Missile Threat Jet Age Air Combat Game

Over the weekend, I managed to play three games of Missile Threat, mostly just trying to learn to think in game terms.  My previous experience with air combat games involved games that allowed you to manage maneuvering in extreme detail, thinking in exactly the actual relative positioning of aircraft through the maneuvers.  Missile Threat is a little less granular, and learning to think in the more abstract maneuver methodology is quite a transition for me.

Anyway, the first two games were one on one affairs, first between an F-86 and a Mig-15, the second game was between a Mig-19 and the F-101B.  The first pair played out for far longer than the rules allow, and I never actually had a shot in 21 turns.

The second game was much shorter, proving that the AIM-4 Falcons suck.  I fired off all four missiles at too great a range, and the Mig was able to evade them easily.   The F-101B then ran away.

The third game was much more interesting, involving two Mig-19s and two Javelins armed with Firestreak missiles.  Most of the Korean era planes have a very low speed in the game, which makes it easy to fall out of the sky trying to do fancy maneuvers.  The Javelin falls into that low speed envelope, while the Mig-19 is faster, and has a little more energy to play with.

Within the game rules, most of the fighters and interceptors introduced before 1958 have almost exactly the same stats.  The result was that I still can't figure out how to gain an advantage with subsonic jets, though found a little room to dance with the faster Migs.

Here are a few shots of the Javelins having a bad day:

The Mig-19s and Javelins close.

Three or four turns later, I've got a mess, with aircraft never 

ending up quite where I expect.  On the next turn a Mig scored

a hit, wounding a Javelin Pilot.

On the next turn a second hit kills the Javelin pilot, with

 the jet continuing to dive.

Just before the first Javelin crashes, the second Javelin 

is in trouble, everybody is diving.

The first Javelin has crashed, the second is at low altitude,

 trying to escape.

The other Mig gets a hit on the second Javelin, another pilot wound,

 but the Javelin gets away, flying off of the edge of the table.

The Migs got three gun hits, all resulting in pilot wounds, the Javelins never got into position to fire  their guns or Firestreak Missiles.  

I'm learning, but still need to play more games to learn the rules better.