Wright Flight AAR

[predhead]

In today's Wright Flight monthly outing, seven players faced off in a late 1917 game. The Allies were to execute a recon mission, and the dastardly Germans were of course determined to prevent that from occurring. Three Sopwith Camels escorted an RE.8, while the Boche intercepted with two Albatros D.Vas and one Pfalz Dr.I (I was able to convince camelbeagle to let me use the latter plane, in an effort to counter the maneuverability of the Camels, at least that is what I told myself).

I really only focused on what the Pfalz Dr.I was involved with, and so the piccies are from the Pfalz point of view.

We faced off from across the board. The Allied player had five possible recon targets, and a random roll of a die determined which one they were to shoot (the result being unknown to the German player). I started my Bavarian bird along the middle of our edge line, keeping a fair distance between my fragile Pfalz and GDog's Albatros, as The G Dog has a penchant for plotting into moves that result in friendly collisions. To ensure this would not happen I plotted a couple of turns away to increase space and decrease the chance of a blue on blue collision.


Come back here, you cursed plane!

I kept an eye on the RE.8 as its moves would indicate which target it had to photo shoot, but Mark was a bit tricky and started the recon bird in a position that would have indicated that the target for the day was to my slight left. I lined up my approach so as to engage head on, but he sidled to his left and avoided my cunning plan (nice work there, Baldric). However, that clunky RE.8 was no match for my Pfalz, and I turned to start raking the recon machine. Driving him past his intended target, his observer was unable to take pictures, and I forced him off the table. Turning back to the pesky Camels, which the Albatros's were handling surprisingly well, I was able to place damage on two of the Camels, while the total damage on my Pfalz, for several turns of taking fire from the RE.8's tail gun, was a measley five points. I could live with that considering the amount of damage I was able to sish out (well, the random draw of the cards was able to inflict anyway).


Dropping some damage on a Camel

I really like flying the Pfalz Dr.I. It uses an O Deck which really shows how maneuverable it was, climbs like crazy (a climb factor of one), and dishes out the standard German twin gun firepower. Too bad a handful ever saw service, and very limited service at that!


My Pfalz Dr.I - Decopod Models, Gray PA12, Testor's Panzer Gray spray for primer, Vallejo silvergrey.

[Windy Jack]

You said: "The Allied player had five possible recon targets, and a random roll of a die determined which one they were to shoot (the result being unknown to the German player)."

We used a different approach to making sure the defender doesn't know which target is the one to be photographed.
The German player puts out three targets at positions of his choosing. Then, while the German player is not looking, the British player, the recon plane, puts a photo token under one of the target cards. Of course the number of target cards and the number of tokens can be altered to suit planes, players, etc.

[camelbeagle]

Interesting idea. Thanks Doug.

[CrashCraig]

Doug - your mailbox is full. And thanks for the Rep!

[predhead]

You said: "The Allied player had five possible recon targets, and a random roll of a die determined which one they were to shoot (the result being unknown to the German player)."

We used a different approach to making sure the defender doesn't know which target is the one to be photographed.
The German player puts out three targets at positions of his choosing. Then, while the German player is not looking, the British player, the recon plane, puts a photo token under one of the target cards. Of course the number of target cards and the number of tokens can be altered to suit planes, players, etc.

Another grand idea!!