Winter 1942, somewhere over the Pacific ocean. A squadron of 3 A6M Zero's is on patrol, searching for any sign of the enemy fleet. Just when they were about to head home, the lead plane spots a trio of American fighters, as they come out of a cloud. Not being one to shy from battle, the lead Zero signals the rest of his squadron to follow him as he engages the enemy.
The American squadron is comprised of 2 F4F Wildcats, and 1 P38 Lightning.
There were no aces or rookies involved.
Upon spotting the enemy, the American squadron breaks up its tight formation, as one of the Wildcats decides to try and flank the enemies.
As they converge, the fighters pair off with their selected opponents. One of the Wildcats has engine trouble and lags behind his allies, as his overconfident opponent misses his chance to get into a favorable position to strike.
The flanking Wildcat surprises an enemy plane, and riddles its wings with bullet holes. My luck from the previous game is still with me.
The Lightning, with its mighty engine, needed to make a few manoeuvres in order to line up a decent angle on its selected target, but manages to hit it, and causes enough damage for the Zero to go down in flames.
Zero #3 , who previously overshot his target, decides to switch places with his wingman, and goes after the flanking Wildcat. He only manages to damage its rudder, but as it turns out, it was enough to make that cat useless by reducing its II agility to only I.
Zero #1, with its damaged wings goes after the straggling Wildcat, and scores a lucky hit that brings the poor cat down in the drink.
The Lightning swoops in behind the #1 Zero and brings it down with concentrated fire. Meanwhile, the crippled cat is barely able to turn with its agility I, and heads back to its carrier.
That just leaves Zero #3 and the Lightning. The Zero tries to chase after the crippled plane but after witnessing the twin-engined American down two of his wingmen on his own, decides to head for home and report back to command.
The Lightning lets him go, as they haven't spotted the US fleet, his primary concern being the crippled plane he needs to escort back to safety.
We just love these short games, they were all around 5-6 turns. I'm thinking we should leave the fuel counters for larger games with at least a dozen planes per side. Also I'll most likely make a campaign set in the Pacific when the expansion comes out. I've been waiting for a long time to get some PTO aerial games going, and this fits perfectly. I just hope there will be a couple of double sided map extensions to give us some islands, and a coastline to fight over. As I mentioned in my general overview of the game, just one double sided map section would provide some much needed variety for this map, and along with a snow/desert tri-section double map would make for a fine expansion. Just add a couple of extra ship/target/point markers.
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