Buffaloes over Singapore

[paulr]

Another advantage of counters over minis

[pierre the shy]

Yes I have been thinking about the relatively high number of kills the Zeros have been racking up, though I do make a point of not pursuing any damaged British fighters that are attempting to leave the board. I suppose I am a little too focused on trying to protect the Japanese strike aircraft, not that I have been doing a very good job in the last two fights when I lost over 50% of the attacking Kates to FAA fighters   Same with the FAA fighters trying to shoot them down rather than engaging the Zero escort; mind you in April 1942 would you prefer to dogfight with a Zero or engage a loaded bomber trying to sink your carrier?    

I think the high number of kills being made by the Zeros is a bit of an offshoot of how the campaign is structured, since I am representing the events of the entire carrier raid from the point of view of a single flight of fighters.....would one flight really fly four missions in on day? probably not, but its a design limitation I can live with. Remember I am not following everything exactly as it happened....HMS Cornwall and HMS Devonshire were actually left totally reliant only on their own AA guns for protection as they fled south from Columbo, only to be caught and sunk by a strike of around 80 D3A Val dive bombers which acheived around 80% hits from their attacks.

I'm sure Dougal's input was helpful in that last scrap   he's a stray we got from the SPCA about 18 months ago and has fitted into our household really well....and yes he has me very well trained to feed him at his convience    

Overall I am very happy the way this campaign is progressing, certainly furfilled the desire to refight the carrier raid from a aerial combat point of view. It's certainly an "intimate" one since its only focused on three main pilots as Jack has pointed out.....For a moment it felt almost like a real loss when Honda was shot down.

Thanks for all your thoughts....next stop Trincomalee.      

[Steve J]

More great stuff and Watanebe is progressing rather well to say the least .

[bigjackmac]

Pierre,

"Yes I have been thinking about the relatively high number of kills the Zeros have been racking up, though I do make a point of not pursuing any damaged British fighters that are attempting to leave the board."
Not very sporting, is it?  I tend to let them escape as well, though there may have been times that wasn't the case, I can't quite remember

"...mind you in April 1942 would you prefer to dogfight with a Zero or engage a loaded bomber trying to sink your carrier?"
Certainly not, I just can't seem to focus on the the intercept though, knowing all those Zeros are buzzing around behind me.  And I don't mean that in any way as a criticism, just a different tactical decision is all.     

"For a moment it felt almost like a real loss when Honda was shot down."
I know what you mean, it's actually pretty easy to get attached to characters once they get a few games under their belts.

"next stop Trincomalee."
Looking forward to it.

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Thanks for your thoughts Jack...always really appreciated and I know we all approach things from our own perspectives  

I completed the next misson against Trincomalee, you can read the report here: https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/01/operation-c-attack-on-trincomalee-1st.html

I did try some slightly different tactics with the defending fighters....they tried hard and almost pulled off a big upset...

Next up is another recce mission... this time the Japanese are trying to find units of the Eastern Fleet.....the outcome of the recce mission determines what may have been sighted.

This campaign is reaching its conclusion (there are a maximum of 2 missions left). I don't intend to follow the Shotai further at his stage and involve them with Coral Sea/Midway etc......I'm very happy with the way the campaign has worked and may move onto other theatres to undertake other "short" campaigns in a similar manner....I have a couple of ideas, one of which (Operation Pedestal) involves a more complex arrangement of intertwining two separate flights, one on a carrier and one land based, but that will take a bit of working out.              

[pierre the shy]

Also managed to play and write up the IJN recce mission today:

https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/01/operation-c-ijn-recce.html

[pierre the shy]

I wrote up the final mission of the Operation C campaign that I played out last night.....   

https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/01/operation-c-attack-on-british-fleet.html

I will post a quick wrap-up on the blog about my thoughts on what worked, what didn't and where too next.

If you have been following this thanks for reading my narrative, I hope its been entertaining.

And don't worry Steve J...the empire's tea supplies are safe once more 

[paulr]

Two very good reads

An Immelmann in a Fulmar 

I suspect there is a bit of hint where you might be going next in that second post

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fulmer weren't that bad, at least it isn't a Rok!

[Ithoriel]

I've enjoyed this, Peter, I need to dig out and paint my Falklands air stuff.

[pierre the shy]

An Immelmann in a Fulmar 

I suspect there is a bit of hint where you might be going next in that second post

Fulmer weren't that bad, at least it isn't a Rok!

Fulmars were officially fighters (basically a Hurricane with space for an observer in the back) so they can do aerobatics etc. They were certainly a step up from the Skua and Roc in terms of performance......but by mid 1942 it was clear that they were fast becoming obsolete. While Seafires were fantastic fighters in the air they had real issues trying to land on carriers. Ultimately the FAA found its fighter requirements met when they adapted the Corsair.     

I am not going to continue with the Zero shotai at the moment anyway.....I just mentioned Midway as it was their next camapaign historically that the bulk of the Japanese carriers took part in. Its either off to the sunny Med for a quick dash to Malta using a "crossover" combination of carrier and land based flights or to the Norwegian fjords using an amazing assortment of low performance aircraft to undertake a wide verity of missions in a (mostly) low threat evironment (If any 109's turn up your Skua's could be in big trouble, but there were very few around in northern Norway in 1940). I have yet to come up with exactly how to do either campaign....concentrating on War of the 3 Kingdoms stuff for the moment.           

I've enjoyed this, Peter, I need to dig out and paint my Falklands air stuff.

So do I  I'm slowly accumulating stuff for this, next year being the 40th anniversary....though it doesn't seem that long ago. 

[paulr]

Wasn't the Fulmar a development of the Fairey Battle

But tongue was firmly in cheek for the Immelmann comment

[hammurabi70]

This campaign is reaching its conclusion (there are a maximum of 2 missions left). I don't intend to follow the Shotai further at his stage and involve them with Coral Sea/Midway etc......I'm very happy with the way the campaign has worked and may move onto other theatres to undertake other "short" campaigns in a similar manner....I have a couple of ideas, one of which (Operation Pedestal) involves a more complex arrangement of intertwining two separate flights, one on a carrier and one land based, but that will take a bit of working out.              

Many thanks for the narrative, which I have followed with great interest. It has given a few ideas to follow through with in a similar vein.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

The British "adopted" the Corsair under duress, USN wouldn't fly them of  carriers and kept the bulk of Hellcats for themselves, sending the Corsairs to USMC anf FAA. Later Hellcats were supplied and the problems with the Seafire fixed.

[bigjackmac]

Cool stuff, Pierre, and I can't wait to see what you get up to next (I've actually been to those little islands!).  I don't know how helpful I've been, but the British seemed to do a alright with an element trying to keep the Zeros busy while the rest went after the Vals, but damn, Watenabe with two more kills!!??

V/R,
Jack

[pierre the shy]

Cool stuff, Pierre, and I can't wait to see what you get up to next (I've actually been to those little islands!).  I don't know how helpful I've been, but the British seemed to do a alright with an element trying to keep the Zeros busy while the rest went after the Vals, but damn, Watenabe with two more kills!!??

Yes Watenabe seems to have become a natural doesn't he? 

I did a quick wrap-up on the blog about my thoughts on what worked, what didn't and where too next.

https://betweenthelines10mm.blogspot.com/2021/02/operation-c-lessions-learnt.html


Don't expect me to start another campaign too soon...I have to put together another much more complex flow chart first as well as finish some W3K scenarioes and do 101 domestic tasks first   

[paulr]

An interesting read

Looking forward to any cross over games

[bigjackmac]

Pierre,

Hey, I thought we were headed to the Aleutians, ASAP! . And now that yours blogger you're not allowed to have wargaming interests other than what your fans demand; it's how I ended up with four different blogs!

And don't mind me, I will always prefer minis to anything else, but your counters were very good looking and effective, nothing that would keep me from investing time in following.

So thanks again for playing and sharing with us, I look forward to seeing what's next (Malta sounds great).

V/R,
Jack