"Bloody April" WW I Mini-Campaign using Wings of Glory

 

Keith's 1/144 scale WW I airplanes using the Wings of Glory rules

Every once in awhile, my friend Keith gets the urge to fly a plane. Or at least, using Wings of Glory (formerly Wings of War) 1/144 scale World War I airplanes on the miniature tabletop. Rather than just doing the odd scenario, he wanted to try a mini-campaign around the Bloody April phase of the air war in WW I. He would record losses and victory points for aerial kills (I imagine -- he never really explained that part of it to us!).

 

The Germans -- Steve and Joel -- plot their fiendish maneuvers to shoot down our bombing mission

So, Allen, Mike S, and myself took on the role of an allied flight trying to bomb a bridge and one other target. Allen had a fighter and bomber, Mike S had two fights and a bomber, and I had two Sopwith Pup fighters as cover. Our opponents, Joel, Steve, and Keith, had 5 German fighters which we were told were superior to our planes. I began on the left side of our formation and raced out and flew an arc towards their center, hoping to disrupt their formation and draw attention away from the bombers. I was happy with how I lined up my shots with both of my planes getting in shots at Steve's two fighters.

 

Colorful Allied and German planes bank and turn to get a shot at the enemy

Once we'd flown by them, my two planes split up, one peeling off to face off against Keith's fighter coming in from our left (and soon to be rear), while the other turned to follow Steve's fighters, which we'd damaged. I was completely unsuccessful in drawing them away from the bombers, though. We soon had a massive, swirling melee with planes from all six players involved. True to form, one of my undamaged fighters drew the dreaded "explosion" damage card and I was down one plane. Luckily, Joel had similar bad luck on the other side.

 

Allied planes line up to concentrate on one of Steve's fighters

In the end, we lost four planes (both of our bombers and two fighters), while they lost three. Allen did successfully bomb the target, damaging it. Considering their fighters took more and dished out more damage than ours, I considered that a draw. Not sure how Keith will score it, but he recorded all the statistics for the next time. It was fun to get out the Wings of Glory game again. It is a fast-moving, easy game to pick up. The card deck simulates the flying well, and having to choose three maneuvers ahead of time makes up have to do some planning and guesswork. I look forward to our next game, and hopefully avoiding the explosion card!

A good look at the swirling central melee a turn before my plane drew the unlucky explosion card

Elephants and Warbirds...oh my!

    15mm Elephant Race on Steve's home-made felt track

Steve V would be taking his Elephant Race miniatures game up to the World at War Game Day at Fort Meigs next weekend, so he wanted a chance to get it out and shake the dust off of it. The game is a variant on the classic Avalon Hill game Circus Maximus, but with miniatures and racing elephants instead of chariots. He's thrown in random events like someone hurling a dead cat out of the stands at an opponent, flaming pigs appearing on the track (actual battlefield anti-elephant tactic by early Roman legionaries), and suddenly appearing mud holes.

Steve had created our elephants and drivers ahead of time, so it wasn't long before the jumbos were off and lumbering around the track. My Numidian elephant driver quickly proved to be clueless. Without fail, every time I "pushed it" in the turn, my elephant would go careening off the track and lose a lot of ground before getting back on. You are allowed to push it by 1-9 speed points over the recommended lane speed, making a 3d6 roll on the chart. Like clockwork, my rolls were awful and typical. Eventually, I switched dice and began to turn things around a bit. I even worked my way into second place when Allen's elephant was injured barreling through a mob of flaming pigs and stumbled. Joel was playing it slow and safe, so Keith cruised to an easy victory.

    Wings of War -- I got to fly the my favorite Hanriot for the Belgians!

The game went so quickly, we decided to break out the Wings of War WW I planes for a quick game. Since there were five of us, Keith offered to set it up and let us play. Allen and I were the Belgians, matched up against Joel and Steve as Germans. The startup positions had me between Joel and Steve, so I hightailed it across the field to Allen, then swooped into a tight turn to face off against the other two. There was a lot of swooping around and Joel and I were flying in almost Blue Angels formation -- so close we couldn't target one another. I dealt out some damage to both my opponents, and so did Allen. I took some in return -- including a jammed rudder which prevented right turns. However, Joel  pulled the unlucky explosion card when his brother lit into him. I saw that as perfect, poetic irony. Joel always insists we include that card, while Tom (who was not present) and I lobby to take it out. Steve was heavily damaged and limped off the battlefield with two points remaining. Victory to the Belgians, and my Hanriot biplane. Back in my Aerodrome-playing days, the Hanriot was my favorite plane, and one that I always seemed to do my best flying in. So, when Keith offered it, I snatched it up!

    A little bit of fratricide, as Allen shoots down his brother Joel (and one of Keith's beloved Litko markers)

A good evening of Sunday gaming at Keith's...two games in, and we got home at a reasonable hour!