Bust the Bridge

[Windy Jack]

A DeHavilland DH4, piloted by Pentland with his observer O’Brien, is escorted by Smith in a SPAD 7, on his mission to bomb a railway bridge to stop German supplies and troops getting through.
The bridge is defended by two Pfalz D.III – Bosch in the blue one and Gerschwitz in the green one.
(All the guns are A firing, except Pentland’s gun which is B firing.)

As the Entente planes make for their target, the bomber swings wide (you can just see its base in the top of the photograph), while its escort takes a more direct route. In the meantime, Bosch has headed towards the incoming aircraft, while Gerschwitz has hung back waiting for them to come to him.
So Bosch and Smith are the first to exchange fire as they come into range.


Smith’s next target is Gerschwitz, who is heading towards the bomber.


Gerschwitz can now harass the bomber, but not without being the meat in an Entente sandwich!


And not without being in O’Brien’s sights immediately after.


Smith has come back into the picture, and he and O’Brien fire at Gerschwitz, who targets Smith.


However, that was all Gerschwitz could take, and he leaves the sky.


If the Entente are to be stopped, it is now up to Bosch. He has been helped a little by Pentland misjudging his bombing run. Rather than wasting his load he elects to go around again.


It’s a hard life being a defender! By doing an Immelmann, Bosch positions himself well to target the DeHavilland, but not well enough to avoid O’Brien’s gun. And, Smith re-joins the action giving away some lead.


The guns of both Bosch and Smith were jammed, but a beaming O’Brien can still fire at Bosch – with great success.


There are no defenders left, so Pentland has a clear run to try again to bust the bridge.


(We actually ended the game after Bosch went down, rather than stand around watching Wayne manoeuvre the DeHavilland for another bombing run.)

[Paukenschlager]

Lovely action and great AAR!
I agree with ending the game when one side gets wiped out, it's not fun to wait for someone to humiliate the adversary

[Larry R.]

Good, fun game with lively action!

[CrashCraig]

Good match up of airplanes Doug. Unfortunate Gerschwitz was such a lead magnet. Thanks for posting.

[camel crew]

Great AAR n pictures Doug. Good day for the Bulldogs

[mikeemagnus]

Nice action, Doug. The two unfortunate Pfalz took an aweful lot of heavy hits, but went down fighting. Smith took some fine hits and I see he went home wounded. So not all one sided Thanks for sharing.

[Windy Jack]

Great AAR n pictures Doug. Good day for the Bulldogs

Glad you thought the pictures were great. My camera was playing up, so I had to take the pictures from a distance and then crop them to show what I really wanted to take.

Thanks to those who have given reputuation.

[Teaticket]

The Hun took that one on the chin! Nice AAR Doug.

[Baxter]

It turned out to be a very quick game. The DH4 is both fast and heavily armed.

[flash]

More good, sharp action from the chaps down under.
Gerschwitz might have lasted a tad longer if you'd been using the blindspot rule but he took such a shellacking it probably would've made little difference

[zenlizard]

Yeah, going up against an equal firepower single-seater and a two-seater at the same time is seldom good for one's health.

[Windy Jack]

Yeah, going up against an equal firepower single-seater and a two-seater at the same time is seldom good for one's health.

Rightly or wrongly, when I prepare a bombing scenario I assume that the bomber will be focussed on its bombing run rather than other aircraft. Therefore, I don't worry so much about matching fire power or points for each side. The defenders are free to go wherever they want, but the bomber has a relatively set trajectory. It has to get to the target, and judge the timing of dropping the bombs on that target. In the game, if not in real life, the defenders know where the bomber is headed, and they can plan accordingly.

[Paukenschlager]

It has to get to the target, and judge the timing of dropping the bombs on that target. In the game, if not in real life, the defenders know where the bomber is headed, and they can plan accordingly.

I agree with you Doug - it's actually something I have been thinking recently because of my heavy bombers scenario.
To try and mitigate this predictability I want to test a scenario with multiple targets well spaced on the gaming surface and give the player controlling the bomber the choice of which one to attack, so that it will give everyone a bit more to think at the planning stage

[flash]

...To try and mitigate this predictability I want to test a scenario with multiple targets well spaced on the gaming surface and give the player controlling the bomber the choice of which one to attack, so that it will give everyone a bit more to think at the planning stage

I've found that makes little difference, Valerio. Given the size of table involved the defending scouts just make a bee line for the bombers and attempt to kill them as soon as they can without much reference to the targets. It can be a nice thing for the bomber pilot to be able to choose though.