Thursday Night - Dogfight Somewhere over the Southwest Pacific, 1942
Along the left side (USAAF players) of the table, from left-to-right: Chris LeFevre, Dan Frick, Tony Curtis & John Alsen. On the right side of the table (Japanese players) from left-to-right, Nick Markevich, Jack Beckman & Steve Viltoft. Recording mission at front of the table, Mike Lam. Not shown but playing on the Japanese side, Martin Scott who is taking the picture.
The IJN force of 8 A6M2s routs the USAAF 8 P-40Es, 31-to-10. On Turn 1, John Alsen is quickly out of the game when Jack's Zeke Leader, Ichi Sukurachi, shoots down John's P-40E wingman. Then Steve's wingman, S. Oh, plays an exploding fuel tank on John's leader. On Turn 3, Martin's 41-kill super-ace, Shintaro Mendo, shoots down Tony's P-40E leader, Horace Mann for his 42nd kill. Then Steve's Zeke leader, Hideki Matsui, shoots down Tony's wingman. On Turn 4, Dan and Chris decides a "tactical retreat" is in order. Dan's P-40E element and Chris' P-40E leader successfully disengages and escapes, but Chris' wingman is lost during the disengagement, with Jack's Zeke wingman, Hiro Mitsubishi, getting the credit for the destruction. The Japanese forces scores 25 points for 5 fighters destroyed, 4 points for damaging 2 planes that escaped & 2 points for 1 disengaged fighter. The US scores 2 points for damaging 1 fighter, plus 8 points for going up against two multiple aces flown by Martin and Nick.
Saturday Morning - Dogfight Over Kursk
From L-to-R: Andy Viloria, Thomas Buettner (hidden behind Andy), Mike Lam, Eric Lane and Kevin LeFevre. Photo taken by Martin Scott.
The Luftwaffe (Andy & Thomas) barely defeats the Soviets (Eric & Kevin), 13-to12. For the first 4 turns, neither side is able to shoot down each other. But on Turn 5, Kevin's La-5FN leader, Sergei Federov, shoots down Andy's Bf-109G leader, but Andy's wingman, Karl Heinz, then returns the favor by shooting down Federov. On Turn 6, Eric's LA-5FN wingman, Virusi Kournikov, shoots down Thomas' Bf-109G leader, Werner Moelders. On the last play, Thomas' wingman, Walther Lantz, shoots down Eric's leader, Igor Ivanov (an ace) for the win.