In some ways, this is a bonus scenario as I hadn't intended to include any bomber games in the original plan. This scenario is ideal as a solo game, being relatively simple yet including aces, bogeys and air gunners, so also suitable for a sprog players wanting to learn some of the additional rules. It's set on 26th June 1939 over the Japanese frontline, East of the Khalkhin Gol river. In this scenario, an aviozveno of three Tupulev SB-2 bombers is 'bounced' by a lone Ki-27 fighter of the 24th Sentai, 1st Chutai, flown by Junior Ace pilot Lt Shoichi Suzuki.
At the start of the game, the bombers are positioned on the table twelve hexes from the Southern short table edge, flying toward the opposite end of the table at ALT 2. They are regular crew with a veteran leader so have an additional Aviozveno Leader card in the pack, in addition to the Aviozveno Move and Air Gunners Fire cards. There is also a Soviet Formation Bonus card, as they are in a 'vic' of three aircraft. The objective of the Soviet player is to exit all three bombers, damaged or otherwise, from the Northern end of the table.
Lt Suzuki enters at ALT 3 from the Southern short table edge in Turn 1 as a bogey counter, operating over friendly territory for the purposes of dummy bogey allocation. He has the sun behind him, so should be able to 'bounce' the Soviet bombers, either in the initial turn or almost immediately afterwards, depending on the turn of the cards, if he's not spotted first. His objective is to shoot down at least one bomber for a minor victory, two for a major victory and all three for promotion to Top Ace!
In the actual engagement, Lt Suzuki claimed to have shot down one of the SB-2's but the Soviets did not acknowledge any losses, so who knows? Incidentally, only four days earlier Lt Suzuki had shot down eight enemy aircraft in one day, including three Soviet fighters that were chasing him as he flew alone, despite having a wounded right hand from an earlier skirmish. He was clearly an outstanding pilot but will have to ration his ammunition carefully in this scenario if he is to achieve a similar result.
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