Check Your Six! game 20260201

 Last Sunday we played an old favourite of ours, Check Your Six! WWII aerial warfare. We played the first scenario of the Guadalcanal campaign book, putting 4 Wildcats of VMF-223 on their first patrol up against 6 Zeroes fresh out of Rabaul. Eddy and Ruben played the Japanese, JP and myself the Americans. Pilot wise the Japanese were all Skilled (these were army pilots, not the veteran Kido Butai naval pilots), while the Americans had a mix of two green pilots (played by JP), a skilled and a veteran pilot (the last representing the CO of VMF-223).

The table a few rounds into the game. The Japanese are closing in on the Americans in two groups.

I deliberately started the game with the planes a bit further apart then stipulated in the written scenario to prolong the approach phase a bit. This gave the players some time to get familiar with the maneuvring rules - it has probably been more than a decade since Eddy and myself played these rules and for JP and Ruben it was their first time to do so. During the approach phase, the Japanese advanced in two groups with Ruben taking his planes in a wide right hand sweep of the table. The American pilots, separated in two groups with about a single move distance between them, angled to intercept the other Japanese group piloted by Eddy.

Eddy and Ruben plotting their moves

Approaching the enemy is all good and well, but the real deal is of course the dogfighting once contact is made. JP's green pilots made a first sweep through Eddy's flight, but despite furious attempts from both sides, the high speed head on approach resulted in a lot of noise but no hits. At that point, my two pilots turned into the melee and positioned themselves to tail the Japanese. Unfortunately, that was when disaster struck -- my skilled pilot executed a text book Immelman to sneak up onto the tail of a Zero but miscalculated his maneuver and collided with said Zero (we ended up in the same hex at the same height, and both pilots failed their aircrew check). The result was two severely damaged planes (the Zero caught fire and would be shot down the next turn, the Wildcat pilot would need to crawl home and eject over the airfield as the plane's elevators were reduced to a few flapping shreds of aluminium), but an even worse outcome was produced when debris from the collision hit the veteran pilot's plane causing airframe damage before he had even fired a single shot.

The second flight of Zeros banking left into the fight

At that point, Ruben's flight joined the fight - three fresh Zeroes joined the two Eddy had left (the burning Zero involved in the collision was shot down by the veteran American pilot) and quickly set things to right. With the two green American pilots out of the fight (one had received engine damage and was severely slowed down, the other turned away out of the fight) and Eddy's remaining Zeros turning to catch up, it was up to Ruben's force to finish the job. The American veteran turned in to the pack of Zeros, counting on the fact that a head-on or deflection shot by the Japanese planes would probably miss. Unfortunately, Ruben's lead Zero pilot took careful aim, proceeded to hit the American plane with a full blast of cannon and machine guns and brought it down crashing in flames - scratch one American squadron CO.

At this point we called the game as a Japanese victory; The Americans lost one plane (flown by the squadron CO no less) and had two heavily damaged, while the Japanese only lost one plane. Well done to the Japanese players!

This game showed that we still like the CY6! system a lot - by turn 3 all players were no longer thinking of the rules but looking at the table and figuring out what tactical moves to plot to gain an advantage - as it should be. As an aside, the firing could be a bit more elegant (I know Phil will have his say about the roll-to-hit with modifiers, roll-for-amount-of-damage, roll-for-robustness with column shifts, roll-for-actual-damage sequence🙂 ) but as you're usually not playing with many planes on the table, it all goes quite smoothly in reality.

Will definitely be repeated!

The Battle of Neutralville (4)

 The battle continues. Both sides are more or less engaged at close distance now, so the game is devolving into a "continuous" combat mode without too much manoeuvring and movement. So I will just post some additional photos with some comments, spread out over several more turns.

The situation as seen from the Union right flank. The right flank is threatened bu cavalry, while the Confederate troops are still firmly positioned on top of the hill.

The same situation, but as seen from the Confederate side. The southern cavalry is making progress, advancing through the woods.

Disaster strikes for the Confederates, with several units routing!

 

 

This is an opportunity for the Union to advance on the village.

 

Back to the Union right flank. The Confederate cavalry has regrouped somewhat and is ready to roll up the right flank.

However, there is some fierce resistance!

 

In the village, the Confederate troops are still holding on, but the pressure from the Union becomes really severe.

 

Some more action near the Union right flank (as seen from the enemy's side), with Union infantry routing.

 

... and another Confederate unit is routing as well. Units have become so low on morale and strength, that any failed morale test quickly results in a rout.

 

A general overview of the battle.

 

Another general overview.

 

And another one :-)

 

The situation at the end ... 

At this point, I decided to stop the game. Near the village, the Union had succeeded in driving off the Confederacy, but near the hill, the situation was more or less the opposite. However, making an extrapolation based on remaining unit strengths, I concluded that the Union would probably prevail, so they get the moral victory! 

The Battle of Neutralville (3)

 Turn 6:

 The battle continues. In the village, the Union infantry is trying to get a foothold while the COnfederates are still involved in a firefight with the last of the villagers.

On the hill, the Confederate cavalry has countercharged and has routed one of the Union cavalry units.

 Turn 7:

Don Featherstone is quitly watching the wargaming battle ... 

On the hill, the Confederate Cavalry have now completed routed the Union cavalry. It seems the south will capture the hill and therefore win the battle. But we're not there yet. The Union infantry has reorganized at the foot of the hill on the other side, hoping to combine a tremendous amount of fire power.

In Neutralville, the last villagers have been chased away by the Confederate infantry, but the Union is setting up a firm line of troops to capture the village.

Another view of the situation on the hill. The onfederates eem to be in firm control, but the Union still have three fresh infantry units left.

 Turn 8:

A complete overview of the battle. The Confederates are now establishing strong position on the hill.  

As seen from the Confederate side. They have also occupied the windmill, establishing a firm anchor point in the middle of the battle line.

A view on the village, with both sides occupying some of the buildings.

Another view on the hill, with the Union firing line shown on the right.

The Battle of Neutralville (2)

Since I play this game solo, I don;t really want to "win" the game. I rather play the game as an exploration, to see how the battle unfolds.

As neither side could yet see the other, due to the central hill and village, both sides wanted to move forward as soon as possible. Due to our rules, in which one has to roll for unit activation, and then roll for movement distance, the speed at which troops can move during a give turn is variable.

At the end of turn 1, the situation is as follows:

The Confederates have moved the cavalry on their left flank forward, hoping to dash quickly for the hill. The infantry is following at a slower pace. On the right flank, not much progress has yet been made. Note that Napoleon (the Lucky General token) already has switched sides.

The Union moves forward as well, also leading with the cavalry.

A general overview at the end of turn 1:

Let's see what the situation is at the end of turn 2.

The infantry units at the Confederate right flank are moving forward through the corn field. Difficult ground, so they advance slowly. 

The Union Infantry on all flanks have made progress. The Cavalry has taken up position in a small wood.

The Confederate left flank is moving according to plan. The cavalry are well positioned behind the hill, and the plan is that 3 infantry units will occupy the hill such that they can establish a defensive position there.

 

Turn 3:

 The Confederates are reorganizing somewhat at the foot of the hill, while approaching the village. The villagers now roll for alliance, but the die roll says they remain neutral and will take shots at whoever is closest.

The villagers flee in one of the houses. Note I replace a house with a little floorplan to make room for the figures.

The Union infantry sees the villagers, decide they're in the way, and take some shots ...

Turn 4:

The  Confederate infantry has started moving on the hill ... slowly but surely.

On their right flank, the infantry is involved in some firefight with the villagers. The villagers count as a light unit, so should be eliminated quickly (but you never now, they shoot back!)

A close up of the fight in the village. The Rebel Oak Infantry has taken an adjoining house.

The view from the Union right flank. Not their cavalry has come out of the woods, and has swung to the left side of the hill, ready to charge over the top if needed.

The Union left flank is getting organized to take the village.

Turn 5:

The  firefight in the village continues. The Union has also occupied one of the houses.

A view on the village from the Union side.

On the hill the Union cavalry has charged, ans has driven back the Confederate infantry.

Another view on the hill, with an event card played by the Confederate side.

Another view on the village:

Another view from the Union left flank:

To be continued ...

The Battle of Neutralville (1)

I did set up an ACW game last week, but alas, my regular opponent couldn't make it at the last minute. So I decided to play the game solo.

The scenario is based on a Table Top Teaser from BattleGames magazine (issue 15, Nov/Dec 2008). Two equal forces approach from opposite ends from a table, with the aim of getting supplies out of the town of Neutralitz. However, I changed the scenario somewhat, did away with the supplies, and decided both forces wanted to occupy the central hill and the town. The town has a garrison of villagers who would declare their alliance for either side (or remain neutral) when the first troops would approach the town.  

 

Both sides have 6 infantry units, 2 light infantry units, and 2 cavalry units. Since this would become an encounter battle with some manoeuvring, I decided not to use artillery. Moreover, the Table Top teaser as published also didn't specify any artillery units.

In my ACW games, all units and commanders have imaginary names, and have a deck of cards with each unit and general represented by a card. The card also has some "advancements" the unit or general acquired as the result of previous games. I usually draw cards randomly to know what units will participate in the game.

 The Confederacy force was drawn as follows. Note also the random event card to be used during the battle.

The Union force is shown below. I rolled the dice and decided the Confederacy would get the first move, so the Union would start with the Lucky General token (Napoleon!). The Lucky general allows you to reroll a command roll, but then you have to hand over the Lucky General.

I divided each force in 2 brigades of 5 units each, and decided what general would occupy each flank. Below you can see the initial setup of the game.

 The battlefield, as seen from the Union side:

As seen from the right flank of the Confederacy:

The Union battleline:

An overview of the entire table:

 Next: The first turns!