Tanks for the memories

[Biggles downunder]

Tuesday again, so that means the gang of 4 meets again - this time at my aerodrome AKA the dining room table.

Given that I'm busily building 1/35 scale WW1 tanks at the moemnt, it only seemed appropriate that I constructed a scenario around tanks! So, here was the brief emailed out to the others prior to Tuesday night:

The Allied High Command has got wind of a coming Central Powers attack that is to be supported by tanks - a suspected mix of A7Vs and captured Mk IVs.

There are 3 suspected target areas and the Breguets won't spot them until at least one has overflown the correct area, at which stage the AA gun nearby will be revealed and be activated. The Breguet(s) will need to plan their bomb run for the next turn.

Once the tanks have been spotted the opposition - 2 Albatross DIIIs, who are in the air on their side of the lines, will attempt to intercept the bombers.

Bombing rules will be the Wings of Glory version, Boom is half damage points, AA gun is 5 damage points. Central powers players will need to secretly determine which target are holds the tanks and also the position of the AA gun which must be at one of the cardinal compass points, 1/2 ruler length from the tank card.

The Albatrii are my F-Toys miniatures mounted on my own design of 3D printed bases, the Breguets are standard miniatures, again mounted on my bases.

So...

The Breguets decided to split up and start from opposite sides of the game mat in order to flush out the tank park as soon as possible while the Albatrii patrolled close to their aerodrome:





First blood to an alert rear gunner!



And.. a bonus as the tank park is flushed out...



That rear gunner swings his gun to starboard and inflicts minor damage to the AA gun crew...



The two other aircraft exchange mutual unpleasantries, helped out by the pilot of the first Breguet...



And again...



Oh no - the AA gun, in haste to inflict some damage does so, but to one of his own...



But Richtofen manages to get off a shot at the Breguet (who has been taking a pummeling prior to this) with dramatic results...



All of this allowed the first Breguet to successfully bomb the target and partially destroy it. However it was all so exciting that I somehow missed the opportunity to photograph it!

Stay tuned for the continuing story - same time same bat-channel!

[zenlizard]

Looking forward to the thrilling conclusion...

[malachi]

Great AAR, Wayne. Sharp-looking planes!
REP

[flash]

Great tank hunting Wayne - looks like the J deck arrived just in time !

[Biggles downunder]

The story continues as, per our house rule Windy Jack rejoined the tank hunt flying a Sopwith 11/2 Strutter while the remaining Breguet battles on to try and carryout another bombing run...



Meanwhile the Sopwith starts a bombing run on the tank park:



Uh, oh - that doesn't bode well...



But it does enable the Sopwith to complete a bomb drop which, being the second load delivered, takes out the target!



But the remaining Breguet is now taking a hammering, with the inevitable result...




And here we have the final result...




So, at the end of the day, although the tank park was destroyed, Goering and Richthofen managed to down both Breguets - so a draw maybe?

I should have mentioned earlier that we had decided that no respawning could take place after 12 complete rounds (we used a D12 to track this) so Doug (Windy Jack) was respawned at about round 9. This was to prevent an aircraft appearing fresh on the board near the end of the scenario with zero damage points.

[Biggles downunder]

Great tank hunting Wayne - looks like the J deck arrived just in time !

Oh yes, and many thanks, although given that I was flying the second Breguet, I'm not really sure it was a good idea to put Manny and the fat man on the table!

[Baxter]

Interesting to me that both Albatri had 11 points of damage each. I wonder if they would have been able to knock off the undamaged Sopwith hadthe game not ended there.

[zenlizard]

That was a fun one to read. Thanks for the post.

[Flying Helmut]

Nice scenario, well-executed!

Interesting to me that both Albatri had 11 points of damage each. I wonder if they would have been able to knock off the undamaged Sopwith had the game not ended there.

12 damage on Goering (with the +1 chit)?

I think introducing the Sopwith undamaged in turn 9 moved the goalposts a bit...
The second hit on the tank park would not have happened.

[Windy Jack]

I think introducing the Sopwith undamaged in turn 9 moved the goalposts a bit...
The second hit on the tank park would not have happened.

You are right. Would you not allow respawning, or would you make the cut off point for being able to respawn earlier?

We prefer to have our people playing rather than watching, which is why we respawn. On Tuesday we did recognise the disadvantage that a fresh undamaged plane makes for its opponents, which is why we put a limit on when respawning could happen.

[Flying Helmut]

You are right. Would you not allow respawning, or would you make the cut off point for being able to respawn earlier?

We prefer to have our people playing rather than watching, which is why we respawn. On Tuesday we did recognise the disadvantage that a fresh undamaged plane makes for its opponents, which is why we put a limit on when respawning could happen.

Personally, I prefer "no respawn", but I fully understand a reluctance among many players to go with it.

I play with the "Boom" card as half damage - a player usually has to get himself into a truly horrible position to be blasted down before the mid-point of a game! Enforcing a "no-respawn" encourages players to fly more carefully, taking fewer risks with their own "lives".
If you know in advance that you can easily get a new plane, and miss no action, then you can charge in as recklessly as you want, because it really doesn't matter whether you get shot down or not.

Particularly in a mission-focused game, it can be disheartening for the defenders to have successfully protected their assets, only to have a new enemy aircraft show up, with unnatural knowledge of the location and status of targets, and simply finish them off, effectively reversing the outcome of the entire game.

If players want a respawn, then maybe give them a scout, with no capability to alter the bombing aspect of the game, but with the ability to punish the remaining defending aircraft?

[Stumptonian]

I think if you want to respawn late in the game the 'spawnee' aircraft should already be at half-damage.

[flash]

..We prefer to have our people playing rather than watching, which is why we respawn. On Tuesday we did recognise the disadvantage that a fresh undamaged plane makes for its opponents, which is why we put a limit on when respawning could happen.

Some good suggestions coming out for respawns, you could dock the fresh plane a damage point per turn; if downed early in the game it comes back with relatively light damage, if it's downed later in the game it comes back with a reasonably high level of damage.

[Stumptonian]

Some good suggestions coming out for respawns, you could dock the fresh plane a damage point per turn; if downed early in the game it comes back with relatively light damage, if it's downed later in the game it comes back with a reasonably high level of damage.

I thought about that, but I am not sure everyone keeps track of Turn Numbers when playing face-to-face.
Also thought about drawing a damage card for each turn.

[flash]

I thought about that, but I am not sure everyone keeps track of Turn Numbers when playing face-to-face...

I thought the same but I reckoned they would start counting if they're hoping for a respawn at some point when things go west !

[Windy Jack]

Some good suggestions coming out for respawns, you could dock the fresh plane a damage point per turn; if downed early in the game it comes back with relatively light damage, if it's downed later in the game it comes back with a reasonably high level of damage.

One thing I forgot to say about our respawns; it is always a weaker or older aircraft than the one that was downed. For example, as you saw in the AAR, the Breguet was replaced by a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter.

Your idea of a damage point per planning phase is worth considering. We don't normally keep a track of how many planning phases we have had, but we did last week because we wanted to know for respawning.