered by the Apocalypse (uses the game engine from Apocalypse World) and that itself implies a very particular and unconventional take on how to run and play an RPG.

The characters are members of a soviet, women-only bomber unit in WW2. This unit actually existed. They were assigned obsolete biplanes previously used for crop dusting but developed very effective, if unbelievably dangrous tactics to make best use of the characteristics of their planes.

Simon Hibbs
 
I heard of them. I believe they cut the engines just short of the German positions, catching them by surprise. Something not really possible in Traveller, except at relativistic speed.

But the Soviets preferred to have male pilots as heroes of the Union, so women pilots were relegated to the dusty archives.
 
Condottiere said:
I heard of them. I believe they cut the engines just short of the German positions, catching them by surprise. Something not really possible in Traveller, except at relativistic speed.

But the Soviets preferred to have male pilots as heroes of the Union, so women pilots were relegated to the dusty archives.
Click to expand...

Well, 23 of them were awarded the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union' so they weren't brushed under the carpet. However they were the only orriginally all-female air regiment that stayed that way, and stayed lead by a woman through to the end of the war. You've got to hand it to the Soviets for the time, and actualy even by modern standards, they were much more willing to accept that women were capable of combat roles than most other countries.

Simon Hibbs
 
simonh said:
Well, 23 of them were awarded the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union' so they weren't brushed under the carpet. However they were the only orriginally all-female air regiment that stayed that way, and stayed lead by a woman through to the end of the war. You've got to hand it to the Soviets for the time, and actualy even by modern standards, they were much more willing to accept that women were capable of combat roles than most other countries.

Simon Hibbs
Click to expand...

Desperation will do that. Keep in mind that the Soviet youth were generally much better educated after WW II than before, and literacy skyrocketed (from an already high for the late 19th C baseline). And that the Soviets actually had a stronger education system than the Imperial Russian state.
 
aramis said:
Desperation will do that.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that was a factor, but e.g. the Germans and Japanese never formed female combat unites and they got pretty desperate.

Communist ideology played a big part. They thought that the prejudices and cultural beliefs of past times were anachronistic and oppressive, part of the system of domination and control of the old elites. Engels wrote quite a bit about the oppression and subjugation of women in feudal and property owning societies. Lenin wrote about the need to make women equal to men.

Simon Hibbs
 
simonh said:
I'm sure that was a factor, but e.g. the Germans and Japanese never formed female combat unites and they got pretty desperate.

Communist ideology played a big part. They thought that the prejudices and cultural beliefs of past times were anachronistic and oppressive, part of the system of domination and control of the old elites. Engels wrote quite a bit about the oppression and subjugation of women in feudal and property owning societies. Lenin wrote about the need to make women equal to men.

Simon Hibbs
Click to expand...

The Japanese were about to when the bombs started. The women have almost always had reserve unit drills - starting in the 1400's - and were well trained on polearms.
 
simonh said:
Well, 23 of them were awarded the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union' so they weren't brushed under the carpet. However they were the only orriginally all-female air regiment that stayed that way, and stayed lead by a woman through to the end of the war. You've got to hand it to the Soviets for the time, and actualy even by modern standards, they were much more willing to accept that women were capable of combat roles than most other countries.

Simon Hibbs
Click to expand...

Having actually commanded a mixed sex unit, I disagree with your comment as to combat suitability.
 
In an existential fight, differences matter a lot less.

In a controlled contained conflict with a volunteer force, the guys are going to able to pull their weight better than the women, at the sharp end.
 
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