The Soccer War (1969) was a brief armed conflict between El Salvador and Honduras. It was the last time when aircrafts with piston engines fought each others. Both air forces used F4U Corsairs (El Salvador had also  P51 Mustangs); mine are plastic 1/700 from the Aoshima Royal Naval Planes kit, that gives you 32 planes (Swordfish, F4 Wildcat, Supermarine Seafire and the F4U Corsairs) at a very cheap price.

These 1/700 models are tiny (even more than the 1/600 aircrafts I already have in my collection) and not really detailed, but you can paint them fast. I used the Wings Palette website as a reference, a real treasure for all wargamers and modellers. A detailed account of the air operations of this little war can be found in the ACIG website.

I played one game solo using the Pz8 1935-65 Aerial Rules. I started with 2 x Honduran F4U Corsairs (painted overall dark blue with light blue and white national markings) on one corner of the gaming board, and 2 x Salvadoran F4U Corsairs (camouflaged and with distinctive yellow stripes) on the opposite corner. All pilots are Green. After the turn 3, a D6 = 6 means that 2 other F4U Corsairs (Honduran or Salvadoran) enter the board from the same corners.


In the picture you see one damaged Honduran plane trying to escape from the board edge, pursued by the Salvadoran enemy. it was at this point that other 2 Salvadoran Corsairs joined the battle, giving no escape to the poor Honduran pilot. His colleague tried to flee away from the 4 enemies but just when he reached the edge, other 2 blue Corsairs arrived... too late! With one enemy killed and a superiority of 2:1, it was a Salvadoran victory. It was a fun game that I will play again.

A brief report of two quick solo games with the Pz8 Aerial Wargaming Rules, 1935-65 and 1/600 models. Each airplane is marked with a card symbol and activated when that card is drawn. This make a fun game even without a real opponent... in fact I lost both battles!

In the first game I had 4 British Hawker Hunter (Average pilots) against 6 Egyptian MIG 15 (Green pilots except the MIG marked with the Ace, that was Average... a Soviet pilot in disguise?).

The two squadrons deployed on opposite corners and then the air battle begun. With fast jets on such a small surface, the fight is fast and furious. The green Egyptian pilot were disadvantaged at long range firing, but their number (and a very bad luck for the British) at the end gained a victory... all the Hunters were destroyed, at the loss of 3 MIGs and another damaged one.

In the second game, I experimented a kind of scenario and some quick rules for ground attacks, and they worked rather well. The objective of a Squadron of 3 Israeli Ouragan w/rockets (2 Average, 1 Veteran) was the  Egyptian column in the middle of the board. The small red dice, each showing a number from 1 to 6, indicate the possible entry point of a Squadron of 4 Egyptian Vampires (Green). From turn 2, roll 1 D6 = 5,6 = the Egyptian jets enter the table.


The Vampires arrived from the first D6 roll (ooops!), and surprised the Ouragan while preparing their ground attack the lowest altitude level... one of the Israeli pilots managed to shoot his rockets and destroyed the head of the column, but then was Damaged and crashed. The other two encountered a similar fate, without killing any other ground objective. A sad day for the IAF!


Here are the add-on rules (I did not still playtest the Dive bombers rule...):


Ground Attacks
Ground Attacks can be done instead of firing, when one aircraft ends its movement in one hex adjacent to a Target. Select type of attack: Bomb(s) / Rockets (once in a game) or Strafing.



Roll 1 D6 – Alt Level, - 1 if the aircraft expended more than 3 MPs in that turn. Exception: Dive bombers must attack from their max Alt Level, and simply roll 1D6 -1.



Target is Destroyed with a result = 3-5 if using Rockets, 4-5 if using Bomb(s), 5 if Strafing. If the D6 roll = unmodified 1, the Aircraft is Destroyed by AA fire.



Aircrafts carrying Bombs or Rockets subtract - 1 from their MPs and max. Altitude and can’t change direction 180°, until they deliver them.