This is a player's guide to using the RAF Lion Vassal module -- a solitaire experience. I will assume you have some familiarity with Vassal. At a minimum, you should know to run Vassal with the RAF mod and select offline and a new RAF game. I leave it to you to explore the toolbar buttons. I am going to walk you through a complete day via the sequence of play to help you see the shortcuts that may not seem obvious. Play a day and consult this guide as you go. I suggest you print this out and have it on hand. You will also need paper copies of the tables and the rulebook.
TIPS
There are a few very important Vassal tips you need to know:
1. Right-click on a map spot to center the view there. You can walk your way around the map somewhat quickly by just right-clicking your way there.
2. Every piece in the game has its own menu. You get to it by right-clicking on a piece.
3. Often you want to issue a right-click command on a bunch of pieces at once. To do this, use your mouse cursor to draw a box around a bunch of pieces. Then right-click a piece and do the command. (If not all the pieces share that command, you might not see it though.) I will call this "boxing pieces" from now on. You turn it off by clicking anywhere on the map.
4. If you want to pick a single piece in a stack, double-click the stack to expand it first.
5. Most of the piece right-click commands send planes to locations. For example, "to Re-arm" sends a plane to its proper re-arm location. When I say "do Re-arm" or "send to Re-arm", I will mean right-click and pick the "to Re-arm" menu item.
GETTING STARTED
You have started a new game. If you want to play with night patrols, see step 4 below to put the Blenheims in play. Now open the Cards window. All decks EXCEPT for the target cards will shuffle themselves. (Drop a card atop any of those deck, pull one off, and it will very likely be different.) You must shuffle the target deck yourself! The dummy card atop that deck is to remind you. Draw the dummy card to its discard pile, and right-click shuffle the target deck now.
If you are going to play a full campaign, you won't finish it in one sitting. Just before you save a game, open the Markers window and grab the element that looks like a black bar. Use it to underline your next step on the map's sequence of play. So you don't forget.
Here's the sequence of play with my comments. I only say something if it relates to Vassal and is not obvious.
DAILY PREPARATION PHASE
1. Repair.
2. Time of Day.
3. Weather Forcast. Both weather spots are covered by pieces that show Clear, Patchy Clouds, and Broken Clouds. To change the weather, right-click each one and advance through the cycle.
4. Night Patrol Assignment.
The Blenheims are not on board. See the Extra Planes window. If you play with them, box and send to Sector. If you choose to send them to Night Patrol, they will go to their proper night location on the toteboard.
5. Advance Warning
See below step 3 in Airfield Operations Phase.
6. Squadron Patrol Assignment
See below step 4 in Airfield Operations Phase.
RAID PHASE
1. Raid Target Determination.
I usually draw a card off any deck and plop it down on the map where the sequence of plays are printed. You can do this to get advance warning. (If you right-click a deck, you can send the top card to the same area.) Then flip it over. What to do if radar is crippled? There is no card to put on top the target deck because it would not work anyways. Instead, shuffle the target deck JUST BEFORE you draw a target card. Do it every time. There's a cripple marker in the Markers window to put on THE MAP somewhere to help remind you. Don't put it on the target deck.
There is a bullseye marker (and a minor raid marker with major raid on the reverse side) in Markers that I like to drop on the target zone to remind me.
In general, for all decks, I draw a card and put it on the map because I can slide it around and magnify it at will. I send cards to the discard piles when I am completely done with them.
2 British Detection
3, 5, 7. Squadron Commitment
Box up or select individual planes. Send them to the Hunt Box. They will zip down to it arranged neatly by A/B/C.
4. Raid Size Determination
Draw cards from the Force Decks and drop on (or send them to) map. When done with them (or any card), right-click it and send to discard pile. They will find the right one.
6. Raid Deployment
I put the card next to the fighters and bombers. Right click the appropriate German plane and send it to the appropriate place. I don't particularly worry about A/B/Cs (see below for why), but that's up to you. It's up to you to remember about elite me110s being first.
8. Hunter Interception.
Down in the Raid Display, notice the planes are arranged in A/B/C stacks. I got sick of picking A/B/C evenly, so I quit it. Instead, I rearrange the planes in even stacks, assigning new A/B/Cs at this point in the SOP. There are even A/B/C markers in the Markers window to help. I told John Butterfield about this, and he just said "oh", so I don't think there's anything sinful here. If you rejigger the British assignments, you drag the planes manually.
9, 11. Raid Approach/Target Event
There are some extra markers above Raid Display to help remind you of special events. One "See Event Card" is to remind you to look at the card. Drag each down to the Raid Display when appropriate.
10. Hunter Attack
I find it a hassle to get the first result and then flip the card over to get what it means. To make it easier, after I roll the die, I type the result in the chat window line (like "ADD LA-") and hit return. Now I'm free to flip the chart over.
As you do each result, drag the plane to the heavy or light German loss boxes, or to the Inflight Box. Try to keep British full and reduced planes in separate piles. It doesn't matter for the Germans. The same holds true for Squadron Attack.
I found it a hassle to have to walk across to the VP chart every time a VP was gained or lost, so I put a short-term VP counter near the Raid Display. There's a tiny orange counter set to zero just above the Raid Display. You can track current VPs on it with right-clicks. It goes from -9 to +9. When ready, just walk over to the VP display and do it permanent; then reset the temp one to zero again.
If you get really lucky and get an Ace, right click the lucky plane and select "Ace." You don't need the extra counters, but I would put the matching one aside to remember not having two same aces in the game (like that's likely).
12. Squadron Interception
13. Squadron Attack
14. Bombardment
The damage marker is in the markers window. Flip it over for heavy damage.
15. German Recovery
Box up and right click all returning fighters and bombers, and send to re-arm. The fighters will all pile up NEAR the clock; they won't go on the clock. You can put them on the clock yourself later in step 16. The bombers do NOT go to where they are supposed to. Instead they pile up in two big unsorted piles near their bases. Because of this, you do not have to flip bombers face down before returning them, and you won't get confused by re-flying a spent bomber. Don't worry. The program will sort them for you when it's time.
AIRFIELD OPERATIONS PHASE
1. German Fighter Turnaround
Go to the clock. Take the stack of fighters near the clock and put them on the clock. You will need to manually sort between full and reduced. If time is late enough so there is no spot on the clock for them, then just leave them as is or pile them anywhere near the clock. Don't bother putting them reduced on their bases. The program will do that for you when the time comes.
2. Squadron Turnaround
Whenever you send a British plane to the toteboard, it will appear in the right spot, but you are responsible for its full/reduced state. Just follow the procedure, boxing whenever you can, and right-clicking to the destination. "To sector" puts them to a spot on the map near their patrol circle.
In version 2, I added P1 and P2 buttons to the toolbar. P1 (useful in a 1-tick time advance) sends all squadrons on patrol to the re-arm boxes. P2 (useful in a 2-tick time advance) sends all squadrons on patrol to their sectors.
3. Advance Warning
Send a target card to the map. You can now see the backs of that card and the top one on the deck.
4. Squadron Patrol Assignment
You must drag planes to the patrol circles. There are no spiffy menu items for it.
CALENDAR UPDATE PHASE
1. Squadron / Gruppe Reset
Press the button "End Day Reset" on the toolbar. All German fighters and bombers will go home, full side up, ready for the next day. All British squadrons will return to their home locations. There are a few restricted zones on the map where planes will stay where they are, but otherwise, all planes will go home, and that's why I told you don't get too worked up about sorting bombers and fighters. The restricted areas are the turn order track where German reinforcements sit, the heavy and German light loss boxes, the British light loss boxes, and the British night patrol boxes. Planes there don't go home. Hitting the "End Day Reset" multiple times does no harm.
2. Resolve Night Raids
3. Day Advance
4. Day Event
There are a couple markers that may help you remember the events. I put the tension marker astride the border when that event pops up, and I put the 3-to-2 across that border when that one appears. By the way, you can delete most markers and draw a new one when you need it.<
5. Update Replacement Points
6, 7. Light Loss/Heavy Loss Replacements
If any of those planes are returning to action, you can just plop them anywhere OUTSIDE those restricted zones and hit "End Day Reset" again. They will go home too.
8. Reinforcements
Germans are on the day track. British are in the Extra Planes window.
9. Card Shuffle Check
The numbers below each discard pile tell you how many cards are still in the deck and how many in the discard pile, except the day one tells you how many raid days have elapsed. If you need to add cards to deck, you can find them in the Extra Cards window. Right click and pick the cards you need. (You can select each card with a control-right-mouse-click combination.)
If you send target card discards to the deck, you must reshuffle the deck! If you add new cards to the target deck, reshuffle. And please don't shuffle the reminder card into the deck.
questions? stan@hilinski.net