Background Those Spaniards are a troublesome people and the Basques the most troublesome of all! This time they've decided to take matters into their own hands and tackle the French over a piece of the Pyrenees. Using F-20 Tigersharks newly exported from the United States, they engage French Mirage 2000s just off the production line. The first day of conflict sees numerous fighter sweeps on both sides to establish control of the air. This is just one of them. Game Length: 10 turns 1. All aircraft are air superiority gray. Tigersharks #1 and #2 have been spotted, as have all the Mirages. Tigersharks #3 and #4 are initially unspotted. 2. The F-20s may use 8 turns of A/B power. The Mirages may use 7 turns of A/B power. 3. The battle takes place over the Pyrenees and ground level is assumed to be at 8000 feet. Any aircraft which descends to altitude level 8 or below is destroyed. 4. Loads. F-20s: 1,7=AIM-9M, 2,6--AIM-9L, 3,5=AIM-120, 4: 1200L FT, DDS=8F/8C. Mirages: 1,9: MICA-B, 2,8=MICA-A, 5=1200L FT, DDS=8F/8C. 5. All pilots are Regulars with no attributes. F-20 #3 is a Sierra Hotel. Results The action at Table One was every bit the close-fought furball I expected it to be Notice that the F-20 team had the lst and 2nd place scores in Top Wop and Wildman and the Mirage team got the 2nd and 3rd place scores for Snake and Wiseguy. There were plenty of good shots taken, lots of excellent maneuvering, and it was a dramatic game the entire way-in fact, it was perhaps a little too dramatic. The combination of fatigue generated from three rounds of gaming, the late hour, and the quality of players at the table, as well as the fact that everyone knew the score from this round would decide the final placings for the top ranked players, contributed to making tempers flare. There were a few rules disputes and some painful mistakes that no one wanted to ignore. Some of the comments I heard from the table suggested that things may have gotten a bit personal. I'm afraid that a lot of this feeling came out in the form of a condemnation of 4 v 4 scenarios, and while that may be true, I remain unconvinced. Maybe if a 4 v 4 were substituted into the middle of a tournament when the pairings and outcomes aren't so important, that would help speed things along. Also, the 2nd Edition Air Superiority rules make certain time- consuming mechanical details like visual searches and missile combat somewhat quicker. I don't know if I'll put a 4 v4 into next year's tournament, but I'd like to give it another try sometime. Table Two had some interesting die rolls associated with it; I'll never complain about my missile launch rolls again. Dragon managed to get four '0's on four shots -- that's right gang: a one in ten thousand streak of bad luck. His score reflects poorly on his playing ability I suppose, but luck is a part of combat too. It all balances out in the end, right Dragon? Madman and Redneck scored the only kills and our hero Pluto didn't manage to get off a good shot. Table Three was a fairly decisive win for the F-20s in a lowscoring contest and I found that rather surprising. My guess would have been that this table, containing the pilots most desparately in need of good scores, would have been the site of some serious "fangs-out" flying. I didn't expect more than one or two planes to emerge from the fracas, but everyone was pretty cautious. Perhaps if this scoring system is used more frequently in the future, people will understand how to make the most of it. I hate to see all that potential mayhem go to waste. Overall When all was said and done, the outcome from the tournament showed Top Wop (Mark Bovankovich) to be the Best of the Best. Unlike Top Gun, however, we do give points for second place. I would like to honor the other pilots in the top four Slick (Scott Kreiser), Gunner (Gary Bear), and Snake (Jay Davis). Very few points separated the winners from the losers and I believe that demonstrates the overall quality of the field. Of course, as indicated in the opening of this article, the Californians won the tournament, consistent with their having been targets of abuse in AIR POWER. The Canadians finished only two players in the top ten (Wiseguy and Madman) in their year off. The tournament results were still ringing in the air when the North Carolina playtester's group began to demand their fair share of pummeling in these pages for the upcoming year. Wonder who we'll decide to pick on next? I had a lot of fun with the tourney this year and I hope the players did as well. I may help out on the design next year, but J.D.'s just going to have to find someone else to run it. I'm itching to play again - look out Mark, I'm gunning for you! Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 15 Back to Air Power List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com