CY6JA - More Vietnam Jet Fights!

Ziggy and James came over yesterday for a game of Check Your 6: Jet Age. James had never played before and Z and I are still novices but there only one way to get better, so after explaining the basics to James, we jumped into a scenario out of the book. I selected Freedom Train 1: Basco. We randomized the units - Ziggy ended up with the Vietnamese, I got Basco 1 and 2 and James got Basco 3 and 4.

For the hidden MiG-21, we gave Z three "contact" markers, one of which was the real Slim Shady. He didn't have to reveal which was the actual plane until we got a visual ID on it or until he fired.

Shortly after set-up. I only had enough white felt for three clouds.

This was around turn 3. The Veteran MiG makes himself know and takes a gun-run at Basco 4. His shots miss.

The story of my career in this game. "Pinkie" get behind BOTH of my planes and looses a K-13 at Basco 2. It is a direct hit and the big American planes fireballs into the canopy below. Both crewmen die horribly as my dice seize up.

Basco 1 gets a lock on the camouflaged MiG and fires a Sparrow at it. The rocket misses badly.

Pinkie gets in position again. His missile explodes just shy of my plane, causing airframe damage. Since that MiG was out of missiles, he turned for home. (Thank goodness, he was killing me!)

I took another Sparrow shot at the Veteran pilot. I confirm the hit but the malfunction die snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. Grrrrrr!

James' flight lead gets a Sidewinder off at the junior Vietnamese plane.

Aha! Finally, something that sticks. A good robustness roll leaves the MiG with airframe damage.

My last Sparrow does naught but make pretty lines in the sky.

Basco 4 tries that same trick a moment later, with the same results.

Some nifty driving by Zig results in the Veteran MiG being right on my tail (orange plane). The junior (yellow) had to perform an extreme maneuver since he took evasive action from the previous shot at him.

Yellow fails his skill check and crashes. Thank the earlier airframe damage for that! Score one for the good guys!

A bit of a swirl later and the MiG is back on me. His guns fire and I take a "lucky hit" even though I passed the robustness check. Engine damage! Great! Now I can't turn for shit and I can only go speed 4 max!

Parting shots... James fires his last Sparrow at the MiG, missing yet again. The MiG's guns get a "fuel leak" lucky hit on Basco 3. 

We (the US players) threw up the white flag. This MiG was absolutely killing us and we couldn't do anything about it. Our only advantage - long-range Sparrows - were all used up and with two damaged planes there was almost nothing we could do to this guy.

The scenario is very good and we all enjoyed the game. It turns out, I just can't fly. Ziggy on the other hand has it figured out.

Now, one of the member of the CY6 Yahoo group asked about using 3mm figures in CY6JA. Here's a few pictures of how I do things.

An F-14 (Tumbling Dice miniatures) and an Su-22 (Pico Armor)

Bottoms showing the magnets. The small magnet is KJ Magnetics part #D21 (1/8" x 1/16") The large on the Tomcat is part#D41 (1/4" x 1/16"). Pro tip - superglue the magnets on before painting. Also, before starting with the magnets, mark all of the same pole so you don't up with a N-N or N-S situation between the planes and stands.

My stands. These are from Litko. They are 1.375" hex flight stands.I cut the pegs to various lengths - they start at 2". I didn't want planes in adjacent hexes bumping wings. I painted the rims different colors to differentiate models in-game.

Plane, meet base.

We use a matched-color d8 to mark speed and a d12 to indicate altitude (2 x 6 TAL CABs).

I'm very happy with the 1/600s - they are inexpensive and store easily:

I keep mine on a 8 x 10 magnetic dry-erase board.