The Thousand Bomber Raid 1995

From the Introduction

"The Thousand Bomber Raid is a participation game based on a Lancaster Bomber raid on Hanover on 14 October 1943. It is intended to be played with about 10 players and 1 or 2 Umpires, in less than 1 hour. Each player is intended to fly one bomber; however it is quite possible to have 2 or even 3 players for each bomber. The maximum number of bombers a single Umpire can handle is about 10.

User Summary

For a small rules set, this has some intriguing and innovative features. Physical tasks are required to make certain checks during the game. For example... pilots are required to toss a prop joystick up in the air and catch it in order to perform tasks and engineers must assemble small Lego patterns under time pressure to repair components. The Umpire shines a powerful flashlight in the eyes of pilots while they are performing tasks if they are "caught in search the searchlights."

Navigation is an especially important feature of the game, both for purposes of finding the target, and for staying with other bombers so as not to make easy prey for German night fighters.

Each bomber needs to be represented by a miniature. Game requires d6s, copies of various printed charts and maps, a dartboard along with distinctive darts for each player, a flashlight, a thick dowel (or other prop joystick), and some Lego (or similar) building blocks.

Rules set appears in Wargames Illustrated #91 (April 1995)