Mark and I met early at game night to try out Walrus Salvation, a Mediterranean scenario where the Brits are rescuing a downed wing commander with a Walrus flying boat while covered by four Spitfire VCs. Meanwhile a Macchi C.202 Folgore and a pair of 109s are zooming in to strafe.
From the start the Axis planes came in fast in a shallow dive, aiming right for the Walrus who was trying to get the downed pilot out of the water and onboard. The first pair of Spitfires stayed high and turned left to intercept. Another pair of Spitfires, south of the Walrus, did the same.
The Axis flight splits. The C.202 goes low and continues on a bee line towards the Walrus. The 109s maintain mid-altitude and do a head-on pass with the Spitfires who stayed high.
In the meantime the Walrus is still trying to rescue the pilot. Each turn, they need to roll (on 2d6) an eight or better to succeed and take off. However, the modifier is -5 on turn 1, then -4 on turn 2, and lower until it's zero on turn six. Needless to say there's a lot of trouble with the rolling waves! The C.202 strafes the front beam and starts an engine fire on the bobbing Walrus. However the fire is soon put out.
Meanwhile two Spitfires are closing in on the C.202 but their medium-range shots miss. Behind them are the two Bf 109s who in turn are followed by the other two Spitfires. And these are followed by a pair of FW 190 A-4 (ground attack version) who have come in on turn 4. It's a classic tail-chase of "I hope I get him before he gets me."
Bing-bang-boom things start happening fast on Turn 5. The 109s shoot the leading Spits and the 109 leader gets one of the Spits. However the leader and his wingman in turn are downed by the second pair of Spits trailing behind them at short-range. They got some good rolls and the cannons contributed to some high damage rolls. The FW-190s behind them were still at medium range and missed, opening up with all but the low-velocity cannons.
On Turn 7, the Walrus finally fishes the wing commander out of the drink, and slowly lifts off a few feet out of the water. That's when the C.202 has fought throught the fighter cover and on his second pass and takes a point-blank shot on the Walrus. The tail-gunner with his twin LMGs misses, and the slow, stable target disintegrates under the fire of the Italian's HMGs and LMGs. The Italian has sacrificed himself for this kill because the three remaining Spitfires have all lined up shots this turn. The first two miss but the third hits, so the C.202 joins the wreckage of the Walrus.
Meanwhile, the 190s, still closing in, manage to damage one of the Spitifres. The overall better crew quality of the Spitfires has so far proven vital in the scenario. The Allies are winning 12 to 11 at this point and can try to get away. However, all become involved in a swirling dogfight, the 190s are split-s-ing and Immelmann-ing; the Spits are in tight turns.
The 190s get a hit on one of the Spitfires, the four cannons start multiple fires. The pilot overcomes his panic and manages to save his plane but with some serious airframe damage. He is able to fly off to the southwest and disengage. One of the 190s has run out of ammo and also disengages to the north.
The remaining 190 shreds a Spitfire with his cannons so it's down to one-on-one. The last Spifire, having sustained airframe damage earlier, decides not to stay in the fight and the both remaining planes disengage with the score 16-12 in favor of the Axis. Overall a fun, close scenario.
We played this game using the Check Your 6! rules on a 2-inch hexgrid with 1/600 scale aircraft.
finds his interest in WWII air-combat gaming has rekindled.