Tuesday 27th we had our first Wings of Glory training session for the Prague Summer Con 2015. Markus, me & Mario will take part in great annual event in the Golden City.
Three other non/less experienced members of my local game group supported us. We choosed WW I for this evening and started with a training flight.
Each one choosed an early war plane and started somewhere on the gaming mats. It was an everyone versus everyone game, without altitude rules and open damage management so I was able to explain all special damages and the consequences.
We had two Eindeckers, two D.H.2s, a Morane Saulnier and a Halberstadt for the fight. To teach the pilots, not to fly like air rowdies, I used the collision card set for handling the collisions.
When the first plane went down with a smoke trail, I finished the training game and started a mini campaign for the games. I planed to count points for
- aerial victories (2)
- shared victories (1) Entente only!
- mission accomplished (1)
- target bombed (1)
All without tailing and without altitude, +1 damage only for pilots - not for gunners. We excluded explosions for hits versus planes to get a taste of a tournament.
Before the first mission: „Air Superiority“, we formed two teams. One Italian/Entente and one A-H/Central Power team, for a 3 vs. 3 match.
Here are the Entene pilots: (from the left) Me (veteran), Steffi (noob) & Marcus (veteran)
Those guys choosed the Central Powers: (from the left) Mario (standard), Nico (semi noob) and Werner (standard)
Mission goal was to gain air superiority within an hour. The winning team would be the attacker for the following missions.
I choosed a Sopwith Camel and a Zirndorfer Kellerbier. Markus & Steffi choosed Italian Hanriot D.H.1s (all A damage)
Mario & Werner had Aviatik D.H.1s and Nico choosed a Fokker Dreidecker. (all A damage)
The Fokker & the Camel took a lot of "Zero" damage cards. It was a hard fight.
Finally the Entene won versus the Central Powers. Nico’s Fokker shot was down & Mario’s Aviatik crashed down.
So the Entente had the offensive role.
Next sortie was a recon mission.
Markus changed his Hanriot for a Bristol fighter (BB). All others kept their planes from the former mission.
The Central Power’s headquarter, that should be pictured during a stall maneuver in half shooting distance by the Bristfit’s observer, was guarded by two B firing machine gun positions. We skipped the infantry fire.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures and arranged one for the impression.
Short report: My Camel & the Bristfit made a frontal attack on the the AA MG’s. First bullet exchange with Werner’s Aviatik caused a jam and I collected nice hits from the MG position without being able to return fire.
Werner made a perfect Immelman and appeared right behind the Bristfit hammering bullets into the sturdy plane. Finally the picture was taken, but the Bristfit went down before reaching safe airspace.
A victory for the Central Powers and we ended the mission without finishing all air battles.
Mission number 3 was a balloon busting mission.
The Entent had 12 turns time to shot down an A-H balloon, side guarded by two B-firing Machine guns without infantry fire from the trenches.
For fun I choosed a Nieuport 11 with rockets and Markus became incendiary rounds for the attack. Nico was amazed by the two-seaters and changed his Fokker Dr.I for a Halberstadt CL.II. Werner, Mario and Steffi kept their planes again.
The buddies were on high alert and turned the red light on!
With Markus strafing the whole side of the ballon, the A-H pilots identified my small plane as the most dangerous one.
I tried to fool them a little bit and flew an irregular course versus my target.
The moment I fired my rockets, all seemed to be ok.
Now I only needed to survive the second movement to lead the salvo into the balloon, but the Austrian pilots closed in, to avoid the threatening desaster.
I swallowed a full brosdside from Werners Aviatik, only to get a final long range shot from Mario’s plane in the fuselage. The A damage with an enginge special damage, let the rocket salvo mis and my plane crash.
Markus avenged me and killed the balloon with a boom hit. The ballon expoled very patriotic, dealing out a „10“ C-damage to Markus’ Hanriot and a „0“ C-damage to Werner’s Aviatik , because both planes were within a half ruler distance during the explosion.
We finished the mission a turn after the explosion and had an hour left for the last sortie of this evening.
Last mission was a bombing raid versus a train bridge near an A-H garrison city. The honor to fly the Caproni Ca.3 bomber belonged to me, guarded by two Hanriots. I decided to use optional extended crew damage.
The Central Powers came in with a line formation, but two curves to the left with the bomber let them fly into empty airspace. The Aviatiks turned sharp around and attacked me from the side. That’s where I wanted them and my gunners started a combined fire on them.
Soon the Werner’s Aviatik, pre-damaged by my escort, went down to the ground.
The second one (Mario's) maneuvered that unlucky that his movement ended paralled to my Caproni. He wasn’t able to shoot at me. But I was.
That's what he get:
Burning and with a wounded pilot, Mario’s Aviatik came back only to get the finishing shot from Steffis plane. Her first and only aerial victory of the evening.
We didn’t need to end the bombing, because the Halberstadt CL.II met his fate soon after the crash of the second Aviatik.
At 00:45 am the gaming session was over.
- Markus & me had 7 points
- Werner & Steffi 5 points
- Mario 3 points
- Nico 1 point
Don’t wonder about the low results, we ended all missions after reaching a special goal and did not fight the battles to the bitter end.
Originaly I wanted to play with altitude rules from the recon mission, but refused because I wanted to finish each mission in time. Altitude rules sometimes double the playtime of a mission.
Of course the game master didn’t compete with the other gamers for the first price (a 4 can pack of Guiness beer), so Markus earned the beer and shared it with the others.
We still need WGS training & altitude training for both versions, but I think the Germans delegation will arrive with the needed experience for the Prague Summer Con 2015.
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