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Thread: Dogfight in December, at The Olde Columbia Aerodrome

  1. #1

    Default Dogfight in December, at The Olde Columbia Aerodrome

    This is a preamble to an after action report. Unusual? Maybe, but sometimes it is fun to get psyched up before a game. My birthday is next week, and I always like to have old friends over for a game of something on the weekend nearest. The original plan for this Saturday was a one-shot Middle Earth roleplaying adventure using The One Ring. However, the time needed to create a good adventure for about 10 players wasn't really there. Sure, I could come up with something on the fly, and I'd be able to have fun, but I don't know that I would be able to meet my expectations. So instead of an evening of rpg-ing, we're going to play Wings of War, and I'm going to put to the test some of the ideas that have been kicking around in my head for a year or more now.

    If you've followed any of the AARs I've written, you will see they all tend to have one thing in common - the "Opening Dogfight". I tend to joke about it, sometimes questioning whether it gets a little stale, but it does serve a purpose. It gives everyone a chance to recall the rules. However, I wanted to do something a little different for this. Sure, we are going to start with the "Opening Dogfight", but this time there is something at stake. For Saturday's game the winning side in the dogfight will become the "Attacker" in the missions to follow.

    As for missions, I've created (well, am in the middle of creating) a list of seventeen (oops, make that eighteen since I've just thought of another). Each will be printed out on a card, and after the Attackers have selected the squadron's planes, they will choose one at random.

    "But," you ask, "what if their choice of planes don't match the mission?!?!"

    Well, the mission cards will allow the Attackers some leeway in upgrading. Of course, if they get zealous in their upgrades the result will be that the Defenders get some upgrades too.

    "And play balance? What about play balance?!?!"

    That's always the tough part, innit. I'm going to test a crazy theory I have, and I'll get back to you on whether it worked, or was a total failure. Suffice to say I've done something that encourages people to take the crappy planes and the oddballs that never get used. It doesn't promote historical match-ups, but then I'm not looking for a system that does. I'm looking for a system that will keep something like a Nieuport 17 alive for just a bit longer than usual.

    And... that's all for now. Wish us luck. Hopefully the system will work. If not, at the very least I hope to get a good picture or two to post.

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    Thanks. While driving home from work yesterday I thought up a victory point system. And while getting ready for work this morning I came up with a new spin on the random missions... random mission complications!

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    Setting up. View looking from Attackers' side of the board to the Defenders'. Possible mission targets are balloon, tower, ship, train, and building. Red trees mark the edge of the map. Now to place some trench cards and mg cards.


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    And so the plot thickens!!! Have a great time, and don't forget the AAR!!!

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    I do like the idea of the multiple choice target mission. Should keep the defenders guessing.
    Rob.

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    Hope you've got plenty of Camels and Cooper Bombs.

    We seem to have a shortage of fighter-bombers for the Central Powers though

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    I do like the idea of the multiple choice target mission. Should keep the defenders guessing.
    Rob.
    Exactly! When you know what the baddies are gunnin' for, it takes a little of the fun out of it. So the multiple-missions with random draw should be a great spin on the usual "you guys bomb X and we defend." Add in the list of "upgrades" that I've made available, and it should make things even more interesting (though not necessarily historically accurate).

    For instance... a player with a plane that gets an ace advantage (those would be all the slow, low damage, B-gun planes) could, instead going for that ace ability, swap it for something like an A-gun. Or if he was in a two-seater he could trade it for a radio (allowing him to do one-way communication with the other members of his squadron).

    So, that's where I'm going with this. Like I said, it isn't going to promote historical accuracy, but that's not what I want for this game. What I hope it does is promote players selecting interesting planes from among all those weird planes I've gotten from Shapeways.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AlgyLacey View Post
    Hope you've got plenty of Camels and Cooper Bombs.

    We seem to have a shortage of fighter-bombers for the Central Powers though
    Indeed! Between the five (six?) of us who have planes we have the bases covered for the official Camels.

    For a couple of the bomber scenarios the attacking team will be allowed to upgrade their planes to carry bombs. One-seater can carry one "point" of bombs. Two-seaters can carry two "points" of bombs. Three- and more-seaters carry three "points" of bombs.

    As you can see, I'm also going for "keep it simple."

    And yes, I'm going to cheat by allowing the Germans to arm their fighters with bombs if they happen to be the attackers.

    Now I better get back to cleaning house and setting up!!!

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    Okay, one more post while I drink my coffee.



    Set up in the dining room. Defenders will be on the left, Attackers on the right. The opening dogfight will take place on the right-half of the table only, so I don't have to set this up all over again. There are also two trench cards on each side now, as well as a Defenders' aerodrome.

    And obviously, I wish you were all here to join in the game. Sadly, the dining room isn't that big, and most of you live very, very far away.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jbmacek View Post
    This setting is a hard test for my imagination.

    Especially the sea is very careful and with much love arranged.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marechallannes View Post
    This setting is a hard test for my imagination.

    Especially the sea is very careful and with much love arranged.
    (Drinking my final morning cup of coffee.)

    Don't think of it as "the sea", think of it as a turning basin or wharf in a major port.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jbmacek View Post
    For a couple of the bomber scenarios the attacking team will be allowed to upgrade their planes to carry bombs. One-seater can carry one "point" of bombs.
    And yes, I'm going to cheat by allowing the Germans to arm their fighters with bombs if they happen to be the attackers.

    Now I better get back to cleaning house and setting up!!!
    If Voss could have a LeRhone engine bolted on the front of his tripehound I don't see why a bombrack couldn't be retrofitted as an experiment by some fitter at Jasta level.

    Have a good time.

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    I'm beat, but I had a great time. Three games, followed by birthday cake. I snapped a few pics, but I haven't put away my planes yet and since they are scattered all around the living room I should probably put them away before someone accidentally steps on one.

    For now... I think this sums it up.


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    So, we were able to get in three games. Mission 1 was the ubiquitous dogfight. Mission 2 saw the winners of Mission 1 - the Entente Team - draw from a group of about 17 missions and get the only one that was almost straight from the book, Balloon Busting. And for Mission 3, yes, we decided to do the unthinkable - the dreaded Bomber Dogfight!



    Though two of our players decided they didn't want the added complication of a bomber, so they took D.VIIs instead.

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    Love the Bomber dogfight! Thanks for the pics!

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    It was a great day of flying. I got to down a few planes, though in the second scenario I only damaged an enemy (well, I did take out a trench position) before being taken down by a succession of pilot wounded, set on fire, and finally pulling the explosion.

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    Thanks for the pics of your Bomber dog fight John.
    Is this a first for the Drome?
    Rob.

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    I don't recall ever seeing it done before, but there are so many postings here there may have been one and I missed it. Suffice to say, if there was one prior, it probably didn't include both a Handley Page and a Caproni Ca.4.

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    My staging area. There are more planes off to the left as well.




    This is a fun little group. Of these, I'm sad to say only two were used during play.


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    My teammates for the dogfight scenario. At extreme left is Mike, flying an Airco DH.4 with a complete rookie crew. Then there is Zach with a B-gun SE5. Next is Patrick flying a Nieuport 17 with an A-gun and Lucky Pilot(?). Finally, there is Jim, with a Bristol Scout and two randomly chosen ace abilities.


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    Was my first game in the 9ish months since child B was born. It was great to knock the dust off my planes and start playing again!


    My Se5a flying though flack artillery. The Nieuport was not so lucky. Immelmanned right into the burst when it exploded!

    Zach

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    As mentioned somewhere near the top, I wanted to try something that attempted to balance play between early war and late war planes, and I wanted something simple. The answer was to give early war planes one or more ace abilities, while late war planes had rookie crews. In the case of scenario 1, I took a Morane-Saulnier with Lucky Pilot and Sniper. I chose not to use the Lucky Pilot on the 2 Fire, which turned out to be a bad choice later on.


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    Now on fire as well as smoking, the Fokker and the Halberstadt were doing more damage than I really cared to get, so I ran off toward the DH.4 looking for some help.


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    My wife finally enters the fray in her pink Dr.I. And my Morane is about to go boom.


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    Boom! I'm gone. After I took my plane off the board I realized I had screwed up and took an extra A for fire damage, but my wife had just gotten back to lots of tasty cheese, and there were pina coladas to drink, so I decided not to say anything and go get some eats.

    Capt Willard's Halberstadt is now on fire, so the DH.4 did its job.


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    While I drank pina coladas and ate cheese and pate, the planes continued to circle round and round on the table.


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    Capt Willard is into his last turn of being on fire. He celebrates by lighting up vacca rabite's SE5.


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    Oops. I changed the camera settings. Not for the better.

    After taking an good amount of non-damaging damage, PRS finally pulls an explosion card. I'm not sure what two ace abilities Paul took, but they served him well.


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    In the next turn, my wife's triplane is downed, Veronica's D.V is downed, and Patrick, in the Nieuport, accidentally flies way off the board.

    The game seems evenly matched, so maybe this aces/rookies system works.


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    The battles continues, but the AGO is fleeing for the edge of the map.


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    At long last, Mike in the DH.4 is able to bring down Capt Willard's Halberstadt.



    That means the Entente gets to be the Attacker in scenario 2. Yea! I was hoping I would get to be on the attacking side so I could interpret the meaning of the randomly chosen mission. Some of them were still being worked on just an hour prior to game time.

    More later, after I put up the Xmas tree!

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    A very interesting concept John, and also one with a lot of milage in it for the people who like a well balanced game.
    I think that with a bit of trialing and then drawing up a table of points, you could have the answer to all my
    requirements here.
    It is looking like a simple way to achieve what I am after without having to graft on mechanisms from other games to achieve.
    Thanks.
    Rob.

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    That was my main objective - keep it simple. I've spun this list around in my head a bit since yesterday, but if you are interested, here's how we did it.

    MASTER LIST OF PLANES AND CREW QUALITY [This is based solely on the planes available to our group.]
    ALLIES
    Airco DH2 – one ace ability
    Airco DH4 (A/B gun) – one normal, one rookie
    Airco DH4 (A/A gun) – both rookies
    Breguet (A/A gun) – both rookies
    Breguet (B/A or A/B gun) – one rookie, one normal
    Bristol Fighter (B/B gun) – one rookie, one normal
    Bristol Fighter (B/A gun or A/B gun) – both rookies
    Bristol Fighter (A/A gun) – both rookies and special [special meaning, "and tell the enemy they get an additional ability for one of their planes"]
    Bristol Scout C (B gun) – two ace abilities
    Caudron G.4 (B/B gun) – normal
    F.E.2b (B gun) – one ace ability
    Morane Saulnier – two ace abilities
    Nieuport 11 (B gun) – two ace abilities
    Nieuport 11 (A gun) – one ace ability
    Nieuport 17 (A gun) – one ace ability
    Nieuport 17 (B gun) – two ace abilities
    Nieuport Triplane (B gun) – one ace ability
    RE.8 (B/B gun) – normal
    SE5a (B gun) – normal
    SE5a (A gun) – rookie
    Sopwith Camel – normal
    Sopwith Dolphin (A gun) – rookie
    Sopwith Dolphin (AB gun) – rookie and special
    Sopwith Pup (B gun) – one ace ability
    Sopwith Snipe – rookie
    Sopwith Triplane (B gun) – one ace ability
    SPAD VII (B gun) – one ace ability
    SPAD VII (A gun) – normal
    SPAD XIII – rookie

    GERMAN
    AGO C.II (B gun) – one ace ability
    Albatros D.III – normal
    Albatros D.V – normal
    Fokker D.II (B gun) – one ace ability
    Fokker D.VII – rookie
    Fokker Dr.I – normal
    Fokker E.III – two ace abilities
    Fokker E.IV (A gun) – one ace ability
    Fokker E.IV (AB gun) – normal
    Halberstadt D.III (B gun) – one ace ability
    Pfalz D.III – normal
    Roland C.II (-/B gun) – normal
    Roland C.II (B/B gun) – one rookie, one normal
    Rumpler C.IV (B/B gun) – one rookie, one normal
    Siemens-Schukert D.I (B gun) – two ace abilities
    Siemens-Schukert D.III – normal
    Siemens-Schukert D.IV – rookie
    Ufag C.I (B/B gun) – one rookie, one normal

  35. #35

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    A note on balance. The first game I flew my usual SE5 with no ace skills but a B gun. Game two was the se5 with a rookie pilot but A guns. The rookie was a LOT more fun to fly. Flying a mid war scout with B guns is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. But it did balance the SE5 vs the other mix of planes on the table.

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    Thanks for the reply John.
    That is also very interesting.
    I have just been doing a bit of attempting to assess the balance of planes with ground support to attacking aircraft, and found that I have now grossly underestimated the effect of grouped ground fire in two very differing scenarios. I have habd to half the effect from the ground to give the attackers any chance of success. Low level straffing is a whole new ball game when the defence is not fragmented but concentrated in a small area.
    Rob.

  37. #37

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    Quote Originally Posted by vacca rabite View Post
    A note on balance. The first game I flew my usual SE5 with no ace skills but a B gun. Game two was the se5 with a rookie pilot but A guns. The rookie was a LOT more fun to fly. Flying a mid war scout with B guns is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. But it did balance the SE5 vs the other mix of planes on the table.
    And fun is what it is all about. That's one of the reason why I like to push for using the ace and rookie rules, because to me they enhance the game.

  38. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    Thanks for the reply John.
    That is also very interesting.
    I have just been doing a bit of attempting to assess the balance of planes with ground support to attacking aircraft, and found that I have now grossly underestimated the effect of grouped ground fire in two very differing scenarios. I have habd to half the effect from the ground to give the attackers any chance of success. Low level straffing is a whole new ball game when the defence is not fragmented but concentrated in a small area.
    Rob.
    My wife's plane fell victim to ground fire in the second scenario, as did at least one other plane.

  39. #39

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    I for one loved the ground fire carnage. Flying low was dangerous, and one of the first rules pilots learned was not to fly low over trenches. I did my best to find a path to the target that did not get near the trenches.

    If we did that one again I would actually add more defense for the balloon in the form of more artillery and an A gun that fired from the post of the balloon. After all, ballon busting was very deadly business.

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    I had considered doing a trench line from one end of the board to the other, either all infantry trenches or alternating infantry and machine-guns. That would have been devastating.

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    Having won mission 1, the Entente went on the offensive in mission 2.

    We kept the same sides as we had in the first scenario, but everyone was allowed to change planes if they desired. The catch, plane selection came before random mission selection. Mike kept his DH.4 in case we had a bombing mission. I went with a 360° B-gun coverage Caudron G.4. As Zach mentioned above, he up-gunned his SE5a and took a rookie pilot. Patrick stayed with the Nieuport, with an A-gun and Lucky Pilot. Jim kept the Bristol and, instead of letting the dice decide his fate, picked Lucky Pilot and Sniper.

    There were 19 missions to choose from. Of those, only one was no-frills, by the book, Balloon Busting. At the last minute I decided to add a teeny twist, just in case we pulled that one. Good thing I did, because that's what we got.

    Mission 2. Balloon Busting

    [The mission card read.]

    Balloon busting as per the normal scenario. However, there is a catch. Once one of your planes gets within two rulers distance of the balloon, an AA gun crew notices your presence. Tell the enemy to place one AA marker anywhere within two rules of the balloon. The AA gun is loaded and ready to fire.

    In our pre-mission briefing we decided who was going to set up where. The plan was to set up on the left side, but at the last minute I decided that might give things away, so I set up to the right. Zach set up nearby. And on my third movement turn I accidentally plotted a right turn. That's okay, I figured it might work to our advantage. However, Zach went left, and it did leave me out in the open. Still, that's okay. I would become bait for three enemy fighters.

    Last edited by jbmacek; 12-02-2012 at 13:51.

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    To spice things up a bit, before we started the mission I added two trenches to each side of No Man's Land. We are all now slowly closing on them. Oh, I don't believe I mentioned who the defenders were. Ross took the SSW D.I, but I'm unsure which abilities he picked. My wife traded the pink Triplane for a red one. Capt Willard went with a Pfalz D.III. PSR borrowed one of my favorite planes, Udet's D.III. And Veronica stayed with the Albatros D.V.

    Last edited by jbmacek; 12-02-2012 at 15:21.

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    PRS strafes our trench.




    Then he destroys it as he crosses into our side of the map, at which point he and I exchange fire. I believe I took a 2, and jammed his guns. He took however much from me and a fire card. The DH.4 is taking ground fire, and as he closes on the balloon an AA gun crew back by the tower springs into action. The red Triplane has taken more than her share of ground fire, and moves to engage the SE5a.


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    As we sweep by the trenches, it must be apparent to the defenders that our target is the balloon. It has been hit, but at about this time everyone on the attacking force had the misfortune to get jammed guns. Well... actually Jim had just come off of having jammed guns. Either way, not good for us. Capt Willard is now closing in on me.




    But he is hit. My guns were jammed, I believe, but given the trail of burning planes I am leaving in my wake, I like to think my gunner was throwing Molotov cocktails.




    And as an added bonus, the balloon too has caught fire! There was a cheer from the Attackers!

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    "Pierre, be careful with that Molotoc cocktail. You wouldn't want to accidentally drop..." KABOOOM! As I continue my streak of drawing the explosion card at least once an evening.


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    Meanwhile, back at the balloon...




    If you look closely, under the Nieuport and SE5a you can see an AA marker. Hmmm... it doesn't look good.


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    Back over the trenches, the SSW D.III draws rifle fire, and... KABOOM! It's fitting. I told Paul before we began, "I love this plane, but I've had horrible luck with it."





    Things don't look good for the Nieuport. His time to move comes and, he Immelmann's right back onto the AA counter. KABOOM? No! Patrick took Lucky Pilot! Another cheer from the Entente players! (And on Zach's move, he managed to clear the marker, to more cheers.)


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    Seven turns before it will reach the ground. It doesn't look good for the balloon.


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    And that's when it erupted in a giant ball of flame.




    At that point, it was starting to get dark and I was about to suggest we call it a night. My wife, however, asked if anyone wanted to play one more. I was fine with that, and suggested the "Dreaded Bomber Dogfight." It was agreed, though Veronica declined another game and Jim and Lisa both said "no to bombers." So it became a 4 on 5, with the side with greater numbers having two D.VIIs flown by Lisa and Jim. Lisa finally had a chance to play the candy-striped Udet, a plane which we went looking for when we first got into the got ~2 years ago.


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    Three Gothas and two D.VIIs versus two Caproni Ca.3s, one Ca.4, and an A-gun Handley Page O/400. I think the boys in green have a bit of an advantage. Yep, Lisa's D.VII is on fire already.




    While it may look confusing, it wasn't really that much more cluttered than any other furball.


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