Over the weekend I flew what has been my biggest solo mission yet. 9 v 9. I was inspired by the large play by email games and thought I'd give it a try.
On the German side, 2 Halberstadt CLIIs, 1 Roland CLII, 3 Alb. DVas, 3 DR.1s. On the Allies, 4 Camels, 4 Spad XIII, 1 Spad VII. German objective was to bomb the little target on the allied side.
I controlled 1 Camel and the Spad VII, AI controlled the rest. Positions after move 1. These were the only pictures I took - I didn't really intend to write an AAR, just wanted to give it a shot.
As the game played on 1 of the Spads immediately took 13 damage, so headed home. Shooting was slow at first - with so many aircraft having high damage values I thought no one was going to go down. After the initial pass by the DR1s, the Camels turned north, and had a pass at the Recon planes. One of the Halberstadts drew an early explosion which helped greatly. The DVas proved to be the biggest threat early on, making quick passes. The DR1s had a hard time getting into the fight, they were a bit slow and if they got side tracked on a passing Spad their attention moved that way.
The Spads are difficult to control in battle, but tend to stay alive since no one can really pursue them either.
Soon another explosion for the other Halberstadt, One Allied Camel down, and One DVa drew too many cards. The Spad VII got the Roland, shooting him up with B cards. Another Camel down by cards, then a Spad by explosion. Both sides had lost 4 planes. All the planes started circling, things were getting tough on the allies: one of the Spads had engine trouble, and the camel and another spad had wounded pilots - death could come at any second. The Germans had 1 wounded pilot in a DVa and a DR1 with low damage but engine trouble.
Finally a Camel got the wounded DR1, and with a majority of planes gone, the Germans headed home. One DVa didn't make it out, too damaged and in the allies line of flight.
In the end it took 2 nights of playing, but was worth it! The cards were on the allies side, two explosions on the two seaters really helped. But it came down to the last aircraft shot down to determine the real winner. My controlled Camel got one, and the Spad VII got one. One of the AI camels had 2, but was lost in the explosion to a DR1.
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