Operation C - Lessions Learnt

Well first of all thanks for following my short campaign based on the Japanese attack on Ceylon in April 1942...I really enjoyed playing it and it certainly ticked a few boxes for me personally gaming wise. 

The Good

The scenario design worked really well and I will definitely be using it again as the basis to game other short duration aerial campaigns.

As it only focused on one shotai of fighters I must admit that I really liked writing the narrative of each game and the "character building" behind each pilot.....I took the loss of Honda and Fujimi to heart a little.

As I knew from playing bits of the eariler "Buffaloes over Singapore" campaign as well as a couple of test games with Paul R the "simple" air combat rules work well and do correctly differentiate different plane types such as the A6M2 Zero and Hurricane.

I was able to purhaps end up doing slightly better than the Japanese did historically since I got enough good outcomes to end up meeting the British Fleet Carriers and damaging HNS Formidable.

The Bad  

Not much to complain about really. The one thing that did get me thinking was the high number of kills that the Japanese pilots, especially PO1c Watenabe were able to rack up so quickly and also the sheer number of missions I got them to fly in one day. 

I think that is a product of trying to represent the entire campaign through the eyes of a single flight who show up at all the main events that happen in the campaign. I can try to minimise enemy casualties by allowing damaged planes to escape without pursuit if they break off, but its a design limitation that I can live with.

Not everyone is a fan of the cardboard counters that I use, some perferring to see actual miniatures on the table....a very fair point. I went down the counter route for my WW2 stuff simply because they are easy to put together in MS Paint/GIMP etc using readily available top-down images from any number of sources on the internet and also cheap and fast to produce. I have a lot of 1/600th modern models that I intend to use for any post 1945 conflicts that I fight, but I don't have lots of time to do a whole lot of WW2 stuff as well.

The Future 

I have other gaming interests besides fighting WW2 aerial campaigns.....I am currently quite involved with getting some War of the Three Kingdoms gaming done using the "For King and Parliament" rules.

I don't intend to follow the fortunes of the Japanese Zero shotai further at this stage.....Instead its off to the sunny Med were I have started to put together a "crossover" campaign depicting the events of 11 - 13 August 1942 when a large convoy was fought through to Malta (Operation Pedestal). The crossover occurs as I am trying to tie in two flights, a FAA carrier based (equipped with Sea Hurricanes or Fulmars) one  and a RAF one equipped with Spitfire V's based on Malta. As an additional aspect there may be room to wiggle in a couple of GQ1/2 based naval games as well if the Italian navy can intercept the Malta bound ships after the British heavy units turn back towards Gibraltar on the 12th. 

We'll see where this takes me.....