Family Game Store Wings of War/Glory, 14 May '18

[RJG173]

A couple months ago someone asked what our game mat looked like. This is about the best photo I could get of it. The landscape is too nice looking to be anywhere near the front.



AAR #1: Late war dogfight. Todd, Will, Mike and I started a late war dogfight with Snipes vs Fokker D Vii. Todd provided the planes since he had consistent squadron markings for both planes. Mike and I flew the Fokkers and Todd and Will had the Snipes. [A Snipe Hunt, perhaps.]



Ben, a late arrival joined the action with a Fokker D.VII. When playing the game I sometimes forget to take action shots. Here I become the first casualty of the game. I had made a deck of critical hit cards from the files. The shining card on the left of the second row, the +1s, reads, "A bullet clips your skull, knocking you unconscious. You make a slow spiral to a crash landing."



The Snipes make a nice formation bank to the left. Todd was flying the 'T' airplane, while Will had the 'F' which he referred to as the Fire Damage plane. Mike and Ben are heading.



Here Mike is showing off the new Flame markers I had made from pipe cleaners. It may not look like much of a flame, but they are colorful.

[RJG173]

AAR #1 continued. Todd got tired of seeing me sit on the sidelines, so he gave me a Snipe and I joined the action from a distant corner. The second set of maneuvers got me into the action. I originally planned straight, straight, broad right turn, but changed it to straight, broad right turn, straight. I flew right in front of Ben, he hit me and I drew the Boom card.



Will finally succumbs. The two fours he drew early in the game from me, and he thought it would be over quick. He certainly lasted longer than I did in two aircraft.



Here Ben shows us what two pilot wounded cards look like. It is up to Mike (CaptWillard) to take out Todd.



And Mike draws the second Boom card (we were playing with two combined A damage decks). The 1, 0, 0 were the A damage cards he drew when his Fokker was on fire. That was a bit of luck.



And this is what Todd's damage looks like.

[RJG173]

AAR #2: Staaken bomb run. Mike had Ben pilot his Staaken, which he had never done before, while the four of use flew Sopwith Camels to attack the giant bomber. We had a mixed bag of British and Belgian Camels, which seems to offend some sensibilities, but I like to flew by Belgian planes when I can. I just wish there were more.

At this point several attacks had be made against the bomber. Ben had drawn the Boom card so he had at least 17 points of damage. Will and Todd are represented by cards, Mike with his Heart marked Camel is flying away from the lumbering beast while I am closing for an attack.



It is difficult to escape all those gunners on the Staaken, and Todd, unfortunately, draws the Boom. Now there are three attackers to stop the beast. I think around this point Ben asked what the "goofy pilot face" card meant in terms of the large number of crew members for his bomber. The right top wing gunner was wounded so that gun was out of commission.



I am smoking, Will is on fire and Mike is circling around to attack. Meanwhile we are trying to figure out why the Staaken is heading for the edge of the map. Turns out he had left and right rudder damage and could not change direction. Fortunately the damage abated before he was forced off the map.



And the bomber goes down. At this point, my smoke had changed to fire.



At this point we called it a night. Next month we will be playing on the first Thursday. Maybe we'll get more players.

[Setarius]

Congratulations Robert on a good fight and good story.
Your terrain looks great and with a little work you could have it looking like NML.

[Captain Knowitall]

Cool AAR! Especially love the Zeppelin Staaken R.IV.

[CaptWillard]

It was a fun night of flying! Thanks for posting the AAR.

[Popsical]

Love the Staaken, still waiting to use mine.

[gully_raker]

Thanks for the AAR's & keep up the good work Robert!

[Naharaht]

You certainly had some tough battles there, Robert! Thank you for the great A.A.R. photographs!

[Vagabond]

Some nice photos from the games, those bombers certainly are huge.

That's a very good mat you are using, is it a custom print?

[RJG173]

Some nice photos from the games, those bombers certainly are huge.

That's a very good mat you are using, is it a custom print?

The mat comes from http://gameonterrainmats.com

[Vagabond]

The mat comes from http://gameonterrainmats.com

Thanks Robert I had a look at the site but couldn't get it to work to give me prices and shipping costs to the UK. I'll try again but thanks for the link, the mat does look great.
I've been looking at either making my own or preferably getting a mouse mat style because they are matt and lay flat.
On the site it says it is vinyl which I would expect to be shinny but your photos look very matt can you confirm that is the case in reality, and do you find it lays flat ok?
Cheers

[RJG173]

Thanks Robert I had a look at the site but couldn't get it to work to give me prices and shipping costs to the UK. I'll try again but thanks for the link, the mat does look great.
I've been looking at either making my own or preferably getting a mouse mat style because they are matt and lay flat.
On the site it says it is vinyl which I would expect to be shinny but your photos look very matt can you confirm that is the case in reality, and do you find it lays flat ok?
Cheers

The mat is vinyl. It is kept in the shipping tube that Todd received it in. The tube is about six inches in diameter and over four feet long. We roll it up after each session colored side facing out so that it tends to lie flat for the next game. Only the two short edges really curl, and we try to avoid flying near them.

[Vagabond]

The mat is vinyl. It is kept in the shipping tube that Todd received it in. The tube is about six inches in diameter and over four feet long. We roll it up after each session colored side facing out so that it tends to lie flat for the next game. Only the two short edges really curl, and we try to avoid flying near them.

Thanks for the info