OTTED Extra Mission: Caught with their pants down July 2nd 1917- by Flash
Your Christmas Turkey Shoot !
Situation:
Your unit has been moved to a new area of operations along the front to bolster the air defence for a short while and the ‘Top Office’ has decided that on the way there a select few will be visiting the nearest enemy airfields to announce your arrival in style.
Mission: Destroy as many aircraft as possible
Execution:
Approach will be made at low level shortly after their dawn patrols have landed.
They will not be expecting you so air defences are expected to be light to non- existent. You will have enough fuel to make a few passes over the field before you must break for home. Your priority is to destroy aircraft, or at least damage them.
Friendly forces:
Attackers are all scout aircraft - as many as you are happy to handle, but I recommend 2 as the best number. They may all be controlled by you or by you & AI, whichever suits you best. ( I found controlling them best for me); if you are feeling particularly brave you may fly just one attacker - Billy Bishop style as claimed !
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Scenario:
Airfield strafing attack
The Layout:
I first played this on a table about the size of one mat (98x68cm) but if you can go bigger I would recommend it. I may re-play it on a 6’x4’ (180x120cm).
Those of you lucky enough to have scale buildings, vehicles, hedges, trees etc can bling this up as much as you like – the real important thing is the aircraft on the ground. I played this with 10 but would say 6 is good but you may add more if you wish; scouts of all types & two seaters, in a line or two, a half ruler apart (wing tip to wing tip) or whatever looks right to you but leave enough room to get a stand of an attacking scout in !
Something like this:
Anti-Aircraft:
B deck AAMG will be required – max of 4 - these can be dotted around the field as you desire but will be unmanned at the beginning of the game so cards start trench side up. More of this later !
If you want to make it interesting, as I did, you could put a number of trenches out – number them & then dice for which are AAMG as you play the game. More of this later !
I used an A deck AAMG as well as B Deck in my original play test – not recommended !
The Game:
Attackers get a free first pass before the defenders can react – this is to represent the chaos of a surprise attack. Rather than moving counters about it is given that the defending pilots will be mounting their steeds by the time the first enemy aircraft has turned back towards the airfield for their second pass– the question is how many pilots will there be ?
Who Gets Off The Ground:
1. Number the aircraft 1 – 10 (or whatever you have made available).
2. Roll a dice appropriate to the number of aircraft - if the result falls 1 to middle that is the number of pilots available. If result is middle to high subtract that number from the Die max to get the numbers of pilots available.
(eg: I had 10 aircraft so used a D10 – if I rolled a 3 it equals 3 pilots; roll a 6 it equals 4 pilots. If you were using 6 aircraft Rolling a D6 a 3 = 3; rolling a 5 = 1 pilot)
This will ensure no more than half the pilots will try to get airborne at one time.
3. These pilots & ground crew will make for their aircraft as the enemy pass. Now roll the Dice again to allocate them to the numbered aircraft. If their aircraft is destroyed, has wounded pilot (cockpit controls smashed), smoking or burning it cannot be flown.
If it has rudder damage then remove 1 left or right turn + sharp turn if applicable from its flight deck (replace with straights if comes up in AI).
Those that can fly will be started & taxi for one full turn. They will take off on the next turn. Once they are at 3 pegs high the AI can fly them.
On the next time the enemy turn in to attack you roll again for the remaining pilots - if one remained from the first group because his aircraft was destroyed/damaged from the first pass he will take the next available aircraft beside his, this may mean the owner of that aircraft from the second group turns up to see his kite taxiing off down the runway !
Those pilots not selected are either absent from the field for some reason or have become casualties.
Moving on the ground:
You may turn and move the plane on the ground. Put the airplane's card under the model. To turn the airplane, hold the card down with a fingertip (you may put it on any spot on the card). Then turn the card so that it rotates around your fingertip. The grounded aircraft may either turn or use a short straight instead of each manoeuvre. The pilot may not shoot while on the ground or taking off unless it has a rear gunner.
Taking off:
To take off, point it in the direction where you want to take off and next turn play a short straight, a straight and a climb. The airplane is then considered airborne (by 1 peg) climbing 1 peg per movement thereafter - it will fly normally once at 3 pegs high. Plan its AI manoeuvres as usual from then on.
Only airborne targets count as kills – ‘just’ airborne also counts
AAMG:
After the 'free pass' availability of AAMG can be diced for also using a D8 – 1,2 = 1 gun, 3,4 = 2 etc and if you wish you can dice for which trench has the AAMGs. ie You can put out 8 (or more) trench cards and dice for which has an AAMG. In this way you cannot know where the AAMG are until they open up !
Attacking Ground Targets with MGs :
Aircraft attacking a ground target will get lower to the ground each time they fire & can go down to 1 peg before having to climb out –
For each manoeuvre spent firing at ground target descend one peg, the attacking aircraft start at four pegs high, get 1 shot when at one peg high then must climb – at a rate of 1 peg per movement.
You can climb between descents but cannot fire as in a ‘nose up’ attitude.
You can only engage ground targets at close range when down to two pegs or less.
You cannot fly over a grounded aircraft when at 1 peg high – collision occurs !
Low Flying:
When at 1 peg you can only fly straights.
When at 2 pegs you can only fly straights, sideslips & curves (but not sharp turns)
When at 3 pegs you can fly normally.
If a pilot is wounded at 1 peg high he crashes immediately.
Attacking Ground Targets with Bombs:
If you wish you may randomly determine that some of your attacking scouts are equipped with a couple of small bombs. They may only be dropped from 4 peg height as a pair. ie 1 shot. Usual bombing rules apply. The bomb card must cover the cockpit of a target plane to score a direct hit.
A Direct Hit = 2 C deck cards
A Near Miss = 1 C deck card
Use C Deck if you have them or multiple A cards if you have neither – Special damage counts.
Special Rules:
Take all zeros from A damage decks except those cards with special damage - this is why I don't recommend A Deck AAMG ! (unless you use a separate deck ) - this represents the sitting duck nature of the attack.
Other Stuff:
ท Aircraft damaged by ground attack obviously carry damage into battle.
ท Defenders - should any get off the ground - are handled by you until at 3 pegs high & then are AI controlled.
ท Attacking aircraft taking special damage may break off the attack & head for home as per usual rules– full fire damage will be drawn even if aircraft left the table to see if aircraft make it back to their lines. Attackers downed are considered downed in Enemy Territory.
ท Have a decided take off direction for the airfield - makes things much easier.
ท You, as I did in the playtest, may have the attack come in from a randomly diced direction to replicate the difficulty of low level navigation. I came in at the one o'clock (D12) in my game which was lucky !
Well, there it is, a lot to take in at first glance but I hope it's not overly complicated & makes sense. Once you start to play I found it's fairly simple - just watch your height & roll a dice or two when required. Good luck !
The original OTT thread is here
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