Taking a break from Dystopian Wars, we went to the second
mission in the campaign book.
Historically, an Australian Coast Watcher reported a large
formation of bombers with escorts on their way to Darwin. The American “Screamin’ Demons” of the 7th
Pursuit Squadron made their attack shortly after the bombers had dropped their
payload.
The Japanese Navy Air Force consisted of a formation of8
(9?) G4M1 “Betty” Twin-Engine Bombers in a “V” formation at TAL 3 with 2
sections of 3 Zeroes escorting in front, one at TAL 1, the other at TAL6. Finally, a lone Zero followed the bombers as
a rear-guard on the same TAL level (3).
The Americans started out with 8 P40 Warhawks BUT 5 of the
pilots are “Green”. They were so
inexperienced, one of the pilots broke formation and went charging off on his
own!
On the table, the Bombers were set up in the middle of ‘C’
section of the playing field, with 2 sections of Zeros set up in Section ‘D’
and the lone Zero behind the bombers.
The Americans then setup their fighters in the ‘E’ section. Per the tactics of the time, there were two
Formations, 1 Attack Flight and 1 Support Flight. All the American fighters started off at TAL
5 – charging at the Bombers from above! To
represent the “hot head” that broke formation way too soon, the Attack flight
had only 3 planes while the “Lone Eagle” set up on his own. Historically, this “Lone Eagle” dove through
the bomber formation on his own, firing his guns and emptying them in one pass!
After Aircraft were placed, we both rolled for the Variable
Rules”. The Americans rolled “Buck
Fever”: All Green Pilots are Out Of Formation.
This was bad as it meant that they could not stay in formation and take
advantage of the Skilled or Veteran Pilot’s abilities. The Japanese rolled “Usagi No Ashi”
(“Rabbit’s Foot” if I can trust Google): Any G4M1 Bomber ignores the first
damage roll (Basically a free hit!).
Looking at the deployment photos it looks like the 2 V
sections of Zeroes are in a bad position and I was worried that they wouldn’t
be useful where they were but that was pretty much as close as I could set them
up per the mission instructions. The
Bombers, with a speed of 2 hexes per turn, would take about 10 turns to make it
off the board edge on the opposite side of the map.
With 8 Warhawks screaming at them, I was worried about the
bombers…
Turn 1:
The Betty bombers trucked forward 2 hexes to maintain
formation. The US “Green” pilots had to
move next in sequence as they had all broken formation per the “Buck Fever”. This allowed all the Zeroes (whose flights
were all led by Skilled pilots) to move in the Skilled Move Group. The two V formations of Zeroes turned right
to engage the US Fighters, the flight at TAL1 climbing to TAL2 and dropping to
Speed 2 while the Solo Zero moved forward and slipped to the right. The Americans all dove to TAL 4 so that they
could shoot at the bombers, move an extra hex and increased their speed to 4
for next turn. An extra “free” hex move
as was allowed per the rules. By the
time the Americans completed their moves, I was unable to determine if there
was any formation – it looked like a Free-For-All!
After all the moves were completed, we started the Fire
Phase. All shooting is Simultaneous, so
we started with the Warhawks first. The
only one to hit was the Lone Eagle on one of the Bombers, but due to the “Usagi
No Ashi” rule, it ignored the damage!
The bombers fired next but the only shots they had were with the Waist
Guns which were single Light Machine Guns, so we didn’t really expect anything
to happen. And we were not
surprised! No damage from the
bombers! Finally, the “Tail Flight” Zero
fired (it was the only Zero with a shot) and successfully blew the Lone Eagle
Flight from the skies with lucky Cannon fire (I needed a modified roll of 11 to
hit and GOT it)! Out of curiosity, we
rolled and confirmed that Harold Martin successfully bailed out before the
plane crashed.
First Kill for the Japanese Navy!
End of turn 1
Turn 2:
So the Bombers started things off, dawdling forward 2 hexes
again. The Japanese at TAL2 climbed to
TAL3 and dropped to speed 1 while the Zeroes at TAL6 dropped to TAL5,
maintaining speed 3 and turning towards the Americans. Most of the American fighters continued to
charge towards the Bombers at speed 4 except for 2 planes; Plane 1 which turned
to engage the solo Zero and Plane 2 which turned to engage one of the flights
of Zeros.
In the Fire Phase, the Veteran P40 and Trailing Zero fired
at each other Head-To-Head, both failing to hit. Meanwhile on of the bombers with the Pop-Gun
managed to hit the Veteran P40, forcing it to roll on the Robustness table to
prevent damage. Unfortunately, the Vet
rolled doubles, resulting in a Lucky Hit: which resulted in a 12:
Explosion! Kill for the Bomber! Another bomber got another hit on Warhawk #3,
which also failed its Robustness Roll; Airframe Damage!
End of Turn 2
Turn 3:
Attempting to spoil the American Attacks, the Bomber
formation made a side-skip to the right, into the American Fighters. The ploy worked as some fighters overflew the
formation. The Zeros flying high also
side-slipped as they dove down towards the American Fighters, while the
Trailing Zero side-slipped as well, catching the 7th Warhawk in his
sights. The Zeroes that had climbed from
TAL1 side-slipped towards the Bombers, and managed to increase their speed to 2
by flying level.
We started attacks with the Americans this time. The Warhawk in the Trailing Zero’s sights
managed to cause Airframe damage to one bomber, while a second fighter got a
Lucky Hit on another bomber – and promptly rolled Double-6: ANOTHER mid-air
Explosion!
The Trailing Zero managed to get Airframe Damage on the
Warhawk directly ahead, but ran out of ammo in the process! The Diving Zeros then pounced on the Warhawks
from above: Two Zeroes shared a kill on one Warhawk (the pilot bailing out
successfully), and the 3rd Zero shot down a second fighter on his
own (this pilot also successfully bailed out)!
End of Turn 3
Turn 4:
The Americans had suffered enough and cut their losses. Using their superior dive speed (and catching
the Japanese completely off guard), the Warhawks all dove to TAL1. As the sides were 2+ TAL levels apart, there
could be no shooting this turn. Graham conceded
the game and announced he would disengage below TAL1 next turn.
Now we had to figure out the points:
None of the Zeros were damaged or shot down so there were no
Victory Points there. One Betty Bomber
was shot down and one was damaged.
Rolling to see what happened to the damaged bomber, we discovered it
crashed on landing – counting as a second Kill.
As a twin bomber, they were worth 8 points each for a total of 16 points
for the Americans. Not very good news.
On the other side, the Japanese Shot down 4 Warhawks and damaged
another which had crashed on landing for a total of 5 Fighters at 4 points
each. There was a bonus of 2 points for
shooting down the Veteran US Pilot. That
was a total of 22 “Normal” Victory Points.
Also, the mission awarded bonus points for each bomber than would make
it safely to base (4 Points each for 6 bombers) for an additional 24
points. (Re-reading the mission, I was
supposed to only have 8 bombers, not 9).
This gave the Japanese a total of 46 Victory Points – a major Victory!
WOW! I was expecting
a lot worse damage on the Japanese Bombers, but dice conspired against the
American P40 Warhawks this time. This is probably the shortest game of Check Your 6! I've ever played.
Usually, the Betty doesn’t do well against American Fighters. Using Light Machine Guns,on the front, sides
and top, they only get to do D4 damage unless the enemy flies behind the bomber
were a Low Velocity Cannon can roll a D10 for damage. Graham knows this so avoids being behind the Betties
whenever he can. What the LMG does is
forces the fighters to make a Robustness save and (hopefully) cause a Lucky Hit
when doubles are rolled. Usually these are
frustrating or annoying penalties. We’ve
never had a game where we had 2 Lucky Hits that caused Explosions before.
The other thing that really hampered the Americans this
mission was the large number of “Green” pilots.
While historically accurate, it really hampered their attacks on the
Bombers this time.
The Trailing Zero was a problem for Graham, shooting down 1 Warhawk
and damaging another. It was a threat
that he couldn’t ignore. Once the other
Zeroes got into position in Turn 3 (shooting down 2 more Warhawks in a single
turn), Graham really didn’t have any other option other than to disengage. If he had stayed, the full might of the 6
Zeroes that lead the formation would have been in the rear of most of his
fighters and he just wouldn’t have survived that.
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