The First Victory AAR

My pair of Yaks in lower left corner.

I hosted (and played) The First Victory scenario from the Check Your 6! Korean War scenario book this past weekend for the group. Alas, it was another one of those times in which I did not remember to take many pictures, but I can cobble together a bit of an after action report this go-around.

We had three North Korean players with a pair of Yak-9s each, facing off against three players flying a pair of F-80s (high cover) and three Twin Mustangs. The Yaks had a mission to get their aircraft of the edge of the board, although the scenario seems to be a bit confused on which edge and even with how the setup was described (Board Edges 1 and 2 do NOT intersect so one cannot set up their planes within ten hexes of that intersection), but we managed. The Yaks and Mustangs were pretty much on the deck, and with visibility only sixteen hexes it took a few turns for spotting range to be achieved. I made the players fly level and use only forward turn codes until a spotting check was passed. Then the fun began.

Denying Mustangs their due while the F-80s are in a futile chase.

We had four Korean Yaks line abreast (with a hex in between each) with my pair lying support a few hexes behind. One pair went for the deck with the goal of getting off the victory point edge while the other two players mixed it up with the Shooting Stars (once they came down to play) and Twin Mustangs. With mostly green crews on the board, shots were not easy to come by, but one F-82 shot down a Yak, evening the numbers. However, while the F-80s turned to chase the pair of Yaks screaming for the board edge, a series of maneuvers meant that the remaining Yaks were now engaged and unable to really break away. I placed my pair of Yaks with a couple of pretty good tail shots, but of course missed both. At that I had a chance to break for the victory point board edge as well, while the other engaged Yak finally meant his demise. The Shooting Stars could not get the first pair of Yaks, so some VPs were heading our way. I was able to slip around a few turns, knocking down a Shooting Star while giving the Twin Mustangs mostly deflection shots. On one turn the remaining F-80 decided to do a zero speed move in hopes of getting me in a shooting aspect, but a broke hard and the next turn that pilot failed his crew check. Being at Surface Low TAL 1, he crashed into the ground. I am counting that as a maneuver kill!

The end is nigh.

But now the F-82s were circling and one of my Yaks exposed its tail. BOOM! Down goes Frazier! A turn later my other Yak took an engine hit. We played about sixteen turns, and had some successful aircrew survival roles. Using the VP chart in the scenario book, the ending tally was:

Americans - 9 VPs

North Koreans - 8 VPs

Planes - Flight Deck Decals

Decals - a mix of Dom's, Flight Deck, and Sieben Schwaben Spiele.

Paints - all Vallejo except the red which is Army Painter Pure Red. NATO Black on the F-82s, aluminium on the F-80s, and Azure Blue on the Yaks.