Last night I managed to get a couple games of Wings of Glory in with a few friends. Because it had been a while for two of them we decided to play without the altitude rules and just jump straight into it. The first match Included 3 D3A1's (piloted by me) escorted by a single A6M1 (piloted by a friend). Their target, a lone US destroyer with three Flak guns and a CAP consisting of one Wildcat and one Warhawk.
Although the Wildcat managed to get on the tail of the Vals he suffered the full power of the three tail gunners and went down without backup from his wingman and the Val's managed to successfully bomb the destroyer with two direct hits and one part hit.
I didn't capture too many photos of the first action but it ended in a victory for the Japanese (also that Wildcat in the second picture was, in fact, removed from play at that point, victim of the Val's tail guns). A few things might have been changed to balance the game, such as altitude rules (more blindspots for the tail gunners), could have started further down the table, or even added an extra allied plane in the game. At any rate it was short, bittersweet and not too bad of a start.
The second match had to of course be a dogfight, the teams remained the same and the aircraft remained the same with the exception of me taking an A6M1 for the Japanese side (when I expand my collection I'll have to try giving each player two aircraft so no one is out of the action too early).
The match opened up with each side trying to gain an advantage. Some pictures will be missing as sometimes one gets caught up in the game and forgets!
After taking considerable damage in my green Zero, due to a head on pass with the Wildcat and a well played Immelmann from the P-40 I managed to latch onto the tail of the Wildcat. At this point my friend (in the Wildcat) leaned over and whispered to me that he was done, with only one point away from being shot down. Little did he know that I too was one point away and if the P-40 could manage one more shot I might be downed.
I put a long burst into his crippled aircraft and watched as it plummeted through the clouds and into the sea below, there was a chute.
My wingman, who had been wounded from early on finally showed up to my aid, but while remaining outside of the range of the P-40 tried to gain a better position and thus left my battered bird easy prey for the American plane. I went down in a ball of flame. The Immelmann my wingman pulled seemed to do little damage from where I was watching, hanging in my parachute. Though hampered by the bulky thing, my commander had insisted I wear it and I was glad I followed the order.
My wingman managed to pull another Immelmann and put even more rounds into the P-40 but to no avail. I watched as the American copied his move, my friend no doubt fatigued from the wound he had suffered early in the battle. He took the weight of the 6 .50 cals and went down in flames. The victory went to the Americans.
There it was, one victory to each side. We needed a tie breaker but people seemed less interested so we suggested X-Wing that one of the guys had recently picked up and ended the night with that, the victory went to the Imperial side but that AAR is for a different galaxy.
Overall a pretty successful evening, though I worry the other two guys liked X-Wing a lot more and my Wings collection may start to collect dust... I guess I prefer the history aspect as apposed to the fantasy but most of them are into Star Wars. I think I just need to spice the games up some more with ace abilities and more optional rules to show that Wings of Glory can be just as in depth.
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