Bomber Command Solitaire Rules

1) Target Selection:
Draw three chits from the cup containing the target chits. Place these chits in a cup
that includes the Pennemünde target chit. One of the three chits will end up being
the Main Force target and the other two chits will be spoof raids by Mosquitoes.
The Pennemünde chit is used to check if a Gardening mission occurs in a Gardening
hex.

2) Raid Planning:
Plan the routes for the three target chits as you would normally do. Plan a route for
the Gardening mission that follows a straight line from hex D5 to hex M1, returning
by whatever route you decide. At this point you will not know what the Main Force
target is.

3) Raid Execution:
Move the raids as you normally would in a two player game, checking for detection
as you normally would. If the raids are detected place the counters on the map as in
a two player game. If the air picture is clarified, and one or more of the raid
counters is not adjacent to a “Mandrel Screen” hex, draw a target chit for each raid
counter on the map. If the target chit drawn corresponds with the raid that is being
checked, that raid has been identified as the Main Force Raid. The other two raids
will automatically be spoof raids that will bomb their planned targets. Once the
Main Force raid has been identified set its target chit aside for later use.

If a raid counter arrives at a Himmelbett box before the Main Force raid has been
identified, draw a target chit from the cup. If that chit is the same as the target of
the plotted raid being checked, it is the Main Force; otherwise it is a spoof raid. In
the very rare cases where a raid arrives at its target hex without being previously
identified, draw a chit, if that chit is the same as the target being bombed, it is the
Main Force.

Checks for the Gardening mission will begin when the raid counter enters hex H3 by
drawing a chit; if the Pennemünde target chit is drawn, the Gardening hex is the hex
that the raid counter currently occupies. In cases where the raid counter has moved
through two potential Gardening hexes, a chit is drawn for each hex; with the first
chit draw set temporally aside while a chit is drawn for the second potential
Gardening hex. If neither hex turns out to be a Gardening hex, place both target
chits back into the cup and repeat the process as appropriate. If the raid counter
reaches hex M1, that hex is automatically the Gardening hex.
4) Determining the Actual Main Force Target:
When the Main Force raid counter gets within two hexes from its assigned target
take its target chit and place it in a cup. Draw two other target chits that are from
cities within one or two hexes of the planned Main Force target. Mix the chits and
draw one, that target chit is the actual target of the Main Force raid. Modify the raid
route as required and play out the situation.

NOTES:
1) While not perfect, the above system does interject a decent level of uncertainty
for the player. It prevents ganging up on the Main Force early in every game,
though that can still occur as it historically did from time to time. Plotting the
Gardening mission along the same route is not realistic, but maybe it could be
defined as what game designers call “design for effect”. By that I mean it give
the player another tough tactical decision to make, that will undoubtedly
influence his tactical decision making from time to time. A Gardening raid that
looks like it is going to garner 5-7 points is hard to ignore.

2) The sleight of hand when it comes to identifying the actual Main Force target
near the originally planned target presents, what I think, is both an interesting
and historically accurate dilemma for the player. Bomber Command was able to
sometimes fool the Luftwaffe controllers by using spoof raids, late route changes
or both. Again, this prevents the player from “piling on” the planned Main Force
target, as he just never knows which target is going to actually be bombed. As
historically happened, sometimes the Germans will not be able to recover in
time to robustly defend the target; sometimes the spoof won’t matter much and
the Germans will still be able to react well to defend, and sometimes the spoof(s)
won’t work at all, allowing the Germans to maximize their defense. When you
have a case where the actual spoof raids are fairly near the target that is actually
bombed, it gives (at least for me), a historically realistic tactical situation for the
Germans.

3) When playing the campaign game I made a couple of house rules. First, if all the
Berlin target chits are not used it does not automatically give victory to the
Germans. In the two long campaigns I played Berlin was bombed by the Main
Force 10 and 8 times respectively. I also did not remove other target chits from
the main target chit cup after they had been bombed once, I did so after they
had been bombed twice.