Just Another Day over the Western Front

[Naharaht]

I attended the Cowards Wargames club in Hoveton, Norfolk last night with the intention of running another Tripods & Triplanes game but other players just wanted a simple Wings of Glory game. So, four players with two planes each took part in a 4v4 game. The Germans had an Albatros D.V. a Fokker Dr.1, a Fokker D.VII and an Albatros C.III. The Entente players had a SPAD XIII, an A deck Sopwith Triplane and two Sopwith Camels. The objective was just to win the combat by shooting down more of the enemy.

We played on two mats (No-man's Land and Countryside) aligned along their long edge.

In the first three moves the planes approached the centre of the playing surface, except for the White Fokker D.VII. No doubt the pilot had a cunning plan



The Albatros D.V, striped Camel and SPAD continued forward. The Fokker Triplane turned to port.



Similarly the two Sopwiths over on the right and the Albatros C.III two-seater moved forward and at last the white Fokker turned towards the action.



The Albatros D.V and striped Camel went for each other head on and opened fire at long range. The SPAD moved forward and attacked the Fokker Triplane, which was heading towards the Sopwith Triplane. The white Fokker continued to hang back by turning left.



The two Sopwiths on the right and the Albatros C.III flew on, past each other. The Albatros' observer fired at the blue circles Camel and, to his dismay, his gun jammed!

[Naharaht]

The striped Camel turned hard right whilst the Albatros D.V flew behind it. The SPAD turned left.



The Red Fokker Dr.1 flew on and managed to squeeze in shots at very close range on the Sopwith Triplane. The White Fokker continued to fly left and avoid the action whilst the blue circle Camel turned left. The Albatros C.III turned right to return to the fray.



The striped Camel flew towards the melee on the right. The Albatros D.V and SPAD both turned left. The SPAD was just in range for a shot.



Both Triplanes performed Immelmann turns enabling the Sopwith to fire at close range into the red Fokker. The blue circles Camel turned left again to attack the red Fokker. The White Fokker turned to threaten the Camel and the Albatros two-seater turned to support the red Fokker.

[Naharaht]

The SPAD and Albatros D.V continued circling. The striped Camel headed over to the right, whilst the red Fokker Dr.1 came left.



The Albatros C.III courted disaster by turning and nearly colliding with both Sopwiths. The White Fokker turned away.



However, The striped Camel and Albatros C.III observer exchanged fire whilst the Albatros D.V attacked the Camel from behind.



The SPAD and Albatros D.V continued circling with the Fokker Dr.1 in the background.



The striped Camel flew on and collided with the Sopwith Triplane. The striped Camel was undamaged but the Triplane suffered enough damage to make it crash. As the blue circles Camel flew away from the Albatros C.III its observer shot at it. The white Fokker flew away.

[Naharaht]

The blue circle Camel performed an Immelmann turn. The striped Camel turned left in pursuit of the Albatros C.III. They exchanged fire but then the Camel's guns jammed. The white Fokker turned back towards the action. The SPAD had now circled over to the combat area.



The red Fokker Triplane and Albatros D.V were turning to return to the action.



They continued turning and the red Fokker engaged the SPAD head on at close range. The striped Camel came up in support even though its guns were still jammed.



The Albatros C.III turned to follow the striped Camel. The white Fokker engaged the blue circles Camel head on at long range.

[Naharaht]

The SPAD flew past the red Fokker, which turned to face the oncoming striped Camel and nearly collided with it. The Albatros D.V turned towards the action. The Albatros C.III used its forward gun to shoot at the striped Camel's rear.



The striped Camel flew past the red Fokker Triplane and next faced a collision with the Albatros D.V, which had turned towards it. The SPAD performed an Immelmann turn and was able to fire at the Albatros. The other three German machines looked like they were heading for a massive collision whilst the blue circles Camel flew behind them.



Amazingly all the potential collisions were avoided! The Albatros D.V and striped Camel both turned left. The Albatros two-seater and red Fokker Dr.1 flew straight whilst the white Fokker turned right to meet the blue circles Camel turning left. The SPAD flew straight ahead and shot at the Albatros C.III, whose observer was unable to respond because his gun was unable to traverse far enough round.



The Albatros C.III exploded and went down.



The white Fokker and blue circles Camel both turned left and passed each other. The red Fokker Dr.1 performed an Immelmann turn to exchange shots with the left turning SPAD. However, the SPAD's guns then jammed.



The Albatros D.V made an Immelmann turn to head back into the battle. The striped Camel turned left towards the fighting.

[Naharaht]

The Albatros D.V turned left to engage the blue circles Camel, which also had the white Fokker coming in from behind following an Immelmann turn. The SPAD and red Fokker flew past each other. The striped Camel (secretly nursing a damaged engine) flew on.



The white Fokker's guns jammed! In flying forward it blocked the Albatros D.V from firing at the SPAD, which had turned left behind the white Fokker. The blue circles Camel turned left into a collision with the red triplane. The striped Camel turned left towards the battle.



The red Fokker triplane and blue circles Camel survived and made hard right turns. The striped Camel turned left to support it's factory mate. The white fokker got out the Albatros' way by turning sharply right. The SPAD flew straight ahead but could not escape the shots from the oncoming Albatros this time. The SPAD blew up!



The Albatros pilot continued forward for a short 'breather' whist the action hotted up behind him. The white fokker turned left and almost collided with the red triplane, which had Immelmann turned. However, the white Fokker was in more trouble because both Camels were coming towards it, shooting as they came on. The damage started a fire in the white Fokker's engine compartment.

[zenlizard]

Hm, what I'm seeing so far is fairly poor team coordination among tghe Germans.

And oh, the attachment fairy has struck again! (Post #6)

[Naharaht]

The German players were fairly inexperienced at playing Wings of Glory, Sam. I think that I have fixed the attachments now.

Returning to the battle:

The Albatros and red Fokker Dr.1 flew straight ahead. the burning white Fokker turned left to engage the striped Camel, which flew straight in front of it. However, the Fokker was so close to the Camel that the pilot had to take evasive action rather than shoot. The blue circles Camel made a hard right turn and both Camels fired at the red Fokker Triplane, which blew up!



The striped Camel turned sharply to the right. The white Fokker turned left in pursuit but was still too close to fire. The blue circle Camel stalled but was too close to shoot at the Fokker. Meanwhile, the Albatros had performed an Immelmann turn and was in position to shoot at the blue circle Camel.



The two Camels turned in opposite directions away from each other. The Albatros flew straight ahead whilst the Fokker turned left and collided with the Albatros. That damage in conjunction with the latest fire damage was enough to bring the Fokker down.



In the next few moves the Albatros turned and headed away from the Camels. The striped Camel turned hard right and began to pursue but with its damaged engine, it stood little chance of catching the Albatros. The blue circles Camel performed an Immelmann turn.



Both Camels pursued the Albatros.



Then, amazingly, instead of heading for home, the Albatros performed an Immelmann turn and came back to fight the Camels. It was too close to shoot at the striped Camel but it received the worst of the exchange with the blue circles Camel. The Albatros was shot down.



The striped Camel had received 10 points of structural damage plus an engine hit.



The Entente pilots had won a victory but the striped Camel pilot would be facing some hard questions about his collision with the Sopwith Triplane when he returned to base.

THE END.

[gully_raker]

That looked like an interesting one David & a hard into to the game for the newbies.

[flash]

Well done David, quite a rumble !

[Vagabond]

Nice one David and not a bad result for the inexperienced German Pilots. This probably shows why experience counts so much though.