[Note: you can find pictures of the gameboard for most of the steps detailed below here: http://www.abreojogo.com/node/1332]

It's Day 2 of the three day campaign we started in http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/114255. The squadron is badly in need of a rest, our munition stocks mostly depleted, but maybe there is some tempting target out there that justifies a sortie.

The Recon department has three targets for us, one of them found by our flight on their way back home the previous day: a Large Airfield (#17), a Convoy (#11) and a Port (#7). The convoy seems the most obvious target. Although the port is nearer and less heavily defended, it, like the airfield, needs plenty of damage (8 hits, and that's because we damaged the enemy's infrastructure so badly yesterday) to go down and we spent most of our stockpile of bombs on yesterdays target. The convoy just needs 4 hits, and hits by our dive bombers count as double, so that's a better choice. Defending the convoy, we have 3 probable bandits, and 7 ground sites. Can the squadron pull this off?

I think it can, but it's much too close for confort. Should I risk the lives of five brave pilots on a half-assed plan or should I let them rest and fight tomorrow on better terms? After yesterday's brilliant performance, nobody can fault us, but there's still a war to be won, and with a bit of luck, we can make a difference today too. Decisions, decisions... oh, boy, the pilots are sure gonna me hate for this, but I think there will be flying today.

But before I have to give out the order, we'll have a look at the ground defences of the target. There's one 20mm AA gun in the Pre-Approach Area; there's Small Arms fire, a Heavy MG, and a Light MG in the Approach Area; in the Target Area we have more Small Arms fire and another of those damned 20mm AA guns; and last, in the Withdrawal Area, we have another HMG. Hmm... could be worse, but it could also be better. Those 20mm AA gun sure are scary, and I only have one fast bomber to counter them (a fast bomber can try to hit them before they fire), and I'm not even planning on giving him bombs to take out ground targets more easily because our stocks are so low.

My plan is starting to sound more and more half-assed by the minute... but yeah, I'm committing to it.

So for the five planes I have little to choose from. I'll only take two bombers: the dive bomber, the "Wild Ride" and its newbie crew, filled with all it can take for this ride (a 500lb bomb and a 250lb bomb - the cost for these is 3 Ordnance Points, out of the 9 we have) and the B-25 "Max Damage" (empty, no bombs). Escorting them will be three fighters: Capt. Erik, 1st Lt. K. Loftis and 2nd Lt. Bryant. I'm guessing that the most dangers will come from the ground, but with so many Shaken pilots this is the best I can do. These fighters will have to strafe the ground all around, and hope for the best; thankfully, Lt. Loftis is a pretty good air-to-ground shooter. Of these five crews, only two are Fast: the B-25 bomber and Capt. Erik. Only these two pilots will be able to shoot before the enemy does.

Damn... what, did I tell you, the whole thing looks more half-assed by the minute. And have I told you I'm basically counting on the total rookie "Wild Ride" to place at least one well-aimed hit on the convoy? He's the only only carrying bombs, because his hits count as double. If he misses with both bombs, or if he is damaged or shot down before bombing the target... there's no chance in hell that convoy is going down. Even if he places a single double hit on the convoy, it will be difficult to bring it down... it will take another turn over the target for everybody, and it will take some luck to hit the convoy two times with strafe attacks.

God, I'm starting to have bad feelings about this... but I order the take-off, nevertheless.

Inbound to the target, we draw an Event card. It's... oh, crap, Bad Day. Remove one random munition from one random plane. Well, there's only one plane carrying bombs... and there's only two of them. 1-5 there goes the 250lb, 6-10 there goes the 500lb. The dice says... 1. Phew! This means we can still take down the convoy with a lucky double double hit with the 500 pounder.

Now for the ground defences site adjustment Event Card... damn, it's Enemy Pilots. We're forced to draw an extra bandit counter for the Target Area and it's... an A6M2 Zero. Oh, boy...

Let's now draw the three bandit counters for the Approach Area... Oh, my, that sound you might have just heard was someone's bladder letting go... Two of the counters are for "No Bandit" but the third, God, it's for an A6M5 Zero which must be piloted by an ace of some sort. It's deadly in the attack, the deadliest threat I've ever even seen in the game, and it's very difficult to shoot down (-3 penalty for attacks against him). Oh boy, oh boy.

The action is about to start.

Turn 1

Combat in the Pre-Approach Area. Our two fast pilots go first. The B-25 "Max Damage" goes on the offensive and tries to take down that damned 20mm flak gun. It needs a 7+ on the die and gets... a rotten 3. Capt. Erik does exactly the the same, only he needs a 8+. It's a 9! Alright, baby, we're in the clear for now!

The turn ends with the squadron moving to the Approach Area, and the A6M2 Zero that was over the target area coming on over to team up with his ace buddy over the Approach Area.

Turn 2

The tactics are reset, and combat over the Approach Area begins. We have three ground sites and two bandits facing our five planes. Only two of our planes are fast. I don't like the oods, but I can't do nothing about them now.

Capt Erik goes first, trying to shoot down that damn Zero ace before he kills someone. He would need a +7 to bring the zero down, and I don't like that; I think it's worth it to risk going on the offensive and bring the number down to 5+. Keep your fingers crossed... it's a 10!! Yeah baby, that Zero is dead!

The only other Fast pilot I have is the B-25, but he can't hunt aerial targets, just shoot back at them, so I have him go after the Heavy MG on the ground. I'll have him go on the offensive too, and that way he needs a 6+ to sucessfully strafe this soft target. Roll 'em bones, and we get a... 6! Perfect, couldn't ask for a better result so far.

But now is the remaining enemy units turn. I assign two numbers to each plane in the squadron, and let's find out who are the targets of the attack. I just hope it isn't "Wild Ride", because he's the only one carrying bombs, and we need them and him to sink the mission target. His numbers are 9 and 10... let's pray.

I'll roll for the Smal Arms fire first. It's a 10! "Wild Ride" is under fire! I can try to supress the attack, but the enemy needs to roll very high (another 10) to damage him, so I'll risk it. Let's hope I don't regret it... it's a 2, not even enough to stress the crew of the "Wild Ride".

Now for the Light MG. It rolls a 2, which means it's attacking Capt. Erik... uh-oh, the captain used offensive tactics this turn, and so the LMG just needs a 6 to damage him or a 7+ to shoot him down! Damn! I'll have 1st Lt. K. Loftis try to suppress the attack... he's a pretty good air-to-ground shooter, and the LMG is a pretty soft target, so he only needs a 6+ to do it. It's a 3, tough luck. The LMG attack go through, so let's what happens to Capt. Erik. God... it's a 9! Capt Erik is down!! We have a plane down!

Last but not least, we have an enemy Zero on our backs. Let's see who he targets... 6, that's 2nd Lt. Bryant, our green fighter pilot. I have him go on the defensive; it will mess up his attack roll, but at least it will give the enemy a -1 penalty. This means the A6M2 Zero needs a 8+ to damage him and can shoot him down with a 10. The die says... 2! Bryant doesn't even have to sweat.

Now it's payback time. The first priority is bringing that Zero down. The ground sites can't follow us into the Target Area, but he can. Lt. Bryant goes first; being hampered by his defensive tactics, he needs a 7+ to shoot the bandit down. And a 7 is exactly what he gets! This Zero is history too.

Next, Lt. Loftis tries to get the LMG with a 6+. It's a 2, still no luck. "Wild Ride" tries it too, but needs a 7+. He gets a 5. The LMG that shot Capt. Erik down goes unpunished as the flight moves on to the next area, where the mission target is.

Turn 3

Combat over the Target Area. We only have one Fast plane now; we'll have "Max Damage" try to take down the 20mm flak gun before it can hurt someone. He risks going on the Offensive, even after what happened to Capt. Erik for doing the same. Our B-25 needs a 7+, so let's keep our fingers crossed. We roll, and it's a... 3. Damn, so much for that plan.

It's the enemy's turn now. Let's see who the 20mm flak gun targets... 3, that means Lt. Loftis. We'll have him go on the defensive. The flak gun now needs 4-6 to stress him, 7-9 to damage him, and 10 to shoot him down. It's a... 4! Thank God! 1 Point of Stress coming up for Lt. Loftis, but at least the plane's intact.

As for the Small Arms fire... 9, it's targetting "Wild Ride". If it gets a 10, it will damage the plane and cause him to drop its bomb load, ruining the entire mission. It's a long shot, and if I have Lt. Bryant try to suppress the attack, he'll need a 10 to be successful too do accomplish this. I'll take the risk; let's hope the enemy doesn't get that 10... nope, it's a 7!

Now it's our turn. First thing me need to do is have "Wild Ride" go on the offensive and drop the 500lb bomb he's carrying. With a 3-6 he'll get two hits on the convoy, with a 7+ he'll get the four hits the raid needs to sink the convoy! Let's pray for that 7+, shall we? Shake the die, throw it, it rolls, and the result is a... 9!! A 9!! It's "mission accomplished", boys!

Since we can still take those shoots, 2nd Lt. Bryant and 1st Lt. Loftis try to strafe the ground units. Bryant goes on the Offensive, there's no danger now, and so needs a 8+, and Loftis, who is on the defensive, needs a 10. The dice say: 4, and 4. No luck.

The turn ends with the flight moving away to the Withdrawal Area, where they still have to face a Heavy MG before going home.


Turn 4

Combat over the Withdrawal Area. Before anybody else can do something, the B-25 "Max Damage" goes first. Should I have him go on the Offensive? That way he would need a 6+ to kill the HMG. However, he doesn't succed, he'll be easy prey. Nope, I won't risk it. I'll attack and try to get an 8+... but I get 5. No deal.

It's the HMG's turn... 5, so it targets Lt. Bryant. Bryant goes on the Defensive. 5-7 he gets a Stress Point, 8-9 his plane gets damaged, 10 he goes down. And the die says... 4. He's home free!

Now, before we end our turn and head home, we have 3 planes that can still try to wipe that HMG from the ground just for laughs. Bryant, having gone on the Defensive, needs an 11 to do it, so no deal. As for Lt. Loftis and the "Wild Ride" bomber, they go on the Offensive. Loftis needs a 5+ and Wild Ride a 6+. The dice says 7 and 6, so there goes the HMG!

The turn ends with the 4 remaing planes heading for home.


On the homebound journey, we draw another Event card. Let's see what happens... Nothing. We get a Coordination card that will let us add +2 to any Air-to-Air attack roll after the dice have rolled. Cool! And this means our planes are home free without futher troubles!

Now we get to roll for Search And Rescue, and find out what happened to Capt. Erik. Will he be recovered or captured? The roll is a crappy one... with a -2 penalty for the distance to the target, the final result is only a 2. Captain Erik is Captured, and won't fly again unless luck has it that he gets rescued because of some Event card.

The squadron looks good. We have 4 shaken pilots (3 of which because of this mission) and we're missing Capt. Erik, who was shoot down. The other 7 pilots are at the top of their habilities for the last day of the campaign.

In the ordnance department, we have 6 points left to spend. Not much, but at least we only spent 3 today, so maybe we can do big things with 6... especially if we get a naval target, where our dive bombers get double the hits.

As for the Victory points, we are now at 9, and that's already a result of "Great", the best possible. Since we still have a day/mission left, maybe we can go even higher. Destroying the Convoy also damaged the Japanese Infrastructure, but not enough to further influence things out in the field. Mission targets still need one less hit to take down, although we're just one step away of making that two less hits.

All in all, this is turning out to be a good show. Too bad about Capt. Erik... let's wish him the best, and silently drink a beer in his name tonight, at mess hall.