"Well the fireworks began last night as no doubt you all heard" started Uncle
"Heard ? damn near blew the roof off the hotel !" grumbled Lt Terry Bull
"Quite so" replied Uncle "It certainly rattled the windows didn't it. Of course now the top brass want to see the effect of their action and you poor blighters get the chance to go and see it first hand !"
"Lucky us." chipped in 2Lt Hale as Uncle turned to the board to give them the full SP.
A half hour later the Bulldogs are approaching the scene of the action from the south west - it is soon plainly obvious to all that something quite calamitous had happened to the German lines as a whole stretch of the front now seemed to be formed of truly massive craters.
(Left: Lt Terry Bull & AM.1 Jack Dawe in FE2b #4; Right 2Lt Justin Hale & AM.2 R. Sole in FE2b #6; and up the middle 2Lt Chris Cross & AM.3 Richard Shaw flying a 'Strutter sent to the unit for combat testing)
Approaching from directly west came the Kaiser's Eagles with much the same mission to find out what had gone on at first light by photographing the new lay of the land.
(Left Obltn Herman Poss & ltn Claus Ritscherle in pink Roland C.II; right Ltn's Otto Festner & Renatos Ultsch in the blue Roland C.II and up the middle Vzfwbl hermoth Hemer & Ltn Franz Schäpe in an Albatros C.III)
As Hale closed on the nearest crater Bull and Hale broke away to the right to cover him from the approaching Eagles
The Eagle pilots clearly had the same idea and as their recon machine headed for his target crater at the far end of run they too turned toward their foe
Cross side slipped his machine over toward the first crater he came to, losing a little height to get to the optimum altitude for picture taking, 'blipping' the engine as they passed over its boundary.
A round popped through the lower wing without causing any significant damage -
"Bloody hell" - muttered Rick Shaw - "they're on our side too !" as he takes his first pic
(Ace denotes allied position. Camera token the pic being taken.)
Cross pulled his machine right to take in the last crater at this end of the line, Bull & Hale are squaring up to meet the opposition
Moments later, having reduced altitude & lined up correctly himself Hemer takes the Albatros over the crater at the other end of the line.
"Ach so, good German people, they're ours !" exclaims Schäpe even as a hole appears in the trailing edge near to him and he gets his first snap
Moments later Cross flies over his second crater ..."Bloody hell they're 'uns, sir" bellows Shaw as rounds crash through the framework of their wings - he gets his second pic though
(Special damage & damage value are applied - though a jam doesn't count the damage does - 2 in this case)
Hale & Poss close fast - as they speed past each other the gunner's let rip... Ritscherle's parabellum MG jams.
Seconds later Bull is nose to nose with the Albatros & shots are exchanged - Hemer's gun jams
But Schäpe sticks to his task and gets his second snap as the looming FE damn near takes the paint off their top wing - ground fire is negligible & it is a verdammt Tommy trench.
Down at the other end Cross hauls his 'Strutter round and noses up to exchange with the blue Roland - rounds patter through the fabric but little damage done to either machine. He neatly side slips into the Roland's blind spot - just.
The 'Strutter is a vast improvement on his old BE.
Hemer flies over the next crater - another Tommy - rounds slam through the cockpit floor and he is struck in the leg, Schäpe gets a third picture though
(D6 - 2 = pilot hit.)
As Cross passes over another crater Shaw gets busy with his camera for his third pic of the day - Suddenly the Albatros looms large in his sights and Cross instinctively grabs the trigger - Rounds slash through Hemer's Albatros but there is no answering fire...
Ground fire is negligible and follows them both as they pass over but it is another one of theirs. Schäpe also steals his fourth snap as they do so.
The Roland's turn to meet Hale as he attempts to drive them off from the 'Strutter, Sole gets in a good burst on the pink one but the return fire starts a blaze and damages the controls
Sole tracks the blue Roland and hoses the cockpit - there ! He's sure he's clipped the pilot
Shaw gets his fourth snap as Bull roars past in #4 trying to catch up to Hale - Dawe gives them a cheery wave as they pass.
Hale feels exposed - the FE trails fire & smoke, the Lewis gun has run dry and Jerry is behind him - He does his best to hide behind the engine as all of them open up as one and rounds smash through the FE, his controls are badly damaged - Hemer's gun jams a second time.
Bull charges in and swaps lead with the pink Roland but comes off distinctly second best as his motor coughs out dirty grey smoke
Hale wrestles with his machine but with no tangible control of his direction and trailing flames he flies out of the battle area and heads toward the ground.
(As a pusher there's no problem with straights when on fire)
Hemer takes fire from the next crater but to no obvious effect, Festner waves & indicates he must head for home
Cross is nearing the end of the line - Shaw get picture number 5 but ground fire damages their controls - "This could make things awkward" thinks Cross
Pouring smoke Bull catches the blue Roland as he completes his turn for home and sprays him with lead, return fire does no damage
Schäpe gets picture number 5 - as they pass over the next crater - ground fire is intense and something hits the engine causing the Mercedes to miss a beat
Out of ammo Bull has to let the Roland run - the gunner is feisty though and leaves them with a parting close range gift
Cross manages to turn the Sopwith before the controls jam up completely and he manages to get them close enough for Shaw to snap their final pic but disaster strikes as the Hun below lather them with a welter of ground fire injuring them both .
(D6 1= Both crew hit)
Being only able to turn left Cross manages to point them roughly in the direction of home as he leaves the battle area
Meantime, gun reloaded Bull runs in on the crippled Albatros that looks to going for their last pic as it heads for home - Dawe gets in a burst but the Hun doesn't seem to notice and is out of arc himself
This is the last chance - as the Albatros passes over the crater Dawe rakes him end to end before his gun jams
But it's enough as the battered Albatros staggers and falls from the sky... heading straight for a British held crater.
The pink Roland had been chasing after Cross and now was too far away to intercept Bull's FE; the blue Roland had the back up camera and was limping from the field - seeing the Albatros fall Poss had no choice but to retire himself. The Eagles had failed.
Butcher's Tally
Eagles:
Obltn Herman Poss: (Pilot Pink Roland C.II) RTB 0 kills
Ltn Claus Ritscherle: (Gunner) RTB 0 kills
LtnOtto Festner: (Pilot Blue Roland C.II ) FRTB-W / WIA 0 kills
Rolled 11+1RTB = All well when you land well !
Ltn Renatos Ultsch: (Gunner) RTB 0 kills
Vzfwbl Hermuth Hemer: (Pilot Albatros C.III) SD-ET 0 kills
Rolled 7 -1SD = 6 Injured skip 1D3 scenarios. Rolled 1 = skip 1
E&E: Rolled 10 -1BEL -1 WIC = 8 Landed almost home - skip 1
Ltn Franz Schäpe: (Gunner) SD-ET 0 kills
Rolled 7 -1SD = 6 Injured skip 1D3 scenarios. Rolled 2 = skip 1
E&E: Rolled 10 -1BEL -1 WIC = 8 Landed almost home - skip 1
Landing near the craters edge Hemer & Schäpe manage to slip away from the enemy back toward his own rear trenches but are unable to recover the photographic plates.
Bulldogs:
Lt Terry Bull: (pilot FE2b #4|) RTB 0 kills
AM.1 Jack Dawe: RTB 1 kill
2Lt Justin Hale: (Pilot FE2b #6) FRTB-D 0 kills
AM.2 R.Sole: FRTB-D 0 kills
2Lt Chris Cross: ('Strutter) RTB WIA 0 kills
Rolled 7 +1RTB = 8 Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario. Rolled 1 = Skip 1
AM.3 Richard Shaw: RTB WIA 0 kills - 6 photo's
Rolled 7 +1RTB = 8 Injured - Skip 1D2 Scenario. Rolled 1 = Skip 1
Result:
Bulldogs nick a clear victory at the death.
It played out very well with the changes I made & I hope it kept to the spirit of the match up, if not, the full intent.
I basically kept aircraft at level 4, intending to dip into level 3 with the photo planes to get the pics but when it came to it the proximity of each target was such that they never climbed back to level 4 between pics.
This I allowed to put them into range of ground fire but only if their base overlapped a crater which I'd decided they had to do to get the required detailed picture ie they had to be more or less directly overhead of their target
To give ground fire some bite I assigned both special damage and the value of the special damage card to the aircraft (rather than just special damage).
Freeing the other machines up from ground fire allowed them to crack on with shooting others up which they tried their best to do.
I also allowed pics to be taken on long manoeuvres as long as a stall was one of the three cards in the turn, representing a reduction in speed overall. I find otherwise that getting pics can be bloody difficult.
As a twist I randomly decided which trenches were in German hands, though it had no bearing on the game, and decided to randomly select which the back up photo plane would be when it was needed rather than pre mission so it wasn't favoured, pre positioned or targeted.
All in all it was an entertaining clash. Thanks Mike
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