Having recently assembled a pre-painted 1/144 Emily flying boat, I wanted to use this monster in a game. The "Walrus Salvation" scenario in the CY6! rulebook looked like an easy, fun solution, so I proceeded to adapt it to develop a rather unlikely scenario. The Emily is not rated in the CY6! book, so I used these stats posted on the Yahoo group:
F3+0 Lx R4 8/30
Armament: 1xLVC each: F, SL, SR, T3, R
It's late 1942 somewhere in the southwest Pacific (or maybe off the coast of China). An H8K2 has been dispatched to rescue an unnamed high-ranking individual. In a remarkable display of inter-service cooperation, the rescue was supported by a half-dozen land-based army Oscars, which started the game flying CAP over the Emily. (I just finished these Oscars and wanted to use them instead of my usual Zero's.) The flying boat started the game bobbing on the surface; a 2d6 roll each turn would determine take-off. On turn 1, an 11+ was needed, on turn 2 a 10+, etc. A patrol of four US P-40s in two 2-ship elements arrives on the scene and the fun starts.
On turn 1, a pair of P-40s entered at high speed, intent in stopping the rescue. They would be followed by the second element on turn 3. The lead P-40 element split up with one diving towards the Emily and the other turning to face some Oscars.
The Emily was strafed on the surface twice to little effect (we noticed later I forgot to apply the +2 to-hit modifier for a stationary target). An Oscar pilot turned to defend its charge, and inflicted a lucky critical hit that wounded the P-40 pilot. The wounded pilot failed his crew quality check, lost control of his aircraft, and spun into the water.
The Emily finally succeeded in taking off on turn 6, and soon the three remaining P-40s swarmed angrily around it. The agile Oscars were hard to hit, so the US player concentrated on scoring hits on the Emily. With a Robustness Rating of 4, however, the Emily just soaked up the .50 cal slugs. Each time the Emily was hit, the Japanese had to secretly roll 2d6; on an 11 or a 12 the VIP on board would be hit and killed. The Emily's low velocity cannon added to the US player's problems. A second P-40 went down to hits from both the Emily and an Oscar.
The two remaining P-40s finally got onto the fleeing Emily's tail for several non-deflection shots. Again, however, the rugged flying boat absorbed the hits. The P-40s put two critical hits on the Emily, but both times all they did was knock out guns instead of something more damaging. Meanwhile the Oscars had lost some airspeed in the earlier fighting and were straining in a vain attempt to catch the P-40s. The Oscars also had problems with running out of ammo during the game; three of them fired their guns dry by the end of the fight. During the final chase the P-40s finally scored airframe damage against the Emily (engine damage would have slowed the prey and perhaps changed the outcome). On the final turn before the Emily finally exited, a third P-40 was shot down and the fourth was damaged.
As it turned out, the VIP on board the Emily had been hit and killed shortly after take-off, so the rescue mission was a failure, but the cost to the US was high. Final score was 13 points for the Japanese, 9 for the US. I enjoyed running the game, although I think the US could have used another P-40.
Here are all the pics of the game:
slideshow
finds his interest in WWII air-combat gaming has rekindled.
