Check Your 6 - Gulf of Sidra 1989

Since I'm planning to host a few games of CY6:JA at our little Memorial Day get-together in a few weeks, I thought a rules refresher was in order. Zig obliged and we played the 2nd Gulf of Sidra incident Saturday afternoon. I took the Libyans while Zig handled the F-14s.

Maverick and Goose

Mohammed and Ishmael

My MiGs streaked up the right-hand edge of the map at top speed and the lowest available altitude, only slowing when it looked like the Tomcats were ready to engage. The USN couldn't fire first unless they'd gotten within 6 hexes of a  Libyan plane, and then they had to wait until the following turn to fire.

Mohammed hooks out wide, while Ish pulls a tighter turn. Mav and Ish end up in the same hex. Sadly, no gunfire is permitted at range "0."

The Tomcats are now clear to engage though!

The following turn, Mohammed got a great position on Goose and loosed an R-23R (AA-7B). I got the hit, no malfunction! The only sound in the room was Ziggy's sphincter tightening. Zig rolled the robustness dice, needing a 10+ on 2d6 and got a 10. Gah! You've got to be kidding me! Shots like that are few and far between for the Libs.

The lucky bastard celebrates.

A turn later and Maverick reverses the situation on Ishmael and fires off a Sidewinder. Mohammed and Goose trade gunshots but do not hit eachother.

Ish's MiG explodes but ejects safely into the waiting jaws of the sharks below.

Mo' briefly considered running for home, but a quick review of the victory conditions revealed that there was no glory to be had by chickening out. Maverick loosed his second Sidewinder which Mo' skillfully evaded. Huzzah!

Goose sends a Sparrow towards my MiG but it missed wide. I'm hanging by the skin of my teeth now!

After a few moments of twisting and edging for position, Mav hollers "Too close for missiles, switching to guns" into his mic and give Mohammed both barrels. The MiG suffers engine damage and is in big trouble now. I think everyone did either an Immelman or Split-S to reverse this turn!

A close-up of the action

A turn later (turn 12 for those of you at home) Goose finds himself with a good gunshot at the MiG and fires, destroying it. 'Merica, for the win!

Oh well, it wasn't exactly a fair fight but it was fun! I'm still bummed about missing that kill early in the game, any damage by the Libyan is an automatic "win" for this scenario and a kill is major bragging rights. I'm glad we played - we needed the refresher course. I'm looking forward to the 24th!