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.

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:

Heading to Darwin

projected cover image

Well, not physically, but I believe the next scenario booklet will feature the American experience in the skies over and near Darwin during 1942. I have thirteen scenarios completely written, and perhaps will create a few more. My decision to do Darwin next is because today I received a VERY generous offer to have some planes painted gratis, and with my Blue Falcon Hobbies 49th Fighter Group decals just waiting to be used (admittedly I have to obtain the planes to use them on), this seems like the best direction for the next scenario booklet. It will still be a few months before the booklet will be ready for publication as I have to order the planes, ship them off to be painted, then play some scenarios as well as take some pictures of the scenarios in progress. The good news is I already have nine carrier based A6M2s painted, and I have five P-40Es painted for the 33rd Pursuit Squadron, both of which will be featured in the first two scenarios. The bad news is I need to paint a dozen G4M2s (after purchasing them) or use a dozen G3Ms I already have for my Wake Atoll booklet (and also need painting). Realistically I should buy nine more A6M2s and paint them properly in the 3rd Kōkūtai colors (and which I have decals for, also from Blue Falcon)....decisions, decisions!

Soooo, I went forward and ordered the P-40s and the A6M2s (yeah, like I really need nine in the proper green scheme) from Flight Deck, and while I was on my mad shopping spree ordered a desert aerial mat from Deep Cut Studio. The desert mat isn't perfect for the outback, but it will find use in many other scenarios and eras. And now...the A6M2s were painted in ame-iro...I did not need to order nine more, but at least then I can do these nine in proper 3rd Kōkūtai decals.

Back to the booklet - I have the background also written, and I just need to add my usual rules modifications, color schemes, miniatures and publication sources, and then paste the scenarios in. Sounds like a lot of work, but most of it is relatively easy. The booklet will be titled Eagles Over the Top End. UPDATE (7/31/26): this will be the largest booklet thus far, coming in at nearly thirty pages.

Blue Falcon Hobbies - More Decals

Well, I have certainly spent enough money with Blue Falcon to warrant a response to my inquiries about making more decals - I used their online request form, I used direct email, and I made a comment on one of their posts. No response. That is shite service, only balanced by the good service I receive when ordering their decals. Well, the following might be the last I order from Blue Falcon since I cannot get them to respond. Why have a form on your site to request custom decals if you are not going to answer? Why have an email address if you are not going to answer? 

CR.42 decals - I have several CR.42s from my departed friend's collection but they need a bit of squadron markings added - these will do.

I had ZERO use for these (get it?) but want to add some distinct markings to my A6M2s.

Repeat after me - it is NOT called the Football War! But needed decals all the same.

These are super handy for my Darwin project.

Okay, difficult to see, but late war Hellcat markings, which I did not need!

Eventually I will have a couple of schwarms (schwarmen? schwarme?) of Bf 109G miniatures and these decals will be sued for them.

I am awaiting the 343rd Kōkūtai decals from I-94 as part of their Genda's Blade pack, but it did not hurt to buy more!

Scenario Booklets Available

49th Fighter Group P-40Es near Darwin.

The three scenario booklets I have been teasing the last couple of weeks are now available in both print (staple and coil bound) and pdf format for those wanting to download. The print versions are on lulu.com while the pdfs can be found on Wargames Vault. Links for both these sites are to the left.

Over the next few months I will be working on more scenario booklets, with Nomonhan, Spanish Civil War, Sino-Japanese, Taiwan Crisis, East Africa, 99th Fighter Squadron (think early "Red Tails"), Operation Torch, Aleutians, and the American 49th Fighter Group over Darwin all as possibilities. The 49th Fighter Group has all the scenarios created (I need to update the formatting a bit but there are a dozen scenarios ready to go) and I would need to add the background and other relevant gaming info to make a complete booklet, or I can start taking various theaters and placing them into scenario books without worrying about publishing specialized topics.

Regardless of the direction I take, I am happy and a bit taken aback about the support the first three booklets have received in just a few days. As previously stated, the goal is not to make money, to to offer more scenarios for gamers to (hopefully) enjoy!

Progress on the Wake Island Front

And for my next trick....

I've had this scenario booklet nearly ready for some time, dealing with the Japanese attempt to capture Wake Atoll in December 1941. Several scenarios are built, mostly historical ones, with a few what ifs as well, such as what if the USS Saratoga reinforced Wake with the Brewster Buffaloes that were tasked to increase the American fighter presence - that sort of thing. While I have thirteen scenarios created I decided to drop what I had into Gemini and let AI take a look. It wound up creating a few more encounters and making suggestions to my existing ones, but as always with AI one must double check the work as I think the new offerings might be duplicates of scenarios I already have in the booklet. But if not, the booklet will be expanded a bit.

Currently the booklet, like the other two previously mentioned, comes in a hair above twenty pages, Using lulu.com as my print on demand service, with premium color and 80# coated paper, the price points on these booklets are about $12.50 USD, which I have added in a slight margin for my time. If I go to standard color and normal weight paper, it shaves maybe a dollar. My goal is certainly not to make money, but to offer more scenarios for Check Your 6! and Check Your 6! Jet Age gamers, and I have had other works printed with the better quality options ad really like how they have turned out.

I still plan to create more scenario booklets that feature specific topics, like the 99th Fighter Squadron flying P-40s (over twenty-five scenarios), the 49th Pursuit Group near Darwin, a dozen scenarios oddly enough also featuring P-40s, and a Taiwan crisis booklet that would feature the P-47N model for the early scenarios and the later 1958 conflict that features the Sabre. This would see over forty scenarios if all make the cut.

Zekes Off the Production Line

 As I am hosting another Check Your 6! Pearl Harbor game this weekend, and as I need Zekes for my Darwin and Wake Island scenarios as well, I finally completed nine A6M2 Model 21 Zekes today. 

I like how they turned out, although I do not have the dexterity, whether through paint or decal, to add the blue fuselage stripe for aircraft based on the IJN Soryu. Oh, I do have a long stripe decal to be used, but trying to come up with the exact place to cut it for the correct length, and to have it actually be straight around the fuselage - well that ain't happening! Anyway, the IJN Ash Grey seems to be the perfect color for ame-iro. 

Sieben Schwaben Spiele do make decals for Zekes in 1/200, so eventually I will ask to have some scaled to 1/285 as they are curved to adjust for the fuselage and they should be in the correct length.

• Miniatures - Flight Deck Decals
• Paints - Vallejo IJN Ash Grey, NATO Black, Natural Steel, and Foundry Bavarian Cornflower Blue, Shade C.
• Decals - Scale Specialities
• Varnish - Vallejo Matt (brushed on)

More P-40s Off the Line

I have completed the very basic scheme I am using for a pair of scenarios (Darwin A Flight and B Flight - found on the downloads page) I am hosting at CincyCon in March. These represent the 33rd Pursuit Squadron over Darwin. The planes are a bit of a compromise as some illustrations show "U. S. Army" on the undersides, while others do not. Same is true with the type of roundel used but most sources indicate the red ball and white star was used, although the red ball had been reduced in size with white paint applied in the field - I was not about to try that in 1/285 scale decals!

Additionally there should be some small plane numbers added to the tail and in some cases the front portion of the fuselage, in either black or yellow. I've not been able to source two digit numbers small enough to use. Lastly, some of the pilots had individual markings on their P-40s, but again, decals for those in 1/285 are lacking.

Keeping the scheme simple however allows a variety of early war uses - along with Darwin they could be used over Pearl Harbor or the Philippines. They will also get use as the 9th Pursuit Squadron for another action near Darwin as the 9th's planes initially had the red ball/white star national insignia.

Paints:

Vallejo - Neutral Gray (71.051), NATO Black (71.251), N 41 Dark Olive Drab (71.316), Natural Steel (70.864)

Foundry - Bavarian Cornflower Blue Light (73C)

Decals:

Flight Deck Decals

Varnish:

Army Painter Satin

The 9th Pursuit's First

49th Pursuit Group P-40E Warhawks over Northern Territory, 1942

In the aftermath of the Japanese surprise attack on Darwin, Northern Territory, in February 1942, the lead elements of the 49th Fighter Group, specifically the 9th Pursuit Squadron, were sent to bolster the air defenses of the threatened Australian town, which was in range of land-based Betty bombers and their escorts, the formidable Zero, flying from airfields in Java. Darwin was an important port town and had been used to stage convoys of supplies and material into Java before the fall of that Dutch colony. Darwin now became the front line as the Japanese launched a campaign to neutralize northern Australia and potentially invade the continent.

Stephen (Steven/Stephan) Poleschuk

The 9th Pursuit, manned by well-trained but inexperienced pilots and based south of Darwin at Batchelor, would obtain their first victory against the Japanese on March 22nd, when a Babs recon plane, flying at 19,000 feet and escorted by three Zeros, flew over Darwin in preparation for a bombing mission slated to hit Darwin later that day. The Japanese incursion had been picked up on the Royal Australian Air Force radar at Dripstone Cliffs. The Babs and the Zeros became separated and a section of P-40Es pounced on the helpless Babs before the Zeros could intervene, resulting in the loss of the recon plane, which crashed near Bathurst Island with one crewman parachuting from the stricken aircraft. Credit for the American victory was determined by a flip of a coin as Second Lieutenants Clyde L. Harvey and Stephen "Polly" Poleschuk had both caused damage on the Japanese recon plane - Poleschuk was the winner of the coin toss.

I have created a work in progress Check Your 6! scenario for this action which can be found on the Downloads page. 

Sources:

ADF Serials Newsletter, August 2004.

Ferguson, Steve W. & Pascalis, William K - Protect & Avenge: The 49th Fighter Group in World War II. Schiffer Military History, 1997.

Hess, WIlliam F. - 49th Fighter Group: Aces of the Pacific. Osprey Publishing, 2004.

Lewis, Dr. Tom - Eagles over Darwin: American Airmen Defending Northern Australia in 1942. Avonmore Books, 2021.

McDowell, Ernest R. - 49th Fighter Group. Squadron/Signal Publications, 1989.

Idea for a Convention Game

When I mentioned my two Darwin scenarios (that feature the 33rd Pursuit Squadron (Provisional)) on the Check Your 6! discussion group several weeks ago, one poster mentioned that the scenarios would not be enjoyable for the American players. Both situations place the outnumbered Americans in a less than ideal position, being bounced by the more numerous and more experienced Japanese. My response to the poster? Well, sometimes the historical situation just isn't balanced. When gaming in general, I often will play the lessor desired side, using what I call the XI Corps (of American Civil War infamy) mentality - the XI Corps as a whole did not perform well at Chancellorsville or Gettysburg (that is the simplistic point of view as many of the commanders and units of the XI Corps actually performed very well). My XI Corps mentality is "I cannot do worse than the XI Corps" and so if I game the less desired side, and actually do "okay" then that becomes a victory in my feeble mind. So it is with the pair of Darwin scenarios I created (and available on the Downloads page). The American players should have the mindset of seeing how well they can do in a less than ideal situation, knowing that they are probably going to lose a lot of their aircraft.

However, I was giving these two scenarios a thought the other day, and realized that there is another way to tackle the crappy situation the Americans find themselves in - to run these at a convention as two events, but require the same players sign up for both, and to have those players change sides - those players who gamed the Americans in the first session would play the Japanese in the second, and vice versa. That way the players have a chance to be both the hunters and the hunted. I would also track victory points either by side, by nationality, or by player so as to motivate the players to do as well as possible for both games. I do plan to have some sort of prizes for motivation! 

As part of this plan, I updated the scenarios a bit by changing the victory point conditions. I also now have the aircraft purchased to paint up for the Americans (P-40E) and Japanese (A6M2), beautiful prints from Flight Deck Decals. The plan to host this twin game on at CincyCon next spring.

New Toys Ordered Part III - World War Two

I have gone on a recent spate of ordering new planes. Some are to be used for future projects, others for expanding existing projects, while others will be to replace existing metal planes with higher quality 3D prints and more accurate paint schemes.

The Nell - needed for Wake Atoll

For the two scenarios I created that take place during the February 1942 surprise attack against Darwin, I needed to obtain planes for both sides as my collection was did not have any aircraft to cover. Regardless of the Darwin scenarios, I had the intention one day of adding A6Ms to my collection, so picking up a chūtai of Zeros not only fills the Darwin scenarios, but will see duty for my Wake Atoll scenario booklet as well as other early Pacific projects - likewise the purchase of a dozen Nells to use for Wake (as the price point at Table Top Flights for bombers is very low I justified a dozen bombers based on how much I "saved" - and the Nells will see duty as Sallys over Burma and Bettys in other Pacific regions as I am NOT buying thirty-six Japanese bombers). The P-43 Lancers will fit in for 1943 China while the Heinkel 170s will be used as Heinkel He 70s for the Slovak-Hungarian War (I have one scenario that involves a pair of Heinkels on a recon mission).

All in all a bit of a mix of airplane types for a variety of projects.

Flight Deck P-43, P-40E, Heinkel He 70, and A6M2

Flight Deck Decals

Mitsubishi A6M2 - 9

P-40E Warhawk - 5

P-43A Lancer - 4

Heinkel He 170 - 2

Table Top Flights

Mitsubishi G3M2 Nell - 12

Air Raid - Two Scenarios for Darwin

I have picked up a couple of books over the last several months that deal with the early air war over Darwin. The first is Carrier Attack – Darwin 1942 – The Complete Guide to Australia’s Own Pearl Harbor, written by Dr. Tom Lewis and Peter Ingman (Avonmore Books, 2013), which is a detailed account of the massive attack against Darwin on February 19, 1942. The book covers all facets of the attack, going to great lengths in describing not only the actions but the various aircraft and ships that took part. The second book is another effort by Lewis, titled Eagles over Darwin: American Airmen Defending Northern Australia in 1942 (Avonmore, 2021) that focuses on the American effort to prevent more raids on Darwin, with a focus on the 49th Fighter Group. Of course reading books such as these often make me ponder "wonder if I can create some scenarios?" Well, yes! From Carrier Attack I was able to glean two small actions that involve the 33rd Pursuit Squadron (Provisional). After writing them I remembered there was a Darwin scenario out there somewhere, and that is in the Skirmish Campaigns Road to Rabaul scenario book. However, the scenario provided there does not follow the deeply researched and highly detailed account found in Carrier Attack, particularly when it comes to the actions of Robert Oestreicher, B Flight leader. Road to Rabaul rates Oestreicher as a veteran (+2) aircrew, which by his lack of flying time and actions on February 19th is a stretch of his abilities and performance that day, hence my aircrew rating. You'll have to buy the book or download the scenario to see why my rating for Oestreicher is poor.

The scenarios are available as pdfs on the Downloads page above.