WW1 Aerial - a brief update

I'm a little bit behind on things, so here's a sort of placeholder report on the latest in our series of WW1  aerial warfare games. Due to some domestic issues our usual Jasta commander was not with us. This meant I got to lead the German flight in a brand new Fokker DR1 triplane. The improved flying ability of this plane over the Albatros was offset by the British up-gunning their aircraft and deploying the Sopwith Camel more widely.

We flew two missions. In the first the British had to fly over a bridge at low level, photograph it and then get away.

In truth they completely outwitted us. We headed straight towards them from top right, but by cleverly altering their height they avoided us shooting at them.

Consequently Steve escaped with the photos and barely a hole in his canvas. The DR1 proved nippy, but not faster between the levels, so the British were able to avoid me.

A simple and bloodless win for the British, although, as I pointed out, we didn't know what their mission was, so I am claiming a victory having driven the British off and stopped them bombing the bridge.

We lost Steve at that point, and Richard dropped out from flying a plane. The game was set up with a German intercept of returning British raiders.

There was some dodging about, and I picked up a hit or two. The DR1 is rather flimsy.

And then my plane caught fire. This is bad news as not only is it burning, but your range of manoeuvres is reduced. I needed to try and get the fire put out by diving about.

This proved to be tricky. Plan B was therefore to fly for home and land safely in a field. There's a lot of risk in all the options. It's a d6 damage system, so one bad roll can do for you, regardless of how skilfully you fly the plane.

I landed safely, and the British escaped. They can claim a "forcing down" on my kite, but otherwise not much on either side. And I lived to fight another day.

Richard's system gives the aircraft different characteristics, and shifting from Albatros to DR1 was certainly a step up in what the plane could do. The game had a lot of sneaky flying with aircraft circling each other, but it proved to be very hard to line up a consistent sequence of shots at effective ranges. This was because both sides could do so much more. Lots more finesse in this period, which tested the pilot's mettle and made the games much more cagey.

Well, I survived but not with reputation enhanced. I guess the Jasta will be calling for Herr Freitag's return as soon as  possible for some serious leadership and flying skills.