BYM Mission 5 - Only if You Really Help, 5th Nov 1916 by ShadowDragon
OTT-BYM Mission 5: Only if You Really Help, 5th Nov 1916 by ShadowDragon
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...6-by-teaticket
Jack Wilde and Bruce Dundee sat back in their lounge chairs sipping tea – or whatever was in their tea cups. A third man, Baz Lanister, had his head buried under the cowling of one of Koala Bush Pilot ‘Airlines’ planes.
“Say, if either of you gents want to lend a hand, it would be much appreciated”, Baz called out,
“Nah, we’re good with supervising. Besides that was your fancy flying that caused the problem. Lucky for you and for your passengers you survived”, Jack replied.
“Well, Baz is the exception to the rule of bold pilots and old pilots but no old, bold pilots. Say, Jack, did I ever tell you about the stunt Baz pulled with a Frenchie Voisin back in the war?”
“Can’t say you did.”
“Harrumph”, replied Baz.
“It was when you were convalescing from that slight knock on the head. Seems to me that you were probably kept in hospital longer than needed as a punishment for trying to take a swipe at Fergis – er, Major Fergis O’Neil. Well, it was either that time or another time you were on leave for being banged up.”
The scene fades to the 5th of November,1916.
Flight Commander Nigel Flashman was on patrol with the two Aussies in X Squadron’s scout flight when they spotted a French Voisin circling and circling and circling. As they headed over to check it out, a pair of Hun Albatri showed up off their port side. They too were curious about the strange behaviour of the Voisin.
The two Huns weren’t the only enemy – another Albatros was ahead and to starboard. Flashman didn’t know what was the Voisin’s problem but clearly the Albatri had added to it. He signalled to Baz to take on the Hun to starboard while he and Bruce would intercept the portside ones.
Bruce and the Hun in Albatros with the brownish-red fuselage were the first to engage. The Hun, Feldwebel Hans Schobinge, misjudged and shot wide while Bruce, the sniper, did serious damage on the Albatros.
Shortly, Flashman and the other Hun, Feldwebel Hans Anslinger, joined the fray. Both Flashman and Hans A did little damage with their deflection shots. Bruce, on the other hand, was doing well. A bullet found a vital spot on the Albatros, which didn’t much appreciate it and promptly exploded – much to the chagrin of the Huns and delight of the Seadogs.
On the other side of the circling Voisin, Baz came to grips with the all-CDL Albatros, piloted by Leutnant Hans Bauer – yes, there are a lot of Hans here. This Hans like the other Hans had clearly not practiced his shooting and missed Baz’s Pup (actually it was Jack’s Pup and Baz was just ‘borrowing’ it). Hans wasn’t so lucky as Baz hit a fuel line and a small fire flickered along the side of the Albatros. I guess many Hans make light work or, in this case, the Seadogs will make light of many Hans.
As the Voisin came in close, Baz could see what the problem was – debris stuck in the rudder. The Voisin had taken a lot of damage and from the looks of hit, the observer wasn’t too health either…but healthy enough to get a pot shot off at the passing Hans.
The Hans B wasn’t about to take this ‘lying down’ – if one could by ‘lying down’ flying an aeroplane. An Immelmann turn put the Voisin in his sights. The fragile Voisin would not survive long taking this kind of damage.
With an Immelmann (oops, shouldn’t have done that – see notes at the end) Baz was back in the fray to take the heat off the Frenchie. An engine hit would force Hans B home, but the rudder hit on Baz’s Pup would force Baz to do some calculating. He had a plan to help the Frenchie but the rudder hit would complicate it.
Meanwhile sniper Bruce was harrying Hans S. Down below, Hans A was being helped from the wreckage of his plane by some helpful infantrymen.
Eager to get at each other Bruce and Hans S collided. Bruce was sure the collision had caused engine damage. (“Nah, you chickened out”, Baz called out from his repair work. “Afraid of those Albatri”. Bruce ignored the interjection.)
By now it was clear what Baz was doing. He was trying to ‘run down’ the Voisin. A ‘controlled collision’ he’d call it afterwards. A pretty crazy thing to be doing.
While Baz was executing his hairbrained scheme, Flashman was intercepting the escaping Hans B - or trying to – his deflection shots were wide. That didn’t help poor Hans B, as the fire suddenly decided to flare up ending the flying days of this Albatros. Fortunately for Hans B, there were more helpful infantrymen to help him out of his wreckage, so he’d soon be flying again.
Baz was nearly on the Voisin when Hans S showed up. Fortunately, Hans S’s shooting was naught better than Flashman’s had been.
Bang – the speedy Pup crashed into the Voisin. [Quite the draw of cards. Baz is a lucky pilot and applied his ‘lucky’ skill to nullifying the damage to the Voisin – otherwise it would have gone down as the 8 points halved to 4 would have given it 11 points. The ‘boom’ damage only meant 3 points for the Pup, which could take it, but it was quite the draw of two collision cards.]
Baz still had to extricate the Pup from the Voisin without too much more damage – fortunately each of the planes took minor damage.
With Baz free from the Voisin, the Voisin could now make its way to safety. That still left one Hun, Hans S, lurking about and hoping to finish off the badly battered Voisin.
Baz and Flashman teamed up to keep Hans S away from the Voisin – and maybe even to bag another Hun.
It was a hopeless fight for Hans. His enemies were on his tail. He’d have to run for it. [His plane was just one turn from the mat edge.]
However, just so that he wasn’t the only one not having been in a collision, Flashman collided with the escaping Hans S. The Albatros was very heavily damage and not much was needed to knocked from the skies. Flashman’s Pup suffered little in the this ‘controlled collision’ – as Flashman would call it afterwards. Fortunately, for the unfortunate. Hans S, there were still more helpful infantrymen lounging about. Perhaps they too were named Hans and able to lend a helping Hans.
The scene fades back to the Koala Bush Pilot Airlines hangar.
“That’s a tall tale if I ever heard one”, commented Jack. “Mind you, as I recall, Baz had a habit of returning my Pup in less than pristine condition. So, perhaps it went just as you remember, Bruce. What do you say, Baz? Is that how it went? Perhaps you were demonstrating your wartime skills to our PAYING passengers.”
“Harrumph”, was the reply.
********************************************************************
Note: I played the game with altitude with all planes starting on the same altitude. It made no difference at all – except for one key incident, the controlled collision. The Voisin had no climb counters while Baz had one climb counter from the Immelmann turn. According to the rules if one plane has no climb counters while the other does, there’s no collision. I forgot this rule and didn’t realize until after the game the this would have meant there was no controlled collision. Of course, that would have altered everything in the game. If I had remembered this rule prior to the game I would have played it without altitude. The victory points below are with and without credit for rescuing the two-seater.
The other rule I forgot was to ignore special damage, other than a ‘boom’, for collisions. Bruce Dundee’s Pup should not have had engine damage and should not have been ‘forced to return to base due to engine damage’. However, I played it as if there was engine damage, so I also applied the FRTB safe landing rule for consistency.
Victory Points:
Seadogs:
Tandem rescued = 0 points
Enemy shot down = 3 X 4 points = 12 points
Total = 12 points
Adlers:
Enemy tandem downed = 6 points
Total = 6 points
Seadog Victory
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Originally Posted by Baz
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