AAR - Tournament - Armoury Games, Pickerington, Ohio (1-9-2011)
It was a dark and stormy night....
(Sorry could not resist!)
I would like to be able to write this AAR in the perspective of brave young WWI pilots mounting their flying steeds and putting their lives on the line for their countries... however that particular muse has never visited me and thus I lack that creative skill. (Although there are quite a few members here who are incredibly awesome at it and I do envy them!) So here we go... in the style of.. well ME.
Actually it was a bright but very chilly day as our little group gathered in the parking lot, waiting for Armoury Games to open her doors to us so we could commence our much anticipated battle. We practically jumped for joy when Allen (the person running the store on this day) pulled into the parking lot, the jumping mostly because we were starting to freeze and needed to get some circulation going again!
We unloaded what seemed like a half a ton of WoW gear and worked our way into to the nice warm store. Two tables immediately succumbed to our gear and persons, and we started our set-up as a few other players arrived.
I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of WoW Aerodrome members that made the trek out to the tournament on Sunday! CappyTom (Tom) drove all the way in from Ada, Jager (Karl) came in from Akron, von Klauser (Bob) joined us from Dayton, and Baron von Tigger (Tim) was in from the Columbus North Side. We were also joined by Marcus (a good friend of mine) who had only played once before, and Eric, a long time regular at Armoury Games. Mike's girlfriend Crystal also opted to stick around to observe and help out! Trumpetman (Tom) even showed up with his son to cheer us on during Round Two!
At this point I would like to take a second and sincerely thank Rick Martin and the guys from the Dayton area for allowing me to base my tournament rules on the ones that were used for Krystal Keep Tournament last month. I had a ton of fun in that tournament and figured "Why mess with a good thing?"
I designed a point system, trying to reward players for getting kills but also staying alive. Kills scored 3 points, Assists scored 1 point (allowing any player involved in a kill to score, but giving only the closest pilot the actual kill). Being shot down or crashing got you -5 points, and disengaging scored only -2 points. I am also not a big fan of watching a player get taken out early in a round and having to sit with nothing to do while the rest of the battle plays out. I therefore instituted a "video game style" re-spawn rule, allowing a player who has suffered some sort of nasty demise or disengagement to rejoin the battle with a restored aircraft on the very next turn. This keeps everyone playing and makes for a more target rich environment throughout each round. The rounds are played to a specific time limit and scores are then tallied.
And now to the Action part of the AAR:
After getting everyone signed in and geared up, I organized our six combatants into two teams for Round One. Bob, Eric, and Karl all mounted Fokker DVIIs on behalf of the Central Powers. Marcus and Tim chose Sopwith Snipes, and Tom piloted a Spad XIII to team up for the Entente Forces. Both sides advanced and danced in the miniature Pickerington skies for the first few turns, with shots exchanged here and there, inflicting some damage on both sides. On Turn 3 Baron von Tigger's Snipe began to smoke from a well placed shot by von Klauser, and then the tides turned...
Turn 4 found Jager and Baron von Tigger trading close range shots, culminating with flames pouring from the engine of Jager's DVII. On Turn 5, Marcus, who's Snipe had slowly been making its way into the action, managed to close on von Klauser's damaged DVII just as Baron von Tigger did the same. Lead crossed the skies, with one lucky round finding its way to the Fokker's fuel tank... and BOOOOOOM! Von Klauser's DVII exploded into its component parts, scoring Marcus a kill and Baron von Tigger an assist. Miraculously, at the same time as he watches his wingman go down, Jager manages to put out his fire and regain positive control of his scorched machine...
Turn 6 finds Von Klauser magically reappearing in the sky at near the battle, with all parties continuing to exchange fire for a few turns more until time runs out for the round...
At the break, Marcus has the tournament lead with 3 points, Baron von Tigger holds second with 1 point, with Jager, CappyTom, and Eric in a three way tie for third at 0 points, and von Klauser holding 4th with -5 points!
(15 minute break... smoke 'em if you got 'em!) <insert intermission music here>
Round Two finds some of our pilots taking their alternate choice of aircraft and squaring off for a nasty free-for all dogfight! CappyTom, in an Albatross DVa, Baron von Tigger in his Snipe, and von Klauser in an SE.5a Take to the eastern half of the skies and begin exchanging shots.
Marcus, in a Fokker DVII (his is the one with the nut on the base), Jager, in an identical DVII (Thus the necessity of the nut), and Eric, in an SE.5a all take to the Western Skies guns blazing as well. As it turned out for Marcus, aggressiveness pays off and yet another "Golden BB" finds its target, turning Eric's aircraft into a BOOOOOOMING Ball of Fire!
Eric re-enters the round on Turn 2 and for the next few turns all of our pilots dance and exchange fire... with Jager taking the worst of it. On Turn 5 Jager manages to limp his aircraft out of the battle... to return with a fresh aircraft on Turn 6, just in time to watch von Klauser cross the sky and wield some Second Round revenge on Marcus, putting his DVII into the ground with a well placed shot! And now the furball gets nasty as all of our pilots begin to cluster together...
On Turn 7 Marcus flies back into the fray as Eric gets his first kill and puts CappyTown down for the count. Eric then bursts into flames and Augers in on Turn 8, crediting Baron von Tigger with a kill as well! Turn 9 find Marcus avenging Eric's death (kinda strange... but it is what it is...
Now at this point, you may be thinking "That is too many BOOMS for a double A deck" but these guys have inflicted so much damage on each other that they have made it through the deck once, and are on a reshuffle of the deck. Such is the result of playing with a "Re-spawn" rule... surely the other BOOM card is closer to the bottom of the deck...
Nope. You would be wrong...
Turn 10... Jager turns, closes on Eric and lets loose...
TING! WHOOSH! BOOOOOOOOM! Bye Bye Eric...
Once the hoopla and laughter subsides we continue on with Turns 11 and 12, our exhausted pilots doing damage but unable to bring down another plane... and thus ends Round Two and our tournament as well.
Fun was had by all. It was almost more of a party than a tournament... but isn't that what it is all about?
In the end none of our pilots scored in the positive...
We had a nice pile of prizes and I had a couple of humorous framed certificates that I forgot to take pictures of... one for the winner, and one for the pilot who was shot down the most... Everyone went home with something !
- 1st Place - Marcus - 3 kills, 2 deaths, Final Score -1
- 2nd Place - Baron von Tigger (Tim) - 1 kill, 1 death, 1 assist, Final Score -1
- 3rd Place - Jager (Karl) - 1 kill, 1 escape, Final Score -1
- 4th Place - von Klauser (Bob) - 2 kills, 2 deaths, Final Score -4
- 5th place - CappyTom (Tom) - 1 death, Final Score - 5
- 6th Place - Eric - 2 kills, 3 deaths, Final Score -9
(Left to Right, Back row: Trumpetman(Tom), CappyTom(Tom), Marcus, Jager(Karl), and von Klauser(Bob). Left to Right, Front row: Eric, Baron von Tigger(Tim), and Crystal!)
Lest I forget, I think it is very important that I thank the following folks:
An awesome tournament behind us, a few of headed to a local restaurant for some great burgers and a brew... and some great conversation. and then we headed home, ready to fight another day!
- CappyTom for providing a brand New Famous Aces Box set as a prize!
- Jager for generously donating to the "Ridiculously Expensive Aerodrome Flyer" fund (See my blog if you don't get that inside joke...)
- Col Haaj for donating a few nice Aerodrome Accessories goodies to the prize pile!
- Outrider Hobbies for donating a couple of Generic Hangar Trays to the pile as well!
- Armoury Game for letting us invade their nice warm store!
You can find lots of pictures from the tournament at the following links:
And with that I close my AAR. Thanks for your attention! (...and if you could follow all that, then you are a better man than I!)
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Originally Posted by flash
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