When East meets West
In the spring of 2022 Pete Oakley (Stumptonian) was in the vicinity for work so we took the opportunity to get together and have a few games. I first taught him how to play Battlestar Galactica. Sorry there are no photos for those games but we did play one WW2 battle that I did take pics of.
Pete flew a Corsair and a Hellcat
while I took a pair of Ki-84s.
Only the Hellcat had ever flown in a game before, so it was fun to get them all on the table.
On the initial pass long range shots are traded between 3 planes. The Corsair takes it on the chin, 10 hits and a pilot hit!
The Corsair is glad to get past the pair of Japanese Hayate as he's wondering where his Hellcat wingman was.
The Hellcat gets in a free shot and some revenge for the hurt this Ki-84 put on the Corsair.
Before the game I brought up a possible house rule where a plane does not shoot on an Immelmann. I’ve seen too many WW2 games (WWI too) where some players just fly Immelmanns. To help deter that I came up with this and thought we should give it a try. Pete agreed. It later bit me in the a$$.
Pete’s Hellcatgot past my camo Ki-84 and found itself on the green Hayate’s tail that was setting up an Immelmann.
Sure enough, I paid the price for reversing within range and got plunked good without a shot back.
Now, where is that damaged Corsair? Oh, there he is.
The action begins to swirl and the Hellcat is free to Immelmann with no opposition.
I get in another shot on the Corsair but those American planes are tough birds and just too fast to get in the finishing shot.
The Corsair flees for his life but the Hellcat is itching for more action.
My camo Hayate is the victim of another well placed shot of the Hellcat. Bits fly off and the engine begins to smoke.
The Corsair is downed but target fixation makes my camo Hayate an easy target. Down it goes!
Now the cat and mouse game begins between the damaged green Hayate and a fresh Hellcat.
The fast speeds and different altitude make lining up a shot difficult.
I figure I won’t be able to get off an unanswered shot so it was time for a head on attack. I needed to get very lucky.
I prepare to Split-S while Pete climbs to meet me.
Here goes nothing….
The feared (from my view) predicted result.
Getting in a clean free shot, with both the Hellcat and Ki-84 flying the Q deck, was not going to happen.
I tried to get an advantage but Pete just wouldn’t let me have it…..until he let me have it!
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