Sorties in Greece

[Akosion]

Hi folks,
Not sure if this is the right place to post this- it should be, but I'm a newbie, what do I know :) ?
These are the photos from the first WoW game I played in, a couple of months ago. It was great fun, and got me hooked.
It was a simple scenario, basically a furball! Or to be precise, two furballs, separated by a break to the lavishly hospitable officer's club. There were three players per side, with a Camel and two Nieuports flying for the Entente and an Albatros III (me!) and two Fokker Dr.Is off ze Zentral Pohwers.
Game one was marked by a rather aggressive start, I went after the Nieuport opposite me while Dimitris and Marios teamed up their Belgian-badged Camel and Russian Nieuport against the Dr.I on the flank
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May002_GameOne_TeamingU.jpg
and Miltiadis, our host, flew in circles admiring the cool sky-looking gaming cloth he'd put on.
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May007_GameOne_Swanning.jpg
Giorgos flying the Dr.I chased off the Russian and went after the Belgian:
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May009_GameOne_Reversin.jpg
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May011_GameOne_WheresTh.jpg
Miltiadis eventually noticed that there was some fighting going on, and he charged in to help the other Dr.I,
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May014_GameOne_LetsGo.jpg
however he was too late and found himself facing two opponents.
Vassilis had done some skillful sharp turns and threw a torrent of slugs at the D.III- thankfully she can take a heap of damage
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May018_GameOne_Haha.jpg
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May025_GameOne_HeadToHe.jpg
while Miltiadis and Dimitris made good use of their fighters maneuverability to dance around each other menacingly, Dimitris eventually getting the better of this:
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May027_GameOne_Quadrill.jpg
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May036_GameOne_NotGood.jpg
and Marios' Nieuport swooping in and helping finish the Dr.I.
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May043_GameOne_OhDear.jpg
Meanwhile I had managed to get some good firing angles on Vassilis' Nieuport, and eventually managed to shoot him down, only to be set upon by his enraged allies (actually, they were quite amicable, but that doesn't make for a very tense read). After doing a bit of a dance and being a fantastic talented superskilled pilot, I shook Dimitris off...only to run into Marios' guns, who did not fail in his duty.
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G1/WoWatMiltos7May047_GameOne_PhewOops.jpg
For the second fight, Grigoris with a Fokker D.VII replaced Giorgos' Dr.I. We also adopted a "resurrection" whereby a plane shot down could return to the game after a turn's pause. It seemed fitting, since we were all quite keen to play.
This time, the Entente attempted to gang up on poor me
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May049_GameTwo_GangingU.jpg
having to deal with Dimitris' highly maneuverable Camel was tough
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May052_GameTwo_Symmetry.jpg
But I was lucky to get a couple of good shots
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May055_GameTwo_Tail.jpg
since his attention was drawn elsewhere.
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May056_GameTwo_EyesFron.jpg
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May057_GameTwo_Crossing.jpg
But not for long:
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May060_GameTwo_WhatTheH.jpg
Grigoris used the D.VII's superiority to get some serious hurt on Marios' Nieuport
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May061_GameTwo_Close.jpg
while Miltiadis and I wrestled with Dimitris
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May062_GameTwo_WeGotYou.jpg
Eventually, Vassilis decided to join the fight
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May063_GameTwo_HelpIsOn.jpg
But Dimitris set Miltiadis' Dr.I on fire, so I had to hurry back while Grigoris shook off Marios and came charging in to help deal with the troublesome Belgian. Miltiadis succumbed to the fire, but the D.VII went in with guns blazing
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May077_GameTwo_SecondCh.jpg
and ended up all blazing and leaving me to high-tail it out of there (what else is a fellow to do with three planes chasing him?)
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May078_GameTwo_ThatWent.jpg
After a turn of very desperate and lucky maneuvering, some of the pressure was taken off me when Miltiadis rejoined the game
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May080_GameTwo_TheRedBa.jpg
and we got a nice confused melee going
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May083_GameTwo_100mDash.jpg
Dimitris and Miltiadis decided to solve things the old fashioned way, and both went down:
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May086_GameTwo_GoingFor.jpg
Soon it was just me and Marios' crippled Russian Nieuport
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May089_GameTwo_JustUs.jpg
Marios flew skillfully despite his damaged control surfaces. We and threw at each other a hail of lead (and boots, bottles, and anything else that wasn't nailed down)
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad175/akosion/WoWGames/7May_G2/WoWatMiltos7May093_GameTwo_IntoTheS.jpg
But but the D.III was just too tough, and capable of taking more damage than the flimsier Nieuport- Marios' plane went down, and Game two ended in a bloody (well, to be precise, crispy) draw.
Great fun was had by all. We're slowly expanding our games, and ran a bombing scenario the other day. Quite exciting, although we forgot the blind spot rule a few times. I've posted a few photos of this in the albums section -trying to figure out which format works better for battle reports. A couple of us are trying to convince the others to use the altitude rules- they should make for a richer game, but the added complexity seems to turn off a few of our group. We'll see :).
Aris K.

[Bruce]

An excellent start; thank you for the report. :)

I play with three brothers; one also enjoys flying in large circles to examine the entire table cloth before deciding to become involved in a "furball" fight. I try to make a fast "kill", then I slowly examine the table cloth until I think that he has suffered enough.

A mission encourages most players to become involved very soon. Of course, I think that we all have at least one brother who only "dances" to his own music; and this music must come from a completely different planet. :D

[Flying Officer Kyte]

An excellent set of pics Aris. Keep them coming. I never seem to have time to get out the camera when we are playing, and always regret it afterwards.
Rob.

[Naharaht]

Those were good pictures and they were a good descriptions of your combats.

[SirDragon]

Ari... good job on the play by play pcis and description... Too bad we can't join our fights over the "Atlantic"...
Now I will have to pull my camera too!

[ktodd]

Thanks for the great report and pics!

[Oberst Hajj]

Very nice After Action Report! Love all the pics as well.

[Hamburger]

WOW! he he that was punny. What a great after battle report! I'm comin' to Athens to play with you guys!!!

[Attila57]

Well done! Nice photos.

Attilio

[Wolfbiter]

Excellent battle report! I really like your pictures.

That's a very nice playmat too! My wife is looking for something similar on eBay for us to use.

May I ask how you liked the performance of the Albatros D.III overall? I've been mulling whether to pick one up or not. I like the colors, especially Godwin Brumowski's red one.

[Akosion]

Folks,
Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully there'll be more reports now that summer is ending and we're all dragging ourselves back into our regular lives.:-)
David,
you're asking the wrong person for an objective assessment of the D.III- I like its look too much! That being said, it does hold up well on the table. To be fair so far mine hasn't flown against the seriously maneuverable planes like the SE5 or Snipe, but even against a Camel it can do fine, despite the latter's advantages. In one of the games above I got quite a few hits on Dimitris' Camel, or at least would have if he hadn't kept drawing "0" cards. The only embarassment came when we played the bomber mission- seeing DH-4s simply fly straight and away isn't a fond memory.
best regards
Aris K.

[Goering Ace]

Great report and I loved the pics. Great job!!

Scott

[Hamburger]

I really like the paint of the DIII you used. How it looks is 40% of how I pick a plane!