Squadron Dispatch #3
- Phil Yates
- Jun 10
- 6 min read
Dear Squadron Pilots,
Welcome back to Squadron Dispatches! This week we're diving into one of the most critical aspects of aerial combat—shooting. How does Angels One Six model the differences between a Spitfire's eight .303 machine guns and the heavy 20mm cannon of an Me 109? How does it capture the relative difficulty of a full-deflection passing shot compared to a tail chase? And, what is the best armament, anyway?
‘There was Quite a Lot of Argument’
When Air Vice Marshal Sholto Douglas called in some of his top pilots to discuss fighter armament, Douglas Bader put the case for the Spitfire’s Browning machine-guns.
‘The Browning’s a proven weapon. Damn sight sooner carry on with eight of them than start monkeying about with four—or six, hell, even eight—of these things. Don’t trust cannon—too bloody new, probably still full of bugs. Let’s wait until they’ve worked out a few modifications.’
Throughout Bader’s contribution, Bob Tuck had been fuming. Then it was ‘Sailor’ Malan’s turn. ‘At anything over five hundred yards, Browning fire was unlikely to inflict serious damage, even with a high percentage of hits. A single 20-millimetre shell, even at eight or nine hundred yards, could result in the complete destruction of an aircraft.’
When Malan finished, Tuck said, ‘I agree with Sailor, sir. Absolutely. I’ve nothing to add—except that if you give us cannon, I’m quite certain we’ll knock down a lot more of them than we do now.’
Tuck had lamented the lack of heavier armament in the early stages of the Battle of Britain. ‘If those had been 20-millimetre shells that clobbered it, instead if just .303 bullets, we’d have had a kill, and we’d be swigging Maloney’s bubbly now! Why the hell don’t they give us cannon?’
So, who was right? Bader or Malan and Tuck?
In part, they both were. Bader was right that early 20mm cannon were unreliable and had limited ammunition. Malan and Tuck were right in that when they worked, they were devastating.
‘There was quite a lot of argument before we got the OK to fit them as a matter of routine,’ Tuck recalled. ‘But, once decided, then it was forced ahead as quickly as the 20mm cannons could be turned out and fitted.’ Appropriately, his was one of the first squadrons fully equipped with cannon-armed Hurricanes.
The conversations above were adapted from Fly for Your Life: the Story of R.R. Stanford Tuck, DSO, DFC, and two Bars by Larry Forrester and RAF Ace Robert Stanford Tuck: The Pilot Even the Enemy Admired.
Guns, Guns, Guns
Aircraft weaponry varied hugely, as a glance at the guns to the right shows. But it wasn’t just their size and weight. Even apparently similar weapons differed in their:
Rate of Fire—More bullets in the air means more hits
Muzzle Velocity—Faster bullets require less deflection shooting
Projectile Weight and Explosive Content—What happens when you actually hit matters
Ammunition Supply—Limited bursts need to be conserved
Mounting—Stability and dispersion affect hit probability
How do you model all this without turning the game into a ballistics simulation?
Angels One Six's Solution:Clever Maths—Simple Play |
Angels One Six takes all these factors into account through a spreadsheet that converts them into three numbers: the number of dice rolled, a modifier on the score to hit, and a firepower rating that reflects the destructive capability of the rounds. Number of DiceThe number of dice rolled is the simplest. It’s just the number of weapons. You roll one die per gun, using big dice for cannons and small dice for machine-guns. To Hit ModifierIn terms of the weapon itself, a high muzzle velocity limits the distance the target moves between the shots being fired and arriving at the target and also the amount of drop from gravity over that time. Both make the weapon much easier to aim. Add in a high rate of fire, saturating the target area with rounds, and you have a high chance of hitting. The way a weapon is mounted in the aircraft also matters. Weapons positioned in the nose, firing along the axis of the aircraft, suffer a reduced rate of fire from the synchronization needed to avoid hitting the propellor, but that is more than made up for in accuracy. The rounds go where the aircraft is pointed. Weapons mounted in the wings are less accurate. Not only do the wings bend and twist during manoeuvres, but rounds fired off the axis of the aircraft experience different forces, increasing dispersion and reducing accuracy. Finally, there is ammunition. If your weapon has plenty of ammunition, giving lots of bursts, you are more likely to still have rounds left when a good shot comes up. If a weapon has a limited ammunition supply, you need to be careful, holding fire until you have a good shot rather than taking more risky opportunities that present themselves. The spreadsheet combines this into a single number from -1 to +1. A modifier of ‘-1’ reduces the number you need to roll, say making a requirement for a roll of 5+ into a requirement of 4+, making you more likely to hit. A modifier of ‘-’ is standard—no change to the score needed. A modifier of ‘+1’ increases the number you need to roll, making it harder to hit. |
Spitfire Weapons
The Spitfire has eight 0.303-inch Browning machine-guns, so it rolls eight dice. The machine-guns have a good rate of fire (1200 rpm), a good muzzle velocity (750 m/s), and 300 rounds per gun. That makes for a fairly accurate weapon, but they are mounted in the wings, leaving them with a To Hit modifier of ‘-’, right in the middle range of accuracy. They also have a Firepower of 6, which I’ll get to in a bit.
Me 109 Weapons
The Me 109 has two types of weapons. It’s pair of wing-mounted 20mm MG/FFM cannon give it two dice. They are slow firing (540 rpm), have a reasonable muzzle velocity (695 m/s), but only 60 rounds per gun. The MG/FFM can be tricky to score a hit with, and with less than seven seconds of shooting, every shot has to count. They have a To Hit modifier of +1. However, with a Firepower of 4+, they have a bit of a punch.
The second type of weapon is a pair of nose-mounted 7.92mm MG17 machine-guns, giving it another two dice. They are very similar to the Spitfire’s machine-guns, having a good rate of fire (1080 rpm) thanks to electrical synchronizing, a good muzzle velocity (775 m/s), and a whopping 500 rounds per gun. Combined with the accuracy gain from firing along the aircraft axis, they get a To Hit modifier of -1, making them very effective.
Firepower
0.303 (7.7mm) British (Spitfire), Italian, Japanese
7.92mm German
13mm German
12.7mm Italian, Japanese
12.7mm United States
12.7mm Soviet Union
15mm German
20mm Swiss, German, Japanese
20mm Swiss, German (Me 109)
20mm German
20mm Japanese
20mm Soviet Union
20mm Swiss, Japanese
The destructive capability of a round has three main components: the size of the round, its muzzle velocity, and its rate of fire.
The size of the round has two effects. Big rounds carry more momentum, penetrating armour and doing more damage on impact. They can also carry an explosive payload, detonating inside the target for even greater effect. A good example of that is the 104g (3.7 oz) 20mm round of the MG/FFM which has slightly more explosive than the entire weight of the 11g (0.4 oz) 0.303 round fired by the British Browning.
Higher muzzle velocity increases the momentum effect of a round, somewhat compensating for a lack of explosive effect, as does a high rate of fire— hitting a target with enough rounds can make up for weaker individual rounds.
We see the effect of this in the 6 Firepower of the small 0.303 Browning and the 4+ Firepower of the much bigger and deadlier 20mm MG/FFM.
On the other hand, hundreds of 0.303 DeWilde tracers make for a spectacular, and no doubt frightening, display!
Back to Bader and Tuck
So, in game terms, how does Bader’s and Tuck’s argument pan out?
Here’s the two weapon fit outs as they eventually became. The eight .303 Brownings roll eight dice with no modifier, so are likely to score hits and have some effect.
The 20mm Hispano packs a wallop with a 3+ Firepower, but only rolls four dice with a +1 penalty to the score needed to hit. If it hits, it hurts, just as Tuck said, but as Bader pointed out, the trick is getting those hits.
Once the boffins figured out how to mount such a big weapon in fighters, the Hispano became the standard until missiles finally made it obsolete.
Looking Forward
Next time, I'll be diving into how weapons operate in an actual dogfight. How and when your aircraft shoot and what effect they have when they do.
We Want to Hear From You
Which aircraft armament setup interests you most? The rapid-fire machine gun approach, the devastating but limited cannon systems, or the mixed armament that offers tactical flexibility? How important is historical accuracy in weapon modeling to your gaming experience?
Hit reply or join the discussion at Angels One Six Gamers. Every pilot's perspective helps refine the final game.
Until next time, keep your deflection shooting sharp and check your six!
Red Leader, Out!
Phil Yates
Designer,
Angels One Six
Savage Mouse Games
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