For anyone who’s ever played Down in Flames, their first question is probably, “what aircraft do we get in Imperial Eagles?”You’ll be getting a mix of old and new, with even the “repeats” brought up to Wild Blue Yonder standards.  As befits a game featuring Imperial Japanese aviation in World War II, this first article for Inside GMT will describe the planes the Japanese bring to the fight.

Foremost is the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force, whose aircraft feature in every campaign in IE.  Not surprisingly, this includes more cards than any other air service in a number of models exceeded only by the US Army Air Force.

Almost half of these are fighters.  Though no longer a front-line type by December 1941, Mitsubishi A5M4s with their fixed landing gear appear in the Marshall Islands Raid and the battle of Coral Sea.  Surprisingly nimble F1M2 floatplanes play a role in every campaign without carriers.  And of course, the ubiquitous A6M2 “Zeroes” fight in every campaign save the Marshalls.  Three other models join them as combat shifts to the Solomon Islands, the A6M3 ‘Hamp’, the A6M2-N floatplane version, and the improved A6M5a.

With no less than five carrier campaigns in the box, a quarter of the aircraft cards are carrier-based light bombers.  B5N2 torpedo bombers are prominent in all of them and at Bougainville in the Solomons.  D3A1 dive bombers play an even bigger role in all those campaigns as well as at Guadalcanal and in the Slot.

Emphasizing land-based bombers more than any other naval air service, the IJNAF features two medium bomber types.  The G3M2 and G4M1 models are common in the early campaigns, but while the older ‘Nells’ leave the scene by the time the US Marines land on Guadalcanal, the vulnerable ‘Betties’ fly on through the end of 1943.

As you might expect in a game where naval operations figure heavily, reconnaissance aircraft are not overlooked.  These range from floatplanes (the E7K2 and E13A1) to carrier-based bomber variants (the D4Y1-C) to massive flying boats (the H6K4 and the H8K1).

Overshadowed by its naval counterpart, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force only appears in three campaigns in the game, but is amply represented.

Three fighter types showcase three generations of aircraft development, the Ki-27 ‘Nate’, the Ki-43-I Hayabusa (Falcon), and the Ki-61-Ib Hien (Swallow).  The first two were mainstays of the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies conquests, while the latter appears when the IJAAF takes a hand in the New Georgia stage of the Solomons campaign in 1943.

While little known compared to their naval cousins, IJAAF light bombers also flew in substantial numbers early in the Pacific war.  Two types appear in Imperial Eagles, the single-engined Ki-30 and the twin-engined Ki-48-I.  Like many other lightly-built Japanese aircraft, they proved vulnerable to enemy fighters and flak and disappear from IE after the conquest of Java.

The IJAAF never had any true heavy bombers, but one medium type was common, the Ki-21 ‘Sally’.  Two models are in the game, the Ki-21-I in the early campaigns and the improved Ki-21-IIb over New Georgia.

Unlike the famous C-47 Dakota, Japanese troop carriers are virtually unknown.  But the Japanese Army did have paratroops, and they jump into battle at Sumatra from Ki-56 and Ki-57-I tranports.

Altogether, the Japanese have 75 of the 180 aircraft cards in Imperial Eagles depicting 24 types.  Of these, only six are completely new to GMT Down in Flames while only five are completely unchanged from previously published models.  The remaining 13 types have at least one rating changed.  Bear in mind, though, that these numbers are preliminary.  Testing may reveal needed tweaks to these numbers and types.

In the next installment, we’ll see how the opposition looks.

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