Thanks to Fabian for a very enjoyable first ever live WWII game! It was a first for us both, no solo rules in sight!
3 planes versus 3, with a prolonged ending of 3 against 1. Fabian played a Dewoitine and two Yaks, which are excellent and fine looking models, not done justice by any pictures I have seen. I took over his desert camouflage Regianne and the black Regianne, plus the lovely Belgian Hurricane. We had some excellent action, with lots and lots of zero hits.
My experience with solo playing WWI and all in all 6 WWII games (but a long time ago and with other planes), helped me get into some good positions and the pesky gun jamming from the WW1 game didn't get in the way like it usually does at critical moments! We both kept drawing relatively low damage . It was strange having a real opponent at first! The two card moves work really really well with another person taking on the role of the enemy. The Dewoitine was downed in the first third of the three hour game. The first two hours went very quickly, with us chatting and getting used to the rules. The flying was entertaining, with each of us frequently getting each other in our sights. I got my second kill, when Fabain's bag full of ones finally ran out.
Fabian pulled off some very good manoeuvres during the 3 on 1 and had me running all over the place. Keeping out of trouble he got me tailed, with a run of “0”'s like his plane had been taking, now dished out to me for three consecutive moves by his Yak on the tail of my black Regianne. That was close!
I was really pleased with how I had been playing and lining up shots. However twice towards the end, a long run of left turns bringing the desert Regianne back into the game after engine damage, was suddenly ruined by a stray right turn!! Where did that come from? Was the pilot's wife with him getting L & R muddled up again? She stuck again, after the correction of the mistake and a long row of right turns...Where did that left come from? Both times, Fabain's super Yak (light blue/dark blue) would have been caught by a burst, despite it just having outwitted its other two pursuers. I reckon it was its camouflage which works really well on the Ares countryside mat! I got it in the end though... ....and despite a last move collision betweeen my Hurricane and the Reggiane (with his wife in the back giving orders again ) I pulled two zeros and managed a clean sheet.
It was great to be able to talk shop with Fabian and I am very lucky to have found such a nice opponent!! Thanks for a great game. He even lives just under half an hour away on a main bus route. So that makes two of us in this very large city. Will we now have to wait another two and a half years to find the third man? Harry Lime where are you? (cue music).
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