The G Dog

Advance the Colors 2013 was last weekend and it offered the opportunity to visit with friends, do some shopping and squeeze in some air combat gaming.

The convention is in Springfield, Ohio, but on Friday, I ducked out and took a short drive to Urbana to dine at the Airport Cafe. Its a basic diner, but it lives up to its name - its a cafe right on the flight line at Grimes Field on the north side of Urbana. Just the setting to get you thinking of firing up the toy engines and setting out on a miniature dawn patrol. As I walked out past the airport office the anemometer was reading 12 knots gusting to 18 and the radar showed a line of storms approaching from the west. Stepping outside for a quick visual inspection confirmed that the rain was on the way - time to return to the convention!

And I made it just before the rain started coming down. My friend Bob was signed up to play in a Check Your Six game and the GM was short players. Looks like my evening game selection is set!

[B]Game 1 - Four in a Day[/B]
Rules: [I]Check your Six! [/I]
GM: Jamie Williamson
Players: Ray (The G Dog) and Mike (Brits) versus Bob Knecht and Bill Weber (Jerries).

The RAF mid-day channel patrol cruised the clear skies near Dover. 6 Hurricane fighters moved in a staggered line abreast. Behind them scattered clouds obscured a view of France, but in front of them was nothing but blue sky and sunshine. It was a good day for the flight's two green pilots to log some hours in their Hurricanes.

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The squadron leader must of have been napping, as two Bf109 fighters popped up on the rear quarter of his flight coming in from above at a fast pace. Recognizing the imminent threat, the flight leader ordered a split-S manuever by the flight to shake the Jerries of their tails and buy some time. The manuever worked well, the Jerries closed in, but were too high to engage the Hurricanes diving for the deck.

The green pilots ran for safety, while their Veteran leader and the second flight of skilled pilots engaged the two 109's. One 109 fell to a Hurricane while the other 109 - piloted by an Ace, shot down the victorious Hurricane. Meanwhile a second section of German planes closed in to join the battle.

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The game degenerated into a fur ball with the British gaining repeated hits on the ace, only to have him avoid the damage (great rolls for robustness checks). The remaining planes - both British and German were slowly whittled down until at the end only the British veteran and the German Ace remained. The German was out of cannon ammo and the Brit had engine damage. Both sides broke off at that point, with the Germans winning based on point.

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Outcome
3 Bf109 - shot down
3 Hurricane shot down
2 Hurricane's escaped (1 left the table, the other fell out of the game in a flat spin and recovered just before reaching the channel.
1 Hurricane damaged

A good outing, even if we did lose to the Jerries. If there is one lesson to take away from playing Check Your Six, it is that pilot skill is [I]everything![/I] That dastardly Ace was very tough to stop. We might have done better to have both green pilots break off instead of circling around to re-engage. But kudos to Bill for a well fought game!

At the end of the night, I faced a long drive home in the heavy rain. My spirits were buoyed by the thought that there would be more gaming on Saturday.

The drive back on Saturday was much easier - clear skies and comfortable temperatures. I run into Bill and Sean and we throw down some Wings of Glory miniatures for the first of Saturday's games.
[B]
Game 2 - My Little Caproni[/B]
Rules: [I]Wings of Glory, WWI[/I]
GM: None - a friendly match
Players: Ray, Sean Weber and Bill Weber

Sean wanted to use the Caproni. Ray never objects to that, sooo....in late 1918 a lone Caproni Ca. 3 bomber (Sean) is tasked with bombing a key communication line behind German lines. Defending the objective is a flak gun and two fighters - a Siemen-Shuckert (Bill) and a Fokker D.VII (Ray).

The Caproni makes a bee-line for the target and thanks to some poor card choices by Bill and Ray, Sean lofts his first bomb unmolested by the fighters. The bomb sails down from the heavens and...misses the target....and lands smack on top of the AA gun! Pulling a damage card from the "A" deck we get...explosion! BOOM! The AA gun is out of action. ([I]Really? On turn one? [B]Who shuffled this deck?[/B][/I])

Now comes the fun part with Sean circling for another run, while Bill and Ray try to bring down the beast. After two circles and no more bombs released, Bill and Ray finally figure out how to get on the bombers tail. The Caproni is spitting lead from its two guns and Bill takes too much damage and crashes. Ray is closing in the for the kill...and overshooting his position ends up in the same space and altitude as the bomber. [B]Collision![/B] We each draw a damage card - the Caproni takes 6 damage and folds up. Ray's Fokker draws...EXPLOSION! ([I]Again? What the Frak?[/I])

At the end of the game, the Caproni is down, the target is intact and all defending units are eliminated. We gave the Caproni the 'minor win' for silencing the AA gun and eliminating the CAP.

Would you believe I took no pictures of this game?

Regrouping, we elected to pull out Bill's Dawn of War miniatures and do a quick refight of our previous evening's engagement - Hurricane versus Messerschmitt 109. This was really more an opportunity to use the Dawn of War rules and see how the mechanics worked compared to the Wings of Glory Ray was used to playing.

[B]Game 3 - Two over the Channel[/B]
Rules: [I]Dawn of War, WWII[/I]
GM: None - a friendly match
Players: Ray and Bill Weber

Bill provided a quick demo of the World War II version of Wings of War featuring a rematch from our earlier game - a Bf109 versus a Hawker Hurricane. The demo was designed to showcase the similarities and differences from the WWI version of Wings of War/Wings of Glory.

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A fun short game, the Hurricane and 109 made repeated passes at each other. The heavier armament of the 109 was telling - heavy damage from the cannon knocked the Hurricane from the sky.

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The damage chits are a nice change from the damage cards, but the net effect is about the same. The game gave a result very much in line with Check Your Six. The 109 deals a lot of damage at longer range than the Hurricane and has a little speed advantage too. A fun game and a good intro into the WWII rules.

The two opponents line up for what will be the final exchange.
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At this point I ceased gaming as I had other appointments to keep, but found time to talk with some fellow aerodrome members including Cappy Tom and Smitch. I had a good time and am looking forward to our next local convention - Cincycon in 2014.