"Port Moresby Air Raid" Topic

Our group of gamers is commencing a set of linked air, sea and land games based on operations involving New Guinea in 1942-43.

Game #1 is shown with this link:
link
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As is customary with my stories, briefly captioned photos hopefully succinctly explain the action of the first Japanese Air wave attack on the port.

1/285 and 1/300 aircraft fly and crash in the story on a 6'x 14' surface. Buildings are 6mm ish. Rules are home adaptations from Bag The Hun, Check Your Six and Duel of Eagles. The adaptation emphasizes long flight distances, the frantic dynamics of BTH activation cards (fun indeed), aircraft data from BTH and CY6 and movement templates from DoE. No hexagons or grid system needed. Just fly where you will.

Respectfully,
Bil P.
Chronicler for The Adventures of General Pettygree

I applauded this ambitious campaign game. Looks like tons of fun. I appreciate the hard work that goes into these.

Hard to believe a Betty could shoot down anything. They should be quite easy to shoot down themselves due to lack of armor and self sealing fuel tanks. This is true for most Japanese aircraft. That is why so many fighter pilots in the PTO racked up so many more kills than the ones in the ETO.

I applauded this ambitious campaign …

Me too! I have often day-dreamed about linking air games, sea games, and land games. But I have never stepped up to actually DO it!

Hard to believe a Betty could shoot down anything.

1. Why should we assume that a Betty shot something down? Did I miss something in the description? Looks to me like the intercepting fighters were jumped by Zeros.

2. Yes, Betties were easily torched. Bad for the Betty crews. But that doesn't mean they were toothless. Most variants had a 20mm auto-cannon in the tail. It doesn't take too many hits to ruin the day of a pilot who attacks in a Hurri.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Fantastic AAR. Look forward to reading more.

20mm auto-cannon in the tail

Contemporaneous accounts from Cactus pilots show a preference for flank attacks on bombers (Marine pilots were trained in deflection shooting). Against Bettys they specifically mention trying to avoid falling behind and getting sucked into long tail chases. That 20mm stinger was well respected.