Thoughts on Armament

Nearly all of the machine guns commonly used in WWI aircraft had broadly similar characteristics. The differences in rate of fire, muzzle velocity and calibre were small. Belt-fed machine guns had 250 rounds per belt; magazines varied widely, from the 24 round hotchkiss, the 47- and later 97-round Lewis, to the 200 round parabellum.

Calibre was usually 7.92mm to 8mm. Rate of fire 400-550 rds/minute.

See http://www.wwiaviation.com/machineguns.html

Parabellum MG14 : 7.92mm : 450-700 rpm : 200 rd mag
Schwarzlose 7/12 : 8mm : 450-580 rpm : 250rd belt
LMG 08/15 Spandau : 7.92mm : 400-500 rpm : 250 (later 500) rd belt
Hotchkiss 1914 : 8mm : 450 rpm : 250 rd belt / 24 rd strip / 200 rd drum(?)
Lewis : 7.7mm : 550 rpm : 47 rd drum later 94 rd drum
Vickers : 7.7mm : 450-500 rpm : 250 rd belt

Assuming one "burst" in WGF is about 25 rounds - call it 3 secs worth - then ammunition is as follows:

Lewis (early) 2 bursts before reload (treat as Jam?)
Lewis (late) 4 bursts
Hotchkiss strip 1 burst
Hotchkiss drum 8 bursts
Hotchkiss synchro - 10 bursts
Vickers synchro - 10 bursts
Parabellum - 8 bursts
Spandau synchro - 8 bursts
Schwarzlose - 8 bursts

A word about Jamming - those guns not synchronised didn't jam nearly as often (no interruptor gear). So only a red jam card should apply.

Unless playing a strictly historical game, this can be simplified:
All synchro guns get 10 bursts. All swivel guns get 8, and 1 reload. Exception: Lewis gets 4 bursts, but has 3 reloads for single-seat fighters, 6 for others.

I've missed out the Italian and Russian guns, and not taken into account the 6.5mm cartridge used by some - which had a higher muzzle velocity so similar energy.

The Vickers 11mm "balloon gun" had a muzzle velocity of only 400 m/sec, and used only 35 grain of propellant, as opposed to about 60 for the other rounds. So we can count it as about the equivalent of a normal gun, only always with explosive/incendiary rounds.

Source : Cartridges of the world, by Barnes & Bodinson.
http://books.google.com/books?id=3_-...page&q&f=false

The most common 37mm gun used by the French (and Italians, and British..) was the 1895 single shot gun. The most common round for anti-air use was a shotgun round containing about a dozen rifle-calibre balls.

A possible way of simulating the Spad-XII with sighting MG and 37mm would be for the firer to draw B cards as normal, then a C deck draw for each B deck draw that scored at least one hit. The 37mm must then be reloaded (treat as jammed)

Otherwise just draw from the C deck for 37mm using explosive or shotgun rounds, and at short range only. Again, single shot so must be reloaded.