I made the drive up to Dayton for the Buckeye Gamers session at The Game Haven on 11/16/19. Richard Martin was there, and he was writing a review of the reprint of the Breguet BR. 14 82. He wanted someone to fly it, so this was my ride for this battle.
Our German opponents.
We rolled for mission objectives. The Allied side was a general patrol; the German mission was to attack the Allied trenches.
We get to the merge, and exchange fire. I draw a 2. Little did I know, but this was the only damage I took in the scenario. Meanwhile, in the upper right, a D VII catches fire.
I was trying to stay out of the way of the plane to my right, but we ended up on top of each other. The German to my left is BARELY in my rear gun arc, so I get off a shot at long range...
...and he catches fire! I'll never be able to turn quickly enough to follow up on him, but there is that burning D VII just ahead (out of the picture)…
I think I missed a photo here, because I couldn't have turned this quickly, but here I am getting a shot. Meanwhile, in the background our other 2-seater is smoking.
The D VII goes past me. I'm not sure, but my recollection was that he was just out of my rear gun arc on this one. And now I'm facing a new quandary - I've gotten awfully close to the map edge, and I never even checked to see whether I can turn quickly enough to stay on the map.
I missed another photo here, but in two cards I was BARELY able to stay on the map. The D VII had performed an overdive to try an put out the fire.
Another missed photo, but the D VII got the fire put out, and, with his speed, is long gone. However, the German 2-seater is lining up on the trenches (top of photo). Our fighters are busy in a furball, and with my limited turning ability I have no business in that fight, so I go after the 2-seater.
Trying to close the distance.
We found some trench target cards, so we laid those out. His first draw was a 0 last turn, but he's getting ready to fire again. Meanwhile, I am barely within long range.
The German 2-seater and I make a close pass-by, and neither of us had a shot at the other. He continues to shoot up the trenches; meanwhile, the D VII is back, and I get in a long range shot. He has a lot of damage cards, but is still flying.
Again, a missed photo, but I've turned left twice, and we are where you see us here. The D VII finally goes down here to the guns of the fighter in his 3 o'clock.
He pulls a hard right, I make an S-turn to the left - and get the kill!
At this point the remaining German bugs out for home. Final score was three Germans shot down for no losses to the Allies.
Overall, an enjoyable scenario. I liked flying this plane. Although only doing A damage, having the rear gunner allows you to get away with less than perfect flying, since in many cases you'll still be able to get in a shot with the rear gun. I got several shots in thanks to the rear gun when my forward gun was out of arc. The tradeoff is, of course, the reduced maneuverability. When I got close to the D VII I was concerned with his ability to make the 90-degree right turns, but this was never a factor. Of course, being on fire when we engaged probably had something to do with that.
The model itself was very well done, with considerable detail. The model I was flying had a very detailed swan decal on each side of the fuselage. The one complaint I had is that this model has the same issue as several of the British WWII planes, where the camouflage pattern doesn't completely go to the edge of the wing.
Given the opportunity, I'd fly the Breguet again. Being fairly new to the WWI game, I like having the 2 arcs of fire, and find the slower speed and less maneuverability to be an acceptable trade-off for the rear gun.
This was my first game since Origins. Hopefully I won't have to wait until Origins next summer to play again.
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