Wings of Glory - Break Through

Just before Christmas,we finally returned to our long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the second game of the campaign set in early 1917, the scenario was Mission 5: Break Through:

Capitalizing on recent victories, German HQ has put more emphasis on controlling the skies.
Type: DogfightVictory
Conditions: Mission Points. At the end of each sortie, calculate each side’s Mission Points. The side with the most points wins the mission.
Fallback: Mission 4a
Setup: Mission should be played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The German Attackers have a 12 inch deployment zone and the French Defenders have a 36 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes.
• The defender’s side has a chance for random balloons. Use the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

We drew cards, and manged to avoid both random Balloons and Ground Targets.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, one pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: a hex-camouflaged Albatros D.V. (Frederick) and a yellow SPAD XIII (Brian). Kevin ran a silver Nieuport 17 with twin MGs, and I ran a relatively elderly Albatros  D.II painted in the colours of Oswald Boelcke.

Below are the combatants, from L-R, D.II, SPAD, D.V., and Nieuport:

Below, two photos showing the French (Kevin) and German (Frederick) flight leaders.







Below, the two flights set off against each other. Nearest is my Albatross D.II.




The two sides flew past each other, the French to the south, and the Germans to the north (below, looking south):




Below, three of the four planes turned and got firing solutions right away, with the Albatros D.II and Nieuport taking some hits (my Albatross took 5 points of damage in one shot!).




The fight got really mixed up as the planes kept jousting at each other.






After a couple of Immelmann's, Kevin and I lined up on each other again.






Later, my Albatross and Brian's planes avoided a collision.




Kevin's Nieuport finally fell to my twin Spandaus, crash landing in No-Man's land.



Brian, wanting revenge for his comrade, started after the D.II.



Frederick came to my aid, flying under me.






Frederick trailed Brian for a bit, but the latter pulled another Immelmann...



...tried to attack Frederick...



...then went head to head with the D.II., shooting my plane down.



Brian then accelerated east...







...before turning around to dive for the western (Allied) board edge.




The fast SPAD blew right past the Albatross D.V.




Frederick got some shots into the SPAD, but not enough to bring it down, and chased Brian off the table.

The current standings in the campaign (as the moderator, my results do not count):

• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +5 (five sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +4 (drove off two enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) 6 1/2 victories = 24 campaign points, Knight's Cross, Deadly Aim 1
• Brian: +2 (two sorties flown) +8 (two planes shot down) 2 victories = 10 campaign points
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +3 (three sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) +2 (drove off one enemy aircraft) 2 1/2 victories = 7 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) 1 victory = 2 campaign points
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown) = 1 campaign point
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) 1 victory = 1 campaign point
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points

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Tripods & Triplanes

I have also purchased the Tripods & Triplanes supplement for Wings of Glory from Ares Games. The story is as follows:

March 18th, 1918: the nearest approach of planet Mars to Earth. The First World War suddenly changes into a War of the Worlds, when what appears as a meteor shower falls over a wood in Alsace. A few hours later, just after dawn, an army of giant alien fighting machines appear out of the trees and starts burning villages and houses with their lethal heat-rays, leaving pestilential trails of black smoke behind them.

 A truce is hurriedly signed between the warring nations and, against the advancing Martian tripods, the best war machines of Earth are dispatched, manned by the most gallant and skilled warriors of our planet!

The supplement includes both a Nieuport 16 (armed with Le Prieur anti-balloon rockets) and a small Martian "Locust" Tripod. Le Prieur rockets seem to function well against the Martian invaders. I currently have four such balloon-busting Nieuport 16 models, flying under the flags of France, Italy, and Britain.

Below are examples of the Martian Locust Tripod and an RAF Nieuport 16. 

(These two photos copyright Ares Games)

With another couple of Martian Tripods ordered, I look forward to running some alternate-history sci-fi games!

Wings of Glory - Campaign Game

Some time ago, we played another game in the long-running Wings of Glory campaign. For that night’s game, the first game of the campaign set in 1917, the scenario is Mission 4a: Stalled Advance:


Background: Hoping to prevent a stalemate and gain the upper hand on Intelligence for a major ground offensive, HQ has called for a renewed effort to eliminate the enemy’s observation balloons.
Type: Balloon Busting
Victory Conditions: Mission Points.  The side with the most mission points wins the mission. For this mission, Balloon points are worth double the normal value.
Fallback: Mission 3a or 3b
Setup: Mission was played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The Attackers have a 16 inch deployment zone and the Defenders have a 32 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land.

• Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployments zones in a loose formation with no more then a ruler length between planes. 
• The (French) defender’s side must place two balloons per sortie using the special Balloons rules.
• Each side has a chance for random ground targets. Use the special Ground Targets rules.

Frederick and Kevin ran, respectively, the Germans and the French. Since it was 1917, the best pilot character on each side got an upgraded plane: an Albatross D.V. and a Spad XIII.

Below, Kevin contemplates the table.



Frederick overlooks the defending artillery observation balloons, and the pair of machine-guns placed between them, deep behind the French front line trenches.



The two patrols flew over No-Man's land.





The French opted to pass to the south of the Germans, seeking to gain their tails.



The northern balloon took several hits...



...and took several more as the Germans made long firing passes.



The French ganged up on the German wingman, who weathered their shots.



The German flight leader then fired on the southern balloon.





Concentrated fire brought the German wingman down.



By this point, the balloons had been winched down half of their altitude; the French might save them both!



Frederick's flight leader made a couple of passes at the northern balloon again.







Eventually, the balloon's hydrogen exploded!



Jousting with the French, the surviving German opened up his throttle...



...and headed east for home. Only the Spad had the speed to potentially catch up.





Kevin zigged when he should have zagged, resulting with the French leader ended up facing the wrong direction, and so he decided to head back to the French lines. The Germans won!





Knights of the Air Campaign: Results as of March 19, 2015

Scoring:

• Bill (suffered 2 wounds in Mission 1): +2 (two sorties flown) -4 (being shot down) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 2 campaign points
• Brian: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 1 victory, 5 campaign points
• Byron (suffered 3 wounds in Mission 3a): +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down = -3 campaign points
• Indo: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) = 5 campaign points
• Jim: +1 (one sortie flown) +4 (one plane shot down) -4 (being shot down) = 1 victory, 1 campaign point
• MikeA: +1 (one sortie flown) -4 (being shot down) = -3 campaign points
• Frederick's German Flight Leader: +4 (four sorties flown) +19 (three and 1/2 planes (14) and one balloon (5) shot down) +2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 4 1/2 victories, 21 campaign points; awarded the Knight's Cross!
• Frederick's German Wingman  (suffered 1 wound in Mission 4a): +3 (three sorties flown) + 2 (drove off enemy aircraft) -4 (being shot down) = 1 campaign point
• Kevin's French Flight Leader: +2 (two sorties flown) +6 (1 victory (Frederick's Wingman) and one shared victory) = 1 1/2 victories, 8 campaign points
• Kevin's French Wingman: +1 (one sortie flown), 1 campaign point

Next Game: Mission 5 Break Through

Wings of Glory - The Hun Attack!

Last Thursday night's game was the latest in our long-running Wings of Glory/Wings of War campaign. The game was still set in 1916, pitting men and machines of the French Army Air Service (Aéronautique Militaire) against those of the Imperial German Flying Corps (Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches).

From the last game, the German's had their choice of three scenarios for this mission. They chose scenario 3a. modified as follows:

Mission 3a: Hold the Line: With key targets and locations located in the last mission, HQ has ordered the air service to clear the skies while the ground troops make an advance on them..

Type: Dogfight

Victory Conditions: Mission Points. At the end of the sortie, the side that has the most victories wins the mission.

Fallback: Mission 1

Setup: Mission should be played length wise on a 4’x6’ table. The Attackers  have an 18 inch deployment zone and the defenders have a 30 inch deployment zone. This leaves 24 inches of No-man’s Land. Both sides must start the sortie with their planes inside their deployment zones in a loose formation no more than a ruler length between panes..

Below, Conscripts Frederick. Bill and Kevin (not pictured) played Die Fliegertruppen, setting up three Albatross DIIIs in the left (eastern) section of the table.



We had an odd number of players, so I stepped out of the campaign organizer role to assist Jim and Byron, flying a trio of Aéronautique Militaire Nieuport 17s. The planes can be seen angling southeast towards the three German machines...



Up until that point I thought that this was going to be a canny game of maneuver. However, the opposing forces ended up flying straight at each other in a no-deflection exchange of machine gun fire.



The first two phases after initial contact, my camouflaged Nieuport managed two heavy bursts against a couple of German aircraft. After the game, I found out that these close-range bursts had inflicted like 8 or 9 damage points to each plane!

However, the Germans gave as good as they got, damaging my plane severely. I Immelmanned back and went for Bill, who put in the finishing blow, sending my aircraft down  into No Man's land.



Jim made a wide loop to the south and west. Meanwhile, Byron got caught in a squeeze play between Frederick and Kevin, and was soon shot down.



Jim got back into the fight. His rudder got jammed by enemy fire, so he was forced to go head to head against Frederick. They shot each other out of the air - Jim's French plane also fell into the mud of No Man's Land, and Frederick's Albatross disappeared in a  ball of flame!



The takeaways from this fight? Maneuver to take shots on enemy planes from their rear; trading head-on shots leads to more pain than it's worth.

All the pilots who got shot down drew cards to see how badly wounded they were. Frederick's pilot, due to the nature of the incident, had a very high chance of dying outright.

Campaign Standings:

From Thursday's Game:

• Bill: one sortie flown, one victory (DaveV), still suffering from the effects of 2 wounds received in Mission 1 = 1 victory, 2 campaign points
• Frederick's Flight Leader: one sortie flown, one victory (Byron), 1 shared victory (Jim), shot down in No Man's Land (suffered 4 wounds but managed to evade capture) = 3 1/2 victories, 15 campaign points
• Kevin: one sortie flown, 1 shared victory (Jim) = 1/2 victory, 3 campaign points
• Byron: one sortie flown, shot down in No Man's Land (suffered 3 wounds but managed to evade capture) = -3 campaign points
• Jim: one sortie flown, 1 victory (Frederick), shot down in No Man's Land (unwounded and managed to evade capture) = 1 victory, 1 campaign point

Others:

• Brian: 1 victory, 5 campaign points
• Indo: 1 victory, 5 campaign points
• MikeA: -3 campaign points
• Frederick's wing man: 4 campaign points

If any pilot  manages to reach 5 victories (Frederick's Flight Leader is close with 3 1/2), he will become an Ace, and then be entitled to gain Ace Skills, special skills that functionally break the rules of the game (that is, to ignore some weapon jams, ignore certain damage effects, etc.). Double aces will get to choose another skill, or potentially upgrade an existing skill.

With 15 pilot points, Fredericks' lead pilot is also 5 points away from possibly winning the Knight's Cross.

The Germans currently have the advantage. Can they keep up their momentum?