One Friday night in Ellsworth

Friday night I got to meet Dave (Dak21). He came to my place ~7:45 for a WW2 battle after some introductory small talk. After some interesting conversation Dave and I left my wife upstairs and descended down into the man cave. A not so quick tour of my game and miniature collection (didn’t get through it all) and we finally made our way to the gaming table.

I set up a Japanese bombing mission with interference from the Flying Tigers.

Dave flew 2 Ki-43 Oscar IIs that escorted a pair of drone Ki-21 Sallys.
For those not familiar with Oscars they are nimble like the Zero. I have added the sharp turn and wide side slips to their ‘C’ deck like I do for Zeros. They are poorly armed though, firing one B damage chit at close range and one A at long.
Sallys fire one A for both short and long range from the nose, right and left waist, and tail.

I flew 3 P-40Bs, not very agile but look so cool! They inflict two B damage chits at close range and one at long.

I almost forgot to take photos but luckily remembered at the first kill. One of my P-40s, the one on fire, was right behind a Sally. It had been hit by an Oscar and Sally continuously over a few turns while doing what it could to the Sally. Between the Sally at close range, an Oscar at long and the fire, it could take no more and fell to the earth.
Attachment 273907

One of my P-40s got past the Oscars unscathed and got on the tail of the other Sally. A timely shot set it on fire.
Attachment 273908

My last P-40 set it’s sights on the first Sally but was soon smoking from an Oscar.
Attachment 273909

Yikes! A second smoke turns into a fire!
Attachment 273910

Like my first P-40, on fire and between a Sally and an Oscar is not an optimum position. A last gasp shot took down the Sally just as my Tiger lost it’s ‘Flying’ part of it’s name.
Attachment 273911

My remaining Flying Tiger takes out the last Sally.
Attachment 273912

Having engine damage on my Tiger was not a handicap against the Sally but now facing 2 fresh Oscars it was a different story. A lucky shot sets one of Dave’s Oscars on fire.
Attachment 273913

Lucky for me his green Oscar turned too sharply and missed an opportunity. I fly off while the fire finishes off Dave’s silver Oscar.
Attachment 273914

Now it was down to the untouched green Oscar and the P-40 with 2 points left. I couldn’t out run him and make a dash for safety, I’d never reach my board edge with engine damage with him closing in on my tail so I had to engage. I did a Split-S when he was behind me for and exchanged a long range shot.
His one A damage chit put 3 hits downing me, but he drew the infamous fuzzy donut, BOOM!
Attachment 273915

An unbelievable ending (for me anyway!) to a grueling fight.

Dave, if you see this please add in your viewpoint from the son of the Emperor.

That bomber almost got through. The tenacity of your P40's put him down. Great game and intro for your friend. :)

I had two miraculous last shots to also take out the plane that took me out. Amazing luck. You never know how this game will go.

Dave had played once before in June. He did wonderful for only his second time in the air. We hope to fly again on a regular basis.

:thumbsup: That certainly was an Exciting game Peter.
I have had a couple of WW2 games end with "Mutual Destruction".:cheezy:
Not a bad way to finish a game.;)

Looks like a great start!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by clipper1801

Looks like a great start!

---

A bit of a tease for Dave as all the planes were AIM. Not sure what he has but I should find out next week. I should be able to fill in his collection a little.

Always good to see your AIM aircraft in play, Peter.
I wish Ares would give us some PTO aircraft.
Luckily I do have the Nexus ones, but would love some Oscars, and especially, Bettys or Sallys.

Yours look great but my painting skills are not up to tackling those.
:hmm:

Very nice game.

What a great experience! I really enjoyed meeting Peter and his charming wife Deborah. After our nice chat, we headed down and spent some time looking at Peter’s amazing miniatures collection. It was the most outstanding miniatures artwork I’ve ever seen and everything was done in beautifully historic colors. Well, everything was historically accurate except for the WWI aircraft painted with Welsh Dragons and Tigers. These special aircraft are used for family matches and they are quite fantastic!

With my head spinning from looking at all the great toys, we started our game. Four brave samurai and their aircrews set out on a mission to drive the imperialist yanks back where they came from. Early on they had several good shots on my Oscars, but luck would have it that Peter drew several zero damage chits on me. They Sallys can absorb a lot of damage, so they were able to plink away at the P-40s and take a beating while doing so. Peter had to stay on the Sally’s for a long time, and this allowed me, despite several rookie mistakes, to get into firing position with the Oscars and do some more damage. With the last P-40 smoking, I thought one of my Sallys might make it off. Fortunately for the Chinese supply troops in the target area, it wasn’t meant to be. In the last seconds of this swirling melee, the last Sally went down in flames. For a moment it appeared that one of the remaining Oscars would at least have been able to make it home to tell the story. In the end, ground crews at both the Chinese and Japanese airfields, after anxiously waiting for hours, silently returned to their tents for the night wondering what had gone wrong.

I had a great time, and Peter is a gracious host and patient teacher. I hope to enjoy many more battles over the years to come.