I wanted to fit in a quick play test today so picked a solo scenario from the Khalkhin Gol set, skipping forward to 26th June 1939 and a bomber interception mission by a lone junior ace pilot, Lt Shoichi Suzuki. In this scenario, Lt Suzuki has to bounce a flight of three Tupolev SB-2 bombers, with the aim being to shoot down at least one of them before they can get off the opposite edge of the table. In the end I played the scenario three times to put it through its paces and made a few tweaks here and there to make it work better. Here's what happened....
In the first game I started the bombers twenty hexes in from the edge of the table, forgetting that the SB-2 was actually pretty fast, with a base SPD of 5 compared to the Ki-27's SPD of 6. The bombers were virtually within one move of the opposite table edge before Lt Suzuki's bogeys could catch up with them, so I went back to the scenario draft and made a couple of changes, loading the bombers to cut their SPD back by one and starting them off only 10 hexes from the table edge.
The second game was a definite improvement, with Lt Suzuki and his bogey wingman diving down and getting close behind the SB-2 flight before being spotted by the rear gunner in the flight leader's aircraft. Lt Suzuki now barrel rolled his fighter right behind the flight leader and opened fire, with 12D6 scoring three hits, two of which were saved. The single hit remaining caused minor damage and forced the flight leader to take evasive action, dropping out of formation and sliding two hexes to the right.
Lt Suzuki now followed through and despite his frantic attempts to 'jink' the bomber, the pilot was once again in the ace's gunsights. This time, Lt Suzuki rolled 14D6 getting three hits, none of which were saved by the bomber, which then suffered a catastrophic structural failure. Scratch one SB-2! The pilot failed to bail out, no doubt staying at the controls to let his crew escape, the gunner bailed out but failed to open his parachute, leaving the bombardier to be the only crewman to make a successful parachute descent.
Meanwhile, Lt Suzuki pulled an Immelmann turn and a dive to put himself on a reciprocal course to the remaining bombers, hoping to get in a short burst as they approached head on. However, the bombers moved first and turned to the right, bringing both of their rear gunners to bear on the fighter first. The rear gunners opened up and got a single hit, which Lt Suzuki failed to save, followed by a D10 roll of 10 on the damage table. There was a Kaboom! as Lt Suzuki's fighter blew up, the lucky shot obviously hitting his unarmoured fuel tank.
I decided to run one last game, this time starting the bomber off in one corner with their objective being the opposite corner of the table. Lt Suzuki's bogey counters started in the adjacent, opposite corner, with the idea being to intercept the bombers on a diagonal approach. The first couple of turns went well for the Japanese ace, as he was able to swing in behind the bomber formation undetected, opening fire on the number two aircraft and inflicting a critical hit of wing and aileron damage. This led onto a fire test, as the SB-2 was prone to catching fire when hit, which when failed caused the bomber to explode!
The rules weren't clear if the test took place immediately or on a subsequent turn of the bomber card, so I decided it was sooner rather than later in this instance, given that the SB-2 was fully loaded with bombs and fuel.
The other two bombers managed to avoid losing control as a result of the explosion and now successfully spotted the fighter, allowing the rear gunners to open up on the timely turn of the air gunners fire card. The two gun crew combined their fire in a front deflection, long burst scoring three hits, two of which were saved by Lt Suzuki but allowing one to get through. In a twist of fate, the last burst caused a critical hit, with another high D10 roll of 9 on the damage table. This was an immediate catastrophic structural failure, with Lt Suzuki just able to bail out and parachute to safety, as his Ki-27 smashed into the steppe below!
I really enjoyed these three games and will now be able to write up the scenario, which would be great as a solo game or as a participation or demonstration game, with the umpire running the bombers and the player taking the role of Lt Suzuki. The next play test will turn the clock back to 27th May 1939, with a one sided clash between three Ki-27 shotai of the 1st Chutai, 11th Sentai, 'bouncing' a gaggle of five sprog pilots of the 22nd IAP, with inevitable results. It's an unusual scenario as the Soviets don't actually have to shoot down the Japanese but just manage to get off the table as individual aircraft, while not being able to operate as a formation, while the Japanese have to shoot down or damage all of the I-16's to win!
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