AAR: Havoc Convention, 29 Mar 2014
Here are the promised photos of the games Peter/Teaticket and I ran at Havoc, which is was convention hosted by BattleGroup Boston (BGB) in Worcester, MA 28-30 Mar 2014. They're a scattered bunch, as I got caught up in the action for both games and kept forgetting to snap pics.
Initial Setup (Game #1, a late 1917 engagement over NML)
Maneuvering to Engage
First Blood!
A BOOM card on the first draw... this pilot re-spawned, only to draw a second BOOM! Great attitude, though... he couldn't wait to get back at it and would go on to score two kills, himself.
Southern Engagement
A Swirling Dogfight
Initially, two separate dogfights coalesced as opposing pilots looked for advantage. These would eventually merge into one enormous brawl in the center of the table.
Confused Melee
Brisfit Strikes Back!
Peter/Teaticket exacts a measure of revenge, downing a triplane that had previously sent a Camel down in flames. This swirling battle turned on a single misplay: the German player guessed wrong and was punished by the Bristol's pilot first, and then observer.
German Reinforcements
Teaticket Leads the Charge!
Undaunted by Damage
Brisfits are nasty customers. They're fast, sturdy, reasonably agile, and have sharp teeth. One was the tricky to fly against... two or more will provide quite the challenge!
Rally Point
Brisfit Cornered
The Germans finally get themselves organized and chase down the Bristol Fighter. It goes down, but far from easily. Markers on the bases denote the number of kills that player, rather than pilot, has scored.
Lopsided Scoring
Pilot skill definitely played a role in this game, as the majority of kills were scored by a minority of the players: the three high-scorers accounted for 11 kills between them.
At this point, I got too involved in the action and forgot about documenting the fight.The pics that follow are from Peter's game. We were able to play the bomber escort/intercept mission twice, though the pics are almost all from the first.
Engaging Bomber and Escort
Intercepting the bombers proved problematic, as four of the six defenders dramatically overshot and were forced to chase.
Giving an SE Fits
As had been discussed here, I opted to fly a CL.II with a more historically-accurate field of fire: enter the Roland base. Plain nasty. If you can reach him, he can reach back. It certainly explains why the Germans built and fielded so many of them.
Punishing a Caproni
A Ring of Fire
Peter's wonderful fire and smoke markers are on display as, this time, it's the Entente kites that prove entirely too flammable!
fast.git Against the World
Not really sure how it happened... but I found myself engaging a Caproni, Brisfit, and SE5a while my compatriots focused on the second Caproni. This development did not bode well... as I was to draw a total of 11 "B" damage cards over the space of three turns! Needless to say, I finished the game flying my second kite.
Everyone on Fire!
Six of the ten combatants on fire at the same time!
Running out of Time
Help finally arrives in the form of a Rumpler, but it was too late for me. Thankfully, the Caproni soon followed. In this first tilt, neither bomber reached their targets.
A Bomber Dies
This is the only photo I captured from the second go-'round... and the first Caproni has just fallen beneath the guns of the pink Roland (BOOM card). The second Caproni outraced the remaining defenders (another overshoot during intercept) only to receive ground fire, suffering a catastrophic critical hit which forced it to veer sharply away from its target at the last minute. Extremely cinematic, and quite lucky for the Germans. Nice shooting PBI!
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Well done! Great work to present those games & looks like there were many players trying their hand at 
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