Post by Eric Farrington on Jun 14, 2021 14:01:04 GMT
MIG Alley was the nickname for the Northwest corner of Korea, where the Yalu River enters into the Yellow Sea. This was the area where Communist MIG-15s tended to scrap with USAF Sabres for control of the skies. Here, high above Korea was the site of many of the first Jet-vs-Jet battles in history.
The Korean War officially began June 25th, 1950. The initial air battles were fought between the North Korean Air Force using old WWII era planes, and the South and their allies. The USAF used later WWI propeller driven aircraft and some early Jet aircraft.
On November 1st, 1950 the first MIG-15 jet fighters attacked a flight of USAF F-51 Mustang fighter-bombers. Later that day, the first jet vs. jet combat took place between the MIg-15 and the F-80 Shooting Star. The USAF's early jets were inadequate for the task, and soon the USAF was resupplying and using the new F-86 Sabre to counter the Communist threat.
The MIG-15's during the early phase of the war were secretly being operated by the Soviet Unions highly skilled 64th Fighter Aviation Corp. While the Soviet pilots were engaging in the air, they were also starting to build up the North Korean and Chinese pilots to eventually rotate in and replace them.
As the F-86 began to appear in the skies over North Korea Mid-December the stage was set for a clash for control of the Skies over North Korea between the MIG-15 and the F-86 Sabre.
White Star/Red Star has been a game I have been working on for about a year. The goal of the game is to make a historically accurate flying game of early Jets that simplifies the flying as much as possible, but still provides impactful decision points. Some innovations in the game are the simplified flying mechanics, Detection, and the staged turn for different skill of pilots.
Why the Korean War? I find the transition from WWII Prop to Jets to be very compelling. Plus, it was still before the age of the missile and gunfighting was still critical.
This game is still in the design phase and is NOT available for play-testing with the general public yet.
Sortie:
We randomly determined who the Attacker/Defender was and UN forces decided to be the attackers. The Sortie was also randomly determined to be a Combat Air Patrol.
Set-up:
We used the standard rules to create the set-up for this sortie. The weather was determined to be clear.
Since this is a standard Combat Air Patrol in MIG Alley, no additional terrain is needed. However, we add some hills on the edges of the board, ad determine them to be difficult terrain at Low Altitude.
The board is 48MU by 48 MU and an MU equals 1 inch.
Forces:
Today's battle will be using my (in)famous Paper Templates.
USAF
4 F-86 Sabres- Experienced Pilots
Soviets
4 Mig-15s- Experienced Pilots
This will be a straight up dogfight between the two sides of equal points and aircraft.
So, let's get into the air and see what shakes out. You can read the full report and some after battle analysis at the blog....
bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/06/battle-report-white-starred-star-cap-in.html