Wings of War

Wings of War Campaign (10 December 2012)

Gotha Raid

We flew two missions today to kick off our small WWI campaign.  The first was a bombing mission for a lone Gotha Bomber with two (2) Dr. 1’s as escort (John and Gary).  On the Allied side they had a flight of one (1) Sopwith Camel (Nate) and four (3) Sopwith Snipes (Andrew, Anthony and Aaron).  Some of the Pilots were new to WoW but they caught on quickly.  

Running for Home!

The battle lasted until the Gotha (me) made a run at the target and then back over their own lines.  My escort fighters did an excellent job of keeping those pesky Brits off my back while I flew through and lined up my bomb run.  About midway to the target they did get a lucky shot and killed my nose gunner so was a bit defenseless up front.  Other damage I sustained was my tail gunner getting jammed at the wrong moment (of course) and we took some a rudder hit going in and another coming back out while I was “running” for it.  I managed to damage the target but didn’t destroy it.  I missed the target “red dot” by millimeters!  I totally miscalculated my turns before my run and took some extra moves to get lined up.  

Taking their last shots at my Gotha!

So the Gotha suffered some damage but not as much as the Fighters in the Dogfight around me.  Many took over half damage but not enough to get them extra survivor points as laid out in the campaign rules and we did not have any kills.  But one or more turns that could have been a different story.  We used the two original Wings of War Battle mats for this mission. 

So using the Campaign rules I found at the Aerodrome we scored as follows:

Mission 1 – Bomb Run

Gary S./German Dr. 1/Battle Survival = 1 pt

John O./German Dr. 1/Battle Survival = 1 pt

Dan G./German Gotha/Battle survival and damaging target = 2 pts

Nate F./British Sopwith Camel/Battle Survival = 1 pt

Aaron V./British Sopwith Snipe/Battle Survival = 1 pt

Anthony R./British Sopwith Snipe/Battle Survival = 1 pt

Andrew G./British Sopwith Snipe/Battle Survival = 1 pt

Fighter Scramble
We then moved on to the Fighter Scramble.  This was fought with three (3) Sopwith Snipes Piloted by Andrew G., Anthony R. and Aaron V.  We were joined this time by John W. who jumped into a Dr. 1, John O. stayed with his Dr. 1 from the previous Battle and I took an Albatross.  There was some vengeance to be dealt out from the British after our successful German Bombing run.  Besides the usual trash talk across the table the fighting was tenacious.  There was a lot of damage being dealt but again no Kills.  We fought on as long as we could before our players had to start packing up to get home.  So we called the battle after an hour of some good fighting.  I did notice that the players were getting smart.  The ones that were taking damage would get out away from the center of the battle to come back in with a better advantage.  And some made the rookie mistakes of not visualizing the turn before selecting the Turn card.  It was evident with one of the German Players was in a tailing position and for some reason turned completely away from the Brit he was chasing (Nice one John W.).  But for this being the 2^nd mission we had a lot of fun and all are looking forward to the next set of missions.  So the points were dished out as follows:

  Mission 2 – Fighter Scramble

John W./German Dr. 1/Battle Survival = 1 pt

John O./German Dr. 1/2 Battle Survival = 1 pts

Dan G./German Gotha/2 Battle Survival = 1 pts

Aaron V./British Sopwith Snipe/Battle Survival = 2 pts

Anthony R./British Sopwith Snipe/Battle Survival = 2 pts

Andrew G./British Sopwith Snipe/2 Battle Survival = 2 pts

These players as points are accumulated will be able to purchase certain skills from the list provided in the Campaign rules.  This should make them more dangerous.  We will see.

Campaign Total Points

Pilot	Country	Aircraft	Mission 1  Bomb Run	Mission 2  Scramble	Total
Gary S.	German	Dr. 1	1		1
John W.	German	Dr. 1		1	1
John O.	German	Dr. 1	1	1	2
Dan G.	German	Gotha/Albatross	2	1	3
Nate F.	British	Camel	1		1
Andrew G.	British	Snipe	1	1	2
Anthony R.	British	Snipe	1	1	2
Aaron V.	British	Snipe	1	1	2