Portable Air Wargaming Over the Pacific - Recce Over Palembang

For my next Portable Air Wargame, I have shifted years and theatres: this is my cover version/tribute to inspirational blogger Just Jack's air wargames, so I have pinched adapted his first scenario.  A USMC fighter squadron has been assigned to the defence of Palembang in the Netherlands East Indies.  Its first combat mission is to scramble and intercept an IJN escorted reconnaissance flight...

The aircraft and forces:

4 x F4F-3 Wildcats: SPEED-6, DAMAGE-4, WEAPONS: 2 red

1 x G4M1 Betty: SPEED-5, DAMAGE-6, WEAPONS: fwd-1 white*, left - 1 white*, right - 1 white*, rear - 1 red, 1 white*
3 x A6M2 Zero: SPEED-7, DAMAGE-3, WEAPONS: 2 red, 1 white

The Japanese fighters have 3 energy chips, the Betty has 2 energy chips (the USMC were scrambled and were climbing to intercept).

n.b. Obviously all the ratings are fairly arguable.  The Wildcats could easily be made DAMAGE-5, the BETTY could be DAMAGE-7.  The weapon codes refer to which dice I use but roughly, 1 x 20mm cannon or 2 x .50 HMG = 1 red die, 2 x LMG = 1 white die, 1 x LMG = 1 white die*.

Since Just Jack is a big fan of single rolls and modifiers rather than re-rolls, I modified the firing system slightly in this game.  Frontal arc shots and bomber gunners need 6 to hit, rear arc shots require 5 or 6.  Starred white dice only ever hit on 6.  Red die score 2 damage on rolls of 6, 1 damage on rolls of 5.  White dice only ever score a single point of damage.  Any hits can be rolled again to cause additional damage (and this is continuous: if a rear gunner rolls twenty sixes in a way, he causes 20 damage...).  I experimented with making shots on the 6 o'clock hit on a 4-6 but this made combat unrealistically deadly.

The Scenario: The USMC are trying to destroy the Betty bomber or at least force it to break off.  The IJN pilots are trying to get the Betty bomber over the other edge of the board.

n.b. I was playing this in a room which is not great for photography at the best of times, with artifical light, during the breaks in the Cardinals vs Rockies ball game last night, so many apologies for some of the photographs.

The Battle: 

Four USMC Wildcats from VMF-343 climb to intercept the oncoming Japanese..

 

Three Zeros accompany a Betty bomber on a reconnaissance mission

The Zero leader (Centre) turns back to protect the rear of the Betty whilst his wingmen (bottom-left and top) threaten the USMC fighters

 

The wider position = the USMC fighters have loosened up their formation somewhat (left)

A Wildcat and Zero make a head-on pass: the Zero fires a split-second first...but misses completely...

 

On the opposite side, another Wildcat and Zero mirror this move, and again the Zero fires first..and again misses completely

This Wildcat's shooting is just as bad...

 

The other Wildcat causes some solid damage to his opponent...

The central Wildcats (centre-left) heads for the Betty...

 

One Wildcat targets the Betty, whilst the Zero leader fires on the Wildcat leader (bottom-centre) and puts a few holes in his fuselage...the other Zeros have broken hard to pull in around the Wildcats

 

The Wildcat leader takes a head-on shot against the Zero leader, but misses

...and begins to break left (right), whilst Wildcat 3 takes a head-on shot against the Betty, causing some minor damage

...and then breaks left towards the Zero leader...whilst the two other Wildcats break in towards the Betty, but miss...

The Betty tundles on (centre-left) whilst the Zero leader breaks to his left and takes a head-on shot against the Wildcat (bottom), but misses entirely...

A second Zero gets in towards the Wildcat's rear - but misses as well!

  

The third Zero takes on Wildcat 4, and causes some minor damage...

  

One of the Wildcats pulls in behind the Betty...

  

A wider shot of the same...it was a cool move by the Wildcat (left)!  Pity about the shooting...

Add caption

Wildcat 3 pulls in behind the Zero leader, but misses...

Wildcat 4 also pulls in behind the Betty (he can fire, because the aircraft are asumed to be at different altitudes)

Which is lucky, as this time the Wildcat makes no mistake: the Betty's fuel ignites and down it goes...

  

Feeling that the mission is now lost, the Zeros break for home...

 

The Wildcats are about to pursue the Zeros...

 

One Wildcat gets into firing position...but misses!

 

The Wildcats pursuing the third Zero are just out of range, and the Zero's superior speed will see him home...

   

Two Zeros escape...

  

As does the third...

 Game Notes: An exciting little encounter, very fast but with enough incident to be worthwhile.  In this kind of relatively even fight, then good shooting and the emergent advantages of small manoeuvres seem to be key, which feels fairly realistic.  I am still not quite certain about how exactly to calibrate the chances of hitting and damaging in various positions.  In particular, I am genuinely not sure as to whether a rear-quarter shot (on the 7 or 8 o'clock) should be more or less difficult than a head on (12 o'clock) shot.  But everything worked reasonably well.