Early War Campaign: Relics 25 July 1916– By WWIflyingace

**WWIflyingace** · 08-23-2014 11:40

Early War Campaign: Relics 25 July 1916– By WWIflyingace

1. As Entente Pilot:

2. The situation:
The first Nieuport 17 was delivered to the RFC on 19 July 1915. The export models were stripped of the Vickers gun and supplied with a Lewis gun on a Foster mount. Somehow the aircraft you received ended up with both weapons!

Paris has just been bombed and several squadrons have been alerted in an attempt to intercept the marauders on their way back home.

3. Entente Side:

3.1. Entente Aircraft:
An ‘A” gun armed Nieuport 17 scout; however, feel free to substitute any period scout you prefer (Nieuport 11/16 or Sopwith Baby come to mind). A wing man, flying the same type of aircraft, may be added at player’s discretion. The wing man’s plane will be armed with a ‘B’ gun.

3.2. Entente Aircraft movement:
If you decide to use an NPC pilot, his plane uses Solo movement rules.

3.3. Entente Objective:
Shoot down the marauders.

4. Central Powers Side:

4.1 Central Powers Aircraft:
Two Albatros C.I reconnaissance aircraft along with one Aviatik C.Ia flying as escort. These aircraft only have a single ‘B’ gun. The difference between the Aviatik C.I and C.Ia is that in the latter the observer was moved to the rear seat and thus only has a rear firing arc; unless you are using altitude rules. An Albatros C.III with rear only gun could be used instead of the C.I and for the Aviatik a C.I or an Ago C.II could be used.

These planes have already been attacked going in. One Albatros suffered 2-damage plus the special engine damage and must play one stall every turn. The second Albatros suffered 12-damage. The Aviatik suffered 4-damage.

If both Albatros are brought down before coming with 25cm of the Central Powers side a lone Halberstadt enters the fray at least two rulers length from the center line. Roll a d6; on evens the Halberstadt is on the right of center, odd the left. The Halberstadt is armed with a ‘B’ gun. You can sub in a Pfalz E.II/III or a Fokker D.I

4.2. Central Powers Movement:
The Central Powers reconnaissance aircraft use Automatic movement rules. All Central Powers aircraft must use one stall during the first turn. Normal movement is allowed from turn 2 on.

The Halberstadt uses Solo movement rules.

4.3. Central Powers Objective:
Exit the map on the Central Powers side.

5. Playing Area Set-up:

5.1 Area of Play:
The area of play should be 100cm x 100cm or larger.

5.2 Starting Positions:

5.2.1 The player’s Nieuport starts anywhere the player desires. If the wing man starts the game he may be placed anywhere. If brought on later he starts along any map edge that is within 50cm of the Entente side.

5.2.2 The Albatros start half a ruler to the left and right of the center line; one ruler from the Entente side. The Aviatik is on the center line half a ruler ahead of the two Albatros.

6. Winning Conditions:

6.1 Entente player wins the Scenario if he shoots down both Albatros.

6.2 Central Powers win if the Nieuport is shot down or at least one of the Albatros exits off the Central Powers side of the map.

11. As Central Power Pilot:

12. The situation:
Paris has just been bombed and several RFC squadrons have been alerted in an attempt to intercept your flight as it attempts to find a safe way back home.

13. Entente Side:

13.1. Entente Aircraft:
Two French ‘B’ gun (Vickers) armed Nieuport 17 fighters.

13.2. Entente Aircraft movement:
The Nieuports use the Solo movement system each keying on a separate Albatros.

13.3. Entente Objective:
Shoot down the enemy aircraft.

14. Central Powers Side:

14.1 Central Powers Aircraft:
Two Albatros C.I reconnaissance aircraft along with one ‘B’ gun armed Fokker E.III flying as escort.

These planes have already been attacked going in. One Albatros suffered 2-damage plus the special engine damage and must play one stall every turn. The second Albatros suffered 12-damage. The Fokker is unharmed.

14.2. Central Powers Movement:
The Albatros use the Automatic movement rules. All Central Powers aircraft must use one stall during the first turn and the Fokker is not allowed to use a split-S or Immelman. Normal movement is allowed from turn 2 on.

14.3. Central Powers Objective:
Exit the map on the Central Powers side.

15. Playing Area Set-up:

15.1 Area of Play:
The area of play should be 100cm x 100cm or larger.

15.2 Starting Positions:

15.2.1 The Nieuports start on the Entente map edge half a ruler to the left and right of the center line.

15.2.2 The Albatros start half a ruler to the left and right of the center line; one ruler from the Entente side. The Aviatik is on the center line half a ruler ahead of the two Albatros.

16. Winning Conditions:

16.1 Entente wins the Scenario if both Albatros are shot down.

16.2 Central Powers player wins if he shoots down one Nieuport and exits at least one of the Albatros off the Central Powers map edge.

21. Variant:

21.1 Play either version as an Entente or Central Powers pilot. All rules/setups stay the same.

31. Optional Rules to consider:

31.1 Feel free to drop the aircraft damage (not the special damage) if you want to make the scenario more challenging.

31.2 I recently read a thread dealing with the two-seat aircraft being too powerful. There were a couple of suggestions made that you might like to try:

a. Draw two damage cards when one is called for and select the one that does less damage; draw three if two are called for and select the two that do less. This is to simulate not being able to point the airplane or judge movement as well. Or,
b. Do double damage to the two-seater when attacking.

I don’t use either, but they are worth considering.

31.3 Personally I highly recommend using ALTITUDE RULES when dealing with aircraft with a rear gun. Coming in a level below at max climb counters and then climbing at the right moment OR diving in from a higher altitude often gives one at least two double card draw hits without fear of counter-fire.

I always use altitude rules.

If you decide to use altitude the Hun aircraft will attempt to stay at Level 3 or higher to clear AA. There is no AA in the game though

31.4 The Lewis machine gun was a very reliable weapon. To simulate this, the Lewis gun only jams on RED jam cards, not GREEN.

31.5 In the early part of the war when the German machine guns jammed there was often no fixing it in flight and they had to leave the battle for safety. To simulate this German aircraft may not clear a RED jammed gun.

31.6 Also, feel free to use the OPTIONAL EARLY WAR RULES.

41. Scenario Generation:

41.1 I tried to be as historically accurate as I could in creating this scenario. I researched the period from January 1915 through 31 July 1916 to try and get the proper mix of enemy aircraft encountered by the RFC during that time. Sorry folks, although I am working on a similar scenario generator for the Germans I am not done; trying to filter out French flown aircraft is challenging.

41.1.1 Anyhow, the aircraft mixes broke very nicely into 4 time periods with equal numbers of aircraft encountered as follows:

a. 1915 June through December (214 days)
b. 1916 January through 19 May (139 days)
c. 1916 20 May through 6 July (48 days)
d. 1916 6 through 31 July (25 days)

This readily shows how the air war escalated.

41.1.2 The number of aircraft in an encounter was usually one early in 1915 and then pairs when machine gun armed aircraft became more common place. This pairing continued into 1916 when KEKs were formed and finally squadrons. For my scenario generation I stuck at four being the most.

42.1 Step 1 - So for each period you roll as follows:

a. Roll a d2 to determine number of aircraft encountered;
b. Roll a d4;
c. Roll a d4; and,
d. Roll a d4.

42.2 Step 2 - I then used the table below to determine types of aircraft encountered (as I mentioned earlier I have not completed a German encounter table as yet).

Attachment 141250

Two die eight are used to determine aircraft type for a given period.

For example in the scenario I developed I first rolled a four-sided die under ‘d.’ and the result was ‘3.’ I then rolled a ‘4’ with two eight-sided die to get the Albatros. Since I only have two models I rolled again to get the third plane. A ‘14’ resulted in a C-type and I chose to make it an Aviatik.

42.3 Step 3 – Roll two six-sided die to determine damage on each aircraft. For aircraft with less than 13 health points subtract the difference from the die roll. Foe example, if you rolled for a Fokker you would subtract 2 from your die roll result.

42.4 Step 4 – Pull a single ‘B’ card for each aircraft to determine if any special damage had been inflicted.

To continue the example I rolled 2, 12, and 5 for the respective aircraft and drew engine damage for the first. The roll of 5 was adjusted by ‘1’ taking into account the Aviatik only has 12 health points.

51. Interesting Information:

51.1 In August the Germans directed the formation of 20 Jastas. The available fighters that could be distributed among the 20 Jastas named in the August directive are shown below:

Attachment 141251

Good Hunting!