Description

This is a VERY playable (free to print off and play) aerial transportation solitaire game about the U.S. Army Air Force's effort to fly supplies to China to keep it in World War 2 and tie up so many Imperial Japanese Army soldiers on the Asian mainland which it did. http://www.CoatneyHistory.com/CBIATC.htm

(In the "Advanced" game, one player can be the Equipment transporter and the other the Fuel Transporter and separate record/chits could be kept to see if they achieve their respective delivery requirements. Of course, if either fails too often, they both lose overall, so .... :-) )

The player chooses either the H (High Himalayas) route with its hazards or the M (Japanese fighter-interceptor aerodrome at Myitkina) route. He takes the maximum number of transport aircraft pieces possible and then adds to that upside-down piece mix a number of hazard pieces equal to half the number of transports rounded up.

(In 1942-43, trying to fly the lower route over Myitkina is very much pushing your luck, depending on Japanese fighter strength and who wins the air battle.)

From that inverted total he pulls a number of pieces equal to the number of original transports and finds out if sufficient loads - DC3s/C-47s carry 1, C-46s and (B-24 Liberator transport) C-87s carry 2 (although the C-87s can only carry 1 over the High route), and the late war DC-4s/C-54s carry *4*! - make it over the Hump.

Of course, the number of loads required each season increases with the Allied supreme commanders' demands.

The USAAF Air Transport Command actually delivered far more supplies in the air than could be delivered by gas-guzzling trucks on the Burma and then Ledo/Stilwell Roads.

Hazards include Engine Failure, Unexpected Mountain, Mule Stampede! (wrecking the center of gravity ... 3,000 mules were delivered, 4 to a plane), Spontaneous Explosion (C-46s only), Bad Compass-Thick Clouds-Out of Gas, Oxygen Loss-Disorientation, and Rock Throwing Yetis! (Some planes just disappeared along the costly "Aluminum Highway." Wrecks and remains are still being found.)

The no-dice Basic Game plays in about 40 minutes max. and really gives you the overall sense of the air transport campaign. (Ernest K. Gann was an ATC pilot and later wrote the book Fate is the Hunter. The movie is free to watch on YouTube.)

The Advanced Game, differentiating Fuel and Equipment loads, including sea and rail transport cargo capacities to the East India airfields, and having abstracted ground combat rules takes longer.

All aircraft icons are by me, pixel by pixel (hence, the small datafile size of the counter sheet).

The Dedication includes mention of one Bob Coatney, who was a master sergeant based at ATC headquarters in Dacca, East India.

—description from the designer