I didn't get many pictures of the last game of Check Your 6 that we played at NWA - it was the best so far as the other players came to grips with 3D manoeuvring and the characteristics of the aircraft they were using in the game.
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So everyone enjoyed another tutorial game and applied the skills they'd developed a while ago playing Canvas Eagles. There was still a bit of confusion about the manoeuvre matrix where the turn was cross-referenced with the climb or dive to work out any speed changes, however even that was under control by the end of the game. It was a close run thing with the Ki-43s being able to twist about the place and cause grief to the Buffalos but struggling to produce much in the way of outcomes due to the relatively light armament on the Japanese aircraft and the robust nature of the RAF/RAAF planes.
The pilot skill levels were kept the same and we played without the National Move Order rule, where early in the war Axis pilots of the same skill level are sequenced in their move after Allied pilots and hence able, when not Skill-Green, to adjust their moves after seeing how their opponents moved. In the game this is a standard rule, though I have a different opinion about the universiality of this sort of thing.
All that said, when we represented altitude changes in this game through the six TALs (Tactical Altitude Levels) we only used the first three graduations on the aerials on the stands, each one representing two TALS. That turned out to be a pretty effective change to how we'd played previously. We could still see the relative altitude differences at a glance and the models weren't perched precariously high in the air. I'm sure if I weighted the stands they would have been more stable, but the aerials at full extension make it all just a little less stable. So three levels was sufficient.
Now I've also had a chat with the owner of The House Of War and his mat printing plans. The mat in the photos above has four inch hexes, way to large for the 1:200 models we were using from Armaments in Miniature. So the idea was to move to two inch hexes. For that though, I'd need new stands. So, over the silly season I spent a bit of time doodling and calculating (in a mathematical and not evil villain sense) to come up with how I'd put together a new stand.
Next Time: To Gimbal or Not To Gimbal