Advantage of fighters?

[Gareth]

I’ve played a dozen or so games, and love every thing about this game.

With WW1, the single seat fighters seem almost in games play, to be at a disadvantage to two seaters with their multiple arcs of fire.

Is this a reflection of historical experience? I think it was only later in the war the idea of aiming the plane not the gun took effect and I see that in the hugely more manoeuvrable later war single seaters.

I’ve probably not played our enough scenario or fully mastered tactics but a single seat fighter seems at such a disadvantage to a scout or bomber with their multiple arcs of fire and often much greater damage points.

Any thoughts.

P.S. 40 years a wargamer and Wings is the best game I’ve ever known. It’s soooooo cooooool!

[flash]

Eddie Rickenbacker likened the tandems as being as dangerous as a Fokker D.VII Gareth so there is an element of historical truth in it, though many will say they are over powered in the game.

[Flying Helmut]

Hi Gareth, welcome to the 'Drome.

Actually, the idea of "aiming the plane, not the gun" was an Early War innovation, both sides producing single seat monoplanes with a fixed gun as early as 1915, which blossomed into the "Fokker Scourge".

If a scout takes on a two-seater in a pure dogfight, he can have a difficult time of it...........it is more even if the tandem has a job to do (Photo-recon or artillery spotting) which make its movement more predictable, and gives the observer an additional task to perform as well as firing his gun.

If the scout can exploit the tandem's blind spot, he can sit behind at close range, blasting away without reply.

If you play with altitude, have the scout approach from behind and below (as advocated by Oswald Boelcke, no less) where the rear gun can't get him; if the tandem dives down to engage, he will have a far harder time to regain lost height than the nimbler scout will.
If he stays high, then the scout can engage at close range (firing as for long range) while the two-seater can't shoot back...............

Very many two-seaters fell to scouts because they never saw them coming - the observer carrying out his primary task instead of shooting.
This has led to unrealistically low expectations of the abilities of these beasties!

[Gareth]

Very interesting, thanks very much. I can see use of altitude and blind spots make a difference.