Sukhoi SU-25 Frogfoot Attack Aircraft for Team Yankee

Team Yankee escalation continues with some Soviet aviation - a pair of Sukhoi SU-25 Frogfoot ground-attack aircraft from Battlefront (TSBX20). Greg painted a couple of really nice Frogfoots (Frogfeet?) a few years ago, and since Battlefront's come out with an updated (and cheaper!) iteration of the models that I've just finished, a bit of a compare-and-contrast might be in order.

 

First of all, these are the latest and greatest SU-25s from Battlefront. While Greg's planes were resin, these are injection-molded plastic model kits. Like the Harriers I posted a short while ago, I believe that the sprues themselves were procured by Battlefront from a third-party manufacturer, Ace Corporation. However, while the plastic injection sprue includes drop tanks, rocket pods, and bombs, the Battlefront box also contains a sprue of resin KH-25 (NATO: "Karen") air-to-ground missiles. 

I elected to assemble the models as they would appear at the start of a sortie, with all 10 hardpoints filled with weapons. From inboard to outboard (fuselage to wingtip) they are: drop tank, KH-25, rocket pod, rocket pod, bomb. The canopy that's included is molded in the same grey plastic as the rest of the parts so I've painted it to match the rest of my aircraft. Speaking of paint, for the record I used Zandri Dust, Rhinox Hide, Castellan Green, and Vallejo German Uniform for the camouflage, washed Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted Zandri Dust with some panel lines put in with Nuln Oil. The underside was painted with Mechanicus Standard Grey highlighted with The Fang (ugh) and Thunderhawk Blue. The canopy was done with Kantor Blue and Temple Guard Blue. Wingtips are Warpstone Glow. Rocket Pods are Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil.

The box comes with a full decal sheet as well, including these funky little flashes for the tailplane.

While the box instructions advise modelers to affix a provided clear socket to the underside of the fuselage, I elected to use magnets. The one advantage of the resin planes was that there is a recessed slot molded in to accommodate a magnetized stand, whereas the injection kits have no such feature.

 

All in all a pretty nice box set and should come in handy in games of Team Yankee. Can't argue with the price point either - $39 CAD compared to over $60 CAD for the old resin box set. The only downside of the injection kits is a slightly more fiddly way to mount them to the flying stands - but I'll take that tradeoff for $20 per box. Plus most of the weapons are injection molded and perfect - no worries about the crappy resin ordnance that plagued Greg in his build.

Onward to the West!

Wings of Glory - Break Through

Just before Christmas,we finally returned to our long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the second game of the campaign set in early 1917, the scenario was Mission 5: Break Through:

Capitalizing on recent victories, German HQ has put more emphasis on controlling the skies.
Type: DogfightVictory
Conditions: Mission Points. At the end of each sortie, calculate each side’s Mission Points. The side with the most points wins the mission.
Fallback: Mission 4a
Setup: Mission should be played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The German Attackers have a 12 inch deployment zone and the French Defenders have a 36 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes.
• The defender’s side has a chance for random balloons. Use the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

We drew cards, and manged to avoid both random Balloons and Ground Targets.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, one pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: a hex-camouflaged Albatros D.V. (Frederick) and a yellow SPAD XIII (Brian). Kevin ran a silver Nieuport 17 with twin MGs, and I ran a relatively elderly Albatros  D.II painted in the colours of Oswald Boelcke.

Below are the combatants, from L-R, D.II, SPAD, D.V., and Nieuport:

Below, two photos showing the French (Kevin) and German (Frederick) flight leaders.







Below, the two flights set off against each other. Nearest is my Albatross D.II.




The two sides flew past each other, the French to the south, and the Germans to the north (below, looking south):




Below, three of the four planes turned and got firing solutions right away, with the Albatros D.II and Nieuport taking some hits (my Albatross took 5 points of damage in one shot!).




The fight got really mixed up as the planes kept jousting at each other.






After a couple of Immelmann's, Kevin and I lined up on each other again.






Later, my Albatross and Brian's planes avoided a collision.




Kevin's Nieuport finally fell to my twin Spandaus, crash landing in No-Man's land.



Brian, wanting revenge for his comrade, started after the D.II.



Frederick came to my aid, flying under me.






Frederick trailed Brian for a bit, but the latter pulled another Immelmann...



...tried to attack Frederick...



...then went head to head with the D.II., shooting my plane down.



Brian then accelerated east...







...before turning around to dive for the western (Allied) board edge.




The fast SPAD blew right past the Albatross D.V.




Frederick got some shots into the SPAD, but not enough to bring it down, and chased Brian off the table.

The current standings in the campaign (as the moderator, my results do not count):

• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +5 (five sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +4 (drove off two enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) 6 1/2 victories = 24 campaign points, Knight's Cross, Deadly Aim 1
• Brian: +2 (two sorties flown) +8 (two planes shot down) 2 victories = 10 campaign points
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +3 (three sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) +2 (drove off one enemy aircraft) 2 1/2 victories = 7 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) 1 victory = 2 campaign points
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown) = 1 campaign point
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) 1 victory = 1 campaign point
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points

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Tripods & Triplanes

I have also purchased the Tripods & Triplanes supplement for Wings of Glory from Ares Games. The story is as follows:

March 18th, 1918: the nearest approach of planet Mars to Earth. The First World War suddenly changes into a War of the Worlds, when what appears as a meteor shower falls over a wood in Alsace. A few hours later, just after dawn, an army of giant alien fighting machines appear out of the trees and starts burning villages and houses with their lethal heat-rays, leaving pestilential trails of black smoke behind them.

 A truce is hurriedly signed between the warring nations and, against the advancing Martian tripods, the best war machines of Earth are dispatched, manned by the most gallant and skilled warriors of our planet!

The supplement includes both a Nieuport 16 (armed with Le Prieur anti-balloon rockets) and a small Martian "Locust" Tripod. Le Prieur rockets seem to function well against the Martian invaders. I currently have four such balloon-busting Nieuport 16 models, flying under the flags of France, Italy, and Britain.

Below are examples of the Martian Locust Tripod and an RAF Nieuport 16. 

(These two photos copyright Ares Games)

With another couple of Martian Tripods ordered, I look forward to running some alternate-history sci-fi games!

Piloting School

I had an opportunity to try a game of "Check Your 6!" at DaveV's last Wednesday and in addition to DaveV, I had some great instructors to help me for my first flight: Rob, Bill and KevinH. The scenario was inspired by the very first encounter during the Second World War, in 1939, between 9 Luftwaffe bombers en route to sink some British Navy ships in the Firth of Forth in Scotland and 6 British early Spitfire I's.

The 9 JU-88As in formation. As the Spitfires were getting closer, the bomber groups would get closer to each other and provide a dense defensive coverage.

My two Spitfires, "V" and "C", with green pilots. I was told by the veterans to hold my fire until the last to save my ammo.

Pilot Bill wondering which pub the squadron pilots should go to for celebration after this engagement.

The Spitfires engaged the bombers from their left flank. However, despite repeated strafing runs, the bombers were undamaged, and the Spitfires had to fly behind the enemy formation.

 DaveV, satisfied with the outcome of the battle so far.

One Spitfire down! This is not good. Also, because I had green pilots, one of them ran out of ammo very quickly and had to rush back to the base.

My Spitfire "V", steadily approaching a damaged bomber...

... Now having moved behind, ready to shoot at point blank. Steady... Steady...

From the cockpit, the pilot of "V" can see the rest of the German formation.

Daka! Daka! Daka! In the simultaneous exchange of machinegun fire, my plane was damaged but Spitfire "V" managed to shoot down a bomber. Yay!

Meanwhile, as the bombers were approaching the British Navy, there was intense combat and two Spitfires as well as one bomber were shot down. At this point, DaveV declared a victory for the British, because enough bombers were damaged to make them abort the mission. It was a tough battle, but very enjoyable and fun.

I really like "Check Your 6!". The rules are intuitive yet they let you feel the subtle differences between the various aircrafts of WW2.

Soviet SU-25s for "Team Yankee"

1/144 scale SU-25s from Battlefront carry out an attack on the dishes in my kitchen...one way to handle housework :)

More "Team Yankee" material - a pair of 1/144 scale Soviet SU-25 "Rook" ground attack aircraft.  These planes are known more commonly among gamers in the West by their NATO code name - "Frogfoot".  While the US A-10 "Warthog" gets somewhere between most and all of the ground attack love in fluff like "Team Yankee" and "Red Storm Rising", the Frogfoot is a scary beast, armed to the frigging teeth with a 30mm cannon and a bunch of rocket pods and air-to-ground missiles.

Ground attack aircraft should be ugly and intimidating, and the Frogfoot fits the bill.  It has a lovely inelegance in the odd proportions of the airframe and its broad pug nose.  What an ugly, yet beautiful aircraft. Seems like it shouldn't fly, and also looks hard to shoot down - nice work! 

Heads up! Here comes the Soviet air support...

I would have preferred the models to be in 1/100 scale, consistent with the tanks and vehicles on the table.  This would mean the aircraft would be quite large, but I'm good with that - (I love involving all arms in a "cold-war-gone-hot" game, but aircraft should be a pain in the @ss to have on the table for a tactical game, in my opinion).  The Soviet player in Team Yankee can bring as many as six (!) of these bad boys to the table in a single formation...which is kinda bonkers to me (and leads to other silliness like huge NATO AAA formations attached to a single company - but I digress).  Two of these is plenty in my view...

Check out the nose cone at the front...not even close to fitting properly, but from two feet away, meh...

These aircraft models come in two core parts - a small soft plastic/resin nose cone, and then a single piece resin casting of the body, wings tail etc.  The weapons - rocket pods and missiles - are separate pieces, and also cast in soft plastic/resin. Assembly is straightforward (for you, that is - I still f*cked up with the magnets, because that's what I do, but you won't have any issues).  I painted the weapons separately from the aircraft, and recommend you do the same - it makes painting the underside of the wings very easy.  The magnets are great (and again, easy to use unless you are clueless like me - see the photos) and there is a nice decal set too.

Soooo...be careful with superglue and magnets, kids - if you are impatient like me, you'll end up gluing BOTH magnets together in the flight stand, which is not how it is supposed to work *cough* - hopefully Dallas can spot me another magnet to sort this out...

The proportions this aircraft seem out-of-whack, and it looks...beautiful! Love this plane

I do appreciate how Battlefront is making an effort to bring all of these models out.  For someone who has always enjoyed modern gaming but struggled to find a reliable and complete collection, "Team Yankee" has been fantastic, but once again Battlefront disappoints on the quality control front, and I have to rant a little about it.

The sculpts are lovely, but casting quality is very dodgy.  The nose cones were clogged with flash (still a lot there, after quite a bit of work to sort them out) and did not properly fit the nose of the aircraft bodies - it's quite pronounced, depending on the angle that you see the models at.  Several of the weapons were badly miscast, which is why the planes are not carrying full loads - even the missiles which I managed to half-salvage have some pretty ugly lines and blobs, but you don't notice them too badly tucked under the wings. One of the aircraft main bodies had a warped wing, which is still a little warped.

Ready to paste the NATO position with cannon fire, missiles and rockets...ouch!

Are models going to have little flaws? Yes.  But Battlefront charges premium pricing, and if they are going to do that, they should improve on the lowest-bidder casting quality, and give more of a sh*t about the stuff going out the door.  Why is it that Peter Pig, or Jez at Old Crow, can get the casting done so well, and an operation with the marketing resources Battlefront brings to bear cannot? Come on, guys! I love the setting, love that you are doing these models, love the sculpts, but cast them properly!

OK - rant over.  I'm looking forward to sending this pair on a sortie against the NATO lines at a Fawcett Avenue gaming table in the near future.  Those Kh-25 air-ground missiles should be handy against those Leopard IIs and M1s...

Check Your 6! meets Dawn of Aces

Awhile ago I hosted crews from both The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts and Dawn of Aces. I first met Sam and Wilton when they demo'd Sam's WWI air combat game, Dawn of Aces, at Jim-Con. IIRC, aircraft activation is randomized, and planes move according to templates. Damage degraded their maneuverability and speed. Also, there is limited fuel and ammunition. Sam also made some very neat paper model biplanes for the game.

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We played a variation of the "Initial Encounter" scenario from the Battle of Britain book. We added some Me-110s (German twin-engined heavy fighters) to have some dogfighting.

Within their first couple of turns, Sam and Wilton got the hang of the fundamental dicta of CY6!: it's best to have both altitude and energy. One can trade altitude for energy, but maneuvering or climbing eats up energy tout de suite!

I got to try out my new Cigar Box ocean battle mat, with 3" hexes. Below, Sam maneuvers one of his Spitfires as Wilton looks on.

Bill and Frederick  ran some Spitfires, and most of us quaffed beers.



Spitfires cause some air-frame damage to a bomber!



Splash one bomber! Another Ju-88 and a Spitfire have also taken damage.





A sharp fight erupted as the fighters mixed it up. Several fighters ran out of ammo. Below, a Spitfire falls to the cannons of a Me-110 Destroyer.



Below, Frederick, Bill and Wilbert look on as some of the the bombers manage to reach the Royal Navy at anchor.





Below, the butcher's bill. Losing a whole flight of bombers cost the Germans the game.



Thanks again to Sam and Wilton for participating in our Thursday night shenanigans.

Sam expressed an interest in Sedition Wars. I will have to run a scenario...