Back in mid-November Dave and I played out a bombing raid on a Japanese held port in the Pacific. We put 3 Zeros (1 newly painted by Dave) intercepting the raiding force of 3 Dauntless dive bombers escorted by 2 Wildcats (both painted by Dave).
The port had two target cards, a drydock and a section of docks and one section of AA machine guns. Random draw had me flying the Zeros in defense of the port.
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The attacking force.
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The first pass had the Wildcats flying a bit too far ahead of the formation. The ground AA mgs have good aim and set one of the Wildcats on fire. This was particularly frustrating for Dave as he was planning on Immelmanning behind my Zeros. Now this Wildcat was forced to do a long wide turn to get back to the action.
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A look at the 2nd Wildcat.
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Two zeros infiltrate the Dauntless formation.
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The right side Dauntless rear gunner is amazed at how nimble the Zero’s are. This Zero’s tight turn brings it in too close, so close neither can shoot.
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The Japanese take their time and wait to reverse so to get out of the rear gunners arcs. The slow Dauntless should be easy to catch.
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One Wildcat reverses quickly and engages before the Zero can catch the Dauntless.
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One Zero gets into a good position and starts to damage the bombers.
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Groundfire takes out the burning Wildcats.
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The Dauntless rear gunners keep their poise and take down the camo Zero who thought he was in a great position.
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The remaining Zeros close in on the bombers.
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Again, the Dauntless rear gunners great aim take out a second Zero. Only Dave’s newly painted Zero remains. The pressure is now on me to take care of it!
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Revenge comes swiftly and a Dauntless falls from the air.
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With only one Zero remaining two Dauntless bombers get over the target. The port facilities take a pounding from the two Dauntless direct hits.
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While the bombs explode and tear the docks apart a second Dauntless is downed.
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The docks were wrecked but the important drydock repair facility was unharmed. At this point we called it as the mission had been completed. No more bombs to drop and it was getting late.
Sadly this was our last game before I moved away. We plan on getting together when we can. Unfortunately last weekend the weather cancelled our hoped for first game since November.
