A Bit of Gaming

 The crew got together for a Saturday of gaming yesterday. It started as just a Check Your 6 Jet Age game but Mike and I threw a Battletech Alpha Strike game in giving us a full day with two games.

Wayne set up the first game, an air battle set over Kashmir 1971. The Indians (Wayne, Mike and David) flew Mystere IVs and MiG-21s while the Pakis (me and Ziggy) had Sabres and Starfighters. There was also a bit of AA on the table that was ultimately nothing more than a distraction. 

My F-86es (nearest in the frame) hooked in to go dance with whatever they'd find in the center of the table. The Indian Mystere IVs were being played by Hawker Hunter models. 

And boy, howdy, they found it! Some real fortune maneuvering resulted in my Sabres catching Wayne's pair in a vice.

And one goes down in a hail of .50 caliber bullets!

A turn later a were were in a conga-line of DOOM. More gunfire resulted in me losing an F-86 and Wayne losing his second aircraft!

Adding insult to injury, Ziggy loosed Sidewinders from his F-104s way in the distance and managed a hit on one of Mike's MiG-21s, sending it into the ground below! In no time, things had gone south for the Indians.

A few more turns of maneuvering and we wrapped up. The Pakistani air force had clearly won the day.

I set the table up quickly for the Battletech scenario. I GM'ed and supplied the attacking force of Steel Viper Clan mechs. Mike supplied the Inner Sphere Davion defenders. 

The defenders start with about 40% of their force on the table, defending four objectives which the attacker must destroy. For a complete victory, the attacker must destroy all objectives and at least half his force (5 mechs) must exit the table edge from which they entered (the far upper left in the picture above).

David's very fast mechs made haste and got things going in no time.

Another conga line of DOOM!

The IS force was fortunate to get reserves in the clan backfield. They certainly had their hands full with Ziggy's Stone Rhino!

David made easy work of the objectives. It would be a clan minor victory for sure. Now they had to get out of Dodge!

Mechs started dying left and right! There are three smoke puffs in this picture. The Davion force gritted their collective teeth and managed to keep the Steel Vipers from escaping!  An excellent job of minimizing the loss. The scenario worked very well for something I threw together in a few minutes while on a 90-minute waste of time Teams call at work last week. I'll keep those scenario notes around for sure.