The Italians for Check Your 6!

Ahhh, the Italians for Check Your 6! - reminds me of a joke about Italian tires, which I will not offend anyone by repeating here. Italy is an oft overlooked power during the Second World War and in many players minds the Italian armed forces are the butt of many jokes. Italian fighters are similar in many aspects to their ally Japan - lightly armed, lightly armored (if at all), yet maneuverable. Their bombers suffered from a lack of robustness as well as light armament. If one reviews the ratings for Italian aircraft in the various Check Your 6! sources (and a complete list is available as a download on the Downloads page here on the blog), one might become discouraged from the Italian experience - in one game I had one of the best opportunities in my now many games of CY6! - a Fiat G.50 in the tail arc of the enemy at point blank range. Hitting was no issue (I think I needed a 3+ to hit after modifiers), but the damage dice failed me - with only a pair of heavy machineguns on the G.50 I happened to roll boxcars, resulting in zero damage! So frustrating, as gaming the Italians can be. However, if one can latch onto the tail of an opponent, one usually has the advantage in maneuverability and can peck away for a few turns, which might be enough to obtain a kill.

The Miniatures

I have scoured the interwebs to create a list of Italian aircraft available in 1/285 or 1/300 scales, listing only the preferred model (in my opinion, humble or otherwise) for each plane. My quality rankings are as follows (best to least desirable): Flight Deck Decals>Table Top Flights>Raiden Miniatures>MSD Games>Heroics & Ros>PT Dockyard. There are thirty (UPDATE: thirty-five - thanks to slugbalancer on The Miniatures Page) different models/types of planes available for the Italians (and if you know of any other planes in either scale not appearing on the following list, please leave a comment). 

The Scenarios

There are three excellent sources for scenarios that I know of that are Check Your 6! ready. The first is the SkirmishCampaigns publication entitled Falcon of the Duce, written by C. B. Stevens, while the second is The Falcon and the Gladiator: The Air War Over the Western Desert, 1940-February 1941, written by Chris Stoesen and available as a pdf download on Wargame Vault. The third is Battles Above 2, written by Brian Dewitt and available via I-94 Enterprises. Falcon of the Duce contains sixteen scenarios featuring Italian ace Franco Lucchini along with background and aircraft information. The Stoesen effort offers thirty-six scenarios, many that feature the CR.42 and Gloster Gladiator (hence the name) along with much background and historical information. Battles Above 2 yields another twenty-six scenarios. The size of the scenarios range from two to thirty-seven aircraft, so there is plenty of choices, ranging from smaller games to massive numbers of miniatures swarming the tabletop. One can download the scenario listing, which includes plane counts, from the Downloads page.

The Stats

I have also cobbled together the stats for Italian aircraft that I could locate from various sources. However, while I have been able to discover thirty-five Italian aircraft available in miniature form, I could only source statistics for twenty. The stats file can also be found on the Downloads page.

Aircrew Quality

Italian fighter pilots, in the early period of the war, were fairly experienced due to their involving in the Spanish Civil War. Contrary to one source, the Italians offered more gunnery training than their British opponents, while overall training time was less. Players may consider rating Italian fighter aircrews as overall skilled, but with a +1 firing modifier through 1940. Also, due to the aerobatic training Italian fighter pilots received, they may take all maneuver aircrew checks at one level higher than their aircrew quality.

When rating any pilots for Check Your 6! I use the following methodology:

Expert (+4) - forty or more victories

Ace (+3) - twenty to thirty-nine victories

Veteran (+2) - five to nineteen victories and/or long service

Skilled (+1) - highly trained and/or one to four victories

Green (+0) - standard training, no victories, and/or little active service

Poor (-1) - little to no training

Conversely, one might consider randomizing pilot skill using the following tables.

Summary

There you have it - about everything Italian in one location. The Italian aircraft are some of the most interesting of the war - colorful camouflage schemes, some sleek designs, lightly armed and lightly armored, and aircrew quality that can range from very good to very mediocre.

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

Upgrading My Game - 1965 India-Pakistan War

While the Hunter looks grand, the others do not

I have to be honest, I am not loving my Raiden planes I have for the 1965 Second India-Pakistan War. The various wings and tails have too many bends, and while I have straightened them out as best as I could, the metal, being soft, tends to bend at the slightest touch. The paint work I had commissioned is also not up to the normal levels I used to receive - some sort of sealer was used on the bare metal planes that make them look gray, and I prefer the look of aluminium (intentional spelling) as opposed to whatever effect the sealer is having on changing the coloration.

Image from Flight Deck Decals

To that end, I have decided to redo my 1965 India-Pakistan project, this time using those bee-you-tee-ful 3D prints offered by Flight Deck Decals. I am focusing on just four plane types - F-86 Sabre, BAE Gnat, Hawker Hunter, and Dassault Mystère. This limited mix of planes will still allow me to put on a dozen scenarios from the SkirmishCampaigns Crisis in Kashmir book, the scenarios ranging from three to six players, some including missiles, which is an area of the rules I admittedly struggle with at times. This time around I will be painting the planes myself, as I have started to feel more confident in my skill at painting 1/285 scale aircraft. I do not add the bells and whistles, and will just focus on national insignia and fin flash, letting the quality of the Flight Deck prints stand out with a fairly minimalized approach.

Flight Deck of course delivered excellent customer service - I placed my order on a Sunday evening and had the miniatures by Saturday's post. I also picked up decals for the opposing sides - both national insignia (roundels) and fin flashes. Some pictures of the planes:

Mystère

Sabre

The pesky Gnat and the powerful Hunter

I will spray the planes with a coat of gray primer, then the Sabres, Mystères, and Gnats will be given a coat or two of Vallejo Air Aluminium - I prefer using their Air line as the metallic paints brush on very smoothly, even if a second coat is sometimes needed. The Hunter will be given a green/gray camouflaged upper with aluminum lower surfaces.

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.

Ace of the Motherland

My pair of MiGs

My friend Bill and I (as part of the Southwestern Ohio CY6 group) hosted a Korean War Check Your 6! game this weekend, a scenario from the SkirmishCampaigns Air War Korea book, called Ace of the Motherland. With just five players, we decided to cut two F9F Panthers from the scenario, a pair of jets the United States players would need considering the outcome.

Dan comes on and turns towards Jay's Panthers

The Americans had to stay on a southwestern course until they spotted the MiGs or until fired upon, with visibility being just twelve hexes. We thought, based on how four of the Panthers deployed, that they would simply fly off the board, but the Soviets closed and spotting checks were successfully made, From there the game became an exercise in American futility. With the Soviets having an ace and a veteran, the ability to react to the American movements played an important role, and of course gave the Soviets an edge when firing on the skilled and one green American aircrews. The Soviets also maintained good speed throughout game.

One pair of MiGs came on the board on turn two (flown by Dan), and headed for a pair of F9Fs, while my pair of MiGs, coming onboard the first turn, headed towards another pair of Panthers that was heading back to their carrier. With spotting, I turned my pair of MiGs and wound up supporting Dan. In doing so I left a pair of Panthers far to my rear, but was able to always keep them too far away for an effective shot. 

Bill's skilled pilot took a hit, rolling doubles for a failed robustness check, and then rolled a pilot killed result on the lucky hit table. That left seven Panthers on the board, against the four MiGs. My veteran was able to get a bead on another MiG, and although I rolled doubles and ran out of ammunition, the resulting hit caused no damage as a successful robustness roll was effected. However, Dan lit up another Panther, blowing it out of the sky from two hexes, the low velocity heavy cannon making the difference in the resulting robustness check. Damn, those MiGs, if they hit, wreak havoc!

The outcome was not grand for the Americans with two Panthers shot down, another damaged, with no damage inflicted on the Soviets. We remembered to shift left for long range shots, and also the fact that in the Jet Age version of CY6! one can shoot up or down two TALs. There will be more Korean War games in the future as it is a fun period to game - WWII on steroids.

My MiGs sweeping in on Bill's Panthers

Mat - Deep Cut Studio

Planes - Soviets are Raiden and GHQ

Update - The India-Pakistan War of 1947–1948

I received my copy of Eagles of Destiny: Volume 1: Birth and Growth of the Royal Pakistan Air Force 1947-1956, and this well written and informative guide to the early development of the RPAF clearly indicates that the initial batch of Tempests that were received were not in the desert camo scheme, but were in the Royal Air Force Day Fighter Scheme of a Dark Green and Ocean Grey disruptive pattern with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces. More research at the Hawker Tempest Page also seems to confirm this fact. And disappointingly the Pakistani Tempests did not see any action during the 1947-48 war. Well, that is a bummer! What I thought would be a neat Tempest vs. Tempest war, with the RPAF Tempests having a desert scheme and the Indian versions sporting silver, has now splintered apart from the historical perspective. 

Seemingly, I may forego this project. I have ordered nearly all the planes needed for the SkirmishCampaigns' Crisis in Kashmir scenario book (Second India-Pakistan War) from I-94, and with so many other projects to work on and without the interesting Tempest on Tempest aspect, the appeal here is no longer that great.

Crisis in Kashmir - The Second India–Pakistan War

This is a gaming period I have been wanting to tackle over the last couple of years, really ever since the scenario book for this was published by SkirmishCampaigns and I played in a fellow gamer's events. 

The various scenarios do not call for a great deal of aircraft, so this could be managed decently well in 1/285 scale. However, there is one scenario that does call for six Canberra bombers, and if one wants to do every scenario in the book, there are some one offs for other aircraft types as well. One could either forego those one off aircraft types and still manage to cover many of the other scenarios in the book, or one might consider going to 1/600 to manage costs more effectively. Tumbling Dice happens to make every aircraft type needed, but their castings are a little disproportionate, at times even cartoonish. But at that scale with with a solid paint job it would be a cheaper and complete alternative to going with the more limited Raiden offerings. 

However, as the Indian Canberras, and for that matter the Vampires, are only in one scenario apiece, I am moving forward without those two aircraft types. I've placed my order with I-94 and will be having Chris Geisert of I-94 paint the planes. For those who are intimidated about the Check Your 6! Jet Age rules and in particular adding in radar and missiles, this war allows one to ease into those aspects without too much effort. The missiles that were used were not always reliable, let alone available, and are very rudimentary in nature so not overwhelming to learn. 

Review - Crusaders Over 'Nam

Crusaders Over 'Nam - written by Roxanne Patton. Published by I-94 Enterprises, March, 2017.  $18.00.

As many of you already know, I like obscure and different periods of history to recreate on the tabletop. While the Vietnam War is certainly not obscure, Vietnam air combat is not that prevalent in the gaming world, so when I came across a Check Your 6! scenario book for Vietnam on the I-94 website, specifically one that deals with the F-8 Crusader and MiG kills I was curious. So, I placed my order via the I-94 Raiden webstore, and within a few days I received my copy. While the booklet is not an official SkirmishCampaigns production, it is designed for Check Your 6!

Let's jump into what I felt left me less than satisfied. First, the price of the scenario booklet is $18.00. Unfortunately, the number of pages doesn't warrant such a high price tag. The 8.5" by 11" booklet comes in at only twenty pages. The cover is color cardstock, while the interior is black and white. Unlike the other Check Your 6! scenario books, this offering does not have a data table showing the plane stats needed, which I find very useful in the other books and wish could have been added here to avoid having to refer back to the Jet Age version to obtain plane data. And there are a few typos and missing information, both within the scenarios themselves, and in the rules modifications section. Example - Page 4, second line states "range is reduced to eight (8) hexes for targets at." At what?

Okay, those were my sticking points. My positive takeaways are the vast majority of the eleven scenarios are ideally suited for four players, perfect for a small gathering of friends or a convention setting where the smaller number of players makes teaching Check Your 6! an easier task. The scenarios are also well researched and clearly written indicating that the author knows her subject well. The bits of typos and missing info within the scenarios is easily overcome with a bit of common sense.  The eleven scenarios, with F-8s featured in every one, also includes A-4s and a lone A-6, while for the "bad guys" all one needs are only MiG-17s and MiG-21s. This is a simple mix of planes for the player to obtain.

Overall, Crusaders Over 'Nam fills a niche for Vietnam War air combat, while providing more scenarios for jet age gamers, especially those who use Check Your 6! You will have to be the judge in deciding if a twenty page scenario book priced at $18.00 holds value for you.

Welcome!

The first post on this new adventure, the Korean War! I will be posting blog entries on an occasional basis that will deal with gaming the war in miniature, along with other tidbits I find interesting. On the miniatures side, the land war will be in 15mm, small unit level, while the air war will be gamed in 1/285th (1/300th) scale. As this is a brand new gaming project, there are a lot of decisions to be made about miniatures and rules, but I do have some ideas in hand.

My Korean War knowledge is slim so I grabbed a few titles from my local Half Price Books and am working my way through them. My father missed Korea, having served in the U.S. Army in the mid-1950s where he was stationed in Germany as part of an armored cavalry regiment. So I do not have any direct connection or reason to have a strong interest in the war, other than it isn't gamed often, the air war saw the first widespread use of jets, and of those jets I really am a fan of the F-80 Shooting Star and F-86 Sabre. I also think that the M26 Pershing is one sweet looking tank. Are those valid or enough reasons for gaming the Korean War?  Damn right they are!

For the land war, there are various companies making Korean War figures, and of course many World War Two ranges can be used. I would almost go with 10mm for this project, but to my knowledge there is only one company (Pithead Miniatures) making 10mm Chinese and none making North Koreans or Allied forces in winter gear, while there are some ranges existing in 15mm. The larger scale of these battles (compared to some of my more modern projects) would lend itself more readily to 10mm, and there are rumors that Pendraken will be making a Korean War range, and that Pithead will be expanding their range, but until those figures are forthcoming 15mm will be the direction I most likely will head. As I am going to work on the air portion of the war first, I do have some time to wait to see if these additional rumored 10mm miniatures are indeed placed into production.

In 15mm there are enough existing figures to put together small unit actions. Quality Castings (part of Old Glory 15s) make Chinese in winter gear, North Koreans in summer uniform, and other forces can be put together from their World War Two range. I have always had a soft spot for the Quality Castings figures as they were some of their first World War Two 15mm figures I ever painted. While some of the poses and details might be a tad dated compared to more recent lines, they still hold up fairly well. I do have an order placed with Eureka (the USA shop) for the North Koreans to see how they look, and will probably order some of the other ranges to see if they blend well together.

For the air war, I am purchasing some 1/285th MiG-15s and F-86 Sabres from a local gamer, along with four air war books and some Dom's Decals. I am not sure who the manufacturer of the planes might be, but I did order some of the Raiden Miniatures via I-94 Enterprises today so I hope I will be able to compare them and determine what manufacturer the local gamer's planes are.

Rules - For the land war these are yet to be determined, but I do have a copy of the Korean War Data Book coming from Olde Dominion GameWorks (ODGW) for their Mein Panzer rules. For air combat some of my gaming friends use Check Your 6! rules from SkirmishCampaigns so I ordered the Korean War supplement today as well. I have only gamed CY6! one time before, years ago, and did not come away with fond memories, but am willing to give it another go before making a final decision on rules.

There will be more to come over the next several days (pictures of minis, etc.) so be certain to check out the blog regularly and leave comments from time to time!