Scenario 17 – Head to Head – Over The Trenches – February 13th 1918
We are nearing the end of this splendid campaign but before we can look forward to the next we have one more mission to complete and we should take pause to honour our fallen heroes, our past and present competitors, and, especially, to thank Joaquim, our own Blackronin without whom this campaign would not have got off the ground. I dedicate this mission to him.
Now to business – I have given this mission a lot of thought & all games should be played within the Air Rules below, some of which you may now recognise !
Air Rules:
ท The playing area can be as big as you can manage ! For example I will use a 6’x4’ table.
ท Single seat scouts only to be used; use what you have, like, or randomly generate.
ท You can control as many, or, as few of your scouts as you wish but all enemy scouts will be AI controlled as usual.
ท Scouts should fly in recognisable formations at the start of a game. (eg Line astern, Line abreast, echelon left/right)
ท This scenario will take quite some time to play – if you are concerned this will take too long then set a time limit to suit yourself as a 'fuel limit' & all aircraft will retire at that time.
ท In order to ‘thin the herd’ aircraft can be driven off. All aircraft can fight until they are:
a. within 3 of destruction, or,
b. within 5 of destruction if on fire, or,
c. the pilot’s wounded (on an A deck 5 or B deck 3), or,
d. the engine is damaged,
They will then disengage and head for the barn at best speed taking whatever evasive manoeuvres are necessary for survival, and shots at targets of opportunity passing their nose - that's something in range crossing their nose !
ท Wounded pilots bugging out - rather than they just leave we use the damage number to dictate the result ie the severity of the wound. So on a Wounded Pilot A deck hit of 5 or B deck hit of 3 the pilots head for home but on a Wounded Pilot A deck 3 or B deck 1 they will stay in the fight. This means your pilots may fight on in spite of a wound, or, equally, may push off home. The cards will decide.
ท The long table sides shall be nominated German/British and the short ends neutral (ie NML) to give plenty of escape options.
ท The battle is considered to be over No Mans Land for crash landing purposes.
ท Burning aircraft take whatever damage is due to them even if they have left the table, if they crash then, hopefully, at least they will be behind their own lines (so no, there are no 'he landed just off table' !)
ท Explosion cards will be used but may be placed in the bottom quarter of the deck to promote a shooting solution to the battles.
ท Collisions apply – defined as when a base cannot be placed correctly where it should be due to the peg of another aircraft; both aircraft will draw a C Damage card – so give your chaps plenty of room to manoeuvre !
ท Use two A damage decks if you can, recycle cards from driven off, o.o.c. and destroyed aircraft if needed
ท Rudder Jams – remove one damage appropriate turn (and a sharp turn if aircraft has one) from the manoeuvre deck for the rest of the game; damage is cumulative. This is a house rule but adds a permanence to the damage taken.
ท Smoke damage: if a Smoking Aircraft suffers a second Smoking Damage whilst still Smoking it takes a Fire Damage instead. (New rule in RAP?)
ท Fire Damage – if an aircraft is on fire the Pilot cannot plan or use any Straight Manoeuvre whilst on Fire. This reflects his efforts to put the fire out & keep it away from himself by constantly turning. (RAP?).
You may have to be the I in AI for this !
ท Wounded Pilot: In addition to the usual rules a pilot taking a wound will, in his whole next turn, fly the same manoeuvre that he was flying when he took the hit (eg if he was turning left he will play 3 left turns) and will be unable to shoot.
He will start the next turn with a straight and again will not be able to shoot but after that card he can play whatever card he likes & shoot as restrictions allow. If he was wounded whilst playing a card that would make an illegal move when played three at a time then it is considered he has spun away from the battle out of control & come to in time to save his aircraft & get down in one piece. This is a house rule.
ท Gun Jams - When scouts equipped with two separate gun systems (eg SE5a or Nieuport 17) take a Jam card only one of their gun systems is jammed. They may continue firing with the other gun but use the B damage deck to reflect their loss of firepower. If they get another jam card, of another colour, then the other gun also becomes jammed. Any jams are resolved as above but no firing allowed when un-jamming the other gun ! This is a house rule.
ท A tactical withdrawal of all aircraft is allowed at the cost of victory !
If you wish to mix it up a bit and randomly determine the enemy scouts you are up against roll a D8 for each aircraft:
Eagles: Fok Dr1 – 2,5
Plz D.III – 8
Alb D.III – 3,6
Alb D.Va – 1,4,7
Bulldogs: Camel – 2,5,8
Spad XIII – 7
SE5a – 4,3
Nieuport 17 and or Sopwith Tripe – 1,6 (These will be A deck gunned !)
(This was originally worked out on aircraft availability within the campaign but may no longer reflect the current levels)
1. The Mission:
This is no subtle scenario. There is no advantage to either side, it is simply a balls to the wall five on five head to head charge from each side of the table into a furball somewhere in the middle, like the knights of old charging into battle – the winner takes all, the devil take the hindmost !
Option:
If you don’t want to handle a full on 5 v 5 (that could be 5-9 AI aircraft after all) then consider doing a 3 v 3 and when one side loses an aircraft then replace it with one coming in from a randomly determined tables edge and cycle through the five a side that way.
I will leave the story telling of how you got in that predicament to you - Good luck gentlemen.
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