Rupees Ten - AAR

I hosted my first Second India-Pakistan War game, featuring the Rupees Ten scenario from the SkirmishCampaigns Crisis in Kashmir scenario book, for five members of the Check Your 6! Southwestern Ohio Group. After obtaining some clarification from the CY6! discussion forum about the initial setup, the Pakistani players find themselves in a bit of a pickle.

The initial setup

The Indian Gnats had the drop on the Pakistani F-86s from the first turn. This resulted in the destruction of a Sabre on the first turn - seven points for the Indian players (the victory point totals in the scenario book are quite different than the standard CY6! victory point determination). Already at a victory point deficit the Pakistani players reversed course to engage the Gnats. One Gnat would suffer a pilot wound lucky hit and be forced to abort, but that plane had just ran out of ammo and was already pointed in the direction of the Indian friendly edge. Another Gnat took an engine hit, while a third also ran out of ammunition, but in the interim the Indian players shot down two additional Sabres. 

Down two Sabres

At 21 to 1 in victory points one Sabre dropped its fuel tanks to obtain an edge in agility, but the result was simply to give the Indian side another victory point as the Sabres could simply not place themselves in a favorable position to kill any of the pesky Gnats. One Sabre player had some difficulty in performing split S and Immelmann maneuvers, which added to the humor between the players (most of us have gamed together for a number of years and the camaraderie is excellent).

We decided to call the game at that point, eleven turns in.

The scenario is tough in many aspects - less than ideal aircrew quality, the advantage for the Indian players in the initial setup, and the Gnats suffering from ammunition issues and limited fuel. 

Miniatures - Raiden

Mat - Hotz Mats

Romanian Barbarossa After Action

One of the scenarios I have been wanting to game for some time was a file I obtained from the Check Your 6! forum, called Romanian Barbarossa and written by Keith Burnett. After having the planes painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures recently, I hosted this scenario, with my usual tweaks and such, for the Southwestern Ohio group. My version is a five player scenario, based on the historical even which saw the destruction of a pair of Soviet I-16s by the Romanians.

The initial Soviet deployment

The Soviet I-16s have just taken off from their airfield, guarding by a pair of light anti-aircraft guns, and being the target for the Romanian players. The Soviets had both a height and speed disadvantage as the Romanian players moved in. It was interesting to see the unplanned coordination between the Soviet players - one pair of I-16s went for speed while another pair nearby went for height, these four focusing on intercepting the incoming enemy. The third pair of I-16s, being a bit more on their own, maneuvered around the airfield itself.

A pair of beautiful Heinkels

The Romanians not only had a height advantage, but their Heinkel He 112s and I.A.R.80s had an edge in robustness and maneuverability. To be honest, as the game master, I was concerned - the I-16s were being ran by three very experienced players while the Romanians were a pair of newer players - but also concerned that the poorer maneuverability and robustness of the Soviet planes would result in many of them shot down. However, the balance of player experience and plane performance seemed to work well.

The pair of I.A.R.80s stayed along the southern edge of the board, while the Heinkels made their way towards the center of the playing surface. The I.A.R. player was going to turn and line up his planes to strafe the airfield. That plan worked well, but the Heinkel player lost his skilled aircrew early on as three Soviet fighters ganged up on him, causing an engine damage hit, before finishing the skilled pilot the next turn. 

The beginning of the end of the skilled Heinkel

Meanwhile the I.A.R.s dealt with some ineffective flak and the third pair of I-16s, which was trying to defend the airfield. Hot rolling by the Romanian player on his strafing run resulted in the complete destruction of the airfield, and gained the Axis 12 victory points. After successfully blowing the shite out of the airfield, the Romanian player turned for home. However, the I-16s were tenacious, hitting the I.A.R.s several times, destroying one and causing airframe damage on the other, which also happened to occur on the remaining Heinkel. The Romanian players turned for their home edge, the Soviet players moved in for the kill, hoping to shoot down the Remainians (as they were termed) an balance the victory point totals more in their favor.

Using their superior speed, the Remainians were able to fend off attacks with good robustness rolls, while finally creating enough of a gap to be out of the range of the Soviet light machineguns. Victory achieved for the Axis.

The I.A.R.80s on their run towards the airfield, intercepted along the way

Some lessons learned - the VP totals for strafing a grass airfield and destroying it with just two successful hits seemed like overkill. Next time I host this game I will set the victory points at two for each successful run and increasing the level for destruction at four hits. Also, I need to make certain to put an experienced player on the Romanian side since obtaining victory conditions will be a bit tougher.

The second Heinkel broke free and placed an airframe hit on an I-16, while the other I-16 had done the same to an I.A.R.80

The airfield destroyed, the remaining Romanians scramble towards home.

Soviet Results

One Heinkel and one I.A.R. shot down - 8 VPs

One Heinkel and one I.A.R. damaged - 2 VPs

Romanian Results

One I-16 shot down - 4VPs

Two I-16s damaged - 2 VPs

Airfield destroyed - 12 VPs

Toys Used:

Mat - Hotz mats

I.A.R.80 - Table Top Flights

Heinkel He 112 - Flight Deck Decals

I-16 - Raiden Miniatures

The Last Dance

After one turn, one Salvadoran Corsair is already down

The 100 Hour War planes made it back onto the table, this time to do Tom Ballou's The Last Dance scenario. I made some modifications due to more recent research that Tom did not have access to, and also added in the other planes that were nearby but that did not become involved.

The setup placed the Salvadoran Corsairs in the center of the table, with the Honduran Corsairs in their tail arc, but more than seven hexes away. The Salvadoran Corsairs flipped about, but the Honduran Corsairs both opened up with long range shots, needing a 10 (skilled on green) and an 11 (green on green) to hit. The skilled Honduran Corsair pulled off the shot, and opening up with four 20mm cannons, blew his target out of the sky. One turn in, one Corsair down. 

While the other Salvadoran Corsair takes an engine hit

After dancing about a bit, the second Salvadoran Corsair took an engine hit, resulting in the skilled Honduran Corsair to run out of ammo - shite, this was turning into not a fun scenario, but the pair of Mustangs made their appearance, while the out of ammo Corsair buggered out by exiting the CAB. Now t was the turn of the Mustangs to take some long range tail arc shots at the remaining Honduran Corsair, which resulted in an engine hit. The Honduran went for the CAB exit, but failed his aircrew check, resulting in a destroyed Corsair (flying over enemy territory as it were).

Ending result - five VPs for the Hondurans an four for the Salvadorans.

From six hexes away, the green marked Mustang puts an engine hit on the remaining Honduran Corsair

I used the Dockfighters bases for the first time - the players liked the visual aspect and how we could change TALs using the combination of two different sized posts. They also liked the speed dial since it could not be bumped out of place. However, the stands are very wobbly in action, which is a concern.

Planes - Raiden and MSD Games

Mat - Hotz Mats

A Revisit to the Basing Solution

My constant search for an ideal (for me) flight stand for Check Your 6! might be finally at an end.  My parameters, and hence my issue in finding the type of stand I desired was that I wanted something that visually indicates TAL on the playing surface, that isn't too tall and prone to knock overs, and that doesn't cause polarity issues with the magnets I have on my miniatures. Let me summarize my issues with existing base configurations:

• Official Check Your 6! bases - Do not visually indicate a plane's current TAL. Dial numbers are small, and the dials can be very tight or very loose. This causes players to constantly ask about altitude on enemy aircraft and is not visually appealing.
• Litko - Using the dice trays, one can make it a tad easier for players to see current speed and TAL, but again having a peg fixed to the base means the visually aspect of differing TALs are lost. 
• Antennas - Can be costly, and the ones I have found are far too large. Ideally this would be a great solution but I would need antennas that only extend an inch or so per segment as I do not want planes towering over the table top, making them susceptible to knock overs.

I had been looking at the flight stands from the Dockfighters: The Ale Wars as I like the fact that the system uses peg pieces in two sizes to indicate altitude, utilizing magnets to connect the pegs in combination to represent varying TALs. Smaller pieces can represent a single TAL, while the larger pieces can represent two TALs. I was worried that would cause polarity problems since my miniatures have magnets that do not all follow the same pole so I had held off on buying any until Bernhard at Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals suggested I give them a try.

Image from Woodpecker Games site

The Dockfighters flight stands offers other very positive aspects - they have a moveable dial that one can use for speed (up to twelve), and have a series of colored rings that can be used for either aircrew quality or to make it easier to keep track of each plane (I usually have a player run two planes). One other possibility - since the peg pieces can be combined, one could represent multiple CABs, but I would not recommend this as the plane becomes wobbly and subject to knock overs. And, very important to my needs, the magnets in the Dockfighters peg pieces are round balls that adjust to the polarity of the next piece or the plane, solving my polarity issue.

An ace Me 110 (indicated by the red ring on the base), Speed 3 and TAL 2, chased down by a veteran (blue ring) Swiss Me 109 at Speed 4 and TAL 3

A consideration for those thinking about this basing system - larger metal miniatures, such as bombers, wobble a bit as well. My solution for this, as a four-engine metal bomber even has issues on an official CY6! stand, is to go to 3D printed miniatures for larger aircraft. They are much lighter and and hence work with both systems very well.

A bit of a video showing the flight stands: 

Price came out to be $72.00 USD, which included shipping from Deutschland. That comes out to be $3.60 or so per stand. The official CY6! stands are $32.50 (including shipping) from I-94, or $5.42 per flight stand.

I will be hosting a game soon, and will be using the Dockfighters flight stands in lieu of my official bases. If things work out, this means I will have a crap ton of stands for sale!

Mat - Hotz Mats

French Surprise After Action Report

After the first turn, two Vichy taking off while another pair come in to assist

For some time I have been wanting to do this small introductory scenario found within the Check your 6! rules. Today three of us were able to put the scenario on the table. It was a fun game, although my buddy Bill had to run four planes (I usually try to keep my games at two planes per player). It was not a good day to be Vichy French.

My skilled and green pilots coming in from the west

The setup required a five hex airfield, which I only have a two hex version, so we used five anti-aircraft markers instead. Due to previous attacks on the airfield there was smoke that covered the five hexes up to TAL 3 (the scenario takes place at Surface Low CAB).

A pair of Wildcats have just completed a strafing run, while two D.520s are just taking off. Another pair of Vichy French planes are coming into the action, as are pair of Wildcats coming down from high cover.

Let the dancing begin

Robustness rolls seemed to be the main issue early in this game, as the French kept failing to save, and started taking damage. Their veteran pilot suffered an airframe hit, and next turn tried to pull off an extreme maneuver - and one failed aircrew check later caused the destruction of the Frenchie. Another D.520 took a hit, then another, causing another French loss. In the meantime I had taken an airframe hit with my of my Wildcats, but was able to successfully extricate that damaged Grumman off of a friendly edge. The last D.520 took an airframe hit but has a chance to build speed an exit. 

I had miscalculated the number of hexes the French could move, which resulted in the sole American damage

By the time Bill was hitting, especially with that cannon in the D.520, the Americans started making their robustness rolls. Final score was 16 to 1 in favor of the Americans...let's call it a torching of the Vichy!

Scott's Wildcats coming in over the airfield, with my skilled pilot lining up his best shot

This was a fun little scenario to host and play in. I hope to pull off several more Operation Torch scenarios in the future as I am putting together a little scenario "booklet" on the American portion of the campaign.

Planes - Raiden Miniatures

Mat - Hotz Mats

Heinrich Bär, Jet Ace!

After the Wright Flight Wings of War gaming session, a few of us played Check Your 6!, doing the Heinz Bär, Jet Ace scenario from the rulebook. I gave each player just one plane, which made it a bit of a shorter affair, but one that seemed to work well as we had two relatively newer players involved. I used the charts designed by Joe Chacon as they are meant to teach newer players, and they worked very well - I'll be using them for a convention game in March. 

My buddy Matt supplied the Me.262 while the P-47s came from the collection of our departed friend Bob.  

Matt took the jet, and climbed to get up to the P-47s as the latter descended from a higher CAB. Bill lined up the Me.262 well, hoping for a tail shot, but Matt had plotted an Immelmann and a nose to nose attack was the result. With the differences in pilot skill playing a part (the jet as an ace and this P-47 as skilled), Bill needed a 9 to hit. He did not make the roll. In return Matt's to hit roll was easier, and he blasted the P-47 into tiny bits, rolling several high numbers on his four 20s. Bill greatly failed his robustness roll, and that was that. One Thunderbolt gone.

The other three P-47s tried to close on the German, but Matt smoked another one with another high damage result. It looked like The German would meet his victory conditions easily...a combination of three damaged and/or destroyed Thunderbolts. But on the second attack Matt went out of ammo. He no longer had the ability to win the game. The remaining two Americans tried to close the gap. They were rolling 11s and 12s to hit, and just could not come up with the desired hit. The jet was able to safely extricate off of a friendly edge. The end result was a tie.

This is not going to end well for someone

Meanwhile the other 'bolts were turning to get into firing arc.

The result was another Thunderbolt blasted from the sky

Last turn and last chance for the Americans to hit...fail.

Mat - Hotz Mats

Planes - Raiden and GHQ

Burma!

Yesterday I hosted a Check Your 6! game at the local gaming store (if a 50 minute drive is considered local), using the Burmese Buffalo Hunt scenario found on the CY6 forum with a few minor changes. It was a fun challenge for both sides as the scenario takes place in the rain and fog and visibility is drastically reduced. Also, the Hurricanes of 17 Squadron have their long range fuel tanks still attached, severely impacting their speed and maneuverability.

Nine Nates faced off against three pairs of Allied aircraft - Hawk 81s of the American Volunteer Group's 1st Squadron, Buffalos of the British 67 Squadron, and the aforementioned Hurricanes. It was interesting to watch the player's morale ebb and flow with the game. After spotting the Buffaloes, and having a set of the three Nates drop down from above just a few hexes away from them, the Japanese players continued to place hits on the Brewsters, but the robustness of the Buffalo coupled with the two light machineguns of the Nates meant that the Buffalos were not going anywhere for some time. However, the tide began to turn a bit with one of the Buffalos taking damage and the other receiving a lucky hit, impacting its fuel. By this time the slow climbing and slow moving Hurricanes, along with the faster Hawks, made their way into the fry, but the Nates were able to react and drive off the Allies. If memory serves me correctly, one Nate was shot down and one damaged, with the Allies suffering the loss of a Buffalo, the other damaged, a Hurricane shot down, and a Hawk likewise. Several of the Nate ran out of ammo during the course of the game (I believe four in total, but it was still an overall Japanese victory. I probably should have balanced the players a bi more as the Japanese side all had experienced gamers, while the Allies had one experienced gamer, one who had played CY6 a few times, and one who had never played.

All the planes were painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures.

Mat - Hotz Mats

Planes - Raiden

Swiss Miss

Today saw a few of us gather for some Check Your 6! action. The scenario was Neutrality Patrol, an engagement between the Swiss and German air forces on June 8, 1940.

The Germans are trying to bait the Swiss into war, after the Swiss had shot down German aircraft that had wandered into Swiss air space during bombing raids on France. Hermann Goering ordered increased German presence along the German-Swiss border as a result. 

Five players enjoyed this Messerschmitt vs. Messerschmitt action. The Germans start on the board, with the Swiss deploying on Turn One. 

The Swiss scored an early kill, and it did not appear that the Germans would recover, but after several turns, it was still four against seven, the German's outnumbering the Swiss. Another Bf.110 took damage, and the Swiss swarmed, all four aircraft lining up for the kill.

But it was not all easy going for the Swiss. A skilled Swiss pilot was blown out of the sky by the forward guns of a Bf.110, but then the Germans took another damaged aircraft (engine) that also happened to suffer from an engine lucky hit. It limped off the table with a movement rat of one. The Swiss could not close for the kill due to the number of German aircraft still in the fight. By this time another Bf.109 suffered damage at about the same time another German was destroyed. A bad plan by the damage Swiss aircraft resulted in a failed aircrew check. With two of the Swiss Messerschmitts out of ammunition, it was time to head for safer skies.

End result was three Bf.110s destroyed and one damaged for thirteen Swiss victory points, with the Germans gaining eight victory points for the two destroyed Bf.109s.

Planes - Raiden painted by Chris Geisert

Mat - Hotz Mats

Deep Cut Studio - Pearl Harbor Mat!

Most of the mat...there is a good 8-10 inches hanging over the edge of the table.

As a follow up to a previous post...

After much hemming and hawing, and wringing of hands along with gnashing of teeth, I finally made the decision to drop a decent amount of coin on a custom mat of Pearl Harbor from Deep Cut Studios. I have ordered from them in the past, namely a simple ocean mat along with a custom mat for Wings of Glory, so I knew of their quality products first hand, as well as their fast production and shipping time (this ain't Hotz Mats, people, and I love my Hotz mat). 

Battleship Row

I submitted a cool map of Pearl I found on the interwebs, that was created from period Japanese maps. I was worried that the grid system already in the map would cause an issue, but as you can see, no problemo! 

Yes, Swiss Bf109s over Pearl...I have not started collecting Pearl Harbor aircraft yet.

The quality of the PVC is very good...a bit weightier than other PVC mats I own. 

What are THOSE guys doing here?

I ordered my mat on June 15th and received it, from Lithuania on June 24th, with FedEx tracking all along the way. If you are needing custom work, or want one of Deep Cut's many offerings, buy with confidence that you will receive a great product in a very reasonable amount of time!

Torched - After Action Report

Yesterday at the local game store (well, not that local, about a 50 minute drive) I hosted my hypothetical Operation Torch scenario. The event assumes that both Vichy French and American aircraft have violated Spanish Moroccan airspace, and the Spanish have responded in kind by scrambling Heinkel He 112s. This is a three-sided affair, with all three sides vying for victory. It is designed to be used as an introductory scenario to teach those new to Check Your 6! the game system. 

The combat takes place a Low CAB. The starting locations and TAL are determined by die rolls. Six players, two for each faction each running two aircraft, with each faction having one each of the four pilot skill types (ace, veteran, skilled, and green). Each section of two planes roll to see which edge they begin, so for example the Spanish players might start at Edge 2 or Edge 4, based on their die roll. Ironically each faction rolled such that both pairs of fighters started in the same area (for their faction). TAL rolls were interesting, with the French and Spanish players being widely dispersed, while the Americans started at TALs five and six.

The French forces maneuvered in Area F, heading generally towards the oncoming Spanish who were in Area D. The Americans made a beeline towards the French, with the Yanks starting in Area C. As the forces closed in, deflections shots reigned, and rained, but the French D.520s did some excellent work, knocking down the green and skilled American Wildcats. It was not looking good for the remaining Americans, as the Spanish split their sections, one focusing on the reduced Americans and the other swooping in behind the French. But the Americans held on.

The Spanish lost the next plane to the Wildcats (if memory serves), with two others taking various damage. The French continued to dance with the Americans. It was looking like a French victory, but the Americans continued to fight, their veteran and ace pilots swirling about. Then a French fighter took damage, and then another fell out of the sky. The Spanish ace splashed one the D520s, but ran out of ammo and had to leave the dogfight. With no Spanish left to to take out the Americans, and the French having troubles of their own, the Americans pulled out a victory.

I rather enjoyed hosting this game. All of the players had gamed CY6 in the past, so that made running the game rather easy. You can find this scenario on the Downloads page above.

Planes - Raiden and MSD Games

Mat - Hotz Mats

Korean War AAR

 Well, maybe not so much an after action report as I simply cannot remember all the details, but today I hosted a four player Korean War game, the scenario being The Leatherneck "Checkerboards" from the Korean War scenario book - Marine Corsairs vs. People's Republic of China MiG-15s. As always with Check You 6, crew quality is often the deciding factor. I took a pair of MiGs while waiting for one player who we knew would be arriving a bit late. On the first turn I maneuvered the pair into a firing solution but the range, difference in skills, and the fact it was a deflection shot made the attempt futile. That sums up the Chinese players' day...when we could get into a firing position, the to hit modifiers were such that it was tough to bring cannon rounds onto the Corsairs. The Chinese had green pilots, the Americans had three skilled and one veteran.

The Corsairs are Raiden, and MiGs a mix of Raiden and CinC. 

The Marines drew first, and for that matter second, blood. The cannon-armed Corsair is a beauty with its good maneuverability and hitting power. A few turns in, after I handed off my pair of birds to the late arrivee, and BOOM, down goes a MiG. A turn or two later same thing happened. However, finally a MiG bears down and takes a tough shot with success and a Corsair shuddered then fell from the combination of 37mm and 20mm rounds. Pilot rolls were also not successful on either side for bailing out. Another Corsair took some airframe damage, but by this time both remaining MiGs were out of ammo and making time for the Yalu.

Over overwhelming American victory as they gained four additional victory points for each destroyed MiG in top of the normal Check Your Six scoring.

Some pictures from the game. The actual battle took place over the Yellow Sea, but I have yet to obtain a sea mat with hexes on it, so my standard Hotz map had to substitute today.

Corsairs in their starting position

Lined them up nicely, but the mods were against me

It became very interesting...

 ...and then there were three...well just two on the Chinese side

Mat - Hotz Mat