Check Your 6

Started by acctingman, April 18, 2017, 09:21:03 AM

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acctingman

Anyone place this? I tried it out for the first time last year and loved it. Just played another game this last weekend and loved it even more. I've started dabbling into WW2 mini's gaming mainly with Chain of Command, but I DESPISE making terrain and I'm too cheap to buy some. So, it got me thinking about this game. The mini's are cheap(ish) ($3 to $8 depending on the plane and scale) and you don't need a lick of terrain. Just a good hex map and some nice flight stands and it's off to the races.

However, Lordz Games Studios is a month or so away from their beta for CY6 and with a release somewhat likely this summer/fall I'm wondering if I should hold off on buying a bunch of mini's? Still, there is no substitution for playing with little toys!

Is anyone here thinking of getting the PC version? Apparently there will be multi-player so it would be neat to play some against some people here.

Barthheart

I've never played the table game but I'm looking forward the PC game. If it's good I'll probably go the other way and sink money into the table game.  :P

mirth

I've played the tabletop game and love it. Overall, it's a low cost game to get into.

I'm sure I will buy the PC version when it's available.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

bbmike

Quote from: mirth on April 18, 2017, 11:05:15 AM
I've played the tabletop game and love it. Overall, it's a low cost game to get into.

I'm sure I will buy the PC version when it's available.

We have faith you will.
"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

"You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."
-Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

"There's a horror movie called Alien? That's really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you!"
-The Doctor

"Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth."
-Clifford D. Simak

Nefaro

My biggest problem, a few years ago, was finding a large hex-mat to go with CY6 that didn't cost a kidney but still looked okay.

Nowadays it's not such an issue.  With all the cloth & neoprene large game mats being offered, it was inevitable that we would get "huge terrain mouse pads" offered with hexes:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FY6YTEW/

Wish I would've just held on to the money I spent on my older & simpler cloth, flock, and paint one, getting this instead.

Jack Nastyface

I've played a couple of games of CY6 and mostly enjoy it.  The one thing I LIKE about the game is that pilot skill level plays an important (dare I say critical) role in game play.  This is very different from games like Wings of Glory or Canvas Eagles(?) or Air War: C21 or Table Air Combat where airplane characteristics are the deciding factor.  One guy I have played against really doesn't like CY6 because he believes air combat is all about airplane performance (speed, armament, wing loading, etc).  And there is much to be said to support his views.  It is admittedly difficult to see how a Brewster Buffalo could EVER out-fight a FW-190, or a Curtis SBC Helldiver, a Spitfire Mk IX.  At the same, however, a true adherent to the "airplane performance" school of gaming should necessarily admit that - as in real life - airplane performance is affected by a very wide spectrum of factors - things like altitude, humidity, air temperature, winds / gusts, surface drag, etc.  So even if you are playing a highly complex air combat game (airforce anyone?), a certain amount of abstraction is going to occur in game design and mechanics.  And thus the question remains:  do you want to abstract out the complex and bewildering details of aircraft performance (as CY6 does) or do you want to abstract out pilot skill (as the other games do)?  I guess I take my lead from Chuck Yeager:  "It's the man, not the machine."
Now, the problem is, how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over.

Silent Disapproval Robot

I think CY6 goes a little too far in the direction of pilot skill.  I played a PTO scenario where the US had a Dauntless crewed by Swede Vejtasa and he could fly rings around Zeroes.  Seemed a bit much.  Having said that, my chief issue with the tabletop version of CY6 is the amount of record keeping involved.  Really looking forward to the digital version just to avoid the accountancy phase of the game.

Back to plane stats vs. crew skill.  I think the best combo I've seen was a home built rule for Wings of Glory where a guy borrowed heavily from the tactics cards found in Duel in the Dark and the crew cards from X-Wing and Armada.  Basically, he made a bunch of pilot/crew skill cards that let planes "borrow" extra maneuver cards from other planes, improved gunnery, defence, etc.  They all had a point value assigned to them and you'd subtract the value of each card from your final score at the end of the match.

It worked quite well and added a lot to the game.  I bought the "corkscrew" ability for one of my Lancasters (basically the sideslip card from the Spitfire deck) and had a great laugh at the look on the German player's face when I played it just as his Bf-110 was closing in.

 

Nefaro

#7
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on April 18, 2017, 05:35:40 PM
I think CY6 goes a little too far in the direction of pilot skill.



Definitely lean toward this opinion.  For just one reason, and with some big "buts".  Being a game I expect the players' tactics to replace the role of individual pilot ability to a fair extent. 

CY6 seems to heap pilot experience into most rolls as a big factor.  But, at the same time, this also allows a lot more flexibility in attempting to balance the "few versus many" scenarios.  So the difference could possibly support a much wider range of scenario setups and number imbalances too.  Which is a Pro IMO.

Plus you can still just set up scenarios with both sides have same experience levels if you want a completely level pilot experience field.  There's little to scenario creation.  So the situation can be easily nullified with homegrown scenarios.

mirth

Unless the pilot skill is really disparate (green versus Veteran or Ace), I find that player skill is far more important. I am an experienced player and in a straight up dogfight, I'll take my chances against anybody. Bad dice can be a killer, but that's true of just about every game (goddamned noobs have the best luck).

I think CY6 has the right amount of abstraction when it comes to aircraft performance. Good tactics still matter and you do see some differences between the types. I've played other games with greater fidelity to aircraft performance and sometimes they feel too much like an advanced math class.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Nefaro

Quote from: mirth on April 18, 2017, 08:22:24 PM
I've played other games with greater fidelity to aircraft performance and sometimes they feel too much like an advanced math class.

Reminds me - I need to continue learning Birds Of Prey.

Thank the gods of gaming it has loads of wonderful nomographs to get through the calculations faster.  :bd: