Wing Leader PBEM round 2 - Coral Sea (SDR vs Barthheart)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Barth and I agreed to another round of Wing Leader.  This time, we're off to the Pacific for the Battle of the Coral Sea.  US carrier based aircraft try to defend the Yorktown and Lexington from an incoming Japanese raid.

First things first, we have to decide who will play as the Americans and who will be the Japanese and we agreed to let chance decide so here it goes.

Roll 1D6.  On 1-3, Bart will play as the USN, on a 4-6, I will.

This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d6 : 6, total 6

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Looks like I'm playing as the USN while Barth will don his leather flying cap and headband and play as the IJN.

Here's the scenario briefing.






And the aircraft cards.






Note that the Wildcats in question are F4F-3s so their firepower is 1, not 2 as depicted on the front of the Wildcat card.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Gah!  I realized that I had misspelled Barth's name in the topic title and went back to edit it and now I have the big red tampered dice roll message as a reminder.

Oh well.


Here's the initial map.  Bart has yet to position his two Zero squadrons so they're just place holders for now.

[Barthheart]

Bad guys again eh? Well this should be interesting. I'll need to read up on torpedo bombing.....

Banzai!  :D

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

And I'm the plucky underdog again.  Let's see, 63 veteran Japanese pilots vs. my 20 innocent farmboys.  Should go well.

Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be more like the Battle of Hoth than the Death Star trench run?


Here's the final map set up now that Barth's placed his escort fighters.  You'll note that one of my Wildcat squadrons (grid W1) has cleverly positioned itself facing the wrong direction, is below the cloud deck, and is vectored in the wrong direction (vectored to grid Z1).  I'm expecting big things from him.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Note how the dastardly Barth immediately hides in the clouds. 

Here's one of my guys searching the skies for him.  I hesitate to use the word "hero", but...






Really not much to report.  Bart's torpedo bombers begin dropping altitude to make their runs and are currently in the cloud layer.  His dive bombers continue on straight and level.  My three flights on CAP circle in place.  The one group with a tally on the trailing Val dive bomber climbs towards them while my final group continues on towards its poorly assigned vector.

I tried and failed to get the GCI on the carriers to change the vector so I guess that flight's out of the fight for now.  They might be in position to intercept after the fact.  We'll see.



 

[Barthheart]

We think the US "hero" looks more like this:




Since I have to fly straight and level for 2 squares before I can release my torpedoes and there's a pile of flak on all those ships.... I think it will feel exactly like the Death Star trench run...

My dive bombers will have an easier time making their attack but these Vals don't carry much in the way of bombs so it will take a lot to do any damage...

Oh yeah... scenario special rule #1 states that I can only attack the CVs... so I have to fly through the other ships' flak and just smile and wave.... 

[Barthheart]

Turn 2 and it's already going to get hot for my Kates.  :(  But SBDs don't pack much punch so there's that.....

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Just enough of a punch.  Got lucky and did a head on pass against the Kates with my SBDs.  I managed to damage one of the Kates.  Not looking forward to Barth's counter-punch though.

[Staggerwing]

Don't underestimate the forward firepower of an SBD. Two 50-cals firing forward is nothing to sneeze at- IIRC, the Dauntless is the only WW2 bomber with a positive air-to-air kill ratio. They were occasionally used as CAP in times of need.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Yeah, I just finished a really interesting book about SBD pilots and was surprised to learn just how often they were called on to do CAP patrols.

Unfortunately the game doesn't really reflect this.  They have the same firepower rating as the D3A Val dive bomber with its two 7.7mm MGs.

[W8taminute]

Hey this game looks awesome!  Thanks for the AAR guys.  I'm going to have to log into my Amazon account now and see if they carry the game.   O0

[Barthheart]

Hey this game looks awesome!  Thanks for the AAR guys.  I'm going to have to log into my Amazon account now and see if they carry the game.   O0

The game is really good. Gives a really good new perspective on air combat at eh squadron level. Plays vey well solo too.

[Barthheart]

Bah, Kates totally wiff the return fire.... too busy concentrating on the juicy carrier target up ahead....

[BanzaiCat]

 O0