Gritty Goblin Games Wings of War/Glory, 5 Aug 2021

[RJG173]

AAR #1 CrashCraig brought his official Wings of Glory mats, so we laid two of them out and set up for a balloon hunting expedition. John had two AA machine guns mounted on trucks and a captured Sopwith camel against Craig with a Nieuport 17 and I flew a Nieuport 11 with rockets. I did not mind that John had the trucks pointing towards the sides of the mat. I figured our two airplanes could get by his single aircraft in the middle.



Craig and I are waiting to start, but Todd arrived just as we were about to move so he joined the German side with an Albatros D.III.



Craig got past John and I gave some smoke to Todd. The Nieuport 11 may be slow and only B-firing, but it can be deadly.



Unfortunately, Todd and John decided to concentrate on the airplane with no rockets and Craig went down in No Man's Land.



Trying to be clever and get two rocket attacks on the balloon, I fired after half my rockets after a stall. However I had planned a second stall and one cannot have consecutive steep maneuvers. I had to replace the second stall with a straight and draw an A damage card. That card had special damage (engine damage) so my rockets went haywire. Todd was able to close the gap and gave me two A-damage cards at short range. It was all over for the French.

[RJG173]

AAR #2 Since that game went rather quickly and I learned a valuable lesson about balloon attacks, we tried again. John adjusted the trucks so the machine guns were pointed directly ahead of the balloon. Todd switched to an Albatros D.II to slightly balance the game. A similar start as the previous game with Craig and I flying up the middle of the mat. Here Todd got a little too close and his airplane card is under my model.



I maneuvered to get in front of the balloon to launch my rockets and Craig fired his A machine guns at long range.
"Does my shooting count?"
"Of course it does."
"Do we show balloon damage"
"Yes, we do"
And what damage it was! That was fortunate, because I looked at the D-damage card for my rocket attack and it was a zero.

[RJG173]

AAR #3 Since the balloon attacks were 1 win and 1 loss for the French, I asked Todd if he wanted to go for a tie-breaker. No dice. So we played a very long dogfight scenario. John, still with his captured Sopwith Camel, and Todd with a Fokker D.VII against Craig with a Sopwith Camel and I with a SE5.a.

Airplanes that pass in the sky.



Long range head on attack for Todd and myself.



Amongst all the bobbing and weaving going on, CrashCraig takes too much damage and noses down.



Now it is two on one and I am smoking. Not in a good way. We that had about 30-45 minutes of darting about the sky with Todd taking pot shots at me with little effect. I had to be careful of my planned maneuvers since about half of the SE5.a's cards are steep maneuvers. Not so the the nimble Fokker D.VII.



Unfortunately, I caught a fire damage card. Todd decided to get out of my way and let the three fire damage draws do their dirty work. And they did. But I had a nice collection of zeroes and ones before that fire started.

[flash]

AAR #1 ... However I had planned a second stall and one cannot have consecutive steep maneuvers. I had to replace the second stall with a straight and draw an A damage card. That card had special damage (engine damage) so my rockets went haywire...

Think you were too harsh on yourself there, Robert, the rules specify 'enemy fire' to cause the special damage that ruins a launch but I can see the logic. Great to see you chaps in action, well played all.

[Baltic Bob]

Great photos Robert! I hope to join the picture parade next monh!

[Mike George]

Nicely done.

[Flying Helmut]

Great stuff!
Thanks for posting.

I do like the little flags (and the repaint Fokker D.VII is a corker!)