Fancied a little early war action to pass some time so created this little scenario to kick start the confrontation.
Fritz is flying over a local town in his Albatros C.I; Hans in the back is happily taking photos of the comings and goings in the rail yard. This won't do and so Uncle sends up Harry & Jim in their Nieuport 11's to chase him off.
Unbeknownst to them Erich und Peter, in an Eindecker und captured Nieuport 11 respectively, are patrolling nearby. They see the fight develop & rush to intervene.
For those not familiar with the type the Albatros C.I (Shapeways) has no front gun but carries a parabellum in the back (B gun) & has 13 damage points. I use the XD deck to propel it (it's now rated a Y deck) as I want to be able to catch up to it !
Unusually for me shooting was peg to base. I didn't use altitude. Each scout pilot had a random 'inherent' ace ability he could use only once in the game - Well, they're new pilots finding their way. Placement was random, rolling a D12 for each model the Albatros was at 8 o'clock of the town; the Nieuports arrived at the Albatros' 12 & 1 o'clock, and Erich und Peter arrived on opposite sides of their mat adjacent to the back edge. I also played limited ammo for the Lewis guns. 3 bursts then change the pan. I flew Jim's Nieuport, everything else was AI driven using my D8 charts
Anyway - this is what I got:
Fritz spots the pair of Nieuports heading his way and immediately breaks left, alerted by the turn Hans sees the problem and readies his gun. Near the end of the turn he gets a bead on Jim and they exchange fire, bullets slash through the Nieuport's airframe but Jim's return fire yields no result
(Direction randomly chosen on D8 - 1-3left; 4,5 straight ahead; 6-8 right)
Erich und Peter head for the fight
Hans has another go at Jim's Nieuport as it slides past their tail but his gun jams after a few rounds and causes no obvious damage. Hans swears and goes to work on the weapon.
Jim corrects his course as Harry pulls alongside, they see the gunner working on his weapon, briefly glance at each other, nod, then open up on the defenceless Albatros...
Erich rushes into the fray gun blazing at Jim but it jams almost straight away; Harry tries to cover Jim allowing him to concentrate on the target ahead. Jim unleashes a punishing burst and sees the gunner crumple into his cockpit - Now the Albatros is truly defenceless !
Having taken his eyes off Harry as he made his attack on Jim Erich bumps into his Nieuport and sustains some minor damage - that was a close call for both pilots !
Jim grumbles as his Lewis has run dry and he pulls down the gun to change the mag but Harry has one last burst in the can and pours it into the Albatros damaging its motor.
(I use grey engine damage markers to show mag changes)
Having made a wide run Peter is now in position and lets Jim know he's there !
Not to be put off Jim uses his inherent ability and lets the Albatros have it a close range before Peter can get a round off - he needn't have worried as Peters bullets cause no damage. Fritz begins to panic as the motor's trailing white smoke behind him.
Jim closes to point blank and unloads a second burst at close range - he's done it !
Flame briefly flares and the big Albatros rolls in.... he mustn't lose his head though as he still has Peter on his tail and he has got his eye in now... just in time to run out of ammo.
The Nieuports turn and break for home as the Albatros falls away, the German pilots can only look on in frustration and head for home too.
Butchers Tally:
Jim collected all the damage
A fun & surprising little game, hope you enjoyed it...
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or reality, is purely coincidental...
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