Strike on Kiska AAR

I hosted the Strike on Kiska scenario from Battles Above 3, and I have to say it was a tough day for the Emperor's men. 

The initial setup allowed the Japanese players to close on the returning B-25s with relative ease. Yours truly commanded the Mitchells, and I thought I would have all sorts of trouble before a pair of rescuing P-40s could assist. I did not need to worry - a combination of the B-25's robustness with the use of a pair of hot dice (a set of Israeli dice from Fight's On, which have now become legendary, or infamous depending if one is on the giving or receiving end) made short work of the Rufes. The fact that the Mitchell is as agile as the Rufe certainly added to the Japanese futility.

The veteran Rufe pilot, leading others into the fray, would not survive this turn

Damaged...

The first Rufe closed in, a veteran pilot. While a lucky hit caused fire and panic among the bomber crew of fire and panic was inflicted, a couple of successful aircrew checks would eventually resolve both issues. Opening up with the top turrets in return, the veteran floatplane pilot was damaged by one Mitchell, and then sent spinning out the action by another. However, this result did not deter two additional Rufes from mixing into the bomber box, one finding itself squarely in the middle of American crossfire. The second of this pair was able to obtain a lucky hit, another fire. This one caused airframe damage, which then allowed the bombers to break formation and increase speed! One Rufe pilot showed tail, breaking off after seeing the destruction wrought by the Mitchells, which had been diving each turn to grab an extra hex since the beginning of the game, and now the increased speed assisted in creating more space.

Not learning by the example of the veteran's demise, two skilled Rufes move into the box...

...causing fire on the lead bomber...

...scratching a Rufe in return...

...the other Rufe turns tail, or perhaps passes an intelligence check

The focus moved to a fighter on fighter action as the pair of P-40s closed in. The superior firepower, robustness, and agility of the American fighters soon made short work of two additional Rufes, but in a final act of defiance, the last Rufe was able to damage a P-40.

The P-40s move to engage the Rufes.

The end result was an overwhelming American victory. One P-40 and one B-25 were damaged. All the Mitchells exited a friendly edge, and four Rufes were lost. The Rufe is truly a shite plane, with poor agility and robustness. However, a few die rolls in the other direction could have possibly the outcome.

Planes - Flight Deck Decals and painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

The Commissioned Projects - Part IV

Another Check Your 6! project, that has the potential for expansion, is an Aleutian scenario from Battles Above 3 - Strike on Kiska. This scenario pits three B-25s and a pair of P-40Es against five A6M2-N Rufes. With the addition to the library of two reference books (Into the Endless Mist I & II, published by Helion), which has more of a focus from the Japanese perspective, I can see the Aleutians becoming a larger project. For now the focus is to get this unique scenario on the table top. Planes are all resin prints by Table Top Flights.

The B-25s will be painted in olive drab over neutral gray, with roundels of a white star on a blue field, representing the 77th Bombardment Squadron. The P-40s will be from the 11th Fighter Squadron, with their distinctive Aleutian Tiger motif (if Miscellaneous Miniatures can do that), again in olive drab and neutral gray with the same style of roundels.

The Rufes are a bit more complex, or maybe I just need to make a decision on how I want them to look. The initial batch in the Aleutians seemed to have the dark green over light gray scheme, but I believe later ones were painted overall ame-iro (the light caramel gray that was common on early war Japanese naval aircraft). It is a cool color, but being a bit of a historian I do like having accuracy whenever possible. Of course I could also do a mix of schemes. I most likely will settle on the dark green scheme.

From Into the Endless Mist

From the Bravo Bravo website

The Aleutians offer a mix of aircraft types from the Allied side, including Canadian P-40Ks in the standard British green and brown over gray. As always, more on all this in a future post!