No Hope for This Pilot

[ColCampbell]

I ran my first multi-player WoW/WoG game on last Saturday. We had three players per side, each controlling two aircraft. One of the Allied players (my son, actually) had the ill-luck to be fired upon by two different German aircraft, one at long-range and one at short-range resulting in three damage cards. He received a jammed left rudder, jammed right rudder, and on fire damages. This happening on the last maneuver card of the turn, I as game master made the decision that his plane went down since he couldn't make the mandatory turns required on the on fire card.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? And how did you handle it?

The game went very well for the German players who shot down 5 of the 6 Allied planes with only 2 losses on their own.

I'll post some pictures on my blog later today for your enjoyment. http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com/

Jim

[zenlizard]

Pretty much. It's like drawing the boom card-stuff happens.

If time considerations aren't in effect, perhaps a format goes that is popular in games at conventions: if you get knocked down, or fly off the board, you have to sit out a full turn, the you get to come back with a new plane, and new identity. That way, there is some penalty and some reward, without discouraging new players about having to sit & watch instead of playing a game they were looking forward to.

[Flying Helmut]

Depending on his damage total, he can survive...............

Next turn, he should plot Stall - Straight - Stall

After plotting is completed, he exchanges one Fire token for an 'A' damage card.

The Stall is NOT a Straight, so no damage accrues.
The Straight is an illegal manoeuvre, so he draws an 'A' damage card.
The Stall is NOT a Straight, so no damage accrues.

After this game turn, the rudder jams have no further effect, so he can manoeuvre again normally.

I know some players deal a second 'A' card for Fire Damage immediately after the illegal Straight 'A' damage card, but that is a bit rough on the victim!

It has happened to me once, and we were playing with altitude, so I performed an overdive and blew the flames out; unfortunately, it took so long to regain height that my wingmen were all shot down before I could rejoin the scrap.

[Teaticket]

By the rules, he would not be able to turn for the next plot and would take a damage card for any plotted straight maneuvers. So for the next plot he could have plotted a stall, straight, stall, and only have taken one extra fire damage card for the straight. Not totally a disaster. Rudder jams are not public knowledge so no one else should have known he had no turning ability for the next plot.

[ColCampbell]

Thanks for the responses. I'm still getting used to the intricacies of the rules so this will come in handy for future games.

I did give my son another aircraft, a 2-seater, wit ha mission of taking a photograph on the "other side of the lines." He was successful in that mission and even helped down the 2 German planes. One of the German players was "upset" over the fact that he could be shot by the rear gunner/observer. But once he realized that the "B" damage deck was less effective than the "A" deck everyone else was using, he got over his "little snit."

Jim

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Hi Col.
Some very good advice there from my fellow pilots. if we are feeling very generous, we also allow side slips to be used like the stall where the aircraft has them, but I agree with Tim that if the game still has legs the overdive is often the answer. i even once managed to climb back up in time to shoot down two enemy planes which my unlucky colleagues had softened up for me whilst I was swanning about climbing back up from a lower altitude. i ended up as the last plane standing on about two remaining hit points.
Rob.

[BellMW54]

That happened to me about a year ago. I went into an overdive and luckily blew out the fire. Fortunately, nobody followed me down. UNfortunately, we were flying early war planes and my very slow climb rate pretty much knocked me out of the fray.

As far as rudder damage is concerned, we use a house rule that merely reduces the amount of turn cards available to the plane. A "right rudder damage" requires the player to remove 1 right turn card (as well as 1 "tight" right turn if available) from the plane's maneuver deck. Sideslips aren't considered turns. Each rudder damage card drawn further incurs the same damage, thus severely limiting the plane's turning ability. As this is a permanent affect, we generally ignore the game's "no turn" penalty for the following game turn. It seems to work pretty well.