AAR: Comedy of errors
After a couple of years' absence I've recently been unearthing my WoW stuff and getting it all dusted off. It all went into mothballs for a house move, and my status of newbie didn't progress!
Last night saw a kick-around engagement between my better half, Kez, and myself to serve as a refresher and to re-learn the rules. And also to get the silly mistakes (of which there were more than a few) out of the way!
Without further ado, a rather informal AAR from this comedy of errors...!
We stuck to the basic rules (plus the aiming optional rule) to keep things simple for a basic skirmish/learning game. I suggested that Kez choose a plane or two of her choice and I'd then select something vaguely appropriate to fly against them. Kez chose a Fokker Dr.I and an Albatros D.III; historically not the most likely pairing but for the sake of this exercise, that wasn't important. To fly opposite the Dr.I the choice of a Sopwith Camel was fairly easy. An Entente equivalent of the D.III wasn't as obvious, and I ended up selecting a DH.2. Perhaps the Camel was escorting it to a museum..
The two pairs started at opposite ends of the table... in hindsight we should possibly have started them closer as it took about four turns to close to contact! The Camel and the DH.2 stuck close together, gently bearing left as the groups closed. Kez' Fokker broke off with the presumed intent of flanking the British planes. An early hitch was narrowly averted as the Fokker accidentally banked left instead of right which would have put it way out of position, but given the spirit of a learning game I suggested she replace it with the intended card.
Soon the Brit formation was bearing down on the Albatros. Machine guns rattled from both sides (the Camel collecting a 5-pointer to the consternation of the pilot), then jams silenced the Camel and Albatros and they sailed past each other. The Fokker closed in from the side as the Camel swung around to bear down on the Albatros again while the DH.2 worked hard on keeping up and staying out of too much trouble. During the course of the engagement it got off a few shots with its B gun, but certainly felt outclassed!
It was about this time that I noticed that, somehow, we were using the wrong manoeuvre deck for the Camel; the M deck instead of the C deck. Rather than swap the decks now and introduce different capabilities for the Camel I kept the M deck. We both missed the massive clue that the eagle-eyed may have spotted, namely that I'd grabbed a Snipe by mistake! Whoops.
The dogfight seemed beset by jammed guns! There was hardly a turn where at least one pilot wasn't desperately hammering on their receiver trying to free a stuck belt or drum. Conversely I didn't see a single card with a crew hit, engine etc. (even though under the basic rules it wouldn't have mattered!).
The Albatros was the first to hit the deck. The 'Camel' and DH.2 were both down to about half damage by this point, while the Dr.I hadn't yet received a scratch. Next to come to grief was, to no great surprise, the DH.2. The remaining pilots, in between inopportune jams, swapped a couple of hits with the already damaged Camel (I'm going to stick with that for now otherwise it'll be even more confusing!) feeling decidedly ventilated by now with a single damage point remaining.
Discretion being famously the better part of valour, the Sopwith pilot wound open the throttle to head for home. Some flat out flying interspersed with a couple of sideslips kept it safely out of range of the pursuing Dr.I until the final comedic error brought that to an end.
"OK" says I, "I'm badly shot up and I'm just going to leg it for home". A moment's pause. Kez looks puzzled, then the penny drops. "Oh. I'm going the wrong way aren't I?"
We were sitting across the table from each other with the planes entering from the short edges, so our 'own' lines were actually the table ends. I'd forgotten which table end I'd entered from and was now fleeing for the 'safety' of the German lines. Dammit.
Obviously, the jig was up. I turned to fly back the right way but the Dr.I was now perfectly positioned to intercept, giving it the opportunity for a couple of shots. The first one was wide, a lucky escape with a zero card, followed by a short range burst with additional 'aiming' damage which spelled the end for the disoriented 'Camel'. A German victory for Kez, leaving her half-damaged Dr.I controlling the sky above the nondescript battlefield.
Next time, the standard rules... And fewer mistakes!
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Well that was heroic for the Brits sending a DH-2 up against a Dr.I & an Alby D.III but the main thing was you had fun doing it & refreshed your memories of how the game works.
Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte
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