Balloons

**Baxter** · 11-03-2014 12:32

Biggles Downunder and I did a balloon mission last night. I had a couple of Nieuports with rockets against one balloon with 2 AA machine guns and a couple of Halberstadt D.III's. I took some damage to each plane before lining up for my attack and could not fire my rockets on one plane. The other one though ...... Fired all rockets and the balloon took one D Damage card for each rocket fired. As there are only 8 cards in my D Damage deck and two of them are explosion cards it blew up in my face and killed my firing plane too (one C card as I just overlapped the target and it was the explosion card I drew). The other nieuport could not turn to the left or the right and soon felt the wrath of the defending planes. A pyrrhic victory with no medals

I wonder if this was a familiar story in WWI for real. I have ordered the balloon-busting Aces book and will find out!

**HTRAINo** · 11-03-2014 12:47

Sounds like a blast!!! Sorry, couldn't resist that one

.

A tough sortie by all accounts. Willy Coppens wrote a book about his exploits, but the title eludes me.
I'm sure someone will come to the rescue?

**Mau Fox** · 11-03-2014 12:59

Sounds pretty real to me.

Such a mission outcome, although pyrrhic, would have satisfied the history buff in me.
I wish I could have played that match!

However, both pilots should deserve a medal, even if a posthumous medal.

Mau

**Mau Fox** · 11-03-2014 13:02

Originally Posted by HTRAINo

A tough sortie by all accounts. Willy Coppens wrote a book about his exploits, but the title eludes me.
I'm sure someone will come to the rescue?

Coppens' book should be "FLYING IN FLANDERS".

**steel_ratt** · 11-03-2014 13:38

Sound a little rough on the defenders; they certainly had their work cut out for them!
While I wouldn't call the results typical in terms of realism, it certainly wasn't outside the realm of the possible.

**gully_raker** · 11-03-2014 22:13

No Balloon Busting was a dangerous game & only a few Pilots excelled at it.
Worth getting the Osprey Balloon Busting Aces for all the info.
There are some hair raising tales of Pilots coming back with burnt balloon skin all over their aircraft.

**milcoll73** · 11-04-2014 04:21

wow! ironic. november must be balloon madness month! i just flew balloon busting scenarios with predhead, smitch, matt56, and some other guys from the drome (forgive my bad memory) at the hobby store down in dayton sun (see my album for pics) with very mixed results. the 1st scenario the balloons both made it to the ground (though 1 was burning fiercely) before the attackers could take them out. the second scenario we (the attackers) fairly lucky card draws and both balloons went down without too much difficulty.

then last night our monday night gaming group did a couple ballon scenarios (which id been planning since i acquired the burning drachens expansion in a trade) with equally mixed results. the 1st scenario rick and i took the balloon down almost with ease as we both did mostly high number damage cards too it. the 2nd scenario the defender was able to get the balloon to the ground before the sole attacker could even do much damage.

**Baxter** · 11-04-2014 12:14

Yes Phillip balloons are fun and the scenario is very different from the others. We will fly another mission next week and probably add a couple more machine guns to the defence. I managed to score a source for balloons this week too so I am getting a brown one to add to my collection as well.

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 11-11-2014 01:40

Now that the dark moonless nights are with us, I'm expecting to see even more missions with those big sausage shaped Balloons.
signed: Clipper admirer.

**flash** · 05-01-2015 00:08

Originally Posted by Baxter

..... Fired all rockets and the balloon took one D Damage card for each rocket fired. As there are only 8 cards in my D Damage deck and two of them are explosion cards it blew up in my face and killed my firing plane too...

Resurrecting an old thread here -
You recreated the experience quite accurately I'd say Gary - but I think the intent is to draw one D deck card per rocket token spent rather than the literal 'one per rocket' as written in the rules, hence there are only 8 cards in the deck. ie if you spent both the tokens allowed you'd draw two D deck cards on the balloon. The odds are still good it will go boom but it's not a foregone conclusion.

**guthroth** · 05-01-2015 01:27

Given the popularity of this expansion, it really should be top of the re-print list.

It might also discourage the scalpers who have no interest in the game ........

Over to you Ares.

**Dom S** · 05-01-2015 04:37

It was always expensive - I'm not sure what price you consider"scalping" but even now it's still regularly for sale at less than the rrp several years ago.... On top of that, it was a very slow seller when actually in production, so probably not a priority.

**guthroth** · 05-01-2015 04:57

Well, the only copies I could find on sale this morning were £177 GBP each

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wings-of-War.../dp/B000ALCC3C

That's what I call scalping ....

How 'bout you ?

**Dom S** · 05-01-2015 06:18

First thing - yes that sure is scalping. It's also the old card game boxed set, *not a model* so don't buy that, whatever the price....

"Balloon Busters" is what you want....

Beyond that, look more.... The balloon sets frequently go for £60-£70 including post on Ebay (a premium over new, but for a set with a £49.99 rrp 6 or 7 years ago, probably rather short of "scalping". One sold on an auction last week for £64 including post.) Even better though, look at European sellers - it was more readily available on the continent (there was a UK distribution CF which meant we didn't get it until months after everyone else), so pops up cheaper from time to time. Although the last few (mainly Italian) have been similar prices to recent UK sales, with a little patience you've a decent chance of spotting one cheaper.

**OldGuy59** · 05-01-2015 08:38

Originally Posted by guthroth

Well, the only copies I could find on sale this morning were £177 GBP each

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wings-of-War.../dp/B000ALCC3C

That's what I call scalping ....

How 'bout you ?

Wow.

This merchant is all over the place on pricing. Fire From the Sky for under £7, and Flight of the Giants for £19? Unbelievable prices for people looking for "I" and "X" maneuver decks. The WWII starter set is another reasonably priced option, too.

I bought my Balloon Buster sets for about $50 each, on sale. I did see them for around $75, "regular" price in other places, in 2012-13. The Burning Drachens set was $45, when I bought it from the US. I really wanted that box, as it had all the altitude cards for the first two boxed sets of cards (Altitude rules were added after publishing the first two sets). But, £177? That isn't scalping, it is a typo. Send an email, and query the price. See what comes back?

PS: OMG! If the Burning Drachens box above was a typo, what about this: Balloon Busters - Guilbert £999!

**Dom S** · 05-01-2015 09:07

£999 prices are usually a placeholder for "I don't have any but I don't want to delete the listing"....

**OldGuy59** · 05-01-2015 09:10

Originally Posted by Dom S

£999 prices are usually a placeholder for "I don't have any but I don't want to delete the listing"....

It says " 1 in stock", but that may be a tease, too.

**Dom S** · 05-01-2015 09:20

That's the precise point of it - you can't list an item as zero stock on Amazon (it just disappears from your listings) - some sellers therefore list it with a £999 price (since nobody will actually buy it) as a placeholder if they think they may have more in future, or sometimes as a way of dragging in views.....

**matt56** · 05-02-2015 15:37

I managed to get my first (brown) balloon from Xen for a very reasonable price - and the AIM balloons are quite reasonable, too. I have my eye on one of RAF's Shapeways balloons, which again, I think, is quite reasonable.

But I really DO remember a number of years ago seeing a Nexus 'yellow' balloon set sit in a local hobby shop for ages - it's one of the pieces that drew me and my friends to like the game years ago (although we waited to jump in)...so while I understand the whole marketing aspect of balloons, I still love how cool they look on the table

Phil is right about how easy/hard they are to shoot down - sometimes it's frustrating, and other times it's a blast (no pun intended!)...but that's the joy of the game.

All the best,
Matt