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[matt curtis]

We're well into a two-part scenario sent in early 1942. A pure fantasy battle in which the Bismarck and Admiral Scheer, escorted by Graf Zeppelin, have broke into the North Atlantic and are striking at an allied convoy which had distant escort provided by Duke of York, the USS Washington and Ark Royal. The Germans (my ships and crews) knew there were two groupings of ships out there. We just weren't real clear on the particulars.The first part centered around the campaign air ops rules in the GQ3 book and just wrapped up. The allied carrier and its bbs were steaming NE on the campaign hex map, trailing the convoy, while the Germans were headed on what amounted to an opposite course (90 miles south of the Allies when things heated up).We (the Germans) concentrated our air search along a 120 degree arc -- centered along our westerly course. Bismarck and Hipper's Arado float planes were in the middle, while GZ sent out ½ flights of Bf109s on either side. A last full flight was performing CAP. One of those Bf109 half flights buzzed by a formation of Skuas performing the same roll – and then flew right over the distant escort force (not the convoy).Detection came up a “4” for the German air crews…which meant they saw something....but they failed to ID the Ark Royal class CV, botching the ID roll with an "11." Hearing only of tankers and destroyers, the Bismarck and Adm. Scheer were turning about to chase down their intended targets when a British Skua (one of thosed passed by our crews) was shot down by our CAP– lucky break for the Germans via a "Snoop" intercept. So now we were questioning what our own recon pilots were telling us.During the following campaign turn the Germans were now steaming north east. A subsequent roll over the escort force provided an ACCURATE Report which couldn't be blocked by the British CAP, and allowed the Zeppelin to fix the Ark Royal's position. A strike was formed with the Stukas along with those 109s not conducting searches or on CAP – meaning x2 Stuka Squadrons of 3 flights apiece, escorted by one squadron of x3 109 flights. Meanwhile, the Germans were NOT detected…..uh oh……….botched roll by the Brit Skuas....The German wave hit. Only one Fulmar flight was conducting CAP against three flights of escorting 109s. The RN pilots damaged one of our fighter flights, but was torn apart in return. The Ju-87Cs were allowed to proceed unmolested towards the British carrier (a quick die roll showed we would be able to throw all of our dive bombers at the flat top). The Ark Royal's fearsome close AA rating allowed it to shred one of the flights belonging to the first squadron. But none of the other nearby Allied hulls accomplished anything. The Stuka's target number -- based off the carrier's AA and speed -- was a 3(5). The results were a 8,9,3,11 and 2. So a pair of hits, which came up with an "8" and a "9." This knocked off six of the CV's 7 hull boxes and inflicted a pair of engineering hits, leaving it dead in the water.There wasn't anything specific in the rules about how engineering hits impact flight ops, but we agreed "no power" meant to strikes during the next Turn. The poor Ark Royal didn't survive the coup de grace applied later, and now that our Arados have spotted the actual merchant ships, we're moving in to attack, with the Allied battlewagons trying to catch up in time to offer some protection....We're going to obviously handle the surface action using the tactical rules.Matt