Afternoon Delight After Action Report

I hosted one of my scenarios from my Slovak-Hungarian booklet (not yet ready for much public consumption) at the local store, and suckered...er, convinced four members of the Check Your 6! Southwestern Ohio Group to play. The scenario was Afternoon Delight, which is a representation of the largest air battle of this small conflict.

The Slovak starting positions...

...and the Hungarian initial starting alignment.

Setup saw the Slovaks (three Letov S.328s escorted by three Avia B.534s) moving in from the southwest as they were on a mission to bomb targets along the Hungarian advance (aircrew quality was one skilled and two poor for the fighters, with three green for the bombers). To oppose them were six Fiat CR.32s with two skilled and four green aircrew. Both sides had to plot forward moves until a spotting check was made, and all aircraft were pretty much spotted by Turn Three. The escort Avias, pulling away from the slower bombers, made an impressive turn to take on the the flight of Avias that were heading directly for the Slovak bombers, but was unfortunately too high to do any damage. Meanwhile the other flight of Fiats now had a good angle on the Avias, but they in turn were too high. 

The Avia flight turns into the Fiats tasked for the bombers...

...but that Fiat flight stayed focused on the Letovs...

...and one split s later placed themselves in a great position, while the other Fiat flight starts to engage the Avias

Some dancing about lead to the second flight of Fiats placing rounds on the Avias, but as many '4' results were appearing on the dice, damage was limited. This was a theme for the Hungarian players - a decent amount of hits, but many '4' were being thrown, and hence, thrown out for damage.

The remaining Letovs stay on target

Things started heating up quickly, with some beautiful formation flying. The Slovaks started taking damage and based on some great positioning by the Hungarian fighters I thought this scenario was going to be over, and soon. However, the small caliber and number of guns on the Fiats meant that the Slovak planes might take hits, but were not being blown out of the sky. The bombers, less one from their flight, kept heading for the target hexes. The flight of Fiats that first encountered the bombers reversed course and stayed on the tails of the Letovs, and another Slovak bomber went down. But then the dice went cold. Even with some incredibly easy to hit numbers, the dice were unkind, and three Fiats chasing the bombers could not finish the job.

One Slovak bomber closed in to the target area, diving a couple of turns to grab the extra hex. But just as the Letov was over one of the targets, the Hungarian antiaircraft scored a full hit - five six sided dice of damage was inbound. However, Mr. Robusto (my friend Matt) fended off the strike and then placed his light bombload squarely on target, giving the Slovaks a much needed four victory points. The game was running closer.

Down to one bomber, the Fiats could not buy a hit

One Avia fighter, with the skilled (+1) aircrew, took a lucky hit and went out of control as a result. For several turns this pilot could not pass an aircrew check, and the Avia kept losing altitude. One of the Hungarian fighters pulled a Split S, winding up in the out of control aircraft's hex and at the same altitude, and both pilots failed their checks. Collision! The result was the Hungarian Fiat fell from the sky, while the Avia still hung on.

Out of control!

The balance had swung. While the Hungarians might have been able to nail another Slovak fighter or two, the remaining bomber was moving safely towards a friendly edge, and the out of control Avia finally regained a semblance of order, and was also pointed towards a safe edge. At this point we decided to call the game.

This is not the first game I have hosted in which a side looked destined for destruction, only to flip the script and pull out a victory. The dice, had then been average in nature, most likely would have seen the third Slovak bomber shot down, but it did not happen and the Slovaks could pull out a slight victory.

Returning home I pulled out some resource material and I am updating a couple of items by increasing the Slovak crew quality a bit, and giving the Letov a +1 agility.

Thanks to the group for playing!

Planes - Flight Deck Decals Avias, Table Top Flights CR.32s, and H&R Letovs, all painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio.