I'm currently learning the game using the albatross D.III in a two to three plane formations and want to upgrade my tiny airforce to five planes.
What airplane would you recommend to compliment this force?
My next plane (German or german ally)
I'm currently learning the game using the albatross D.III in a two to three plane formations and want to upgrade my tiny airforce to five planes.
What airplane would you recommend to compliment this force?
Are you wanting to stay in the same time of service? I personally think the Dr.I makes for a good compliment to the D.III They can work well together if you know what you are doing.
I'd like to stay in the proper time of service, yes. (Although the 1918 Fokker is mighty tempting) I was thinking, perhaps, of getting a pair of hit & run type fighters but I'm not concrete on that yet. What can you tell me about the DR.I
The Dr.P is slow, but very maneuverable. When used with the D.III, you can often "sucker" the enemy into fighting one or the other... which leaves it open to the tactics of the other one quite well.
For example, if the enemy decides to engage the Dr.I in a turning battle, the D.III can swoop in and catch him off guard.
A good rule of thumb for the miniatures is to stay within the same series, so series I works well with other series I planes.
Allright, I'll give that a shot next time I play. Thanks for the tip!
Definitely stick with the series of planes if you're looking to compliment. DR.I is a great plane with an incredible turning radius. In series 1 battles it's pretty much feared in the 1 on 1 engagement. The sopwith camel can't do much about it, but stands a chance and the SPAD...well...lets just say a good SPAD pilot stands a chance, but it's in spite of the plane.
I have found that pairing quick turning planes with faster planes gives you a nice edge for the game and can really make a big difference if you keep a fast plane in reserve to swoop in and deliver the killing blow or get some tailing going on...
Wasn't the Fokker DR.1 only involved in the last 6 months (or so) of the war? It's amazing plane, game wise, but I'm trying to go early-mid war for my 1st few aircraft. The Fokker planes I have used seemed to put the game on easy mode.
The first Dr.Is saw service in the summer of 1917.
I think you should not limit yourself by being so accurate with the terms "early war", "late war" and so on. Its a game with historic background but at last just a game. So be open for any plane that you like, even if it is because of its look, manoveur deck or for any other reason. For me, e.g., the DR.I is a great plane just because of its look... triplane!
It's definitely a great looking plane, but it seems a bit overpowered when compared to... every allied plane I've encountered thus far. Coupling that fact with the fact that I'm playing with War Buffs who are likely to complain about the historical inaccuracy of their planes being shot down en mass by a plane that never flew against the plane that they are using and I smell a recipe for disaster.
I'm going to be picking up some Fokkers for late war engagements, eventually, but right now we are playing early war scenarios.
I'd suggest getting Roland CII "Walfisch" 2-seaters if the Triplane is ruled out. I don't think there is any other (official) Central Powers models available yet for the early part of the war anyway.
Most of the WoW models are from the mid-1917 onwards period, the only other earlier models they do AFAIK are the Nieuport 16 and 17 plus the RE8 (they do have cards for many more early planes).
Last edited by IRM; 04-13-2010 at 11:43.
Well, the D.III was in service from Jan. 1917 until Nov. 1917. The Dr.I was in service from July 1917 until July 1918. So, they were in fact in the skies together for 5 months. I'm willing to bet with a little research, I could find a Jasta that had both in service at the same time.
cool. I was under the impression that the dr.III, while there were some flown and produced, did not see much of any use until 1918. I guess I'm just going to have to pick a couple of them up since that's not case. Poor Spads... Thanks again!
*edit* I was on a completely different train of thought there... was thinking of the fokker d7, or was it the dr1? I'm new to this stuff and probably suffering an info overload.
Last edited by Kungfuhustler; 04-13-2010 at 19:11.
From one of my sources...
That will explain why most of them saw action in 1918 instead of 1917.The Fokker DR.I triplane was built after the Sopwith Triplane. While not as fast as contemporary biplanes, the Dreidecker could easily outclimb any opponent. Small, lightweight and highly maneuverable, it offered good upward visibility and lacked the traditional bracing wires that could be shot away during combat. This combination of features made it an outstanding plane in a dogfight. When the DR.I first entered service, antagonists scoffed until pilots like Werner Voss showed what it could do in a fight. Flying a prototype, Voss shot down 10 British aircraft in 6 days of aerial combat during September 1917. Unfortunately, the DR.I was not without problems. By the end of October 1917, it was temporarily withdrawn from service when several pilots, including Heinrich Gontermann, were killed as a result of wing failures. Despite structural improvements, the Fokker triplane's reputation among German airmen never recovered.
Historic Years of Service
Here is a link to a pdf that shows the service span of each aircraft during WWI from boardgamegeek. It's in French but it's pretty easy to figure out
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepag...vices-by-plane
We have a the same file here in our Files Section. In fact, we have a nice file that is similar that tells and shows a lot about the different miniatures for Wings of War.
If you think the Triplane Dr.I is overpowered... take a look at the D.VII, its a monster!
Yes, yes it is! I was actually getting my D's all confused and referring to the d7 the whole dang time. The d.1 is still the bane of Spad, however. Suddenly I want to change my user name to "The bane of Spad"... I Digress!
I played a great dogfight game against a Spad tonight using my trusty Albatross D.III. I lost after one hour of play to a head on collision when we both had one armor point left. He drew a zero and I drew a one. (we were drawing from "A" deck, cutting in half and rounding up) I'm happy to report that this game spawned a new player and I'm certain he will be reporting to the Forums ASAP.
------------------Question time!!!----------------------------
Just to keep the thread going (in offtopic fashion) I am going to ask one (not bloody likely) final question: What is YOUR favorite five plane german battle group?
Fokker for Life! Dr.I for its look, D VII for its card deck!
Favourite 5-plane German group: 2x Fokker Dr1 + 3x Albatros DVa
5x Fokker DVII would be better, but a bit unfair
Actually, the Dr1 is a little fragile for my tastes. Our games tend to be random enough that the ability to take a punch becomes more important. So my preference would be for the Albatros DVa over the Fokker (unless I could have a DVII of course).
Tyler,
The DVa is just like the DIII only a little faster.
BTW: Are you comming to enfilade over memorial day? I'm putting on 2 possibly 3 WoW events including a balloon busting senario in which Albatros DIIIs will be defending a pair of balloons against Nieuport 16s, 17s and Spad VIIs. I expect the DIIIs to really shine.
Pooh
This is the first I've heard of the event, where is it going to be held? Linkey?
Enfilade
Its going to be held in the Red Lion in Olympia on the Friday, Saturday Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Its the premier convention put on the the NW Hisorical Miniatures Society.
There should be several of us putting on wings of War events so lots of biplanes. There is a group that puts on 1/72 WW2 air games (usually Battle of Britain) and their setup of all these huge He 111s flying in massed formation is very impressive to look at. (I've never actually played one of their games though).
The link is:
http://www.nhmgs.org/enfilade2009.html
Pooh
Awesome. I will be there along with a pack of my mini-gangstas' and it will be awesome!
Great! Both the games i run will be open to all including mini-ganstas. I believe there are as many as 3 people running WoW games there. If you want to locate me, I'll be operating out of the Monday Knight Productions both which is usually just to the left of the entrance.
Pooh
cool. How many wings players normally attend?
Last year there was a lot of interest but those of us who were putting on WoW games tried to rush it at the last minute and so were very disorganized. Even so, the game was well received we had games of a dozen or so players. This year, we're trying to get properly organized and I expect to have better turnout for WoW. My 1st game can handle up to 14 people and I can supply all materials. The 2nd game can handle an unlimited number if some players can supply their own planes. I'm thinking that 20 or so players isn't an unreasonable expectation.
Pooh
LOve the Dr1 ,
N 17 as long as they have an A deck would be fine against DIII's . pretty even. The nice steep side slip helps.
Playing in that big play by email and the DIIIs in a little fight against some N17's have struggled. They started off behined the N17s which were engaging AEG bombers and have ended up with N17s on their tails. the steep side slip was employed well when the planes were trying to slow and let the others over shoot.
but it all depends on a bit of luck and how good the players is at guessing.
great game!
be sure to tell us how they do!
Unfortunately, the plan is for all the N17s & spad VIIs to have "B" guns. I can field 3 N17s & 3 Spad VIIs (although Spad XIIIs can be substituted with little difficulty). They are to escort the 2 N16s. I have 5 Albatros DIIIs (3 WoW & 2 F-toys) & hope to pick up the last F-toy before the convention if I can find one reasonably priced. The plan is for the French to attack 2 balloons defended by the German fighters who have to lower the balloon from altitude 4. There will be 2 machine guns per balloon as ground defences & possibly 2 AAA guns per balloon if knocking the balloons down proved too easy. I'll be playtesting this senario later this month to make sure its reasonably balanced.
Pooh
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