Air Games, Korean War, Bag the Hun, 1/300 scale 

It’s been a few months since we last played Bag the Hun, and a couple of years since I last took out my shiny silver Korean War models. So, we decided to take to the skies this week, and remedy all that.  We use the Bag the Mig variant, published in the Two Fat Lardies’ C2006 Christmas Special, which, like the original WW2 rules, is available online from the Lardy website. In this game, set over ‘Mig Alley’ over North Korea in early 1951, a pair of F-80 Shooting Stars were on a mission to bomb a bridge over the Ch’ ongch’on River, when they were jumped by half a dozen Chinese Mig-15s, flown by Soviet pilots. The F-80s, though, were being shadowed by a top cover section of four F-86 Sabres. So, what began as a bombing mission would soon evolve into a free-for-all dogfight. This also gave me a chance to try out the Bag the Mig cards I’d made, to give the game more of a Korean War feel than the WW2 cards which come with Bag the Hun. Otherwise the rules are pretty much the same. In our game, played out on top of a 6×4 foot hex mat showing Korean terrain, Nick and Chris each led a Zveno (Section) of three Mig 15’s, visitor Paul led flew the two Shooting Stars (Red Section), leaving me with Blue Section – the four Sabres. Luckily for Paul, he spotted the approaching Migs diving down towards him from his right. So, he sensibly ditched his bombs, banked around and headed for home. At that point my Blue Section entered the southern table edge, and headed towards the Migs. So, while Nick’s Zveno 1 kept chasing the F-80s, Chris’ Zveno 2 spotted me, and turned to intercept. Despite all of Paul’s turning and climbing, Nick’s Migs got to the Shooting Stars before they could reach the protection of the Sabres. Soon the Soviet ‘Junior Ace’ Grigory Okhay got on the tail on one of the F-80’s and fired off a burst. It smashed up the cockpit, and the engine, and the jet began trailing some – and losing altitude. Leaving one Mig to give chase, the other two Zveno 1 Migs turned to support Chris’ Zveno 2. This might have been a little premature, as  just as the Migs and Sabres clashed, Paul’s second Shooting Star made it to safety, well behind the covering Sabres. Then, instead of doing the sensible thing and just fly off the southern table edge, Paul banked his plane around to join in the fight .As for the second F-80,it turned towards the south while losing height, zig-sagging to avoid the pursuing Mig, which soon gave up the chase of its stricken foe. By that stage, though, it was clear I could use the help. Chris’ three Migs and my four Sabres roared towards each other, firing as we went, and the two groups actually threaded through each other. In this first batch of firing we’d both peppered the enemy a little, but hadn’t caused any real damage. this was about to change, though, as we both banked our jets around and went in for another go.This soon turned into a frenetic, swirling dogfight, with these aerial silver hot rods swirling around each other. Paul’s F-80 joined in, and soon did Nick’s first two Migs, to even the odds. First blood, though, went to the UN side, when I scored a hit on one of Nick’s newcomers, a Mig-15 flown by a ‘Green’ pilot. The Sabres’ cannon tore up his engine, and so Jun. Lt. Rostova turned for home, hoping to make it back to Antung air base before his engine died completely. Then it was the Communists’ turn. Both Nick and Chris attacked the Sabre piloted by my ‘junior ace’, Bob Moore. Chris got off a quick burst from the side, and damaged the Sabre, but it was Nick, I think, who struck the killer blow, firing a ling burst that killed poor Capt. Moore, leaving his plane to begin its deadly spiral towards the ground. That meant we were left with four US jets, facing off five Migs. The dogfight continued, of course, with both sides trying to get in another deadly burst. It was quite hard – more so than with slower Second World War fighters – to judge things so you get onto the enemy’s tail. Most of the time the best we could manage was a short burst as we flashed past each other. Chris, it seems, was the best at it, and kept annoyingly managing to get into a good position – then failing to get the firing card before the enemy jets roared off! By now, however, we were all running a bit low on ammunition. One problem with the Bag the Mig variant is that it forgot to list the ammo capacity of each plane type. So, we had to guess. We were also running out of time too, as we’d spent so more time shooting the breeze with each other than actually shooting! So, we decided to break off and head for home – with the Migs having the better of the clash – this time. Above all we all enjoyed ourselves immensely! It also inspired me to order some more planes from Scotia Models – including some enormous B-29s. So, we’ll be back in Mig Alley with our shiny silver machines soon! 

Tags: Bag the Hun