Madicon 24: Fall of France AAR (d.520 and Defiant included!)
Ten days ago, I ran a Wings of Glory game at Madicon. Madicon is a college run convention that I ran in some of its early days. I am pleased as punch to see it going stronger than ever in its 24th year. Due to some schedule congestion, I was running my game later than I preferred – 8:00 PM, which put it against several other events at the convention. I wasn't confident of a good turnout, but two friends of mine had expressed interest in playing earlier in the day, so I set up to see who would come. Happily, I got four players: one of my friends and three others. None of them had ever played WoG, so I offered a quick tutorial and jumped into the game.
I advertised the scenario as “Wings of Glory: Fall of France” to give myself the opportunity to use some planes I had not yet flown. I described to the players a hypothetical encounter between Bf 109s and a very mixed force of a Spitfire, a French Dewoitine d.520, and a Bolton Paul Defiant. I had a couple of people eager to fly Bf 109s and someone wanting to fly a Spitfire. The fourth player flew the Dewoitine d.520 and I flew the Bolton Paul Defiant. I had intended to keep the Defiant's firing arc a secret, but one of the new players was familiar with the plane (who knew?) and announced it to the table.
We played on a fairly small table space, which meant that our planes closed quickly. By vote, the players opted to not play with altitude – the interest was in being able to shoot each other up faster. Even with the small table space, the fight split in half. My friend Ping and I squared off in a 109 v. Defiant duel, and the three other players matched the other 109 against a Mk. I Spitfire and the d.520. Based on the gun factors, this was a pretty even fight.
The pictures below show our dueling. The player flying the d.520 spent several turns trying to get into position to fight. It took so long that we started to make jokes about French valor. He closed suddenly with one of the 109's however, which had taken some damage from the Spit, and made his shots count. He shot down the 109.
This happened just after my Defiant was shot down. I had managed to lay a lot of long range damage (A chits) on Ping's Messershmidt: some zeroes, but also an rudder jam, an engine hit, smoke, and fire. In the extra damage from the fire, Ping actually drew a pilot wounded chit. Think about all the awful things that have just happened to that plane and pilot. When I was shot down, I knew from experience that Ping's plane was in a very bad way. No one else knew that (well, except for the stack of hidden damage chits on his console), and he kept fighting.
The Allies prevailed, shooting down the second 109, but everyone learned at the end that the d.520 was just two points short of being shot down and the Spitfire was also more than 50% damaged. Everyone had fun. We played 30 turns in just under two hours (thanks to BobP for giving me the turn counter die at Williamsburg Muster).
Most everyone discovers that their planes close with each other much faster than they expect. I did pretty well with the Defiant, consistently turning away from my adversary and getting extra shots on him after he passed by.
Having fun. Notice the red turn counter d20
This should be the perfect position for the Allies to have 109 in. Alas, this was the turn just before my Defiant was shot down.
The French player gets better with his maneuvering and delivers a solid, killing blow to his adversary. My friend Ping carried on the fight for the German, nearly shooting down the Dewoitine, but it was not to be.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Aussietonka
That will make the fire damage a little less horrible next time. Thanks!
Bookmarks