Last flight of the Rittmeister

It is November 1918 in Richard's WW1 air campaign, so the end is closing in. Can any of Jasta 6's aces get their 10th kill and claim the elusive Blue Max?

As we start the evening Jon F is on 8 or 9 kills, and I'm on 7. The allied air force is nowhere near us in terms of victories individually, but they are up in the air, hunting aces. Uniquely for this game I'm able to attend in person. Will seeing the planes close up rather than on the screen make a major difference to the quality of my flying?

I'm off top left, chasing an allied 2 seater. Chris and Jon are top right. Phil, Steve and Richard are arriving bottom centre.

Here I am, closing in. I shot it down in the next turn. The situation was a bit of an umpire gimme, as it was being flown by random dice rolls.

It then got all rather complicated in the middle of the table. This close up flying is bad news for the Germans, normally, as the Sopwith Camels are much more manoeuvrable than the Albatrosses. 

Jon has no such worries in his Dr1, which can fly through a keyhole.

Jon was having a pretty good game of it, and had inflicted a lot of hits on various Allied aircraft. Chris and I had also chipped in by adding the odd hit here and there, so at least one allied plane was ripe to plucking.

Jon then had a disaster. He was lined up for a head to head with a damaged Allied plane. They exchanged shots, and both took hits. Jon had no damage at that point, if I recall. Alas he took a crew hit, that then rolled up to a pilot kill. His practically undamaged plane then glided down to the ground, Rittmeister von Freitag dead at the controls on the last day of the campaign.

The rest of the game was almost an anti-climax. Jon's pilot has survived the longest of all of us, and had the most kills. He came back in a re-spawned plane to keep the evening going, and was present when Phil's plane exploded dramatically, caught in the cross fire between Chris and Jon v2.0.

Meanwhile Richard and I were circling round one another, desperately trying not to get shot down whilst not making it look like we were running away.

That about wrapped up the game and the campaign. I managed to get out as the Top Ace, but didn't get the Blue Max. I took a few hits during the game, and they were all on the same part of the plane. That makes it more likely your plane is going to fall apart in the sky. Richard on the other hand, had taken more hits but evenly distributed. That meant he could afford to be more bold. In the end my main aim was to not get hit, rather than shoot someone else down.

Richard is promising another campaign next year, but this time with some 1915 clunkers. Watch this space.