Or "I Came, I Saw, And I Don't Believe My Eyes...."

Due to severe illness plaguing the house, I went for another playtest of my altitude rules. To ensure parity of the sides -- and (I thought) to keep the game *short* -- I sent a French Nieuport 11 against the German captured N.11.

You-all know the quote about "best-laid plans"....

The first *seven full turns* saw absolutely zero damage inflicted -- when guns were on target, 0s abounded. [NOTE: I use a random-number generator with the possible card draws plugged into it; it saves time, as I am too clumsy to shuffle cards.] When first blood was finally drawn by the German, it was to the tune of 1.

The thought occurred to me I might have picked the wrong units for a "quick" game....

A few more turns of thrust-and-parry, and the Frenchman scored what would turn out to be the critical hit (in every sense) of the game: He scored an "engine damage" critical on the German, which limited the German's ability to gain altitude (under my rules, a stall played due to damage may not be used for a climb).

Not surprisingly, the German tried to make a break for it, diving away. The Frenchman followed, got to long range, fired, and drew... the *exact same result as previously*.

With a second "engine damage" critical, the German Nieuport became a glider. I now got to see if a player could make a proper "forced landing" under these rules; it turned out to be, as the Mythbusters might say, "plausible, but highly unlikely".

In the end, the German Nieuport ended up on the ground, with 4 of its 10 HP gone, and the engine deader than polyester bell-bottoms. Then I noticed *where* the German had ended up landing -- less than half a ruler from the side the French Nieuport had entered! After some careful consideration, I determined the German Nieuport was in sufficiently good condition that the French could repair it quickly, and return it to French service.

So, given the odds of this being pulled off, I consider this an overwhelming Entente Victory. I guess Mitchell Gant was luckier than we all thought.

[Bonus to anyone who can get *both* pop-culture refs w/out looking. :) ]