OTTCYM -- Mission 2 - Bring Them Home If You Can Flash - 12th July 1916

[flash]

Lt Foldes had taken pity on young F/Sgt Bobby Pynne - he was down and frustrated as, despite having put in a lot of effort, he was yet to score his first victory, so Bill Foldes decided that he would fly with him in one of the old DH.2's to see if he could bolster his spirits and perhaps assist him in his quest to break his duck.
Uncle had informed him that his opposite number in the Bull Terriers, the tandem squadron co-located with them, was out on a pretty important long range recce mission, so he thought he'd take young Pynne up to see if the could assist and see them home in one piece.
To that end they were over the lines just after lunch looking for their tandem cousins and it seemed they had arrived just in the nick of time as the Hun was about to give them a hot time of it.

Lt Bill Foldes pilots his unarmed & heavily laden FE2b with AM2 Jack Dawe in the front jammed between camera gear head straight for home as ther escort 2Lt Chris cross piloting a new Sopwith Strutter heads off an incoming Fokker heading in from the left. Ric Shaw the gunner can be seen preparing his weapon as they turn.


Being a little above the action Foldes in the all green DH.2 on the right & Pynne in the all cdl DH.2 on the left nose down and make a beeline for their friends but a dirty red Fokker appears to have other plans for them and peels off from his wingman to head straight at them


Ltn Kurt Bertram Drekmann in the plain Fokker cannot believe his luck when he spots the tandems dead ahead, he can see Hugo Stark's green Fokker approaching from the other direction. His wingman Max Manschott, in the dirty red Fokker, had fired a burst to get his attention and jabbed his finger towards a pair of lattice tails coming in from their right. He chopped down an open hand indicating he would attack them, Kurt waved his acknowledgement and pressed on after the tandems hoping to catch them between fires.


Cross opens up on the green Fokker landing a close range burst - his gun almost immediately jams.
Stark returns fire at a long slanting angle and jams also.


Foldes, Pynne & Manschott close on each other rapidly, the DH.2's dropping from above


Maybe realising his peril the dirty red Fokker side slips right under the nose of Pynne's DH.2; he cannot get off a shot himself but Pynne curses under his breath, another opportunity missed.


As the Strutter passes the green Fokker Cross sideslips left giving Shaw a raking close range shot at it - he tatters the enemy's tail but his gun jams before too much damage can be done.
Witness to all this Bull & Dawe can but curse their lack of weaponry & thank their stars the Hun has jammed his !


Drekmann powers on toward the melee


Manschott pulls up and round, opening fire on Foldes' DH.2 as he passes - Verdammt ! His gun has jammed.


Pynne spots the green Fokker appears to be struggling and flying in a dead straight line - he needs no second invitation, eases his nose downward and stitches a long range burst into it.


Guns unjammed as they circled back Cross spots a plain Fokker angling behind the Fee and takes a long range pot shot that seems to do little to it.


His subsequent close range burst is somewhat devastating however, especially when combined with the long range effort of an incoming Bulldog ! The Fokker blooms smoke then flame, staggering under the onslaught

(9 points of damage...Ouch !)

Shaw tries to add to it's agonies with a close range burst as they pass each other but it's not to be & his gun jams again !


Pynne turns after the green Fokker and lands a body blow of his own at close range.


Suddenly Bull is out on his own, the dirty red Fokker loops in behind him, the plain one trailing flame and smoke is there also - they must surely catch him...


Pynne loses the angle on the green Fokker but he has scored a number of hits & he has at least one more burst before he must change pans on the Lewis.


The situation looks grim, the Fee out on it's own, his escort & would be saviours going the wrong way, a brace of Fokker's closing on his tail, another rolling in behind


But all is not lost - suddenly the plain & green Fokker's are turning away - Pynne is wrong footed

(randomly diced for direction green Fokker would take to escape)

The dirty red Fokker is in range and the first bursts crackle around the helpless Fee - it can but power on.




Pynne, reversing direction, gets in a lucky shot with his last burst as the plain Fokker runs past his nose for home - fire does for him & down he goes !



(wrong fire card & totally forgot Pynne's ace skill which would have given this result on the last burst anyway)

Manschott is incensed - he's been banging away but cannot seem to damage the Fee - finally he sees splinters fly - another shot before he must adjust the angle and... His gun jams again !






The green Fokker slips away from Pynne as he reloads - another sure victory eludes him


With the rest of the Tommy forming up behind him Manschott must break away too as the Fee escapes west.





Butchers Tally:

Eagles:

Ltn Kurt Bertram Drekmann: (plain Fok E.III) SD-FLM-FT 0 kills
Rolled 6 -2FLM = 4 - Injured - Skip D6 scenarios. Rolled 4 = Skip 4

Ltn Hugo Stark: (green Fok E.III) FRTB-D 0 kills

Ltn Max Manschott: (dirty red Fok E.III) RTB 0 kills


Bulldogs:


Lt Bill Foldes: (green DH.2) RTB 0 kills

F/Sgt Bobby Pynne: (cdl DH.2) RTB 1 kill

Lt Terry Bull: (P2 FE2b #4) RTB 0 kills
AM1 'Jack' Dawe: (O FE2b #4) RTB 0 kills
+1 damage from previous action

2Lt Chris Cross: (P2 Strutter) RTB 0 kills
AM3 'Ric' Shaw: (O Strutter) RTB 0 kills
+1 damage from previous action

Victory to the Bulldogs & Terriers

[flash]

A nice little run out for the chaps and it went a lot better for them than I expected !
I rolled damage for the tandem pair & each received 1 point of damage, maybe that should have been one card ?
Manschott rolled a 3 and attacked Foldes & Pynne (obviously)
I flew as Bobby Pynne and finally got him a victory, though as you see I fluffed the card draw and forgot his inherent skill which would have given him the victory anyway, so it worked out in the end though it wasn't the Fokker i was expecting to get he'll take it, another burst and who knows, it could've been a brace !
I used my Alt, ammo & AI rules as usual - I'll be glad when we get the double stack pans for the Lewis !

Super little straight forward scenario from Peter, thanks mate, could so easily have been a very different outcome & I may well fly it again for the fun of it !

Uncle says:

Well done you young scallywag, broken your duck at last...Mine's a

[Stumptonian]

Well done, Dave.
Showed my Adler friends a right shellacking! and have photos to boot.


Played mine yesterday and am about halfway through the write up.
Over in Turn 4, Phase 1

The pendulum swings again ...

[Teaticket]

Nicely done by your doggies Dave. Pynne getting his first has good reason to celebrate. All those early jams threw up a big question mark on how this would go but you stuck to it and handed it to the Hun. Photos and all made it home with one Hun in the bag, a good showing.

You had it correct, damage points not cards for the pre-game tandem damage.

[gully_raker]

Well Flown Dave! A convincing win for the "Doggies" & young Bobby broke his Duck so Well Done all round.
You certainly pulled lots of Jambs from the deck.
I think Uncle needs to have a serious talk with the Armourers!

[ShadowDragon]

Well done to your crew - brought back the mission plane with photos and a kill to boot. A round of celebration or several for Bobby!

Just finished my game. It started off with rolling a 5 and 6 for prior damage (2 and 3 points).

But it went better after that. I wasn't sure about ending the game once the mission plane was off so I played on as the scouts were in close proximity. Need to check the scenario about that. If I should have ended it on the turn the mission plane left I'll write it up accordingly.

[flash]

Thanks chaps, I was disappointed for the Eagles - Manschott's 0's & jams at the end, Drekmann's effort of getting into a position only rewarded by a drubbing from two enemy there by chance more than design. The cards drawn could've been so different. C'est le guerre I suppose - my chaps will take any win they can get !
Point of interest I play a single damage deck for each side so they both have equal chances of pulling the damage cards.

[Stumptonian]

Point of interest I play a single damage deck for each side so they both have equal chances of pulling the damage cards.

I have two B decks mixed together and spread into the four sections of one of Keith's hangar card holders.
I roll a D4 for every draw to select which stack to use - even for my own.

The Lewis guns each get 3 cards from another mixed double deck, and draw an additional one from the communal deck at close range.

[mikeemagnus]

Damned good show there Doggies. Showed them what for eh!!! Well done Bobby Pynne on breaking your duck - mines a pint mate

Excellent scrap - REP incoming

PS Re the damage decks - Until recently I used two decks of each type and mixed them, but found some pretty odd results were coming out. So now I'm just using the one deck for both. So far, that has worked well. Haven't tried using one deck per side - might give that a go sometime soon as it sounds like a sensible alternative..

[flash]

...Until recently I used two decks of each type and mixed them, but found some pretty odd results were coming out. So now I'm just using the one deck for both. So far, that has worked well. Haven't tried using one deck per side - might give that a go sometime soon as it sounds like a sensible alternative..

Thanks Mike - the deck each side works for me; each side has the same chance of picking up damage & special damage which feels fair.

[Vagabond]

What a drubbing, they'll think twice before attacking you again.

I've probably said this before but I really like the colour of your dirty red EIII. Same with the 1 1/2 Strutter with the CDL fuselage sides, I'm intending copying that on a couple of Pups I have to paint, they should be ready about 2022.

Interesting thoughts on the damage decks, I have 3 sets of counters in a bag and draw randomly and not really felt it to be a problem. There usually seems to be a fair spread of damage. Mind you in this game you have 16 hits on the Hun and took 7, so good flying and shooting for the British.

[flash]

Thanks John, the dirty red is easy to achieve if you paint over Hautzmayers green Fokker with GW blood red without a white primer coat !
My chaps got in 14 damage cards & 2 for fire. The amount of shots were about the same but I was lucky enough to get in position for some close range hits so doubled the cards given to the poor old Eagles.