Wednesday night's photo recon mission
The scenario:
The Central Powers High Command has been hearing rumours of an impending Entente attack to be supported by tanks. Their spies have not been able to pin down the exact location of the tank park nor the exact number of tanks in the park although they have narrowed it down to 3 possible locations.
To answer both of these questions High Command has decided to mount a photo reconnaissance mission involving 2 Hannovers with an Albatros D.Va as escort.
We played to the following house rules:
1. Before beginning, the Entente players would place the 3 target cards face down on the map (one of which had a tank card on the other side). These would be turned over when a Hannover passed over the card. A 3D printed tank miniature would be placed on the card for ‘bling’ purposes!
2. The ‘boom’ card would be BOOM!
3. Victory conditions for the Entente would be preventing any Hannover that had photographed the actual tank park from returning to base i.e. recrossing the trench line.
4. Victory conditions for the Central Powers would be for the successful Hannover recrossing the trench lines.
The Hannovers depart for their intended targets.
As soon as they cross the front line it is highly likely that there will be a telephone message reporting this to a stand-by force consisting of 2 Snipes and a Sopwith Camel.
It seems like only a few seconds have elapsed before the aircraft begin pouring streams of lead into each other.
Which results in disaster for one of the Hannovers!
After some frantic jockeying one of the Snipes finds itself in a Hannover sandwich.
And the Snipes continue to punish the Hannover that is already on fire:
Followed up with more punishment by the Camel.
But the Hannover bravely staggers on and ‘presto’ the tank park is discovered and the observer takes a quick break from battling the fire to snap the required photographs!
While all this was happening on one side, the other Hannover was attempting to disengage from a Snipe after suffering an unfortunate gun-jam.
Meanwhile the escorting Albatros was engaging the other Snipe. Things were getting very ‘busy’ on all sides – a real swirling dogfight!
After firing on the Snipe, some clever maneuvering by Albatros now brought the Camel within range while it started to make things even warmer for the, already on fire Hannover!
As the flaming Hannover is making a frantic dash for home one of the Snipes has slid across to cut off the escape route as the rear gunner of the Hannover returns fire. Again, streams of lead flying in all directions!
And the Camel succumbs to the inevitable!
Again, while all this was taking place, the second Hannover and the Albatros have created a Snipe sandwich:
Oh no! The Hannover that had taken the crucial photo has also succumbed to the inevitable as the last fire card draw was a 5!
However, the second Hannover has fought its way across to also successfully photograph the tank park.
While the Albatros continues to pound the Snipes who are both struggling to stay in the air!
And the inevitable eventually happens:
And another one bites the dust!
So, at this point, all the Entente aircraft had been shot down which left the second Hannover (which had also taken the requisite photo) and the Albatros D.Va both flying, so the mission was declared a success for the Central Powers.
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Originally Posted by Flying Helmut
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