DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Airbattle Games
HTML https://airbattle.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: IGNORE: Wing Leader Playtest Archive
*****************************************************
#Post#: 7193--------------------------------------------------
S02 Piling On
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 20, 2020, 3:00 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Here's Gordon & Andrew's feedback:
PILING ON
Andrew (Allies) & I have now had 2 goes at this. Overall holds
up pretty well but some minor tweaks suggested (below)
Run 1 as written:
Allies 10 losses (9 Kittyhawks)
IJNAF 9 losses
4 US exit VPs
VPs
Allies 13
IJNAF 10
Nett +3
Draw
In reality Japanese victory?
Dice favoured no one. Difficult to get high Corsairs into
action. Overall though worked well & kept closely to the
historical narrative. Kittyawks got monstered & the high
Corsairs still nett exit VP. Nonetheless felt slightly
unsatisfying not to get the powerful Corsairs into the fight.
Are the low Kittyhawks too exposed & the Corsairs are too high
were the main issues. We elected to leave the Kittyhawks where
they were & move the Corsairs to T10/ U11. Importantly we also
dropped 1 veteran from the Allies & 1 Green from the Japanese
side.
Second run worked well as well. Similar losses with the Japanese
coming out 2 ahead this time. The Corsairs rolled badly for
tallies and eventually headed for the map edge together with a
Hellcat squadron to nett 6 exit VP & a draw. There were 4
undisrupted, unbroken Japanese squadrons on the board at game
end & i'm inclined to suggest that the Japanese should get 1 VP
for each such squadron at game end-it provides an incentive for
the Allies to engage rather than trying to run away & ensure the
Allies can't win by voluntarily breaking the kitty hawks &
trying to sail past at higher altitude as soon as the Hellcats &
Corsairs tally anyone before the low Japanese get into the
action.
Overall though this one held up better than I had feared. I
worried it might be unbalanced against the Japanese but on both
occasions the Japanese emerged with favourable kill/ loss ratio.
The clouds segment things neatly & there is considerable scope
for manoeuvre & it is an interesting fighter versus fighter
action with a range of aircraft. Mid war the Japanese are
starting to struggle but not yet as hopelessly outclassed as in
many later scenarios.
Final suggestions:
Corsairs to P10/U11 (wing leader in P10 should do). reduce
veterans by 1 for Alies, Green by 1 for Japanese
[Lee: I guess you mean T10/U11, rather than P10, which is the
VF-33 set-up square.]
#Post#: 7194--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: Gordon Christie Date: December 20, 2020, 3:38 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Yes, sorry T10/U11.
Probably also worth making the 1 VP for unbroken, undisputed IJN
squadrons at game end “official” as a suggestion.
Definitely running out of steam when I wrote that last night:-))
Cheers
Gordon
#Post#: 7197--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 20, 2020, 4:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I'm not sure about the SSR suggestion. We added a 'Allies get VP
for moving off the left map edge' rule to incentivise the Allies
sweeping to the map edge. I'm nervous about piling a second
Allied incentive on top of that. The existing incentive also
serves to encourage the Japanese to intercept.
Elias, your thoughts on this?
#Post#: 7203--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: Gordon Christie Date: December 20, 2020, 8:41 am
---------------------------------------------------------
My thought was to give the Japanese a VP for each intact
squadron at the end. My concern about the Allied exit VPs is
that early tallies by the high Allied squadrons allow them to
climb a bit to an altitude where the high Zeroes are
disadvantaged, monster the high Zeroes and drive for exit before
the low Zeroes can climb to engage. If the P-40s voluntarily
break and run away the Japanese have no opportunity to hit them
hard to compensate for the likely loss of the higher engagement
where they are outnumbered by better fighters.
Cheers
Gordon
#Post#: 7204--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: Elias Nordling Date: December 20, 2020, 10:08 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Intact squadron sounds like it can be gamed. I'd rather see some
kind of hinder for voluntary breaking.
#Post#: 7208--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: Gordon Christie Date: December 20, 2020, 10:17 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Elias suggestion would deal with what (I think) is the potential
sleaze tactic & is probably cleaner. Th high Zeroes can engage
some of the high Hellcats/ Corsairs & may well prevent intact
exit- but are likely to lose more aircraft than they kill trying
but the low fight with the disadvantaged Kittyhawks needs to
happen to fit the historical narrative & also to encourage the
high US squadrons down & enlarge the fight. The key thing is to
stop the Kittyhawks running away. Forcing the Allies to exit the
L map edge might have the desired effect?
Cheers
Gordon
#Post#: 7210--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 20, 2020, 11:55 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Okay, I shall add a rule against voluntary breaking.
#Post#: 7266--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: ScottKey Date: December 25, 2020, 3:19 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Scenario: S02 Piling On
December 25, 2020
Version: 1.4
Playtesters: Scott Key, solitaire
Report:
- Game lasted 8 turns
- There were no height errors at set-up or when using GCI
- GCI changed a vector 1 out of 3 attempts
- 1 F6F, 1 P-40N & 1 A6M5 squadrons split
- Both Green Japanese markers were assigned to 253 Kokutai
- Japanese had real trouble tallying
- The Higher altitude sweeps tallied the 201st Kokutai then
climbed to at least altitude 13. The F4Us then engaged an
experte flight, thoroughly whipping it and following it’s
escape dive into clouds where the Japanese flight was destroyed.
The F4U experte sqn then broke due to Weather mods
- The Wing Leader/experte sqn of the NZ Wing split and engaged
each sqn of 204th Kokutai which became a big tangle of
interlocking tallies. The Japanese, in Lufbery formations,
refused to dogfight and finally the Wing Leader of 204 broke
diving into cloud and followed by the rest of the fight. The
units of both sides broke in the ensuing fight.
- The AirSols units kept taking risks to try and down more
Zeroes and push the draw into victory but usually lost enough
planes to counterbalance any gains.
- Both exited AirSols sqns did not fight at all. The NZ unit was
pursued by 253Rd Kokutai but they were never able to make tally
despite a good final vector.
AirSols: x9 A6M5 downed: +9 vp; x2 Good Order Squadrons exited:
+2 vp = +11 vp
IJAAF: x1 F4U downed: -1 vp; x3 F6F downed: -3 vp; x1 P-40N
downed = -5 vp
Victory:
Total: +6
Recommendations:
- This one really feels balanced and has a TON of interesting
choices.
- The Japanese felt constantly behind but were able to keep the
game at a draw by trying to make sure as many AirSols units
joined the fight as possible.
- If I play this again I think I would not worry about exiting
AirSols units and would focus on destroying the Japanese. Also I
would have the Japanese “pile on” the P-40s and
pretty much ignore the higher squadrons, hoping the clouds would
prevent tallies.
- Merry Christmas!
#Post#: 7274--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: pilotofficerprune Date: December 29, 2020, 3:49 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Cool AAR. Keep the tests coming!
#Post#: 7281--------------------------------------------------
Re: S02 Piling On
By: Okmed Date: December 29, 2020, 7:40 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=Gordon Christie link=topic=198.msg7203#msg7203
date=1608475279]
My concern about the Allied exit VPs is that early tallies by
the high Allied squadrons allow them to climb a bit to an
altitude where the high Zeroes are disadvantaged, . . .
[/quote]
I'm playing this right now. Indeed, that's the plan: Force the
high Zeroes to engage at altitude 13. Seems clearly the thing to
do. The question is how well the Japanese can do against the
Kittyhawks, and how quickly. The Allies can maybe defer the
question of whether to run some squadrons off the left or join
the fray. The Corsairs are in the wait-and-see position. A lot
depends on the Allies' initial tally rolls: How soon can they
start climbing?
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page