Pearl Redux! After Action Report

Over Pearl Harbor....

We ran the Second Strike scenario in commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor. Due to a limitation with the number of players in attendance, we adjusted the scenario to feature Zekes making strafing runs on Ford Island and Hicam Field as we did not have the Vals and Kates needed. Admittedly, my knowledge from the game, played just yesterday, is limited as I actually played in this event and so my point of observation is rather focused, but I will cover what I can remember! Once again I also took few photos.

The Japanese players move in to strafe Ford Island. The AA piece in the distance would be attacked the following turn.

The Japanese players moved into range of Ford Island, dropping altitude in order to strafe the ships and the installations. The dice were HOT for Jay, who not only put down something like five or six successful strafing hits, but he also knocked out the light AA as well. He liked my dice so much he offered to buy them such was his success. With the Japanese already raking up the victory points, the Americans closed in.

Three P-40s and three P-36s move towards the Japanese. I was piloting the two Hawks at the bottom of the picture.

A pair of P-40s started on the board, and the remaining Americans came on during Turn 1 (another scenario change to adjust to the speed to the Zekes). Each turn I dropped my P-36 section one TAL and grabbed the extra hex from the shallow dive. The other two Americans closed into the ranks of the Japanese Zekes, and the furball began.

After pounding Ford Island the Zekes move to engage the oncoming Americans. My Hawks were straining to catch up and the base on one can be seen on the right.

While both sides had mostly skilled pilots, some maneuvers made by the Americans allowed the Japanese to start inflicting damage on the P-40s. It was going badly for the Americans - already in the hole six victory points from the strafing runs, now the Yanks started to fall out of the sky.

As I closed in I dove nearly to the deck to get under the oncoming Zekes. However, I bled off nearly all my speed on an Immelmann and was not in a grand position. That seemed to be the mantra for the American players - we just could not pull off just the right turn codes to really stick it to the Japanese. One, two, then a third American plane fell our of the Hawaiian skies. Finally one Zeke was shot down (if we could hit, then we stood a good chance as the Zeke's robustness is 0). Then my green pilot was face to face with the Japanese veteran. Crap. But the dice were favorable as I shot down the bugger - the return fire proved to be just as deadly as my green Hawk became debris. Regardless, a bit of a morale victory.

Jay had two of his Zekes run out of ammo, but that saving grace really did not matter. The Japanese won this fight overwhelmingly! Four American planes shot down (or was it five) for the loss of a pair of Zekes. The Americans earned ten VPs - the Japanese was something like twenty-two. 

The Japanese only went after Ford Island. In hindsight I probably should have had one group attack Ford while the other attacked Hickam Field. That would have spread out the Japanese Zekes a bit more, and would have aligned with the scenario had we had Vals and Zekes.

Planes - Zekes are Flight Deck Decals (painted by yours truly), P-40s and P-36s are Raiden (painted by Miscellaneous Miniatures).

Mat - custom Pearl Harbor from Deep Cut Studio.

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)

I-94 Decals

For my next batch of decals I ordered a few sheets from I-94 Enterprises. I believe I am turning into a decal hoarder, but that's another post....

For my order with I-94, I was looking to pick up some items to help complete some projects and move forward on others. I have used I-94 decals before and they are quite good, and quite affordable. From what I gather what I-94 offers is mostly from the older Beacon range. I-94 also carries the Scale Specialties range, which includes some very unique and useful items, at a higher price point, but the sheets contain markings for numerous aircraft in most cases.

My first sheet is simply blue lettering, which also includes blue numbers. The blue letters are needed to complete my Swedish J 29s for my 1950s Baltic Encounter scenario. Not certain how much additional use I will get from this sheet, and while I could have simply left the letters off the miniatures, I wanted to have a "more complete" looking set of Tunnans.

The second sheet, having black lettering and numbers for United States naval aircraft, pushes me closer towards my Operation Torch project, the sheet also having some letters and numbers for Coral Sea USN aircraft. One of the items I have been working on is a small scenario book and guide to the American Atlantic portion of Torch and have about eight scenarios in mind.

A number of planes can be decaled with just this one sheet

The next two sheets are Scale Specialties offerings. The first is one I need for Japanese naval aircraft for Wake Atoll - I went with the Hiryu/Soryu sheet as that will work for both the Pearl Harbor Second Strike scenario and a few scenarios I have put together for my Wake scenario book. The sheet includes insignia and aircraft marking for Zekes, Vals, and Kates.

While not having a lot of Spanish Civil War decals, there are plenty for the early WWII period Messerschmitts

The second Scale Specialties sheet I ordered is catered to Bf 109s for both the Spanish Civil War and early WWII. However, I will be using these for my half dozen Heinkel He 100s. As these planes were never used in combat, taking a few oddball squadron insignia from the 109s doesn't really feel that off to me.

Pearl II!

Yesterday I hosted a Pearl Harbor Check Your 6! event featuring the Second Strike scenario (found under the Downloads page above). Being that it happened to be December 7th, I thought it would be an ideal scenario to run.

We wound up with eight players for what is really about a six player game, but was able to get everyone into the game. Thanks to my long time friend Matt for providing the Japanese forces! Also, it was the birthday of another long time friend, so I hope you enjoyed your day, Scott!

Setup for the game see the Japanese approaching from the northeast, while the Americans heads in from the northwest. Six Zeros are escorting three Kates and three Vals, the Kates heading to Hickam Field and the dive bombers targeting Ford Island and Battleship Row. Unlike the first time I hosted this game, the Japanese had four successful bombing runs (at four victory points each) and a number of successful strafing attacks by the Zeros. The American anti-aircraft, particularly the medium guns, placed some hits on the Vals, and those four d10 should have shredded the fragile dive bombers, but passing robustness rolls seemed to be the mantra on the part of the Japanese players. One Japanese plane did run out of ammunition fairly early in the game, but it looked like it was going to be quite the overwhelming win for the Emperor's forces.

The American fighters, consisting of three P-40s and three P-36s, finally made their way into the fight. However, American gunners on the ground did not seem to care about national insignia and fired at the Americans nearly as frequently as they were at the Japanese planes. The Japanese, after having pounded their targets, were trying to move towards their friendly edge, but the American fighters started wreaking havoc, and Japanese planes started falling from the sky and several others were damaged. One Japanese plane took a blackout lucky hit (which I had never seen before in our games) but was able to recover the following turn. 

The Americans turned the tide, and by the end of the sixteenth turn, edged out a victory with a score of 28 to 24. It was a hard fought affair! I think one thing the Japanese might have done was to escort the bombers a bi more closely - the Vals pretty much fought on their own hook as the Zeros focused on Hickam Field and the area between Ford Island and Hickam.

The initial American force - a pair of P-40Bs

A gaggle of Zeros!

Kates and Vals making their way

A pair of pretty birds - the P-36/Hawk 75 has become one of my favorite aircraft

On the right, three Zeros strafe Hickam while the Kates line up for their bombing run. On the left the Vals are pounding Ford Island and Battleship Row

The mixed section

The Vals are now being targeted by a pair of P-40s

The strafing Zeros turn towards the northwest while the Kates have hit Hickam Field

Did I mention my affinity for the P-36/Hawk 75?

The Americans have scattered the Vals, shooting one down while damaging the remaining pair

One Val left, while the Zeros seem to flit about

Endgame

I used the custom mat I had made by Deep Cut Studio, the American planes are all Raiden, wonderfully painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures. The Japanese planes I believe are a variety of manufacturers - painted nicely by Matt.

Pearl!

Last weekend I hosted a Check Your 6! event at the local shop. Using the Pearl Harbor Second Strike scenario, slightly modified to accommodate the number of players, we were able to recreate the scenario using the custom Pearl Harbor mat from Deep Cut Studio. We cut the Japanese by three Zeros, reduce the American anti-aircraft by half, and remove one P-40 and one P-36, trying to balance the game for five players.

The Japanese looked overly powerful from the start as the American setup seemed too far to have much impact. Luckily the Japanese missed on every bombing attempt, but were successful with several strafes, racking up points along the way. The American anti-aircraft caused a few hits, and one green American P-36 was very successful in not only fighting off the Zeros, but also causing damage in turn. The Americans closed the points gap, but by the end the Japanese squeaked out a victory.

Hoping to run this again with a full complement of players.

Planes - Americans are Raiden

Commission Work in Hand!

Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures reached out to me recently let me know that he was once again doing commission work, and of course I just happened to have planes sitting about waiting to be painted! I sent him two small Check Your 6! projects, those being Pearl Harbor and Burma. The Pearl Harbor scenario you can find on the Downloads page above, and the Burma planes will allow me to do a few scenarios from the Battles Above Pacific scenario book. Here are some pictures of Kevin's work (and these pictures do not do justice...the planes are so much cleaner looking in person).

Flying Tiger Project:

Pearl Harbor Project (my buddy Matt has the Japanese covered):

And the details on the undersides of two of the planes:

These two projects are now complete, short of adding magnets.

Kevin offers high quality paintjobs at affordable prices. The planes for these two projects were $5.00 each.

Shipping Planes for Painting!

Today I mailed off a few Raiden planes to have painted by Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures. Kevin had contacted me via the Wings of Glory Aerodrome to let me know that he was doing commission work once again, and so of course I was ecstatic to hear that great news. Kevin has painted some beautiful planes for me in the past, including my 1948 Arab-Israeli War collection.

Today's shipment included two projects - Burma and Pearl Harbor - for the former Ki-27s, Hawk 81s, Brewster Buffalos, and Hawker Hurricanes, and for the latter P-40s and P-36s. With what I am having painted for Burma I will be able to host three scenarios and for the Pearl project I will be able to do the Second Strike scenario with my friend Matt (he is handling the Japanese side of things).

I am really looking forward to seeing how these planes will turn out, as well as finally getting some scenarios for Burma on the table as I have had the unpainted castings sitting in a box for a few years now!

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

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!

Pearl Harbor Project

I have been hesitant to game Pearl Harbor - One reason is the vast amount of aircraft for the Japanese and the handful of American planes that made it into the air to give battle. Another reason is that once one has committed to painting P-40s and P-36s for Pearl, those planes cannot be used for much of anything else due to their distinct paint schemes and markings (and yes, I do like having, as much as possible, correct historic representation on the tabletop). One could also use the Pearl P-40s for the Philippines, but there are few scenarios available for the Philippines. And, I also want to use those P-36s and P-40s for other theaters, like North Africa or Finland for the former and China for the latter. There is only so many planes I am willing to buy! Oh, and let's not forget the mat one would need to show Pearl Harbor and/or some of the various airfields - this project now becomes very specialized and limited in scope.

There is an interesting scenario that was done by one of the chaps on the Check Your 6! group, so I have that as the basis for this potential project. The scenario calls for a smattering of planes (three P-40s, three P-36s, three Kates, three Vals, and six Zeros), and while I do not have any of the Japanese needed, I am canvasing the guys I game with to see if they do (and I have found out that one indeed does).

The mat is something that can be had from Tiny Wargames although it does not include Hickam Field (which is in the scenario).

In speaking with Tiny Wargames, the pricing for a standard Check Your 6 sized mat with a hex grid is something like $100.00, and that is before shipping, yikes! I have been looking for alternatives, like Deep Cut Studio. If I can find a 1940s color aerial of Pearl then I can have them make me a custom mat. I can locate crisp black and white photos, but not period color versions.

But, after some searching I did find this. It is a rendering of the Japanese maps of the period, and then updated by the Joint Intelligence Center. I loaded this image into the Deep Cut Studio custom map maker and have this:

The above should work rather well I believe...but not certain if I should drop coin on such a specialized project. 

Check Your 6! - New Projects

After another great Game Day I have decided to expand my Check Your 6! collection a bit. I am selling off my Spanish Civil War planes so that I can start a few oddball projects that I have more interest in.

At Game Day I picked up the remaining aircraft that I needed to complete all the 1948 Arab-Israeli scenarios I have collected, written by Rob Wubbenhorst and published in Wargames Illustrated. I also picked up a few P-40B/Cs to start either a Pearl Harbor or Flying Tiger project. As I already have some P-36s doing a Pearl Harbor scenario might be fun, but I also now have, via a trade, a few Ki-27 Nates, so I might hold off on Pearl as that involves buying all the Japanese forces as well.  

I haven't purchased the planes yet, but the 100 Hour War (known incorrectly as the Football War) saw Corsairs and Mustangs used in Central America, and I have the workings of a scenario in mind.  

I also have an idea for Swiss/German fighting during World War II that could be interesting, and have completed a bit of research to create a scenario for that. I am getting some Bf.109s in a trade as part of the Spanish Civil War selloff.

Check Your 6! Annual Game Day Recap

Israeli S-199s and Egyptian Spitfires dance over Israel.

Just a short post about the annual Check Your 6! game day event held each year in Dayton, Ohio. I was able to attend the entire day, including hosting a 1948 Arab-Israeli War game and playing in an interesting no-plot game, and watching a Vietnam game during the evening session. There were plenty of historical eras covered, from the Great War through Vietnam, and a good turnout as well for some Wings of Glory Great War combat. I-94 was there selling there wares, and so I picked up a few oddball planes to complete my 1948 collection, and a few P-40 B/Cs to start either a Pearl Harbor or American Volunteer Group project.

Attendance seemed to be very good for the morning and early afternoon, but the evening session only had two games going. One thing I'd like to help work on is promoting the event a bit more to help increase awareness and hence numbers present. There is certainly space to hold more games and accommodate more gamers, so no concerns there. And there are a few fast food joints close by to satiate the gamer appetite. The location also has a kitchen, so that means potential to sell some gamer food right onsite.

If you have an hankering for air combat, makes plans to attend next June. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is only minutes away, so one could make a nice weekend that includes gaming miniature aircraft and see the real thing up close.

These are 1/600 scale...check out those paint jobs!