P-47N Scenarios

The first MiG-15 kill

I detailed the P-47N in Taiwanese service in a previous post, and now have been working on scenario creation. The encounters over the Taiwan Straits during the 1950s saw a variety of aircraft and mission types, but the following all feature the final version of the Thunderbolt. None of the scenarios are large, ranging from two to six players, and only twenty-seven miniatures are needed (if one doubles up the MiG-15 and MiG-15bis). I've not been able to locate La-11s or Curtiss Commandos in 1/285 or 1/300 scale so if you know of a source for either please comment below!

The Second Taiwan Crisis

For those who know me personally or follow this blog, you may have deduced that I like the off the beaten path topics, whether it is small battles from the American Civil War, or to some of the Check Your 6! projects I have taken on (100 Hours War, 1948 Arab-Israeli, 1950s Jet Age, etc., etc.). As I move slowly into more jet age projects, trying to understand how to use missiles, radar, and what not more effectively, I came across a conflict that saw plenty of air combat in a short period of time, including the first shoot down of an aircraft by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile. The Second Taiwan Crisis is like the Korean War, but with a couple of twists (let's call it the Korean War 2.0). One is the aforementioned use of missiles (although most kills were still through machineguns and cannon), and the other is the use of afterburner. Therefore this period allows the World War II or Korean War Check Your 6! gamer an easier transition into using additional rules as opposed to jumping into Vietnam or later conflicts.

I will not get into much of a history of this conflict, but it is good to note that the Nationalists (Republic of China) had fled to Taiwan and a series of smaller island groups, a few that were within artillery range of mainland China, after their defeat. Taiwan is only 90-100 miles from the Chinese mainland, and as a result the Taiwan Straits, much like today, was a point of potential conflict. There were several encounters prior to the late summer of 1958 as the two sides jockeyed for territorial gains. By mid-1958 the Communists (People's Republic of China) were putting more pressure in taking those island groups that were just off their coast. To support the defense of Taiwan, but not necessarily interested in protecting the smaller Nationalist controlled islands, the United States sent both air force and naval assets to the region. That alone could provide an interesting what-if series of scenarios, but the actual shooting war was just as fascinating.

The two forces involved, the Nationalist and Communist Chinese, used a variety of aircraft, but the principle fighters were the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-17 Fresco. While the MiG-17 was a superior platform over the Sabre, the quality of the Nationalist pilots overcame the technological disadvantages. The Communist pilots were, for the most part, poorly trained and often flew in predictable patterns, making it easier for the ROC pilots to obtain advantageous firing positions. To that end their average aircrew quality is lower than the ROC pilots, and they have an interesting special rule that will be included on the various scenarios I create.

Speaking of scenarios, I have fifteen outlined that should convert well into the CY6! format. Most feature Sabres vs. MiG-17s, but there are a few other aircraft types present as well. I used AI to assist, providing source material so that AI could create historical encounters. Turned out decently well.

We need to talk about miniatures, and of course I lean on Flight Deck Decals for this conflict. They make an F-86F Sabre which is ideal, and a variety of MiG-17s, but one would want the Fresco C version. Add in a few F-84s and MiG-15bis models and one is good to go. I will post numbers needed by scenario in a future post, but this project will be very affordable for gamers due to the small number of miniatures needed, and mostly of the same aircraft types.

Korean War Plane Collection

I am taking some time to go through my 1/285th aircraft to get them a bit more organized, and finally got around to straightening out my Korean War planes. I have more than I thought! Here is a picture of the collection, nearly all Raiden, and of course using Check Your 6! Time to get some aircraft on the game table!

Air War Korea - Part IV: New Air War Toys!

I was able to purchase some wonderfully pre-painted planes from Dave at I-94 Enterprises at the semi-recent Check Your 6! event in Dayton, known affectionately as OxleyCon.  Several weeks ago I attempted to attach magnets to my purchases and get them ready for the table, but my fingers are far too large to handle the tiny magnets that come with the Noble Minis flight stands, so after getting glue in places I shouldn't, I gave up.  Then I remembered seeing some sort of magnet tool on the Corsec Engineering site.  I immediately placed my order and after a couple of weeks of waiting I received this magnet tool in the post, got out my planes, and after a few mistakes in polarity and still getting a bit of glue on the fingers, I now have some toys ready for action.  The F-84s are Raiden, but I am unclear as to the Skyraider (I believe it is Scotia). 

Air War Korea - Part II: Deciding on Scale and Rules

Scale

MiG-15s - GHQ above, Raiden below

Wow, there certainly are a lot of options when it comes to 1/285th and 1/300th scale aircraft for the Korean War, much more than I had initially expected. That is a grand thing, having a half dozen or so companies to choose from (that variety being the spice of life thing). It also has allowed me to decide that while these two scales are close in size and decently compatible on the table top, I can go with strictly 1/285th aircraft so that my aircraft match perfectly, as opposed to just closely.

Why else am I able to focus on just 1/285th aircraft? There are several reasons. First, the variety of U.S. and Soviet aircraft covered:

B-29 Superfortress - Raiden

F-84F Thunderjet - Raiden

F-86 Sabre - GHQ, Raiden

F4U Corsair - CinC, GHQ, Raiden

F9F-2 Panther - Raiden

MiG-15 - GHQ, Raiden

P-51D - Raiden

Yak-9 - GHQ

F-86s - GHQ Above, Raiden below

Next, the quality of those companies making 1/285th is on the higher end of the quality spectrum of the various companies in both 1/285th and 1/300th. The three companies listed above blend very well together.

Add in ease of ordering.  All of the above companies have online webshops and can also often be found on eBay, Noble Knight Games, and other online discounters.

And, looking over the Check Your 6! Korean War booklet, the above list of aircraft cover nearly every scenario in the book.

So, I am going to push forward with the 1/285th aircraft that are available. To that end I have removed the links for the 1/300th scale companies from both the right sidebar and the Air War page as, for me, they are no longer needed.

Rules

Rules, however, are still a bit of a bane to my existence. Now, Check Your 6! seems to play decently enough, but I have only experienced two games in a span of a decade, and running numerous aircraft isn't quite what I want to do. Most of the CY6 scenarios also call for quite a bit of aircraft, and even splitting the load among multiple players still means controlling several miniatures on the gaming table. On the other hand CY6 is also what my gaming buddies are using, so there are opportunities for continued exposure and experience.

I have given Clash of Sabres the most cursory of read-throughs, but it appears to be a decently written set of rules, and one that a player is more focused on controlling a single aircraft or at most a pair of aircraft. Where CY6 uses hexes for movement with each aircraft having certain maneuvers it can perform based on its historical performance, CoS uses turn templates, and the template used is based on airspeed, not individual aircraft capabilities.

A Visit to the National Museum of the United States Air Force

I have been fortunate in many aspects of my life, with one of those fortunate aspects being my proximity to the National Museum of the United States Air Force (still known to me simply as the Air Force Museum).  The NMUSAF has been so within reach all these years that I have not appreciated the museum as I probably should, at least not until more recent times.  The museum has an amazing and ever expanding collection of aircraft as well as numerous displays.  I recently made a trip to see the Korean War gallery and take a few pictures to share with those readers of the blog who might not have had the chance to visit the museum.  Of course this trip was also for perusing their book store, which in its own right is an amazing place for air combat aficionados.  I did pick up two Osprey titles to expand my Korean air war library (F4U Corsair Units of the Korean War and F-86 Aces of the 51st Fighter Wing), and there were some other related items that looked good, but since I have been buying so many books and hobby "stuff" lately I held my eagerness in check a bit.

Here are the pictures from my quick trip:

Air War Korea - Part I

I am now the proud owner of three 1/285th scale F-86 Sabres and three MiG-15s (all Raiden Miniatures), courtesy of Zippy from The Miniatures Page. He had a pretty darn good deal on Bartertown that I stumbled across (not having been on that site for months I would say that finding his listing to be borderline karma). The deal also included two sheets of Dom's Decals, and four books (three dealing with the Sabre and one with the MiG-15). I was also able to grab a copy of Clash of Sabres from him as part of the deal. I had a copy of Clash of Sabres in a previous life, but a recent search in my boxes of gaming rules proved to be futile.

After picking up these new gems from Zippy, I hustled to Dayton to join in a Check Your 6! game at The Hobby Shop. I had reservations about playing CY6 as the first and only time I had tried CY6 I had some real issues with how the rules worked, but that was because I had a green pilot in a fighter being outfought by an ace in a dive bomber, which didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. Therefore I had some trepidation about using those rules again. However, after a few turns running a flight of F-84s, launching some successful rocket attacks against a North Korean airfield, being blasted by anti-aircraft guns, and seeing how the MiG-15s seem to rule the skies from a firepower perspective, I did find myself enjoying the rules much more than my first experience. I still have a lot to turn about planning my moves, especially when it comes to climbing and diving, but it was a good second exposure to CY6 and I do look forward to participating in more CY6 games.

That said, I am also going to give a thorough look at Clash of Sabres. Movement is simpler as CoS uses turn gauges, the current speed of the aircraft determining the gauge to be used (slower speeds use a tighter turning gauge). I'll have to see have altitude and combat resolution works, but wouldn't mind getting the CY6 gang together to see what they think about Clash of Sabres.

I have placed an order with I-94 Enterprises for the Check Your Six! Korean War supplement along with one each of the Raiden F-86, MiG-15, and F-84. I plan on grabbing a few other planes from the war, most likely the F-80 Shooting Star and perhaps a few U.S. Navy planes as well (the Grumman F9F Panther is one sweet looking bird). Of course there are the prop planes, holdovers from World War Two, but they were mostly used in the ground attack role, and my initial plan is to start with air-to-air combat. Looks like I will need a few Soviet-made prop planes for the early portion of the war (La-9s and -11s, and Yak-9s). MSD Games make the La-9 (as does Scotia Collectair), GHQ makes the Yak-9 but finding the La-11 seems to be more of an exercise in futility. However, having the La-9 and Yak-9 should be a decent start for the early war period.

I've also ordered some GHQ and MSD MiG-15s and GHQ F-86s to see how they compare to the Raiden ones I have. Comparison pictures will be part of an upcoming blog post!