A Little 1948 AIW After Action

Initial Egyptian Setup

I have these lovely painted planes for the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, but the Rob W. scenarios I have from Wargames Illustrated are all rather small in scope, which prevents me from hosting moderately sized games at the local store. So I decided to just throw a dogfight together to allow me to get these birds on the table. Of course, I also wanted to show off my new gaming mat, so here we have AIW over Pearl Harbor!

And the Israeli deployment

The planes I decided to use, so nicely painted by Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures, were four Spitfire Mark Vs and two Macchi M.205s for the Egyptians, facing off against two Spitfire Mk.IXs and two Avia S.199s for the Israelis. I had each player roll randomly for aircrew quality, the Arabs having a one in four chance for a skilled pilot, and the remaining pilots as green. For the Israelis, there was a one in four chance for a veteran, the rest defaulting to skilled. The results? Six green Egyptians against one veteran S.199, and the remaining Israelis skilled. I was thinking this might not be a good day for the Egyptians.

The Israelis sweep in from the Egyptian ten o'clock

Each side closed in, but early in the fight an S.199 was shot down, odds increasing to 2:1 for the Egyptians. For several turns to follow, a lot of dancing around occurred, and even a conga line was formed at one point. The veteran Israeli, flying the S.199, lined up an Egyptian Spitfire at close range, hitting the Spit. This occurred three times with the same antagonists, but the Arab's dice were "lucky" as all three times double sixes were rolled, fighting off engine or airframe damage, but resulting in lucky hits. In every case the lucky hits (two engine fire chances, two panics, and one chance for a fuel tank leak) were ably handled by the Egyptian. From now on, that plane will be given a veteran aircrew!

The skilled Avia S.199 takes the sole engine hit of the game

Two Egyptian Spitfires were lost, one which had declared a shot at an approaching plane, and rolled the dice. The plane happened to be one of the Egyptian Macchis! Fortunately the shot was a miss, but that player will always be reminded of that faux pax. 

The Israeli Spitfire heading for home before calling it a night

The veteran Avia, having rolled many doubles himself, was down to heavy machineguns. One of the two Israeli Spitfires was downed, and the other one ran out of ammo. At this point it was one against four as the Israeli Spit that had no ammunition left to engage dove for the deck. The game was called at this point. Both sides lost two aircraft, but points leaned towards the Egyptians, and certainly a moral victory for the Arabs.

Planes are Raiden, mat is Deep Cut Studio.

Target

One of the scenarios for the Check Your 6 1948 Arab-Israeli War published in Rob Wubbenhorst's article in Wargames Illustrated calls for a vessel, the Eqyptian Amir Faruq. This happens to be a sloop similar in appearance to a Flower-class sloop, and so I decided to take advantage of the Topside Minis cheap prices and buy one of their Flower-class 1/1800 scale offerings. These are two dimensional renderings on self adhesive paper, that then is affixed to a base. For those interested in getting started in naval gaming but find the pricing of some ranges overwhelming, or the thought of painting is just too much to bear, Topside is an affordable way to give naval gaming a try...or in this case a target for Check Your 6.

Growing the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Collection

A couple of weeks ago I received my most recent commission work from Kevin Hammond at Miscellaneous Miniatures, some oddball planes needed to complete the remaining scenarios published at Wargames Illustrated, written by Rob Wubbenhorst. Kevin isn't really doing commission work any longer, but as I have used him in the past and was very vocal on various forums about my utter satisfaction with his painting, he graciously offered to keep doing small jobs for me as needed. 

Here we have some Raiden additions for the British, Israelis, and Egyptians in the form of Spitfires, Macchis, a Beaufighter, and a proxy Hawker Sea Fury (really a Tempest with a radial engine). The planes I selected for this period are not 100% spot on, but are pretty close, and used some planes I had picked up from Dom's Decals a few years ago for a really amazing price. Magnets have been added, so now I just need a few convoy vehicles and a ship and I will have all the toys necessary to complete all six scenarios.

As for the scenarios, most are small in terms of player count, so I will be combining a few to be able to host medium-sized games.

More 1948 Planes Being Painted

This morning I sent off six more 1948 Arab-Israeli War planes to Miscellaneous Miniatures for painting. Once these have been completed this will allow me to do all the scenarios that appeared in Wargames Illustrated, written by Rob Wubbenhorst. Two Macchi C.205s, two Spitfires (Late model for the Brits), a Beaufighter, and a Hawker Sea Fury will grace the gaming table in a few months. Kevin at Miscellaneous really isn't doing planes any longer, but since I have been an established customers he has agreed to keep doing some small projects for me, which will include American Volunteer Group and some Swiss, and then perhaps some 1967 Arab-Israeli and Pakistan-India War. Then I should be pretty much "done" with Check Your 6! projects.

Back to '48, I was also able to pick up a few painted planes in a trade. Two are painted for Syria, and are types the Syrians never used, but are still pretty cool so I am going to use at least the Lavochkin La-7 for some flavor. The other two planes are Bf 109s (Avia S.199), but not quite correct for Israel (should have gunpods and blue stripes), but they will also see some table time.

It feels good to get these projects worked on and putting some planes on the table!

1948 Arab-Israeli War

Nice, a long planned project finally coming to fruition....

I picked up some greatly reduced Raiden aircraft from Dom at Dom's Decals some time ago, for the most part planes that would be correct for use in the '48 Arab-Israeli War.  Using Check Your 6! and a '48 War article (and supplement download) that appeared in Wargames Illustrated (#310) and written by Rob Wubbenhorst, I gathered planes to tackle a few small scenarios from that article. Sending the planes off a few months ago to Kevin at Miscellaneous Miniatures, I received them a few weeks ago, and am really impressed by Kevin's work (again). All I need to do is glue on some magnets and fill out some aircraft sheets and they are ready for Check Your 6! Game Day in June!

Off They Go!

Strange Encounter by Roy Grinnell

After some great communication with Kevin Hammond of Miscellaneous Miniatures, I have shipped to him my Raiden aircraft for both the Vietnam and 1948 Arab-Israeli projects, both are for Check Your 6! The Vietnam project is based on the Crusaders Over 'Nam scenario book, and the 1948 planes are from the Wargames Illustrated 310 article "War of Catastrophe and Independence" written by Rob Wubbenhorst, along with an extra online scenario he created. The aircraft I have will allow me to do three of the six available scenarios. One day I'll have to order a few extra aircraft in order to game all six. Regardless, I'll have some options for hosting events, particularly at the Check Your 6! Game Day held in Dayton every June.