A Bit More on the Fireball

I have been working on a few additional hypothetical scenarios that feature the Ryan FR-1 Fireball - a piston and jet engined fighter that went into production a bit too late to see service during the Second World War. With the recent purchase at DayCon of a pair of MSD Games F8F Bearcats, nicely painted by Chris at I-94, I wanted to get both the Bearcats and the Fireballs on the table together. 

There is a not a lot of ink on the Fireball - oh, one can easily find numerous images online, but it is a relatively sparse plate in finding printed materials. There are two that I know of that specifically deal with the FR-1 - a Squadron Signal Mini in Action (1995) and a title in the Naval Fighters series by Steve Ginter (Ryan FR-1 Fireball And XF2R-1 Darkshark, also 1995). The Fireball also receives a few pages in the Detail & Scale book U.S. Navy and Marine Carrier-Based Aircraft of World War II (2018). So really the Mini in Action and the Ginter books are the best source books still available today. However, they do not always agree in their facts (mostly when it comes to VF-66 personnel and the number of kills they had prior to joining the squadron).

YouTube has numerous videos on the Fireball - unfortunately a few of them really besmirch the plane as opposed to looking at why it was designed versus the issues with using jet powered aircraft on carriers.  

What I have done, with the use of AI, is to create five "what-if" scenarios featuring the FR-1 and/or the F8F, going up against some of the few late war Japanese aircraft I have (the Ki-100 and J2M3 Raiden). Those five scenarios are now uploaded on the Downloads page, under the "World War II - Pacific (If the War Continued)" section.

P-40 Stats

P-40E of the 11st Fighter Squadron

One of the most iconic and commonly used aircraft during World War II was the Curtiss P-40. I keep coming across various iterations in the scenarios I am designing, whether set in the Aleutians, Pacific, Burma, or North Africa. To that end I have tried to come up with the stats for every commonly used model during the war:

Swiss Scenarios

From early May into early June, the Swiss Flugwaffe was engaged in several encounters with the German Luftwaffe as the latter consistently violated Swiss airspace, mostly as a result of raids against France. I have been able to cobble together ten scenarios for this period, and while most are rather small, they could make good introductory games for players new to the Check Your 6! system, or for times when only a couple of players can get together for a game.

The ten scenarios are are uploaded and can be found on the Downloads page. While they are mostly vetted, there may be some gaps in the information, so feedback is welcome!

Here are the plane counts. Numbers appearing in red represent aircraft in the Variable Rules.

The Messerschmitt ME 109 DB was the Swiss designation for the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3. DB stood for Daimler-Benz, which is the engine the E-3 used. If you ever see Messerschmitt ME 109 Jumo, that is the D model, again named for the engine.

99th Fighter Squadron Scenarios

Ohhhh, it was bad, very bad. Spending too much time at the I-94 Enterprises booth during DayCon led to several different purchases. Poor Chris, he probably thought I was being an inconsiderate chap by not combining all my purchases into one transaction, but being under the influence (of others, not alcohol) I kept going back and sniping items. The first trip was a pair of painted Bearcats and the Star and Pyramid scenario book. Then the second drive by was to grab the Over the Channel and Days of Glory scenario books. The final stop yielded six Packard Merlin-powered P-40F models - which for some reason I had no idea I-94 even made - for some fun gaming in either the southwest Pacific or in the Med. 

An olive drab P-40L

In doing a little more research into the uses of the P-40F, I could go a few different ways. While some did see service in the Pacific, seemingly they were more prevalent in North Africa. Some were used by the 99th Fighter Squadron (which would later form part of the 332nd Fighter Group, known later as the Tuskegee Airmen), along with P-40L models, the differences being mostly in armament and a bit of a reduction in some armor on the L model. Plus, color schemes on the 99th's Warhawks varied between the British Dark Earth/Middle Stone/Azure Blue and the American Olive Drab 41/Light Grey 43. So within this squadron I can use a mix of plane colors and two models of P-40s at the same time.

Decals! Oh no, no one makes decals for the 99th - but I have sent off a request to Blue Falcon Hobbies to see if a sheet could be generated. Heck, prior to this week I did not even know of the existence of this firm, which makes a variety of products, most notably a slew of decals for World War II and modern squadrons in various scales, including 1/300. Fingers crossed for a positive response!

Of course the next step was to check AI to see what scenarios could be generated. There are already a few in the Battles Above scenario book, but I always want more. AI stepped up and provided several air to air and air to ground scenarios. Some of course will need to be scaled for playability purposes. There is also a lot of flak, as there probably should be. While one does not want flak to dominate what is mostly an air to air combat game, I do not believe we use nearly enough anti-aircraft as we should. AA can always be handled by the referee/game host if one is being used.

Stats for some of the various P-40 models

One area I am having difficulty in determining is what model of P-40 was being used for any given scenario. Some sources indicate that both the F and L models were being used, with the L being predominant. However, sources indicate only a "handful" or "small number" of F models were present. To handle this, every scenario will utilize a random die roll to determine the model of P-40. 

I will be providing scenarios for the above over the next several weeks. One already makes its appearance on the Downloads page.

Spanish Civil War - Scenarios

Galland in his Heinkel He 51

It's back! The interest in the Spanish Civil War, as yet another obscure gaming project, has made a return. Part of the reason is I started playing, albeit very poorly, War Thunder, and have been using a Heinkel He 51. Yes, long time followers of this blog might have noticed that several years ago I had posted some wonderfully painted Spanish Civil War planes, but I had traded that collection for some Korean War aircraft (and yes, regret is a rearward looking trait) and sold off my research materials. But now, the urge, the itch as it were, has returned and Amazon is winging four books my way, and AI has helped me create a slew of potential scenario outlines featuring the Legion Condor.

Granted, several of the scenarios on the chart are HUGE, and I will need to scale them down significantly for gaming purposes. I will also be creating what I hope to be a very complete and accurate listing of aircraft data for Check Your 6! Most likely I will scale the speeds as SCW aircraft, for the most part, are slow and slow aircraft have a tendency to accumulate in about a one foot square of gaming surface.

For now, I have created one scenario featuring Adolf Galland, entitled Galland's Carpet, found on the Downloads page. 

DayCon

This weekend I attended my first DayCon - a multi-gaming convention held in Dayton, Ohio. I usually avoid conventions - it is daft for me to pay a fee to play games with the same guys I can game with for free at local shops - but I decided to give DayCon a try and by hosting a game I received a reduced fee badge (yes, I am a frugal git). Plus, I knew that I-94 would be present and having that sort of access to their wares might lead to a few impulse purchases.

I left work early on a Friday afternoon in order to arrive at the convention to play in two Check Your 6! games. The theme for the weekend seemed to be World War II, although there was an Indo-Pak game on Friday evening as well. My first game was set in the Pacific, a scenario from the Road to Rabaul book (Something New). I wasn't expecting to do well, having three early model Oscars, but I did not take a scratch and helped put a few Americans into the jungle.

Not going to end well for the Yanks

The second game moved to Malta, and the British players did not fare well (my sole Gladiator being blasted from the sky).

On Saturday I got into another Pacific game (Stopping the Tokyo Express from Battles Above 2) and once again the Japanese players were overwhelmingly successful. Hot dice from destroyer anti-aircraft guns did the trick.

In the afternoon I hosted my Neutrality Patrol scenario. As with most of the games over the weekend, we always seemed to be a player or two short, so I played in this one, while also reducing the amount of German Bf 110s to adjust to the number of available players. The Swiss Me 109 DBs had some issues with one player losing his rotte early and the other Swiss player having great success. It was the same on the German side with one German player losing his Messerschmitts in rapid succession. We allowed players to bring on additional planes just to get some playing time in, straying away from the scenario parameters. 

Swiss Me 109 DBs

Initial German setup

Strangers passing

A random blue on blue die roll here could have been interesting

This...

...led to this.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Germans putting the squeeze on the Swiss

But then the other pesky pair showed up

I think it's time we said goodbye

DayCon is a good game convention - a movie theater converted to a church with plenty of parking, food options onsite, food and brewery options nearby, large and small gaming rooms (the tabletop minis were usually in the small classrooms which worked great for lighting and noise control). Staffers stopped by several times to make sure the game hosts were good to go. It was a friendly environment overall.

Oh, and yes I spent some dollars with I-94, picking up three scenario books, a pair of painted F8F Bearcats (which I will add to my Balls of Fury scenario), and a half dozen Raiden P-40Fs, which for some reason I had no idea that these Merlin-engined miniatures existed! 

Work in Progress

Have I mentioned the brush and decal work that Kevin at Misc. Minis is exceptional? Here is a work in progress picture of yet another project I am having commissioned.

I would say he is capturing the feel of the 332nd Fighter Group rather well! These planes will be used in my revamped version of "Protecting Them All" from the Battles Above 1 scenario book, which I call "Duel With the Veltro."

I cannot wait to see the work he does on the ANR opponents!

Operation Torch

Over the last few days I've been on a bit of an Operation Torch tear, creating scenarios, drooling over the Flight Deck Decals website, ordering books from Amazon, and updating aircraft stats and various listings needed for the scenarios I will be formatting and uploading. As it stands, I have sixteen scenarios to work up, with a wide variety of aircraft and ranging from two player to massive furballs. Most likely I will scale down the latter, simply as putting more then six or seven players around the gaming surface is not an ideal situation based on my own Check Your 6! gaming experiences. 

Here is the scenario list with plane counts:

Aces of VF-66

VF-66? Unless you have followed this blog for a spell, or enjoy delving into the obscure as  do, you probably have not heard of VF-66, with the squadron name of the "Firebirds." (VF-66 posts HERE) Yet, near the end of the Second World War, this squadron was being formed to fly a new type of plane, a hybrid piston and jet engine fighter known as the Fireball. As this squadron, and its mount, were being worked up rapidly to take on the increasing kamikaze threat, the vast majority of the pilots were being pulled from existing units, and some of these poached pilots were already aces.

The squadron commander, Lieutenant John F. Gray, had served in Task Force 58 (VF-5) as a Hellcat pilot, racking up 8.25 victories (one source, the Squadron/Signal MINI in Action that covers the Fireball, mentions twenty-four kills). Gray was allowed to pull men from his own flight from VF-5, and then also was able to handpick others. New pilots were designated to remain stateside and train for another FR-1 squadron, but this second squadron never came into being as the war ended and the contracts to build additional Fireballs were cancelled.

With about twenty pilots in the squadron, 70% had seen combat, and six had shot down five or more aircraft prior to joining the squadron. Those aces serving with VF-66 are as follows.

John T. Gray - 8.25 (VF-5)

Kenneth G. Hippe - 5

Collin Oveland - 5 (VF-24)

LeRoy W. "Rocky" (or Robby) Robinson - 5 (VF-2)

James S. Swope - 9.66

John T. Wolf - 7 (VF-2)

Aircrew quality for hypothetical scenarios would either rate as veteran (+2) or skilled (+1). I like to rate 40+ kills as Experten, 20-39 kills as aces, 5-19 kills as veterans, and 1-4 kills, or well trained pilots, as skilled. 

Updated Italian Stats

I have been trying to fill in the gaps on my Italian Aircraft listing, creating data points for Check Your 6! stats. For now, I offer, what I hope is, the most complete data bank for the Italian aircraft used during World War Two:

Italian Stats

ANR Scenarios

A Montefusco-Bonet Fiat G.55

The Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana facinates me - not certain why, but I have been working on some scenarios involving the ANR. I have utilized some research materials to create a list of aces that served with the ANR. Considering the number of seasoned and veteran pilots that decided to serve in the ANR, one might consider them to be tough opponents and rated "better" than typical Italian pilots. The issue with the ANR units was the lack of serviceable aircraft - at times handfuls of ANR planes would be sent against massed formations of Allied bombers, usually heavily escorted. Therefore scenarios would either be rather one sided, or one can take snippets of the historical events in order to provide a more balanced, and hence playable, game.

As one can see from the following table, the 1° Gruppo Caccia was filled with aces, making the pilots, with 1-4 kills skilled, 5-19 kills veteran, and 20+ kills ace, a formidable foe. Green aircrews should be the exception, not the rule, for the ANR.

Name	ANR Unit	SCW Kills	Pre-ANR WWII Kills	ANR Kills	Total Kills
Adriano Visconti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	11	26
Ugo Drago	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	17	3	20
Luigi Gorrini	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	4	19
Luigi Morosi	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	15	3	18
Ennio Tarantola	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet" / 1° Gr.	1	10	4	15
Mario Bellagambi	5ª Squadriglia "Diavoli Rossi", 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	10	4	14
Mario Veronesi	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	11	2	13
Giovanni Barcaro	7ª Squadriglia, 3° Gruppo Caccia	0	9	4	13
Attilio Sanson	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	7	12
Alvaro Querci	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	5	11
Giovanni Bonet	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet"	0	8	3	11
Carlo Magnaghi	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	9	2	11
Luigi Mariotti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	11*	Unknown*	11
Alberto Spigaglia	2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	4	10
Amedeo Benati	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	8	2	10
Giulio Torresi	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	8	2	10
Giuseppe Biron	Sq. Complementare "Montefusco-Bonet" / 1° Gr.	0	8	2	10
Giuseppe Robetto	1° Gruppo Caccia	0	7	3	10
Vittorino Daffara	3ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	10*	Unknown*	10
Guido Fibbia	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	3	6	0	9
Fausto Fornaci	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	3	9
Walter Omiccioli	5ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	4	9
Nicola Zotti	1ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	7	2	9
Aurelio Morandi	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	4	4	8
Rinaldo Damiani	2ª Squadriglia, 1° Gruppo Caccia	0	6	2	8
Loris Baldi	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	4	3	7
Francesco Cuscunà	1ª Squadriglia, 2° Gruppo Caccia	0	5	2	7

Note on Mariotti and Daffara: The total World War II scores for Luigi Mariotti and Vittorino Daffara are verified at 11 and 10 kills respectively. However, due to the mass destruction of 1° Gruppo Caccia records at the end of the conflict, the exact mathematical split between their Regia Aeronautica service and ANR service remains unconfirmed by aviation historians.

Here is the aircraft mix of the scenarios I have been able to create thus far:

More on the ANR in the future!