OTT BE Mission 24: The Cornered Beast Strikes Back - {Vagabond}
OTT BE Mission 24: The Cornered Beast Strikes Back - {Vagabond}
OK listen up lads, quiet now, I know you are all excited about the new Sopwith Snipes that are coming, but there’s good and some bad news.
It all went quiet at the mention of bad news.
We are going to get them but not just now, 24 Squadron has received the first batch on our sector, and then it really went quiet. We were sharing the field with 24 Squadron, we would never hear the end of it.
Lt John Kane the flight CO was briefing what was left of his flight after the last 2 missions, indeed ‘C’ Flights only missions. Their squadron was newly raised in England and they had only recently arrived in France, he felt they were doing OK, they had suffered a couple of pilots shot down but they had not lost anyone, he hadn’t had to write any of those “your son died bravely” letters yet, although deep down he knew that was inevitable.
He was himself recovering from wounds sustained from their first mission when he had been shot down in flames, he was still having nightmares about that, but otherwise physically recovering fast and was hoping to be leading the flight in the air soon.
Indeed after 2 missions the 6 pilots of C Flight were down to only 2 currently reporting fit for duty, the other 4 including himself were recovering from wounds, although two of them were also at the briefing as they were close to being declared fit for duty. His flight had quite a high attrition rate but one that showed courage which he was proud of, as well as a bit of bad flying and inexperience which he kept quiet about.
Right then – as you know the Hun pilots have been having a field day because we are putting so many new pilots into the air, they are having a bit of an easy ride because their veterans are successfully able to maintain a high kill rate against us. Our top Brass have been having a good think about this and have come up with a jolly good plan to turn the tables on them.
You could hear a pin drop now. Whenever the top Brass started thinking, casualties went up exponentially.
They have decided that if we set bait, the Germans will take it, so one flight will be the bait or as they call it, the anvil and the other flight will fly high and be the hammer, so when the Germans jump the bait, the hammer will hit the Germans, crushing them against the anvil.
Humm that sounded reasonable, until he went on ‘C’ flight in our old Camels will be the anvil and A flight from 24 Squadron in the new Snipes will be the hammer. There was a bit of a hubbub after that.
Cremetti you will lead C flight with Will Clarke and we have a new man joining us, I believe his name is D’Arcy, try and look after him and don’t let him get lost up there, it’s his first flight, I would let him acclimatize a bit but there’s no one else fit to fly and you take off in 30 minutes.
Off you go gentlemen.
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C Flight in the air, bait or Anvil, we’ll see. Text relating to the picture is below it.
Max Cremetti leading the flight was shot down in his first mission, wounded twice and walked away from it, recovering fast, only missing one mission before being back in the air. He’s a bit of a hard man and doesn’t take kindly to the ribbing about the Italian Ice Cream Concession, just because one of his ancestors was Italian doesn’t mean he ever sold ice cream.
William Clarke is flying his 2nd mission, in the first he fired on a red Fokker Dr1 and set it on fire but George Du Cray finished the job and claimed the kill, Wills engine got shot up and he had to return to base prematurely so he feels he has something to prove here.
Samuel D’Arcy, is also fed up with the ribbing his name generates as well, he will probably get on famously with Cremetti if they survive long enough. I am flying as D’Arcy, Rookie suits my proficiency level.
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My new Fokker DVII’s, these have been specially bought, built and painted for this game although not personalised yet, they are near to completion after a lot of help and advice from Tim (Flying Helmet).
None of the pilots have made a kill yet, and even though they are flying using Peters veteran AI system I think this had some impact on the game.
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The relative position of the two flights.
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D’Arcy looked over his shoulder when Cremetti rocked his wings and pointed. Hell's Teeth, 4 of the deadliest looking planes he had ever seen were coming straight at him. Which way would his flight leader go, he’d been given strict instructions to stay with him, and was almost as worried about that instruction as he was about the 4 planes bearing down on him. Almost!
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They both did an Immelmann turn in perfect synchronisation, Will Clarke on the right of the flight used the Camels notorious tight turning circle to break to starboard as the Fokker’s came straight at them, although Gunther jinked right and then left, just trying out the controls before the fight I guess.
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D’Arcy and Gunther opened fire together, what luck for the Rookie he’s set fire to Gunther's plane with his opening shots of his war. Gunther does little damage in return.
Almost immediately I realised having just done an Immelmann turn he couldn’t fire, damn!
Relief that my new DVII wasn’t going down in flames and annoyance, as I was flying as D’Arcy.
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Will Clarke is coming round tight with the whirling pack of planes in sight, and where all hell is about to break loose.
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Gunther and D’Arcy have flown past each other over in the distance but D’Arcy has opened fire on Hans Scharon’s Blue Fokker, the bullets hit the engine block, damaging his engine, it starts to stutter. Hans completely misses from point blank range and will have to leave for home with his engine coughing and spluttering, a bad start for the Fokker Flight but a second good start for D’Arcy.
Dirk Unger fired at long range on Cremetti who was himself busy knocking the stuffing out of Otto Boy’s plane, causing a lot of damage.
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This is a slightly clearer shot of the action. Hans Scharon later claimed he missed the sitting target of D’Arcy because he was trying to avoid hitting Gunther. No one else believed him then, either.
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Will is still coming round but not so tight as before, must be getting dizzy, however he’s in a good position.
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The next move he is in the perfect place and opens fire with a long burst, damaging Otto’s plane badly. Otto at this point is seriously wondering how much more damage his plane can take.
Cremetti and Dirk Unger nearly collide, they are too close to fire, and D’Arcy seems to have forgotten his instructions in the heat of battle and is pulling round in a tight right handed turn, determined to inflict more damage on the enemy.
At this point I had 6 planes in a square foot of space!!!
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Will Clarke is still on the tail of Otto’s red Fokker and he sets it alight, with a plus 1 for the 2nd shot on the trot. Well I guess that answers Otto’s questions regarding the plane, not much more.
Over in the distance D’Arcy has carried on turning and blazes away at Scharon’s plane inflicting more damage. This kids really going for the kill.
It’s not very clear but Gunther has Immelmanned and is flying straight back at Dirk Unger, this could get messy.
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Otto is in trouble.
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A slightly better shot to show Gunther and Dirk flying straight at one another.
D’Arcy I believe is in a target rich environment, or as it would have been known back then, as, a hell of a lot of Huns in the air.
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Next turn Dirk Unger misses Gunther but does an Immelmann and is now right behind him. Otto and D’Arcy both pull tight turns and end up facing each other, Otto ignores the flames and opens fire on D’Arcy at long range causing a small amount of damage but D’A fires at Dirks Blue plane, missing, he’s obviously distracted by Otto’s shooting.
Will Clarke and Gunther trade shots, both damaging the others plane and Will feels his rudder controls go slack.
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Is this close formation flying or incompetence? They are a fraction off colliding.
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At the start of a new turn Otto has to draw a card to see what damage the fire is doing.
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That’s not good, there’s a loud explosion as his fuel tank blows.
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And he hits the deck.
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OK – a quick recap with all the extra junk off the table. I ended up leaving the movement cards down so I could follow what the hell was going on, there were too many planes in to small a space, I couldn’t believe there hadn’t been any collisions but that was all about to change.
Hans in the distance is flying home, Will Clarke after shooting down Otto has swung to port, Gunther is wildly looking over his shoulder, wondering what Unger is up to, pleased he’s not an enemy plane but wondering if his ally is going to kill them both anyway, so no consolation there. Unger I’m sure is thinking, which way is that damn red Fokker going to go, so I can go the other way. Teaticket has a lot to answer for here and both these pilots want answers.
D’Arcy I know was thinking, I can’t miss next time.
Cremetti – well I’ve no idea what he was thinking, he’s out of the picture to the left and flying away from the action, Flash can probably come up with an answer to that as I’m using his A.I. for the Entente pilots. (He’ll probably blame my dice rolling )
OK back to the mayhem.
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Here comes the cavalry or hammer or whatever. They arrived early and in the same corner as the Fokker’s had come from. Two new Snipes and a Camel.
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Dirk and Gunther both swing hard right and Gunther runs straight in to Will Clarke, it had to happen sooner or later, I didn’t get a pic of the damage but Will got away with 2 damage but Gunther’s plane was a mess, 6 damage points.
I decided D’Arcy wouldn’t shoot for fear of hitting his own man.
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Scharon – engine stuttering making his way back to the field.
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Dirk Unger and Gunther finally separated and I’m not sure what happened with Will Clarke, he was last seen under Gunther’s plane going in the same direction but here is going in the opposite direction, I think I must have used his card the wrong way, unless he Immelmanned and I missed it. Hey Ho.
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Cremetti has Immelmanned and is flying back with 24th Squadron planes. Looks like he’s on a collision course with the Snipe flown by Parke.
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Sure enough they touch wings but luckily cause no damage. Gunther gets the worst of the exchange with Tatham in the new Sprite and Gunther now has 14 points of damage and decides to head for home. Tatham has a damaged rudder and can’t turn to port and follow.
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Will and D’Arcy nearly collide when Will does and Immelmann to return to the fight.
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Another near miss in the air, there are just too many British planes in too small and area, this is going to end badly for someone.
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Unger has had enough, he’s the only Fokker in flying condition and he heads off after Scharon in the distance.
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Yet another near miss.
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Final shot before the white flare went up calling the action off and everyone headed home.
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Hans Scharon FRTB (eng) - 0 Kills
Dirk Unger RTB - 0 Kills
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Otto Boy SD – EXP – FT 0 Kills
Rolled 8 -3 EXP = 5 Injured – Skip 1D3 Scenarios – Rolled 3 skip 2 Scenarios.
Gunther Ehmann FRTB (dam) 0 Kills
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C Flight
Max Cremetti RTB - 0 Kills
Samuel D’Arcy RTB - 0 Kills
William Clarke RTB – 1 Kill (Otto Boy)
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A Flight 24 Squadron
Lawrence Tatham RTB – 0 Kills
Norman Parkes RTB – 0 Kills
Thomas Broadhurst RTB – 0 Kills
Well it started off fast and furious and sort of drizzled out, no wounds, no jams and attrition to the planes causing the Germans to break off and the engagement to fade away.
I found having 7 planes milling about in a very small area difficult to keep track of but the risk of collision seemed to increase once the majority of the planes were all on the same side.
Thanks to Peter for a frenetic scenario.
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Lovely job on the planes & scenic's too. 
Originally Posted by Baxter
The background is new for this game, trying to keep up with the trend setters on here.
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