A 1915 Era Game, and More... at The Family Game Store

**jbmacek** · 05-12-2015 03:58

We managed to just barely squeeze in four games at the game store last night. Here's a pic from the 1915 mission as a placeholder.

Spoiler... I pulled NO explosion cards last night! So for me, every game was a win, even those in which I got shot down!

**jbmacek** · 05-12-2015 09:33

Another good turnout at the game store, with nine players. Our opening battle is the usual dogfight, only this time it is unusual in that the theme was "Fly what you want... as long as it is a single-seater."

Thus we had, on the side of the Allies, a Hanriot (Pseudotheist), a Macchi (me), a Snipe (Flammenkopf) and a Spad XIII (Capt Willard). On the Central Powers side there was an Albatros D.II, a Fokker D.VII (PilotGamerHistr), an SSW D.III (PRS), a Fokker Dr.I, and a Hansa-Brandenburg CC (I think, though I seem to recall it being an A-firing plane in our game, that was flown by tusekine).

The battle broke into two groups, with Todd in his Hanriot drawing some of the German planes off in his direction. This gave us a bit of a numerical advantage on our part of the map, spoiled by the fact that the Snipe managed to get in a bad spot behind the Spad, so that his shots were blocked for two phases. Meanwhile, I traded shots with the Fokker, and got pounded.

Unfortunately for me, our little fight drew the attention of the D.VII, and he swooped in from the side to attack.

And then the Dr.I joined in for some more. My hand was full of high cards, dropping my poor little boat onto the hard, cold ground below.

Next to go was the Snipe. Again, a devilish hand, with two 5s!

Now five against two, there isn't much hope for the Allies.

And they eventually hightail it for home, leaving all five Central Powers planes holding the skies.

For our second game, a trio of kampfflugzeug (myself, tuskine and Capt Willard) and an Eindecker (Flammenkopf) encounter...

Four Morane-Saulniers (PRS, Pseudotheist, PilotGamerHistr, and... ?) escorting a Caudron G.4 (Bob, the game store guy) on a recon mission.

They advance, their target unknown to us.

What we do know is this, stop the G.4. As if according to a plan, we turn in her direction.

Battle is joined. One of the Moranes is wounded.

And quickly goes down. The Gotha G1.s are taking damage, with Capt Willard taking two crew hits.

I'm engaged in a furious gun battle with the Morane on my tail. I'm hoping the Eindecker will come to my aid.

He immlemanns, but is overlapping. I decided to switch targets and aim for the closer Morane. Bad luck, of the four cards I gave him, three were jams. And Capt Willard, in the lead G.1, is now in flames.

I've taken a crew hit and lost a gunner, but I'm doing a good job of soaking up damage while my comrades chase the Caudron.

That's it for me. The bottom row of cards were all +1.

But then the tables turned with a double kill explosion! This brings down their recon plane, ending the game with a German victory.

There ends part 1. Part two to follow.

**Flying Helmut** · 05-12-2015 13:15

Super pictures!

Love the early planes - I hope to start on my Shapeways ones after Triples this weekend. I only hope they turn out as smart as yours, John!

**jbmacek** · 05-12-2015 15:23

Thanks! Glad you liked them! And please post pics of your G1.s once painted!

Game three was an interesting and rather lopsided affair, with three Bristols trying to take on five D.Vs and a Pfalz D.III (me). Other than me in the Pfalz, I don't recall who played what. I think PRS, Flammenkopf and Capt Willard were the Biffs (one of which is slightly off camera, lower right).

I don't know if it was some sort of plan, or random chance, but the Biffs collected in the corner of the map. My rather slow Pfalz had one hell of a time trying to get into the action.

We hemmed them in, and the damage began to take its toll, with two of them taking hits to their rear gunners.

After dropping one of them, the other two made a mad dash back to their lines. With the superior speed, there was no way I could catch any of them, and most of the D.Vs were as far if not farther away than I, so they managed to escape.

**jbmacek** · 05-12-2015 15:34

Two of our group were downstairs game shopping when we started the last scenario - a replay of the above with one fighter swapping sides. We gave them the option of joining in, but they declined, so the finale was two Biffs and an N.28 (yours truly) against three D.Vs and a D.II.

The situation looked good.

Until I took a fire hit. I really, really don't like the new fire rules, and we throw that one out when we play at my house, but since we were at the game store, I went along with it. Fortunately, the F-deck is a decent deck when it comes to turns.

I was able to hold my pursuers at bay for most of the turn.

I survived the first two turns of fire.

But I took another fire hit, and my third fire card was a whopping five. Enough to flame me.

By that time the clock had struck 9, so we called the game, and gave a marginal victory to the British, who seemed to be winning at the time.

FIN.

**gully_raker** · 05-12-2015 18:46

Another great round of games John.
Looked like fun. (except for all your Fire cards!

)

**Boney10** · 05-13-2015 00:30

A very nice set of games John, really like the early planes, may have to partake in a couple of those, I have one of your AGO so he needs a wingman also.

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 05-13-2015 12:30

What a superb report John.
A very varied evening and some nice new birds to show off.
Well worth a bit of rep.
Rob.

**jbmacek** · 05-19-2015 04:40

Thanks. I wish we had more official early war planes, but we don't. Hopefully they'll fix that in the future.
The Ursinuses are my Shapeways design, two painted by me, one by Anthony.
As for the Caudron, that's the one I scratch-built for my wife.