Darwin - A Pair of Scenarios

A few weeks ago I hosted a pair of games from my forthcoming scenario booklet on the American involvement at Darwin. These scenarios featured the rather green pilots of the 33rd Pursuit Group against Pearl Harbor veterans from the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force. In both scenarios, as was historically, the Americans are placed in an impossible position. I was called out for this by a member of the Check Your 6! discussion group, complaining about play balance. War is not play balanced, but the premise behind these two scenarios is to have the players change sides and keep track of victory points by player and by team. And in this aspect, the scenarios now become balanced as players vie to obtain points.

I was, however, hesitant to spring these two scenarios on my gaming buddies as now I was worried about how they might react to the impossible American setup. 

The First Game (Zeros, Zeros, Zeros!)

In the first game I flew the single P-40 flight leader and I played it rather historically as I dove through the oncoming A6M2s and fled the table, securing a few victory points for myself. The other two American players took on the Japanese headfirst, which did not bode well.

The American setup...

...and the Japanese.

Nice formation there, eh?

Off to the races I go, leaving my fellow players to take on the swarm of A6M2s.

Not looking good, eh Yank?

The game ended with nearly all P-40s shot down. I grabbed two victory points with my rapid exit, which did pull some of the A6M2s away from the remaining Americans.

The Second Game (The Death of A Flight)

This game was more of a bounce, with the Japanese coming in from the northwest, turning to take on A Flight, which had landed, and now was scrambling to get airborne after hearing the radio calls that Darwin was under attack. The goal for the Americans? Survive and get off the board to obtain VPs. Bear in mind the American players for this scenario were the Japanese players in the first game, so they now felt the frustration of the historical event. I hope they banked enough points from Game One!

The American flight leader was able to get off a friendly edge, earning victory points. He was the overall winner of the two games, with a few others coming close. The feedback from my experience band of CY6! brothers was actually favorable - they appreciated being with the advantage and the disadvantage, and thought the tracking of points was a motivator to do well as the Japanese and to survive as the Americans. Guess that dude on the discussion group doesn't know what he is talking about.

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Planes - Flight Deck Decals

The American conga line, taking off at Speed 1, TAL 1.

Three shotai (or one chutai if you prefer) in actual shotai formation.

Some of the Americans decided to move towards the Japanese. Why, oh why?

Which simply made it easier for the Japanese to close in. The American flight leader, watching my epic performance in the first game, is trying to get offboard.

A P-40 sandwich. IIRC he survived via robustness rolls and poor Japanese shooting.

Project Gun-Val AAR

Last weekend I hosted the "Hagerstrom's Intercept" scenario from my Project Gun-Val scenario booklet. We actually ran the game twice, because in both instances, while the Soviet...er, em...the North Koreans have the jump, the Americans were seemingly invincible. In the first game the American reversed on the first turn, and the Soviets got into a turning fight, which did not bode well as the F-86F-2 Gun-Val machine came on and was able to dispatch a MiG rather easily. The game was over in seven turns!

So, we revered sides and tried it again. The Soviet players started a bit father away which made the Americans wary of doing a reversal, but again the MiGs had a rough time of it. Of course, in both games, a couple of different die rolls and the games would have been much different.

We played with my modified MiG armament as well as used a new rule (to us) - if one dives one cannot shoot at a higher target, and if one climbs one cannot shoot at a lower target. While both games were short, this actually prevented the games from ended even sooner.

Not a lot of detail in this one, but here are some pics!

Second game setup with a little PR

First game setup - those Sabres are going to reverse and create some havoc

And now the MiGs try turning

But even though this looks ideal, it doesn't end well

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Planes - Raiden and MSD Games

Conversion Work

Admittedly one of the easiest conversions to tackle....

I picked up a mix of items from a fellow historian who also happens to be a gamer. In the mix were eight Messerschmitt Bf 109E models, metal castings from Raiden. On three of the planes some of the wing 20mm cannon barrels were broken off, and I could not decide what to do with them. Yes, I like my barrels to be present, thank you very much. After a little thought I have decided to convert them into the earlier E-1 variant, one that was equipped only with four 7.92mm MG 17 machineguns (two in the fuselage and one in each wing).  The wing machineguns were flush with the leading edge of the wing, so the lack of barrels is a good thing. While the Raiden castings are the later E-4 variant with a squared off canopy, removing the cannon barrels as well as the underwing bulge created by the cannon, provides a "good enough for government work" version of the E-1 variant. The E-1 was used during the Spanish Civil War and stayed in service into late summer of 1940. 

Clean up phase

Using an X-acto knife, a flick of the wrist removed the remaining barrels. I also removed both barrels from a fourth Messerschmitt so that I could have a schwarm of converted models (think I will do the other four as Romanian Messerschmitts as Sieben Schwaben Spiele have decals for the E-3 model). The X-acto knife also did a decent job cutting off the cannon bulges, and the remaining nubs were then filed flush with the underside of the wing.

While the planes already had a coat of primer, the filing took some of the paint off of the wings - and I did some cleanup work on seam lines and the like - so a new coat of primer was applied. Next was to start painting the proper RLM colors to the miniatures. As I already have some decals for the Bf 109 in Spain (Scale Specialties Code 300AC-GER006 on the I-94/Raiden site), and the fact that the scheme is relatively simple, I had decided to do four Legion Condor versions, but then I also realized that I could just go with German markings to use them in 1940 - the E-1, E-3, and E-4 models were used in France and the skies over Britain.* 

Regardless of how I use the E-1s, the undersurfaces are all painted in RLM 65 (hellblau - light blue) went on the undersurfaces.

Vallejo Model Air 71.255 applied and the removal of the 20mm barrel and bulge.

As I make a final decision on what theater to use these modified Messerschmitts I will post more on this conversion.

* I am working on a 1940 booklet that feature scenarios of Swiss neutrality violations and also included will be scenarios that highlight Groupe de Chasse Polonais I/145 flying the Caudron-Renault CR.714.

Deep Cut Mat!

The latest addition to my growing collection of gaming mats for Check You 6! - another fine effort from Deep Cut Studio. I placed my order on July 14th, and it arrived from Lithuania on July 27th - thirteen days - which I feel is a pretty good turnaround for a custom mat. I needed (wanted) a desert/arid looking mat, and as I have been super happy with my previous orders from Deep Cut, I decided to go with their aerial desert offering, with an overlay of 1.75" hexes in dark brown. This mat will see service for my Darwin and 1948 Arab-Israeli games - while probably a little too arid for the Australian terrain, this now should be - I say partially knowing it might not be true - the last mat I will need.

A couple of pictures from a recent Darwin game:

Collection Growing!

Ah, eBay, the evil shopping site that causes me to lose too much time in trying to source quality painted aircraft. Luckily, there is a gamer who mentioned on the Check Your 6! discussion group that he was selling off his collection, and so I have been able to score some interesting aircraft - none of which were needed mind you, but certainly desired!

First, a half dozen Heinkel He 111s, painted up for the Battle of Britain, and in this case are the old Falcon Miniatures castings. In actuality, since being able to pick up some other Battle of Britain aircraft from a gaming buddy (featured HERE), this purchase actually does fit! I can add two more scenarios from the various with the addition of these Heinkels, and admittedly I was able to win these for far less than I expected.

Picture from eBay listing

The paint work is very good but there are a few inconsistencies with the decals - German crosses are not all the same size, some are not on the undersides of the wings, and some are at a bit of an angle, but truly trivial points when it comes to the overall look.

And a picture upon arrival.

I hope to win more auctions from this seller as I am rather pleased with this first purchase, and it helps me to quickly add to my collection!

Genda's Blade

Website image - not great

I am trying to fill in gaps in my World War II gaming -the challenge being the number of theaters that makes this an impossible task to go along with my interest in just about everything. Regardless of my lack of focus, recently I have been looking at late war action in the Pacific, and to that end purchased the "Genda's Blade" pack from I-94. The pack features either eight or sixteen Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden-Kai (Violet Lightning-Improved) fighters (Raiden Miniatures) along with a decal sheet for the 407th Hikotai (made by the now defunct Dom's Decals) which is not available for separate purchase (and because I have a bit of an addiction, I have also ordered the same planes from Flight Deck Decals, for a future comparison post). The N1K2-J, known to the Allies as "George", was a beast - fairly fast, decently maneuverable, and armed with four 20mm cannons, albeit I believe the same type found on the A6M series (and hence meriting only LVC in Check Your 6!). 

My image, a little better

The term Genda's Blade comes from the formation of the 343rd Kōkūtai, an elite unit created in late 1944 by Minoru Genda, himself an extremely experienced pilot, although one with no victories during the war. Genda recruited the best Japanese Navy pilots he could gather, which included several aces. The following chart lists some of them and their number of kills before joining the 343rd (if Japanese records can be believed). Bear in mind I use the same convention for rating aircrews as found in the Battles Above series of scenario books with experts having fifty kills or more given a +4 rating and the ability to adjust up to three turn codes left or right of the originally plotted turn code (although I still need to test that last tweak a bit). Aces then have twenty to forty-nine kills, veteran aircrews are either highly experienced and/or have five to nineteen kills, skilled pilots are well trained and/or have one to four kills, and green are just that. 

Several other pilots became aces while serving with the 343rd Kōkūtai. Overall, aircrew quality for the kōkūtai should be similar to early war Japanese ratings, with little to no green aircrews, a bulk of skilled, and as you see from the above table, numerous veterans.

Raiden version - needs some cleanup but the casting is crisp

When American pilots encountered this unit, they realized they were not facing the remaining dregs of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force, but pilots with skill as great if not better than their own, flying an aircraft as good if not better than their own. 

There is an exceptional book titled...wait for it...Genda's Blade! This detailed offering provides an insight, through several first person accounts. However, the book is out of print and is expensive on the aftermarket sites. But if one wants a deep dive into The N1K and/or the 343rd Kōkūtai, it is a must have title. Using Genda's Blade and AI I will be woking up some scenarios in the future.

Vallejo Model Air RLM Colors

A placeholder post for my own personal reference, but others might find this useful as opposed to using the charts from Vallejo. 

Early War and Pre-War Colors

RLM 01 Silber → 71.063 Silver (Metallic)

RLM 02 Grau → 71.044 Grey

RLM 04 Gelb → 71.078 Yellow

RLM 21 Weiß → 71.001 White

RLM 22 Schwarz → 71.057 Black

RLM 23 Rot → 71.003 Red RLM23

RLM 24 Dunkelblau → 71.266 Dark Blue

RLM 25 Hellgrün → 71.267 Light Green

RLM 27 Gelb → 71.078 Yellow (Commonly used as the substitute match)

RLM 61 Dunkelbraun → 71.042 Dark Brown

RLM 62 Grün → 71.104 Green

RLM 63 Hellgrau → 71.260 Light Grey

RLM 65 Hellblau → 71.255 Light Blue

RLM 66 Schwarzgrau → 71.055 Black Grey

Mid-War and Camouflage Colors

RLM 70 Schwarzgrün → 71.021 Black Green

RLM 71 Dunkelgrün → 71.015 Dark Green

RLM 72 Grün → 71.011 Dark Green (Vallejo labels this bottle as RLM72/73/83 variant interchangeably in older sets, but 71.011 serves as maritime Green)

RLM 73 Grün → 71.011 Dark Green

RLM 74 Dunkelgrau → 71.258 Grey Green

RLM 75 Grauviolett → 71.259 Grey Violet (Alternatively numbered as 71.128 in specific sub-sets)

RLM 76 Lichtblau → 71.257 Light Blue

RLM 77 Hellgrau → 71.121 USAF Light Grey (Closest close match, requires slight thinning/fading)

RLM 78 Himmelblau → 71.101 Light Blue

RLM 79 Sandgelb → 71.122 Desert Tan/71.268 German Grey (Note: 71.122 closely aligns with the standard 79 Sandgelb variant)

RLM 80 Olivgrün → 71.013 Yellow Olive

Late-War Colors

RLM 81 Braunviolett → 71.264 Brown Violet (Can also appear as 71.043 depending on production batch)

RLM 82 Hellgrün → 71.022 Light Green

RLM 83 Dunkelgrün → 71.011 Dark Green

Scenario Booklet Sales

I am very surprised, in a pleasant way, to see how many of the scenario booklets I have sold. The pdf option generated more traffic than I expected, so I will continue to offer future booklets in that format. 

Here is a recap after two months of sales:

Links to purchase print or pdf format are to the left.

FJ Fury

Those navy blue schemes are so cool!

I have a bit of an affinity for the FJ Fury, with its cool Sabre look (particularly the FJ-2 or -3 versions) but sporting a U. S. Navy paint scheme (I really wish someone would make the -1 and the -2/3 versions as 3D prints - wait, there are some available, but they do not look grand). One can obtain a quality FJ-4 model and I have a pair from Flight Deck Decals (you can see the posts featuring these HERE). I could order some F-86s and try to fool with the stabilizer as the Fury had a horizontal version while the Sabre's was slightly angled upward) but that sounds like 3D print breakage waiting to happen. 

Here are a selection of books one should consider if wanting to learn more about the FJ Fury:

FJ Fury in Action - Venerable Squadron Signal offering from 1990 and authored by Jim Mesko, who has written several other titles for Squadron.

FJ Fury in Detail & Scale Vol. 68 - There can be some great value in Bert Kinzie's books, although they can be very detail heavy (and hence more suitable for model builders). Packed with photos and some color profiles. This is the first edition - the Detail & Scale coverage of the Fury was later expanded into two volumes (see following).

FJ Fury in Detail & Scale Vol. 12 Part I - A much expanded version of the previous entry that covers the Fury FJ-1 through FJ-3 series and includes 102 pages, 264 photos (many in color), along with ten color profiles. 

FJ Fury in Detail & Scale Vol. 13 Part II - An extensive look at the FJ-4 series with 102 pages, 209 photos (145 in color), and eleven color profiles. 

The North American FJ Fury - From the classic Profile Publications series (Number 42, 1965). A dozen pages with some color profiles. This can be found on aftermarket sites, usually for just a few dollars.

And of course we need stats. I based the following on the last model of the F-86 which appears in the Indo-Pakistan scenario book. The weapons have been updated to reflect the four 20mm cannons found on the Fury.