High Flying Fun

A straightforward game to play although I was certainly a little rusty as this was my first game for about five years or so!

Yesterday evening at the club I was lucky enough to be able to take part in an Axis and Allies: Angels 20 game. I have some history with this game in that I used to play it a lot but for one reason or another I lost the enthusiasm for it. I offloaded my original collection but revisited the game a couple of years ago when I acquired a pile of Battle of Britain types as part of a transaction. This was a good beginning but I added to it to round out the numbers so there are now six each of Spitfires and Hurricanes, four Me110s and eight Bf109s. I then acquired some bespoke decals and had every intention of repainting the aircraft to a uniform standard and then rebadging them accordingly. Naturally this idea went absolutely nowhere and in fact, I explored the possibility of offloading them, mainly due to the arrival of Fighters of Europe.

To cut a long story short, and in truth due to lack of interest on the part of any potential buyers, I kept hold of the models and after last night I am very pleased that I did! Mr Fox organised the game - a brace of Zeros against a pair of P39s, somewhere over New Guinea in 1942. I had forgotten just how much fun this game is! I had also forgotten just how nimble a Zero is! 

Somewhere over rural Kent, sorry New Guinea….

The Zeros started at level 6 whilst the P39s were at level 1. In truth it was over relatively quickly as the Zeros dived to meet the climbing P39s head on. There was a brief exchange of fire in which the P39s took some damage - they are quite tough and need to be approached with caution - whilst the leading Zero (piloted by yours truly) went hammering past at maximum speed followed by a split S to head back in the right direction. Meanwhile the rest of the aircraft were desperately trying to get into firing positions - considerably easier for the other agile Zero (Mr Huband at the controls) - with the result that first one P39 succumbed, piloted by Nigel, shot down from behind and then the second fell. This was at point blank range but in what could best be described as a ‘high angle off’ shot (for those of you that remember the SPI game Air War). It was a fairly dramatic end for this particular P39 as I managed to roll four sixes, a five and two threes from seven D6. Mr Fox, the unfortunate pilot of the said P39, is confident that he will be avenged in due course….

“Dakka, dakka, dakka!” The unfortunate demise of a P39.

In fairness to the P39s this was always going to be an uphill battle for them against the Zeros but, given the right circumstances, they can give a good account of themselves. They are quite ruggedly built - the Soviets were very fond of the type - and of course, the firepower from the nose mounted cannon was guaranteed to keep any self-respecting Zero honest.

My thanks to Mr Fox for organising the action - it was tremendous fun and made me realise that hanging on to the Battle of Britain was definitely a good move!