Prepare to face the infamous German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt 109s and relentless German Flak as you head towards your target in B-17 Solitaire. Command an American B-17 Flying Fortress bomber during the 1942-44 bombing campaigns of World War II.
Your B-17 missions will take you to various locations in Europe during the war, from the skies of France to the heart of Germany. Your plane and crew will face bad weather, chance circumstances, Axis air defenses, and fighter planes determined to stop your bombing missions. The Axis forces are an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) BOT player. The goal is to earn victory points from successful bombing runs and downed enemy fighters, all while keeping your crew safe.
The Axis forces have stacked the deck against you. Still, success and survival can be achieved with careful planning, good flying, and keeping the target in sight. Good luck!
To play the B-17 Solitaire Bookgame, you will need to provide a pen and at least one six sided die, we recommend two. Each set of Map and Plane pages have 3 different missions, with 30 unique missions in total. There are two chances to play each mission, in Book 1 and Book 2 which provides a total of 60 missions. A dice rolling smart phone application can be used in place of the dice.
A quick example of the exciting gameplay:
Mission 1: Rail Yards at Rouen, FranceYour first bombing mission in Europe should be an easy milk run. Let’s show them what we got.
Starting in the south of England with a clear weather report, you take off and rendezvous with your squadron. Moving south, you are in the lead formation. You tick off squares on the map, noting your remaining fuel each turn. As you enter enemy air space in turn 2, you encounter fighter resistance. Rolling one die, you roll a 4, easily avoiding any fighter engagement.
As you continue to fly, they come at you again. Rolling a 2 brings the fighters to your doorstep. As you roll again, a 5, Fighters High. The top turret springs into action. Shells rain down into the cockpit as you roll for your gunner action. Another 5. Engine 3, just outside your co-pilot’s window, starts to spew oil, and then the top gunner screams out, “I’m Hit!”
Next, moving further south, noting your fuel consumption again, flak appears on the horizon. When flak is encountered, you roll a 2! Heavy flak begins to burst all around you. You roll a die again to see where it hits and get a 6. Both engines 1 and 2 are aflame, and one damage is marked on each engine.
As the flak subsides, the infamous German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt 109s are spotted. “Fighters incoming,” your top gunner yells across the radio. Rolling a die, you roll a 2... they have found your fort. Rolling again to plot their direction, you get a 4. “Fighters, 9 o’clock!” your waist gunner calls as he squeezes off a few fiery bursts from his 50-caliber machine gun.
Rolling a die again, it’s a 1! A stream of smoke and fire fills the sky as the 109 is no more. There is no time to celebrate, though; you still need to make it across the coast and into France to give one of Hitler’s railyards its final stop.
Turning east into the next square, both flak and fighters are avoided by rolling a 5 and 6. With your eyes locked on the target, you advance into the next square. As you fly into the target square, flak fills the sky. Rolling a 2, the flak jars your plane and with a damage roll of 3, the rudder is hit. Fighters appear, but with a roll of 6, they miss you.
As you prepare your bombing run, you plan to come in at a low altitude. Passing the controls to the Bombardier, he carefully lines up the target in the bombsight and waits for the perfect shot.” Bombs away,” he shouts as he turns off the auto-pilot, and you take back the controls. Rolling a 5, modified to a 4 for the low altitude, gains you a hit and scores you 4 VP. He did great.
Now, let's get home.
