Thu, 08 Jul 2004
Downtown D1 - Turn 8 Summary and End of Game
Turn 8 starts out favorably enough for the DRV, with an AAA ambush on the deck random event roll. Fortunately for the US, all flights on the deck are in rough hexes, so the random event is ignored.
During the US detection phase, THAN TRUNG manages to remain undetected, despite two visual sighting chanes from nearby F-4 flights. So far, things are looking up for the DRV this turn! During the DRV detection phase, US Flight 101 is detected! Perfect! It looks as if THAN TRUNG might have a chance to intercept this flight, and hopefully neuter its strike capability.
The first US movement phase then finds the three strike flights punching the afterburnings, and climbing towards their strike altitude. As US flight 105 moves its final movement point, SAM site B fires on it. The SAM misses the flight, and the pilots keep their cool and decide they don't need to perform any avoidance maneuvers. SAM site A then fires a long range shot at flight 105, hoping to discourage it into turning back. While the SAM shot is a miss, it appears as if the pilots of flight 105 thought the shot was closer than they liked. They perform a SAM avoidance maneuver, jettisoning their ordnance, they dive to the NW, and break out of formation!
During the DRV movement phase, THAN TRUNG lights up his afterburners to try and catch the tail end charlie strike flight (101), and do his best. He makes a perfect intercept approach, and bounces flight 101, who is completely surprised to notice tracers arcing about their planes. However, THAN TRUNG misses both shots on flight 101 (4 F-105Ds) and blows all of their ammo on the effort. The F-105s do not get to return fire, being severly outmaneuverd while laden with ordnance by the Mig-17s. Although no F-105s are shot down, they still jettison their ordnance, so it is a mission kill for THAN TRUNG. During the post combat procedure, both flights involved in the combat suffer aggression penalties, and are disorderd.
Finally, since there was another flight in the strike mission, it must now check for MiG panic. Amazingly, the only remaining flight in the strike package fails its MiG Panic roll, gets spooked by the attack on it companion flight, and jettisons its ordnance to get the heck out of dodge!
Well, Turn 8 was certainly a good one for the DRV. At this point in the game, with no strike flights remaining, Allan C. agrees to concede the game. Luck certainly played a roll in this scenario, and it could have progressed very differently had a few key rolls gone the opposite way. For my part, it was a very tense game. Several times, I thought that I would be completely hosed, but somehow things managed to work out just the right way for me.
Here are links for the cyberboard game file for scenario D1 and end of game map.
Finally, I'd like to thank Allan Cannamore for another great game. This is our second game as opponents, and he is as wily as they come. Keeping his strike package on the deck and in the rough until late in their flight path was a great strategy that prevented me from detecting them until much later. I look forward to our next game!
I hope you all enjoyed reading the turn postings from my point of view, and that it gave you a decent insight as to what I was thinking along the way. Please post any thoughts, comments, or praise here! I'd love to get some feedback on the scenario, and it is awfully quiet around here. If I get some feedback, then I'll most likely do this again the with next PBEM game I play.
posted at: 10:26 | path: /games/board/downtown | permanent link to this entry