A Spark of Hope II- the revenge
A Spark of Hope II : The revenge
After a first unsuccessful attempt to take down a tripod, a squadron of three Nieuport 16s are sent. All three planes are equipped with HMGs and the squadron leader has Rockets. The plan is the take down the shields with the combined HMGs of the three planes and then finish off the tripod with the rockets.
Pre-game:
scenario: T&T book, pg27
Rules: T&T book, Basic Rules.
Additional Rules: Altitude; main rule book, pgs 13,15 &16.
House Rules: Rockets. Black smoke has an altitude of 0 & 1. Trees have an altitude of 0 and 1. The Tripod is at altitude 0 and 1. Two Nieuport 16s are added, armed with HMGs only.
Deployment:
I asked my daughter to set up the trees.
The tripod objectives were set up as layed out in the scenario.
The gaming table has 6 outside edges, the north facing edge is designated "1". I rolled a "2".
All planes start at altitude 3.
I was so concentrated on controlling three planes at once that I forgot to take the end of turn photos
Turn One:
The tripod move straight ahead to reach its first objective a quickly as possible.
Leader (equiped with rockets) made a direct beeline towards the tripod, in a hope to pop of the rockets against the non shielded part of the tripod before the tripod had time to destroy its' closest objective, the only problem was going to be getting to the right altitude without hitting the trees. Planes 1 and 2 swang out to the flanks, to converge on the tripod after leaders' initial run (my main objective was not to have the planes collide... kind of my speciality)....
Attachment 314187
Turn Two:
°Tripod moved onto the objective, while leader dived to Altitude 2 and planes 1 and 2 continued their flanking maneuvers.
°Tripod stopped on the Objective and seeing an opportunity fired on the incoming leader at long range (alt 2) inflicting 8 damage; The leader realizing that evading the trees robbed him of the opportunity of using his rockets used his HMG instead inflicting... 0 damage; Planes 1 and 2 continued their flanking maneuvers.
°Tripod stayed stationary and turned to face the objective to its right; With the tripod still in its sights Leader fired inflicting...-1 energy; Planes 1 and 2 continued their flanking maneuvers.
Turn Three:
°Still stationary on the Objective the Tripod finally tramples it to a squiggy mess; Leader flys straight to maneuver himself into a better position to make another pass and to give planes 1 & 2 time to take down the shield; Planes 1 & 2 dive to Altitude 2, and Plane 1 fires at the unprotected front for 2 damage (yay! coming in from two does directions works).
°Tripod shrugs off the damage and moves towards its next objective; Planes 1 & 2 side step to avoid each other...
(and yes, you have guessed it, the dumb-rabbit that I am, Plane 1 went right and Plane 2 went left, which is great if they are going in the same direction, but not if they are facing eachother! Silly Rabbit!)
...Collision! But luckily I pulled double 0..ouff, howerver Plane 2 had Tripod in its sights and did... 0 Damage.
°Tripod went (laughing, I know I would) towards the next objective; leader performed a looping to get back in the fight; Plane 2 did a stall which kept him in range and did... 0 Damage.
Turn Four:
Tripod moved onto the objective, squished it then turned to face objective 3; Leader dropped to altitude 1; Planes 1 & 2 maneuvered to make another pass.
Turn Five:
° Tripod turned again; Leader turned right to find himself at long range and with a dilema, fire the rockets with the posibility that the tripod would move next phase and they would miss or nibble at the shield again with the HMG, he went for the HMG and took off 1 energy; Plane 1 continued to maneuver to get a better firing position; Plane 2 got into a tailing position (at last) and fired at long for ... 0 Damage.
°Plane 2 still at long range fired for ... 0 Damage.
°Plane 2 still at long range fired for ... -1 Energy.
Turn 6:
° Tripod now on objective 3, Recharges. Leader realizes that his best option is to aim for a frontal attack on the last objective; Plane 1 loops round for a better firing position; Plane 2 stalls to pop off one last round at long range.. 0 Damage
°Tripod squishes objective 3.
°Still immobile the Tripod turns to face the last objective. Plane 1 has long range and fire for ... -1 Energy.
Turn 7:
°Tripod moves straight then turns. Leader continues his maneuver to intercept the Tripod on Objective 4; Both Planes 1 & 2 move into long range firing positions for ...0 + 0 Damage
°Tripod runs. Leader shocked by the speed of the Tripod realizes he will not be in his firing arc this turn. Planes 1 & 2.... manage to collide again for... 6 & 0 Damage.
°With another forward move the tripod is on the last objective and at close range of Leader, it fires for... 0 then +2 Damage. Leader sees the tripod bearing down his right flanc, he feels the searing heat of its main weapon and then the rockets explode and all is black. Plane 2 (destabilized on hearing the explosion I suppose) swings right and collides with plane 1 again for .. 0 & 0 Damage.
Turn 8:
With the last objective destroyed and Leader dead, planes 1 & 2 head back to base.
Debrief:
My goodness controlling three planes at once is really complicated! Apart from the odd collision ;-) the plan went well, the planes got 12 shots off, just a shame I pulled so many 0 Damage/energy cards. For info the first three cards on the Rocket damage deck were 0, explosion, explosion. So at close range Leader could have done some real damage, maybe I should have taken a chance with the trees and gone to altitude 1 to fire off the rockets turn 2... maybe next time....
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks