Burma!

Yesterday I hosted a Check Your 6! game at the local gaming store (if a 50 minute drive is considered local), using the Burmese Buffalo Hunt scenario found on the CY6 forum with a few minor changes. It was a fun challenge for both sides as the scenario takes place in the rain and fog and visibility is drastically reduced. Also, the Hurricanes of 17 Squadron have their long range fuel tanks still attached, severely impacting their speed and maneuverability.

Nine Nates faced off against three pairs of Allied aircraft - Hawk 81s of the American Volunteer Group's 1st Squadron, Buffalos of the British 67 Squadron, and the aforementioned Hurricanes. It was interesting to watch the player's morale ebb and flow with the game. After spotting the Buffaloes, and having a set of the three Nates drop down from above just a few hexes away from them, the Japanese players continued to place hits on the Brewsters, but the robustness of the Buffalo coupled with the two light machineguns of the Nates meant that the Buffalos were not going anywhere for some time. However, the tide began to turn a bit with one of the Buffalos taking damage and the other receiving a lucky hit, impacting its fuel. By this time the slow climbing and slow moving Hurricanes, along with the faster Hawks, made their way into the fry, but the Nates were able to react and drive off the Allies. If memory serves me correctly, one Nate was shot down and one damaged, with the Allies suffering the loss of a Buffalo, the other damaged, a Hurricane shot down, and a Hawk likewise. Several of the Nate ran out of ammo during the course of the game (I believe four in total, but it was still an overall Japanese victory. I probably should have balanced the players a bi more as the Japanese side all had experienced gamers, while the Allies had one experienced gamer, one who had played CY6 a few times, and one who had never played.

All the planes were painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Hotz Mats

Planes - Raiden

Custom Range Sticks and Deflection

The beauty of the Wings of Glory rules is the ability to add on house rules, in most cases with relative ease. However, the range of the machine guns, when compared to the size of the plane model, is very off. But one also has to consider the amount of playing space. I have a custom three feet by five feet mat which really well on the tables at the local hobby shop - room to maneuver a bit, with room for the miscellaneous gaming paraphernalia that goes along with miniatures gaming. Also, in reading the many house rules on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome, one thought was to measure peg to peg. My solution was to have custom rulers made, with a nine inch range, and changing the ranges to short (two damage cards), medium (one damage card at a +1), and long (one damage card), and measure peg to peg. I've not tried this on the table yet, but am eager to give this a shot. As for altitude, only the short range band is used, and treated as a long range shot.

The custom range sticks you see in the pictures were made by Pro Painted Studios out of Dorset in the United Kingdom. I sent them a rough sketch of what I was looking for, and they produced a wonderful looking range stick. 

Deflection – Measure from the peg of the firing plane to the peg of the target plane. If the line does not both stay within the firing arc and cross the rear edge of the targeted plane, then the shot is a deflection shot. In this case the defender draws two damage cards and decides on which card to keep. If this is a short-range shot, then another card is also given as damage. Example: A Fokker D.VII is firing at a SPAD XIII at short range. The line from peg to peg does not cross the rear of the target plane but is within the firing arc of the Fokker. The defender will draw two cards, keeping the card of his choice and reshuffling the other back into the deck. As this is a short-range shot, a second damage card is also given.

Some pictures showing the sticks and examples of range and deflection.

If playing peg to peg, this shot would be out of arc as the peg of the target plane is out of the firing plane's arc. If playing standard, this would be a medium range deflection shot as the arc of the firing plane does not cross the rear of the target plane's base.

A medium range shot (one card at +1)

A long range shot (one damage card)

A long range deflection shot. Draw two cards and the target player chooses which one to keep, and discards the other.

Looks MUCH better in person

Mat - GripMats

Pearl!

Last weekend I hosted a Check Your 6! event at the local shop. Using the Pearl Harbor Second Strike scenario, slightly modified to accommodate the number of players, we were able to recreate the scenario using the custom Pearl Harbor mat from Deep Cut Studio. We cut the Japanese by three Zeros, reduce the American anti-aircraft by half, and remove one P-40 and one P-36, trying to balance the game for five players.

The Japanese looked overly powerful from the start as the American setup seemed too far to have much impact. Luckily the Japanese missed on every bombing attempt, but were successful with several strafes, racking up points along the way. The American anti-aircraft caused a few hits, and one green American P-36 was very successful in not only fighting off the Zeros, but also causing damage in turn. The Americans closed the points gap, but by the end the Japanese squeaked out a victory.

Hoping to run this again with a full complement of players.

Planes - Americans are Raiden