This game took place at the Cowards wargames club, Hoveton, Norfolk on Friday 11th October 2019.
It was played on two mats (Countryside and Coast) joined along their longer sides. A Squid Tripod would attack an Italian coastal town. It was an Italian town because my original intention was for the defenders to be a Caproni bomber and a Macchi M5 flying boat. However, I was unsuccessful in finding another club member to act as an opponent and the Caproni was replaced by a Nieuport 11 and a Hanriot scout, which would be flown using some solo play rules I downloaded from the Files section some time ago.
The Macchi M5 was equipped with a 37mm cannon in place of one of its machine guns and the Nieuport 11 had rockets in addition to its machine gun although firing them would be difficult in solo play. At the start of each turn the Squid's movements and first action were chosen before the aircraft's movements were selected from the charts. The Squid had three objectives to destroy. The Italian pilots would win if the Squid was destroyed.
The formidable Squid with its five heat ray projectors and black smoke launcher.
The defenders.
The protagonists moved straight forward until they were about 24 inches apart when I started to use the solo play manoeuvring rules on the planes. The orange object was a directional template used in conjunction with a die (I know, heresy ) to determine the cards used by the planes.
The Macchi turned to starboard whilst all the other participants just moved forward.
The Squid moved forward, the Macchi turned towards it whilst the Nieuport and Hanriot also turned to port. The Squid fired its forward right heat ray at the Macchi and missed! The Macchi fired its single machine gun and missed (just out of range)!
The Squid halted to recharge but it was a costly decision because the Macchi came on firing its machine gun at the Tripod's shielded side and the Nieuport turned to fire its machine gun at the Tripod's forward shield. They managed to drain three energy cubes in that attack! Meanwhile the Hanriot had turned to starboard to try to get behind the Squid.
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