Origins 2017 Balloons AAR
The third game I ran at Origins this year was from 7 to 9 PM on Friday evening - it capped off what ended up being my longest day at the convention. But it was a colorful game and most folks seemed to enjoy the fray. Every year the Buckeye Gamers in Flight try to run a balloon scenario - it's great to see balloons on the table, and it's fun to try and make them go boom. This year was no exception. I ran a balloon scenario last year, and so the goal this year was to make it somewhat different.
So this year we had German balloons on the left end of the board and American balloons on the right side. We used Jim's (rhodie80) beautifully painted Jasta 11 triplanes against his equally stunning American balloon busting SPADs, led by Frank Luke. All planes were equipped with regular ammunition - no incendiaries or rockets. Balloons were protected by AA MGs placed at each corner of the balloon stands, but those were only within range once the balloons were reeled down to 2 or 1 pegs...
The main goal of the pilots was to shoot down the opposing players' balloons, but obviously, they could shoot down one another trying to get at the balloons.
This pictures shows the Americans as they head out to attack the German balloons - Luke's squadron looks pretty nifty en masse as they head across No Man's Land.
Here is the view of the German side with a wave of Fokker Triplanes buzzing into action. Talk about a Flying Circus!
Here is a view of NML - the balloons were not allowed to begin being reeled in until the opposing side crossed into NML. Once that began, we basically had a 12-turn game. Players began the game on a line parallel to the pegs in the balloons, so when they got shot down, they were allowed to respawn along that line or anywhere behind it in the actual physical quadrant where they were sitting. Once the enemy planes were among one's balloons, WHERE a respawn occurred was up to player discretion (with GM approval). There was a lot of back and forth between balloons, and the use of 'regular' ammunition required planes to make multiple passes at balloons hoping to get one to catch fire. The brown checked American balloon eventually drew 2 fire cards by the end of the game, although it still had about 1/3 or its points left by the end of the game. The striped German balloon had also drawn a fire card late in the game, and it was down to 1 point when the game ended. All balloons had taken damage, and if the game had lasted another turn or two, there would definitely have been a balloon casualty on either side.
There were a number of collisions between planes and planes and planes and balloons, and once the balloons got low enough, the AA MG fire took a toll on the attacking planes. All things considered, I liked the way the scenario played out - it was a fun, eye-candy-filled way to end the day!
All the best,
Matt
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Originally Posted by gully_raker
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