"CY6! Cactus Air Force AAR" Topic

I ran the first scenario from the CY6! Cactus Air Force book at CincyCon yesterday. Two Japanese players, each with three A6M2s fought one American player with four F4F Wildcats. Each side's variable scenario die roll favored the Americans, with the Wildcats upgrading a Green pilot to Skilled, and one Japanese group adding +1 for their Limited Fuel rolls. The outnumbered Wildcats headed in for their first pass, with neither side inflicting serious damage. A close turning fight ensued, with the Wildcats positioning well for several good shots, including a couple at point-blank range. The lucky IJN players rolled high for robustness, shrugging off the .50 cal hits. First blood was finally scored on turn 7, when the Veteran Wildcat was destroyed by cannon fire from a Zero. In exchange, one Zero took engine damage and lost half its guns. Two turns later another F4F went down, followed by a third on turn 10. The sole surviving Wildcat headed east and managed to evade its pursuers for the moment. Starting on turn 12 some of the A6M2s began heading home to Rabaul with low fuel tanks, while others continued to tangle with the last F4F. On turn 14 the last American plane was shot down, while a Zero with airframe damage tried to perform a split-s and didn't survive the attempt. Final score was four F4Fs shot down against one Zero destroyed and another damaged. We used the optional narrow fire arc and it seemed to work well. The game ultimately turned on several lucky robustness rolls by the Japanese players.

link

nice pictures…

I've picked up the battle of britain book and was looking to the cactus one next, how do they compare?

The Cactus Air Force book has only half as many scenarios as the CY6! BoB book, but they are part of a much more detailed campaign system that covers roughly three weeks during August-Sept 1942. The paragraph-based campaign takes up much of the book's 70-plus pages, giving each side a series of choices within a larger context.

Thanks for sharing. 1/144th scale aircraft?

Yes, they are 1/144.