Zeppelin Shoot

[Dathbain]

Im planning on running a scenario tomarrow and wanted to get some input first. I dont know if you guys have seen the Zeppelin on Boardgame Geek, but anyway I printed it out on three sheets of paper so its about 33 inches long, with two B firing guns & 70 hit points. I was going to have it start at the end of a 4 x 12 escorted by Boelcke in an EIV and three EIII's, the attacker will be running four Airco DH2's. The Zeppelin needs to exit the table end and the allies have to shoot it down, (incindiary bullets are in play). Ive played the game by myself several times and only destroyed the Zeppelin once and usually ending with the Aircos being beat down pretty good. Fair , Balanced? Not to sure, in my mind I think the rest of the group will have fun but Im not sure. Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks, Dave

[Oberst Hajj]

How fast is the Zep going to be moving? With it almost 3' long, that only leave 9' of table for it to cross... Might be hard chewing through 70 points of damage while getting shot at by fighters as well. Are you playing it where an explosion card brings the whole thing down?

[Dathbain]

No, the explosion card won't kill it, in my test runs I pulled the explosion card in several games! Whenever i think it won't show up its the next card I pull:(! As far as speed I've been using the N deck straight, I've opted out of manuevering for now, i'm not sure how it would work out. I have the "Z" deck that accompanies the Zepp but I'm not happy with the way it manuevers (seems too fast on turns).

Dave

[Oberst Hajj]

I agree that it should only go straight. I think you should have more allied planes then German ones though. The B damage deck does on average about 1.7 points of damage (if I remember correctly) per card. That would be about 40 long range shots on it. A little hard to do with four fighters shooting at you as well.

[Stoff]

I have a question; why only two "B" deck guns? I am currently building a Type "P" modle for using in th game and by my count there are between two and four guns on the top and then another two to four guns total in the gondolas. The usual is three guns in the forward topside gun deck and two in each gondola for a total of seven "B" deck guns. The hit points I am still trying to figure out; I have seen anything from 28 to 100 points. I kind like your 70.

Thanks,
Christoph

[Dathbain]

Well the game wnet pretty well. I guess. The Zep made it, and those poor Airco's were at the mercy of Boelcke in his EIV, he scored three kills. 70 pts was a bit much, in the end the Zep only took 32pts of damage across twelve feet, although the last four feet were almost uncontested. Further more the Zep only took one fire hit as a result of the incindiary bullets. Everyone had fun and wants to try the game again! Interestingly enough the Zep's guns did 0 damage the whole game. Thanks for the input and I'll let everyone know what happens next time!

Thanks!
Dave

[Zeppelin]

Thanks for the update Dathbain. Adding a Zeppelin to a game is on my to do list.

[Charlie3]

We played a game with that giant 100 pt Zep card on the same site you got your 80pt one. We didn't let the Zep move...it was moored. We simply gave the Zep it's own double A damage deck. Every time a fire card or explosion card came up we simply placed a fire marker on the Zep. Once the fires started we drew a damage card at the beginning of each game turn for each fire marker. It took us about 15 turns to burn it to the ground, but the Germans actually beat us back.

I was thinking of trying the moving ground system if we want the Zep to fly. This means that the Zep card would not actually move. It would stay in the middle of the combat area, and the game would last for a set number of turns.

At the beginning of each game turn, after players choose their maneuver cards, each plane on the table is moved 1 game card length (any card...edge to edge) in the direction that the tail of the Zep is pointing. This represents the movement of the Zep in relation to the planes, and requires them to keep up to stay in the game.

Planes that end up exiting the table due to Zep movement are considered to have left the battle, or dog fights that get tangled up and leave the table due to Zep movement can be moved to another table to be played out. You can also move ground elements to represent possible bomb targets for the Zep. Have'nt tryed this yet but I have done it before in other games.

[Charlie3]

I have a question; why only two "B" deck guns? I am currently building a Type "P" modle for using in th game and by my count there are between two and four guns on the top and then another two to four guns total in the gondolas. The usual is three guns in the forward topside gun deck and two in each gondola for a total of seven "B" deck guns. The hit points I am still trying to figure out; I have seen anything from 28 to 100 points. I kind like your 70.

Thanks,
Christoph
I think that for game pourposes 3 sets of guns would work best. It simplifies the arcs (360 each) and locations (nose, center, and tail) and makes it easier to keep track of shots and jams. Historically 7 sounds better, but in game terms may be too deadly. We have enough trouble with two seaters now.

After playing around with damage totals, 80 to 100 seem to work best. Once the fires start the Zep will go down quick, but you don't want a Hindenberg style flame out, that was an unusuall case and totally unexpected.

The bullets did pass through the gas bags into the interior of the Zep and did not always ignite the hydrogen. Things inside could catch fire though, and crews were able to do damage control with extingishers, and release gas from the bags in emergancies. Once a big fire starts though it will be a total loss,or if enough bags lose their gas it will lose altitude at a steady pace which is why they quit using them, they were expensive to make and maintain and too easy to lose.

[Oberst Hajj]

Once a big fire starts though it will be a total loss,or if enough bags lose their gas it will lose altitude at a steady pace which is why they quit using them, they were expensive to make and maintain and too easy to lose.

This actually made me think about how I have my train target setup in Knights of the Air. What if you were to assign damage points to different sections of the Zeppelin. Then if enough sections were destroyed, the Zep would lose altitude and be rendered out of action?

[Charlie3]

This actually made me think about how I have my train target setup in Knights of the Air. What if you were to assign damage points to different sections of the Zeppelin. Then if enough sections were destroyed, the Zep would lose altitude and be rendered out of action?
I considered this before we played our first Zeppelin game but never implemented the idea...Just had to play with that 33" Zeppelin card!! Since our game was played with a moored target that could not move I was more concerned with keeping it safe from any damage which I knew was not going to happen. The Zeppelin card takes up most of the table, it is printed on 3 sheets of paper laid end to end mounted on a piece of foam core board. If I can find the pictures of the game, I'll post them.