Bag the Hun Japanese v Australian

Another BtH game, this time Dave and I had the Japanese escorting a bomber force attacked by Jerry's newly painted Australians. Dave and I had four Zero's each plus three Betty bombers while Jerry had four Beaufighters and four Kittyhawks.

The Japanese head for the target:

The Australian's climb to intercept:

Dave's flight of Zero's decides aggression is the bast tactic:

Dave's Zero's attack the Beaufighters from the rear while mine engage frontally:

Kittyhawks attempt to get through to the Betty's:

Pilots desperately try to get a shot off or avoid being shot:

The first kill goes to the Japanese as a Zero takes down a Kittyhawk with catastrophic structural damage. The pilot manages to bail out successfully:

The Betty's fly on ignoring the melee around them and even managing to get a few shots off of their own at a Beaufighter that attempts to tail them:

More hits are scored on both sides:

A Beaufighter loses an engine and flees:

The Betty's make it through undamaged. With most of their planes damaged the Australians break off and head for home:

Another great game of Bag the Hun. The end result was one Kittyhawk and one Zero shot down with several Australian planes taking serious damage but managing to break contact successfully. 

Before the game I felt the Beaufighters with their massive frontal firepower (twice that of the Zero!) and far greater robustness would easily take out the Japanese but it didn't work out like that, partly because the Zero's were much more manoeuvrable and partly as being a lot bigger the Beaufighters were easier to hit. 

We all enjoyed the game and have a few ideas how to make it play easier next time. Gluing the dice holders down and making labels for the stands certainly made it easier to see which plane was which!