Inspired by Osprey Bomber and Reconnaissance Aces, I made a Caudron R.IV card from Escadrille R46. Escadrille R46 was an aggressive French reconnaissance squadron - as well as accomplishing their observation tasks, they regularly attacked enemy aircraft they came across. This is a hypothetical encounter between a Caudron R.IV and two Roland C.IIs during the Battle of Verdun (imagine that beautiful Verdun mat that Monse showed us, instead of my kitchen tablecloth). My son took the Rolands and I flew the Caudron. We agreed that if the Caudron lost half its hit points and both Rolands were still in the air, a B-firing Nieuport would arrive to assist.
Starting positions: the Roland crews have been intently watching the ground and have not noticed the Caudron approaching them...
First shots, the leading Roland suffers a gun jam.
The Caudron packs a punch with twin Lewis guns fore and aft.
However the Rolands keep up a steady fire with the result that the Caudron has soon lost over half its hit points, triggering the arrival of a B-firing French Nieuport. What's more, it has engine damage and is on fire...
The Nieuport enters the fray from the right while the Caudron continues to trade shots with one of the Rolands.
Unlike the Caudron, which has drawn no zeros, the Nieuport is proving hard to hit. Maybe because it is a smaller target!!
The Caudron succumbs to fire damage, leaving the Nieuport to fight the two enemy aircraft.
The Nieuport has a close-range tangle with a Roland (note: all the damage cards here should be B, we corrected this later)
The purple Roland hits the deck.
Soon to be followed by the Nieuport, despite all its zeroes! The relatively undamaged grey Roland ended up as the victor.
This was an enjoyable game. I liked trying to fly the Caudron aggressively as a "gunship" and my son had fun with the Rolands, although managing two K decks was confusing at times. If the Caudron had drawn a few zeroes and the Nieuport had fewer gun jams (it had 5!) it could have been a different result, so it felt balanced.
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