"Check Your 6! Guadalcanal after action report" Topic

We're in the middle of a Check Your 6! Guadalcanal campaign. If you want to see the full report with photos skip the writeup below and just go to the online version:

link

thanks,
…Fen

Check Your 6! After Action Report
Guadalcanal Campaign: Scenario J Trying Times

Cast of Characters:
Mark in Purple 2 also controlling Purple 1, Purple 3 (A6M2 Zeroes)
Ed in Orange 1 also controlling Orange 2, Orange 3 (A6M2 Zeroes)
Nine G4M2 Bettys controlled by Mark and Ed
Fen in Yellow 4 also controlling Yellow 1 (Cpt. Carl), Yellow 2, Yellow 3, Red 1, Red 2 (F4F Wildcats)

9 September 1942, 1145 hours, west of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal: With the report of an incoming Japanese attack we decided to climb above the Japanese and hit them from behind, but our flight became separated in the clouds. Instead of trying to find the missing pair, we stuck with Captain Carl and continued on, the four of us Wildcats.

Suddenly we found nine Bettys straight ahead. Their escorts were nowhere to be found. It was Turn 4, the Wildcats came in on the tail of the Japanese formation. The Zeroes were far ahead, though Mark's element had turned and was racing back to help. Yellow 4 shot down one bomber. Two more Wildcats scored hits but the damage was inconsequential. Eight bombers returned fire, hitting Yellow 3 but it made its robustness save.

Turn 5: Yellow 1 and Yellow 4 kill two more bombers as the range closes. Bomber return fire gets two hits out of eight shots but both are saves. However Yellow 4 gets oil on the windscreen.

Turn 6: The Wildcats press their attack, one more Betty is damaged by Yellow 2, and Yellow 3 shoot down the fourth Betty but runs out of ammo. Yellow 4 is able to clear the oil, just in time as Mark's Zeroes enter the fight. Purple 2 hits Yellow 1 in the airframe, who is Captain Carl the best U.S. pilot. The other two Zeroes miss. Bomber return fire of six shots hit twice but both are saved due to the rugged frame of the Wildcat.

Turn 7: The Wildcats are right on top of the bombers and continue to ignore the Zeroes. Yellow 1 scores an engine hit on a Betty, Yellow 2 scores an airframe hit on another, and Yellow 4 kills its third Betty. Yellow 3, out of ammo, stays in the fight for some reason and survives a hit from Mark's Purple 2 but gets shot down by a Betty's rear cannon. Five other bomber shots hit, but save rolls are made for all. Mark's Purple 3 hits Yellow 2 in the engine and a lucky hit sends elevator debris into the air.

Turn 8: Yellow 1 dives out and Yellow 4 is trying to do the same. Yellow 2 kills the 6th bomber but after avoiding six shots from bombers is shot down by Purple 3 with a second damage (airframe). Purple 2, losing a chance at Yellow 1 as it dived out, damages Yellow 4 with an airframe hit. Ed's Zeroes finally join the fray but miss their target.

Turn 9: Y4 dives out of the battle and the Zeroes climb and turn after the bomber formation. They were in a foul mood after letting their bombers get raked over.

Turn 11: Two green Wildcats discover the Japanese and wonder where the rest of their teammates are. They jump Ed's Zeroes who, in making a wide turn, happen to be in position to face the Wildcats. Red 1 hits Orange 2 in the engine. Orange 3 hits Red 1 in the engine and starts a heavy fire. The fire threatens to blow up Red 1 but he puts it out.

Turn 12: Ed's Zeroes climb as the Wildcats dive. One Split-Ss and another goes after an engine-damaged bomber trailing the main group.

Turn 13: Mark's Zeroes attack and Purple 3 Split-Ss and shoots down Red 2. Orange 1 misses Red 1 and it dives out of the fight.

Overall another fun scenario in the Guadalcanal campaign. The Japanese were caught off-guard and couldn't do much about the Wildcats jumping their bombers (the normal scenario entry was changed by a campaign paragraph). However they were ready for the second set of Wildcats, which goes to show that escorted bombers were a lot harder to take down than unescorted ones.

The luck factor did benefit the Allies at the start. The bombers, when they hit, rolled low damage numbers which the Americans made successful robustness rolls on.

Realistically the Wildcats bugged out when it got too hot with the Zeroes engaging. The second group of Wildcats were hoping to bag another bomber but the situation turned out very unfavorable and one was lucky to get away.

Results:
P2 (Mark) 1 kill
P3 1 kill
K2 (Betty) 1 kill
Y1 1 Betty
Y2 1 Betty (unconfirmed)
Y3 1 Betty
Y4 3 Bettys (only two confirmed)

We are going on our second mission of the Canal Campaign. Fun book and I love how the flow chart works.

It our first game, the Zeros flamed two Wildcats quickly. One pilot tried a trick that didn't go so well and blew up in his face. At that point the Zero pilots were getting very cocky.

A couple of burst from 6 .50 M2's sent Zeros into Iron Bottom Sound and there was a new respect for the stubby little American fighter.

Looking forward to next game. Thanks for the After Action.

Merry Christmas.

Oddball,

Funny to hear about the reactions from your Zero and Wildcat pilots.

So far every scenario has played out differently. The Wildcats usually seem a bit outnumbered but their Robustness 2 is great.

Anyhow, glad someone is also enjoying this campaign!

Merry Xmas,
…Fen

Great AAR, thanks! I am preparing a bunch of Tumbling Dice planes for BoB campaign book, but run the first scenario (6 Hurricanes vs 9 unescorted Ju88:s) with paper counters – I'm starting to believe that I've finally found a WWII air warfare ruleset that is just right when it comes to playability and complexity.

A quick question – do you use Spotting rules in Your games? This is the only part of CY6 of which I am a bit sceptical. If you do, how do you handle spotting when several formations are on the table? I mean some formations may spot their opponents, while other don't. I imagine it can get very confusing very quickly.

Minondas,

Our first games were with paper counters too, Battle of Britain looks like it should be fun.

We do use the spotting rules. We write down the I.D. numbers of the planes that have been tallied in the notes column on the spotting aircraft's plot sheet.

So far the spotting rules have not affected our games. Basically by the time we get close enough to shoot, planes have either rolled to spot or the automatic spotting range has kicked in (usually 15 hexes in the front arc).

I would recommend not using spotting until you're comfortable with the other rules. Then you can try a few games with spotting. Personally I think the games work fine without the spotting rules but the other players in my group seem to like using it.

If you do use spotting you might want to have players pre-plot the first few turns of moves--otherwise it's a bit hard to enforce the "not reacting to planes you haven't spotted" rule. Of course, you figure with radios someone would warn the others--so we just allow everyone to plot normally once someone on their side has spotted the enemy. Of course, you can't shoot at someone who you haven't spotted yet.

thanks,
…Fen