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| Our formation of "sweaty" Betty bombers, and Allen's escorting Zeros |
Check Your 6! is one of those games that we play only
about once a year. So, invariably, we spend the first half hour trying
to re-learn the rules. Mike S had cooked up a scenario featuring a
flight of Japanese Betty bombers escorted by 6 Zeros. A U.S. force of 5
Wildcats and 2 P-39 Airacobras were attacking them after the Bettys had
completed their bomb run.
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| My two Zeros take a left turn to sweep around and come in behind the Wildcats -- or so we thought! |
I ended up controlling two Zeros flown by Veteran
pilots. As we were filling out our sheets, I noticed our "robustness" --
how much damage we can take under the CY6! system -- was appropriately
enough, a "0." That is a really fragile plane. So, I decided to take my
two Zeros on a sweep to come in behind the Keith's Wildcats after they
had made their run. I underestimated how quickly they could close with
the bomber formation and ended up out of the fight for a good length of
time.
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| Our enemy -- three of the five Wildcats and two P-39 Airacobras in the distance |
In fact, I had no idea that they would simply
dog-pile into the middle of the bomber formation and essentially be
invulnerable under the CY6 system (and Mike S'
really bad
die rolls!). So, as I was hurriedly trying to close with the scrum in
the middle, Bettys kept falling from the skies. I think that our
defensive fire from bombers accounted for one damaged Wildcat in the
entire game. Maybe that's accurate -- I don't know. Keith was clever and
dove under their formation where they had fewer guns to bear, and Brett
hung on the edges and shot in, but Steve just flew straight into the
middle of the formation, guns blazing.
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| Yes,
you must be bald to play in this game...ha, ha! Keith, Brett, and Mike S
analyze the scrum (guess whose two fighters those are way out of the
fight...?) |
Slowly, my fellow Japanese Zero pilots (Joel and
Allen) closed with the U.S. fighters. One by one, we began to damage or
drop their fighters, too. I made a diving turn and got into fight (right
onto the Wildcats' tails, as I'd planned) two turns before the end of
the game. I managed to shoot down one damaged Wildcat. I never took any
fire, but felt somewhat like I'd bungled my job as bomber escort. Oh
well, dead men tell no tales!
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| The Wildcats boldly jump right into the formation of Betty bombers, ignoring the Zeros lurking on the edges |
I do think that perhaps slightly larger hexes are
needed. The bomber formation was simply a mass of airplanes and looked
kind of silly, I thought. Of course, if it was fighter-on-fighter
action, it likely wouldn't have looked as out of scale.
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| Okay, this looks a little silly, in my opinion...an argument for larger hexes with this scale planes |
I learned some lessons about how to do bomber escort,
which I will doubtless forget in the ensuing year before we play
again...ha, ha!
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| One Betty bomber remains, but will soon be shot down. Zeros close in...too late! | | | |
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