So after a couple of attempts, I finally played my first full-fledged scenario deploying my Handley Page O/400
Scenario setup
Table size: 2-mats
The Handley Page O/400 is crewed by 4 RNAS personnel and starts on the N end of the battle ground (just over the first line of trenches) at height 4, with the objective to bomb the bridge over the river flowing through the town, roughly in the middle of the second game mat - the position was chosen to give the RNAS player plenty of manouvering space and also the target card overlaps perfectly with the mat picture so it was a visual feast!
At the S fringe of the gaming surface, trying to intercept the incoming bomber there's a patrol composed by Ltn.Weber (height 3) and Udet (height 5) under the leadership of the Red Baron (height 4) himself, all flying Albatros D.Vs.
As equipment goes, beside all the needed gear from the relevant airplane packs, we used tokens and pegs from the Revised Deluxe Set and for the gaming surface the printed terrain from the HP box ("trenches" side) and a "City" game mat.
Duration of the game: ~1h 30m
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Narrative of the Action
The approach of the bomber to it's target is barely hindered by the three fighters which, either because of altitude differences, luck (or lack of) at drawing damage cards or bad positioning can't damage much the Handley Page, which kept descending as he got closer to the bridge.
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Most remarkable event of this first phase is Udet's Albatros being set on fire by the front gunner of the Handley Page while the German was caught in the crossfire of the RNAS crew.
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The bomber's descent stops at 2, height from which the full load of bombs is launched. Bombing is partly successful.
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The second phase starts with the bomber slowly banking to port in order to make its way home (2 full turns - 6 cards - spent making a 180-turn!)
A mix of misjudgment of the Albatros manouvering characteristics and untimely descents brought Von Richthofen to be away from the scrap for quite a long time, overall.
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The three D.Vs got to close in at the same time but in a rather uncoordinated fashion - a few shots were impeded by pilots having their line of sight obstructed.
This is clearly visible by the final position of the planes at the ringing of the 90min bell (at approx 2.45am!)
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Scoring
British:
Partially successful bombing: 1pt
Germans:
No points scored
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Marginal British victory:salute::medal:
Some post-game considerations...
Enjoyed the game despite the time constraints. As suggested by Dave (flash) in this thread
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...-big-questions
The Albatros D.V is not the best plane to fly against a bomber, being a little lacking on the manoeuvrability side - but they are the sturdiest planes I could field against the Handley Page, the other option in my inventory being the somewhat more frail Fokker Dr.I.
Fun game nevertheless, might consider fielding a few AA batteries around the map next time around to help the Germans bring down the juggernaut of the sky! :guns:
