Surfin' bird

My first battle report is for an introductory game to look at the game mechanics. It pits 2 A-4 skyhawks on a "road recce" against a single MiG-17. The skyhawks are both loaded with ordnance . The DRV roll for strategic targets and roll a 2 and will place two targets on the playing surface. The US player must attack one of these and then return to the carrier. The two targets (rail bridge and troop barracks) are 20cm and 30cm from the DRV baseline

Table is a standard 6 x 4 table with normal table alignment. and the DRV doesn't have any SAM to use.

Mission Analysis

The US player knows with the skyhawk it will take 5 turns to get to the targets at maximum energy. Without any CAP cover the Mig will probably cause 1 of the skyhawks to jettison.

The US player also knows that bombing is a knife fight and that he will need to be down at Level 1 to have a 50/50 chance of hitting the target. Level 3 means no hits and level 2 means hitting on a 5 or 6.

This will mean he will be low and slow in the target area and not good if the DRV Migs come looking. He splits his force allocating a Skyhawk to each target.

Turn 1

Stinger 01 and Stinger 02 enter the US table at height level 3 and energy 4 which is the maximum for a loaded skyhawk. Set up directly in between the two targets, they move 20cm line abreast. MOVE - MOVE - MOVE - MOVE

For this game the DRV cannot enter until turn 2

Turn 2
Stinger 01 and 02 continue to at height 3 and energy 4 moving another 20cm. MOVE - MOVE - MOVE - MOVE

The Mig-17 enters the table at height 3 energy 4 (it can go to a maximum of 5 as it is not loaded). It heads to intercept the left hand US Aircraft.

The two forces are now 60cm apart

Turn 3

Stinger 01 honours the threat and turns towards both the Mig and the Rail Bridge, Stinger 02 turns to the right heading for the Troop barracks. MOVE - MOVE - MOVE - MOVE
The Mig-17 Manouvres towards Stinger 01 increasing energy to 5 however his starting energy was 4 so can only move 4 times. MOVE - MOVE(LT) - MOVE - POWER

Turn 4

Stinger 01 has a hard choice does he ignore the Mig and go for the target or jettison his ordnance and head for home. The US player elects to jettison his ordnance and increases power. MOVE - POWER - MOVE - MOVE (RT). BINGO status is rolled for the POWER move with a 1 being rolled but this is the first power move and the aircraft are at Height 3 so the aircraft continues.

Stinger 02 can make the target so continues MOVE - BRAKE - DIVE - BRAKE which allows him to drop to Level 2 (DIVE moves increase energy by 2 and the loaded maximum is 4)
The Mig can't reach Stinger 02 in time to stop the attack but has a choice which of the two to pursue. Both the US planes will be at the same energy as him, next turn so he continues the pursuit of Stinger 01. MOVE (RT&SHOOT) - MOVE - POWER. - TIGHT(2) Rolling for the crossing shot give a 5 No effect. Tight moves drain off energy and the Mig is back to energy 4 . Luckily the D rolls for the tight were a 2 which counted as a 1 thanks to the -1 modifier for being a Mig-17.

Turn 5

Stinger 01 begins a twisting set of manoeuvres to try and get on the tail of the Mig-17 or rather making sure he isn't a target himself. Starting off with Energy 5 MOVE (LT) - MOVE (RT) - MOVE (RT) - MOVE (RT)
Stinger 02 has a complicated set of actions in order to get the bombs on target. He needs to drop a level, not exceed his energy and break off the target area and away from trouble. DIVE (DROP) - BRAKE - BRAKE - MOVE (RT). After dropping ordnance he will be clean, but at level 1 so his maximum energy remains at 4. Rolling on the ordnance table gives a 6 and 2 VPs. He breaks off the target and puts his nose towards the Carrier.

Essentially the US have won the game already with the hit on the Barracks and DRV controllers call off the Mig. Which is lucky as the Mig is on the tail of Stinger 01 and can reach a position to shoot with a better than evens change of damaging or shooting down the Skyhawk.



This very simple game took 15 minutes from start to finish. As a house rule I introduced another victory point for the DRV in the event that no target is hit and all US aircraft have left the table. The other way would be to keep the -1 for any bomber jettisoning ordnance (essentially a mission kill), but this is hard for the US already. They have on average a 25% chance of winning this game. One of the skyhawks will probably jettison and only half the attacks at level 1 will hit from the other one. If the DRV get a shot in first it will be game over and the DRV win before the target is hit.