OK, here's an AAR on a micro wargame that I haven't seen anyone else writing up yet...
This past September at the Pacificon gaming conference in the Bay Area, I joined in a "demo" game of
Check Your 6!, an aerial combat wargame.
Since I have aircraft for each of my micro armies, which I prize in my collection but which seldom see much use on the gaming board, I thought it would be interesting to join in this game and check out an approach to wargaming that I had not yet experienced. And it was tons of fun! So much so that I now have the rules and a hex-mat so I can play at home.
Here's the story.
This was a multi-player Battle of Britain scenario. Two squadrons of heavily laden German bombers were trying to cross the board. Two 2-plane sections of Bf-110s were providing close escort, and two 2-plane sections of Bf-109e's were free-roaming in company. Two 3-plane sections of Hurricanes approached from the front, and two 3-plane sections of Spitfires approached from behind the bombers.
Most of the gamers were complete newbies to the rules. All models were provided by the game organizer.
All of the pics were taken with my phone, so please pardon the quality of the photography (not that I do much better with my camera, for all that).
I flew one of the 3-plane sections of Hurricanes. All pics are taken from my side of the board.
Here I am at the start. The left flight (from my angle) of German bombers is seen ahead. You can find them by their blue square bases. Two Bf-110s preceed them on their course. They have black hex stands. Both sections of Bf-109s are to my right, at the edge of the picture, between this flight of bombers and the second flight, which is out of the picture to the far right. A section of Spits started the game directly behind each squadron of bombers. If you look you can see three black hex stands of the Spits trailing behind this left bomber squadron.
We (the Brits) decided to focus all of the Hurricanes and one of the Spit sections on the left bombers, and leave the bombers on the right to the single section of Spits that started the game behind them.
The Germans split their -109s, leaving only four fighters (two -110s, two -109s) to defend the bomber squadron we had focussed 9 of our fighters on.
We Hurricane pilots made a dash straight at the bombers. The Bf-110s in front could not turn fast enough to engage us. Here you can see the Spits already getting into the thick of it.
White smoke markers indicate structural damage. This restricts a plane's ability to maneuver. Black smoke markers indicate engine damage, which restricts a plane's speed and climb. Two damages to either structure or engine will bring a plane down. There are also "critical hits" which can reduce fire-power, or wound (or kill) the pilot, etc. Any damage might affect your pilot's morale, and any time you fire your guns after your first shot, you risk running out of ammo.
Crew quality levels play a significant role in the game. Your rating establishes the base role for firing, saving, and morale. It can also give you additional maneuvering options. Perhaps most importantly, the planes move and shoot in order of crew quality (ie: lowest quality moves first, shoots last).
In this game the flight leaders were of higher quality than the wingmen, and Hurricane pilots in general were lower quality than the Messerschmitt pilots. That hurt.
Now our Hurricanes are in the thick of it. The Bf-110s have swung round to bring their guns to bear, but you must be at, or one level above, your adversary's altitude to shoot him with forward bearing guns (unless you are specifically climbing, in which case you can shoot a target one level higher), and the -110s had not reached our altitude yet. But as we dove through the bombers, that issue would resolve itself.
What a furball! Everybody shooting everybody, and we even had a couple of near-misses and at least one collision! The defensive guns of the bombers were taking their toll, and the -110s were getting to be a very significant threat.
The -109s were not yet in the thick of it, at least on our side of the board. Not for lack of trying, but the gamer flying them took a little while to get the feel for anticipating the flow and movement of the game, and with fast planes wound up out of position pretty quickly. Here he's finally gotten a handle on flying, and is racing in to join the fray.
My section was shot to pieces. So was the other one. The Spits were shot up too. We riddled the bombers with bullets, but they were HARD to bring down.
In the end I had no planes left to shoot with. My sole surviving Hurricane had engine damage and ran out of ammo, and I was diving to try to clear the action and return to my side of the board.
But the bombers, at least the squadron on the left, had been scattered and shot to pieces. Only one single Ju-88 escaped undamaged. One Do-217 went down, and one Ju-88 can be seen turned around and running for home. Only a single British fighter is still undamaged and chasing a bomber, a couple of fighters with damage are still trying to get their guns on target, but the rest are hors de combat. The German escort is un-scathed, and maneuvering for position on the surviving Brits.
I didn't see much of the action with the right-side squadron. I think a couple bombers were damaged, but the single section of Spits got shot up pretty bad doing it.
This was the end of our game. Since we got points not only for each plane destroyed, but also for each bomber damaged, we won it on points. But it did not feel like much of a victory.
The game was played out in 2 hours, including learning the rules. Loads of fun.
). 
