Origins 2022 – Harry P Materne Memorial Tournament – Saturday 7pm
Before the start Jim had a photo to share with everyone of Matt in uniform. We dedicated the tournament to Matt's memory. Sorry that I couldn't say as much as I had planned as I got a bit choked up. Fly high Matt! One of the nicest people to ever walk on this planet.
We were prepared for up to 20 pilots and at game start we had 11. It was set up as a free for all. Everyone flying is your enemy! Jim set up a sequence of 3 planes for each player. 1st plane was a B firing and if shot down you get a better plane. The 2nd and 3rd were A firing.
I ran the game while Jim kept score.
1 point for a long range shot, 2 for a close range shot, 5 for a kill and minus 4 for being shot down. (This is the scoring I used in all my games to determine the best pilot on each side.) We used altitude with my modification of the climb card being worth 2 climb increments.
Pre-game table for the possible 20m players. Before starting we reduced the table size down for 11 planes.
Thomas (redcoon2) shows no mercy to Ray. Ray tried to act innocent, "What did I do to you"? Thomas though knew what Ray wanted to do to him and didn't wait for it to happen.
As usual for the tournament, it breaks down into 2 separate battles.
After the first pass pilots jockeyed about looking for an advantage.
Alex put the hurt on Chris (malachi).
After noting any shots and handing out damage everyone was eager for me to call out, “Let’s fly”!
John gets a kill and downs Robert (Firefly).
Ray, Karl(Jager), Thomas(redcoon2) and Tom have to figure out how to move the overlapping planes. The combination of Jenga and Twister that occurs at some time in just about every large game.
The planes are taking a beating! 2 are smoking and Karl has engine damage!
Time to plan the next turn and agonize on your card choice.
Chris(malachi) is downed by a wounded pilot flying a Camel. (Kevin Culli)
Chris will upgrade to a Fokker Triplane.
John downs another Hun giving Ales his upgraded plane.
Time to move your plane, when everyone turns into a 7 year old.
Tom is downed by Karl(Jager). One of his 2 kills.
Chris(malachi) loving his Dr.1,s agility compared to the Albatros D.II he started with gets a kill.
It was 3 hours of fierce fighting between the 11 pilots. Thomas early on took two big damage cards but somehow managed to survive with his original plane and get a kill. John lead with 2 ½ kills but was shot down twice. Karl had 2 kills and was downed once. 3 players were tied with 19 points and 2 right behind with 18. The tie breakers gave the win and first place prize of a Handley Page to Thomas. Three cheers for Thomas!
ARES was generous to us and donated 5 planes for prizes that we gave to the top 5 finishers. We have a handful of kill coins left over from previous tournaments and gave one to each of the first 3 places.
Jim also had some of the ARES airplane posters and measurement propellers that we gave out so no one left empty handed.
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