From: "Paul Aceto" Subject: Corsairs & Hellcats: B-29 solitaire replay (long) When my P-500 order of Corsairs and Hellcats (the new Down in Flames module from GMT Games) arrived last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find a well-developed solitaire scenario in it. It simulates the B-29 raids run out of China in 1944. After a couple of false starts, I played through a full game and decided to write up a replay so others can see how it works. The scenario is fun, and it's not a bad way to become more familiar with the mission and bombing aspects of the regular game. Note that like most solitaire gamers, I have been known to use a Mulligan or two when die rolls or card draws seemed to go (according to my view of the world) "unreasonably" against me. But I pledged not to do so for this replay (though I did make several rules mistakes, only caught later, that definitely served to help me). Turn 1: Off we go! I start with 3 B-29s, and must undertake a mission against an industrial area in Yawata, Japan on turn 4. No missions are allowed on turns 1-3, meaning your planes will be doing supply, training or repair actions. I know from my previous plays that success in the Yawata strike is crucial to winning the 12-turn game, since VPs for damage are doubled. Obtaining a "heavily damaged" result nets you 35 x 2 = 70 VPs, already above the historical outcome of 41-60 VPs and well on the way to the "Who needs Saipan?" result of 111 or more VPs. Even a normal "damaged" results gives you 15 x 2= 30 VPs. So my planning is focused on getting all my planes ready for the turn 4 strike, which means all 3 B-29s train on the first game turn. This allows you to cross off one of 5 boxes representing the inexperience of the B-29 crews. Each box gives you a disadvantage: bombing (2 boxes, a -2 and a -1, meaning you draw that many fewer cards for saturation bombing results), turret defense (-1, draw 1 fewer card for defense), turret support (-1, draw 1 fewer card when providing formation defensive support) and damage (-1, flip to damaged at 11 hits rather than 12, shot down on 17 vice 18 hits). All 3 bombers improve their bombing skills, crossing off the -2 box. So they will now draw 6 cards each time they bomb, other things being equal. Again, my goal is to inflict as much damage on Yawata as possible so I need bomb results. Turn 2: All 3 planes do supply actions. You start off with no supply points (SPs). Each B-29 going on a mission needs 20 SPs, and the only way to get them (in this scenario at least) is to fly them in with your B-29, or get a lucky Event. Since I want to take all 3 planes on the turn 4 mission, I will get as many SPs as I can on turn 2, and see how much more I need on turn 3. A supply action starts with a card draw, adding +5 for each unchecked training box (so far, 4 boxes, so +20). B-29-1 draws a 17, adds 20 to get 27, and looks on the supply chart to get the result. It's 20 SPs, no Event, no Opposition. Good start. B-29-2 draws 15, making 35, an identical result (20 SPs). Hoo-hoo. B-29-3 draws a 74 to become 94. Rats; only 10 SPs, which means I'm still short of the 60 SPs needed for a 3-plane mission, and an Event+10. So I make another draw, and add 10, getting me a Follow Up Attack. This means 2 G4M2 Bettys will be paying my air base a visit after my actions are done. In rereading my notes, I see I made a mistake and assumed I also had Opposition, meaning attacked by Japanese fighters. This was not called for by the chart. Too late to change it now. I draw to see my Opposition, getting an element (Leader and Wingman) of Ki-43-II Oscars. I draw to see their starting altitude (High). Supply planes are always at High, so the Oscars will be able to attack right away rather than waste turns climbing. Then I draw to see how many turns the combat will last (2-4 turns), and get 2 turns. Combat is played out like wingmen vs formation bombers in the standard game, with you drawing and determining the result for both sides. An Oscar wingman gets 3 cards. This is reduced by 1 card due to High altitude. So the first Oscar draws 2 cards, getting no hits. My return fire of 2 card draws, based on a B-29 turret defense of 3 -1 for inexperience, gets me 2 hits against the Oscar. One more and he's damaged. The second Oscar gets no hits, and I get no hits in return. On to the second, and final, turn of combat, Oscar-1 gets 1 hit, but my defensive draw not only spoils that result, it also inflicts one more hit so he's flipped over to damaged (+2 VPs). Oscar-2 gets 3 hits of damage against me, but my turrets pay back with 3 hits, damaging the second fighter (another +2 VPs). (Side note here: my playing of this and earlier scenarios left me wondering whether defensive fire and flak damage results were too high; I later realized I was forgetting to use the left over cards in the attacking fighters' hands to respond to bomber defensive fire, which would have lessened the damage and produced a lower final VP score). The B-29 phase is over, time to resolve the Follow Up Attack called for by the Event draw. Two Bettys appear over my airfield (I assumed you use the target sheet for airfield and not sector airbase). Since there are no fighters, we go right to the Ingress turn and the Bettys each undergo Area flak (1 card for an airbase). Betty-1 incurs 2 hits, Betty-2 none. Now on the Target phase. The Bettys are flying low, so their saturation bomb ratings are increased by 1 to 2, meaning they each draw 2 cards. Betty-1 gets 2 direct hits Betty-2 gets 2 normal hits (4 cards, 4 hit results! Remember, no Mulligans!). Target flak (3 cards against each Betty) spoils one direct hit, and inflicts 6 hits to flip Betty-1 to damaged (+5 VPs). One direct, 2 normal hits gives 4 damage points on the airbase, which means the airfield is "damaged" for -3 VPs. Plus I must assign 1 hit to a random B-29 for each result on my airfield over "untouched" (1 hit goes to B-29-2). On the Egress turn, the Bettys avoid Area flak. So that's another -5 VPs for a medium bomber going over target and returning undamaged. Let's total up the turn's VPs: +4 (2 damaged fighters), +5 (damaged medium bomber), -3 (damaged airfield), -5 (undamaged medium bomber returns) = +1 VP. Oh well, anything in the positive area is gravy, as there have not been any missions yet. Turn 3: I reduce all hits on my B-29s by one. I start with 50 SPs and need 10 more to support a 3-plane mission next turn. The safe thing might be to run 2 supply actions in case 1 plane gets shot down, but the B-29s can take a lot damage and you're guaranteed at least 10 SPs if you survive, so I assign only 1 to supply and the other 2 to training. The training planes (B-29-2 and -3) now check off the remaining -1 box on their saturation bombing ratings. They can now draw their normal complement of 7 cards when bombing. B-29-1 sets off on his supply run. He draws a 10, still adding 20 because of 4 unchecked boxes (a nice mechanic in the game; inexperience not only affects your ratings, it makes it more likely bad things will happen in the supply, event and environment draws; you really do need to train). A 30 means 20 SPs, no Event, no Opposition. Whew! My supply draws have been lucky so far. The turn ends. Turn 4: The B-29s further reduce damage by 1. I have 70 SPs, so will expend 60 and send all 3 B-29s to Yawata. The way the scenario works, you'll always have 1, possibly more, turns between mandatory missions. And you can decline a mandatory mission at the cost of 10 VPs. So I'm under no pressure to conserve SPs. You start the mission process by choosing altitude. I go back and forth between High and Very High, and choose Very High. The bad side is this will reduce my bombing card draws by 2 cards. The good side is that it will reduce flak draws by 1, and make it much harder to be caught and/or damaged by enemy fighters. Yawata is a flak-heavy industrial site (Area flak=2, Target flak=4), so I want to avoid both damage and spoiled attacks. I next draw for Environment, adding +10 because of a total of 10 unchecked boxes on mission aircraft. The final number is a 73, which mean Loose Formation. I look on the Event card and see this means that each plane reduces its total defensive card draw by 1. Not too bad, I don't expect the fighters to see much of me anyways. I next draw for my Opposition, which turns out to be an element of A6M3 Reisen Zekes. Their normal card draw would be 4, but they suffer a -2 card penalty at Very High altitude. Then each B-29 draws for an event, adding +5 for each unchecked box. Here's where things can get crazy. B-29-1 draws low, getting a "Remove 1 Fighter" Event. Sayonara Zeke-1! B-29-2, incredibly (remember, no Mulligans) draws the same Event. Sayonara Zeke-2! B-29-3 makes up for this by drawing a Ki-45 Toryu Nick Leader (a nice side benefit to this game is that you get to learn about new planes. I had never seen a Nick, which looks to be a Japanese version of the Me-110; and like an Me-110, it's nothing to fear; only 3 card draws normally, and only 1 a Very High altitude). The target chart shows than Yawata is a total 10 turns in-bound, 9 turns out-bound. Subtracting the B-29's speed of 7, this means only 3 turns in, and 2 turns out, with the normal Ingress, Target and Egress turns in between. I draw to see where the Nick begins, and it's at medium altitude. He spends the 1st in-bound turn climbing to High. He spends the 2nd turn climbing to Very High, where he gets no attack at all (-2 cards for altitude, -1 card for climbing that turn). Finally, on turn 3 he attacks B-29-3 and gets 2 hits. B-29-3 gets 3 cards in defense (2 turret + 2 support -1 Loose Formation), and spoils the attack. So we go to Ingress and Area flak. At only 1 card draw for each plane (because of Very High altitude), the gunners on the outskirts of Yawata inflict 2 hits on B-29-1 and 1 hit on B-29-3. On to the Target. Bombing comes first, then flak. B-29-1 draws 5 cards (7 rating -2 for altitude) and comes up with a whopping 3 direct hits, 1 normal hit and 1 miss (I now see that it should have drawn only 4 cards, since it still had its -1 bombing box unchecked; I can't tell from my notes which was the last card drawn; oh well, a subconscious Mulligan). The Target flak of 3 cards inflicts 1 hit, but no spoilers! B-29-2's 5 cards (legit this time) gets 1 direct hit, 2 normal hits. Flak causes 1 hit of damage. B-29-3 gets 3 normal hits, and flak misses completely. So that's a total of 4 direct hits and 6 normal hits, causing 22 points of damage (a "damaged" result of 15 VPs, doubled due to special rules to 30 VPs). Wow. One more direct hit and I would have gotten 70 VPs, but I am not complaining, I was lucky with the flak draws. I leave Yawata in flames and proceed to Egress, where Area flak inflicts 1 hit on B-29-1 and 3 hits on B-29-2. The Nick is awaiting our return in the home-bound phase, but in 2 turns of combat at Very High altitude, no hits are scored by either side. We return home, and I draw to see if any crews have picked up enough experience to check off another box (this is other way to train; surviving a mission undamaged and having dropped your bombs). It should be easy (draws of 1-45 succeed) but my luck runs out and I get three high cards. I spot another playing error in rereading the rules. You are supposed to make 1 draw and if it succeeds, you can check off at most 1 box from any plane that went over Target and survived. I then draw for the next mission. It's a good one, Target E, a supply center on Formosa. Minimal turns in- and out-bound, little flak, and not many hits needed to knock it out of action for 15 VPs. I'll definitely be hitting it with whatever planes I can supply. A card at the beginning of next turn (turn 5) will determine whether I have to fly it on turn 6 or pay a VP penalty. VPs for this turn: +30 (Damaged target), +21 (3 heavy bombers returned undamaged) = 51. With a total of 52 VPs, I'm already in the historical result range with 8 turns to go. Turn 5: No mandatory mission yet. B-29-1 trains (and finally gets rid of last -1 bombing box) while the other two run supplies. One supply run goes well, but the second turns into disaster as a fighter draws the dreaded fuel tank explosion card and my B-29-3 goes down in flames. That's -20 VPs, plus I spend another -10 VPs to check off 2 boxes on the replacement aircraft. Turn 5 is -30 VPs, leaving me with a net 22. We still have work to do! Turn 6: Card draw indicates I must run the Formosa mission on turn 7. Good, I need the VPs. All 3 planes do supply runs as I still only have 20 SPs in hand. All runs go well with no Opposition, giving me the needed 40 SPs. Turn 7: I spend 60 SPs and send all 3 B-29s to Formosa at Very High altitude. I might face a "Clouds over Target" Environment, and I run up against an element of Ki-61 Hien Tony planes (normal wingman draw of 4 cards, 2 at VH altitude). Events remove one Tony, but add 2 dreaded Ki-44-ii Tojos (draw 6 cards; 4 at VH alt!). During in-bound combat, the Tony is damaged (+2 VPs) and disengages while one Tojo is destroyed (+5 VPs) and the other is damaged and forced to disengage (+2 VPs). The clouds don't show up. I bomb the hell out of the Formosa supply base and suffer few flak hits. That's +15 VPs for an "out of operation" damage result and +21 VPs for 3 planes surviving the mission. To top it all off, my post-mission training draw allows one B-29 to check off another box. My draw for next mission is a Bangkok railyard (another easy one). That's +45 VPs for the turn, taking me up to 67 total (the "Not Bad" category). Turn 8: My mission draw indicates I must attack Bangkok on turn 9. B-29s 1 and 2 run supplies while B-29-3, with 9 points of damage, repairs (-4 damage points). I net only 30 SPs, shooting down 1 fighter in the process (+5 VPs). Now up to 72 VPs. Turn 9: Decision time. I have enough SPs for only 1 plane to fly a mission, but if I decline the mandatory mission I lose 10 VPs. I decide to go in with one plane, B-29-1. Even if he inflicts minimal damage, by surviving undamaged he gets +7 VPs and might be able to train another box off. But what to do with the others? Here's where the scenario shows itself to be more than just flipping cards. At key times you must make hard choices. I decide to train the other 2 planes, as much to remove the +5 modifiers to supply run and Event card draws as anything else. They both improve their turret defense ratings. For the mission, I get the Clouds Environment again, and draw an element of A6M3 Zekes for Opposition. I shoot down one of the fighters (+5 VPs) during in-bound combat, but that damned fuel tank explosion card shows up again during Target flak. Luckily, it's after I've dropped my load and gotten a "heavily damaged" result on the railyard (+6 VPs). But there goes another B-29 and -30 VPs to replace it with a decent crew (both bomb boxes checked off). Net result, -19 VPs, taking me back down to 53 ("Historical"). My draw for next mission yields H, Formosa airfield. At least it's another easy one. There's time for only one more mission before the game ends. Turn 10: My mission draw indicates I must attack Formosa on turn 11. No real choice here, all planes run supplies for the final push. I started with 10 SPs, and need 50 for a full mission complement to fly next turn. My runs get me the needed 50 SPs, but I also endure a Follow Up Attack by 2 Bettys. They do not damage the airfield, one is damaged (+5 VPs) while one makes it back undamaged (+5 VPs). No net change to VPs. Turn 11: This is it, my last chance to improve upon history. All 3 B-29s attack the Formosa airfield at Very High altitude. The Environment draw is Loose Formation (-1 defense card draw), while the Opposition is another unwelcome element of Tojos. The 3 Event draws get me a Follow Up Attack and Clouds (which for the third time do not appear over Target). My turret gunners are unbelievable, blasting both Tojos out of the sky (+10 VPs) while enduring minor damage. No Area flak due to altitude, so on to bombing. My 15 bomb card draws do their trick, and the airfield is put "out of operation" (+10 VPs). All 3 B-29s make it back safe, adding another +21 VPs. The Follow Up Attack Event sees the 2 Bettys get a "damaged" result against my airfield (-3 VPs) and both survive undamaged (-10 VPs). The net is 41 -13 = 28, which takes me up to 81 total VPs. Turn 12: Two B-29s repair while the third, which can't repair and must do something, runs supplies with no problems. The end result is 81 VPs, "Not Bad," and just 5 short of "Good." Drawing those 2 fuel tank explosion cards really killed me (-60 VPs), but on the other hand I was lucky in other areas and my various rules misplays definitely went in my favor. All in all, it was a fun way to spend a few hours on a rainy New Zealand Sunday. I hope GMT includes more solitaire scenarios of this type in upcoming C3i issues or DiF modules.