On Games

Iremember the first time I played a game of B-17 Queen of the Skies. I named my bomber, put my own name as the pilot, and populated the rest of the 10 man crew with famous actor names like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. I flew 5 missions in the first sitting and kept records on which crewman scored hits on German fighters and prayed to the dice gods to be kind as my crew tried to get through 25 missions in one piece.

I think my first bomber got blown up on her 6th mission. And from then on I was hooked. Unfortunately the game itself was a little cumbersome for me. It had 6 charts filled with different tables that one had to use to figure out how many enemy fighters were attacking, how many the bomber could drive off, and if the enemy fighter got through, how many hits he scored on the bomber, where, and what damage those hits did. It was a little too much for me to handle. And so the game got put away for a while as I found computer games to simulate those bombing runs, like 50 Mission Crush, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, B-17.

Fast forward to now. I found an open source software engine called Vassal, which lets users create digital modules of their favorite boardgames and play them on their computer. The only thing missing was the rulebook, which you were supposed to have if you owned the game anyway.

Turns out someone created a module for B-17. And a very good one too. It helped streamline a lot of the bookeeping, which let me get straight to the fun part of the game, rolling for enemy fighters, telling my gunners which ones to shoot, and seeing my B-17 through her next mission.

This past week too I discovered that others who loved playing B-17 had formed online virtual bombing squadrons, where we could participate on the same mission, flying to the same target, and collectively see how our bombers were doing as a whole. So I decided to join one. And that’s how I found myself in the 281st Bomb Group, 151st Bomb Squadron, flying the B-17 Maid’n America. I just finished my first mission and already we’ve lost two crewman who suffered serious injuries. I wonder what the target will be next week.