“If your Manœuvre is NOT a Stall...” use Straight Cards for Bombs in Flight

So, can you drop bombs after a Dive (or a Climb, even!) as these are “Not Stall” Cards & use a Straight for Bombs In Flight

If so & you are able to do an Immelmann Turn you can also do an Overdive (Stall - Dive - Straight) can you drop bombs after any of the three Manœuvres?

Also, in view of many here, the WWI Immelmann would not have gained altitude. Should this rule be ignored or was it put in to allow better climb rates?

Regards,

Jae

Started trawling the various images of planes and bases on the retail sites to see the numbers on the base, but I note some seem to differ from some of the Pilot cards I have. ( I now can't remember which packs I bought of pilot coards in my first rush of enthusiam many years ago.

Question! I'm at work and don't have access to the game at the moment. So, I wanted to know really quick before I forget! Is the shot ruler exactly 12 inches long? What is the shot ruler length exactly? I've never even thought about this and my son is asking and I keep forgetting to measure it! My son and I have an idea for making custom ones if we can find an inexpensive way to do it! If so, I'll share it with you guys!

Thank you kindly!

-Chuck

I recently acquired an Albatros D.III in its Brumowski variant.

Doing some reading I found out the KuK version of this specific aircraft was better than its German counterpart in speed and structural strength.

I was wondering if anyone had tweaked J deck to represent the improvements made on the plane by the manufacturer Oeffag or if you had any suggestions on how to adjust the deck to reflect this.

Thanks in advance!

I have a "G*" maneuver card

(Aviatik C.III)

What is the difference with G

no Himelmann?

The Rules state:

"If a plane dives to level 0, leave a sinle stand and discard all the climb markers it has except for one. If it has none, give one to it."

The S-S D.IV has a climb rate of 1, so if you give it a climb marker, does it immediately pop back up to level 1?

Secondly, am I correct in the assumption that the most climb markers a plane can obtain in a turn is 2. (climb, non steep maneuver, climb.)

So it would be possible to play first #14 steep then #15 "short straight" then another steep #21/24.!?

Over and out.

“When firing this ace may choose to have his opponent take one extra damage point when his attack inflicts damage. To remember the card causes extra damage keep it on the +1 damage space on the target airplane's console. A card inflicting zero damage is still considered a zero.

You must decide to use this skill before your opponent draws the damage card. When you use this card take three recovery tokens.”

If the target take two damage cards (2 and 3 points, by example), according to the Perfect Aim rule, does the target gets one extra damage point (2+3+1= 6 points) ?

or one extra damage point per damage card (2+1 + 3+1 = 7 points) ?

Thank you

On the damage deck cards the symbols for gun jam, and engine damage are quite similar. In a game when a person draws a card without another for comparison, it can be baffling as to what the damage is. The most common mistake is to take gun jam damage for an engine damage symbol.

In checking this out, I realised that the clearest way to differentiate between gun jam and engine damage is that gun jam symbols are either green or red. The engine damage symbol is black. So, go by the colour instead of scratching your head too long about the symbol.

after years (14!) of resisting the temptation, I decided to become the proud owner of a RNAS Handley Page O/400 (as you see below, he came with a bunch of friends and I lovingly adopted all of them)

So now, with the trusted rulebook(let) beside me, I want to start flying this beast of the sky, with the usual rivulet of questions arising by the introduction of a new element in the game mechanics.

1.Balancing teams

how do you balance the teams (Entente vs CP) when a bomber is on the table? I.e. how many scout/fighters you need to employ to balance the firepower of the bomber with its multiple crew/guns without making the bomber itself too easy of a prey?

The beloved companion App (I just started using/exploring it so feel free to correct me on this) doesn't seem to give the option to include the bombers in the scenario editor so I am at a loss regrding how to determine number and type of machines to be used, taking into account that the bombers will - for historical accuracy, I presume - have also fighters escorting them.

2.Size of gaming surface

So far I have mostly played scenarios on a single-mat sized surface. I like the additional challenges of the confined spaces, so to speak. Nevertheless, bombers will necessarily need more space to manouvre to avoid being eliminated after a few moves given what it seems to me to be a very low manouvreability.

In your experience, what are the ideal dimension for a gaming surface in a bombing scenario?

3.Scoring

Do you reccommend any specific scoring system for bombers being taken down or completing succesfully their mission?

Years back, when I was not on the 'drome, it took me a few playtests to incorporate nicely balloons in my games. This time around I have this beehive of experienced players I'd like to draw from, since I am a little pressed for time and I really would lke to start using bombers right as soon as possible.

Thank you, Danke, Grazie, Gracias, Merci in advance and happy flying!

This made me wonder how you guys balance the scenarios you create

Which factors influence your choice of planes?

Personally I go for historical accuracy (i.e. planes that were likely to be at a certain point in time vis-a-vis in the skies of whichever theatre of operations I set the background to be) with no much regard for balance of in-game firepower or maneuvrability.

I understand this might make life for one of the two sides pretty hard, but my history buff's conscience is at rest, in that way

For what converns the bumber of machines deployed I always try to give an equal number of planes and ground targets to each side, using my "rule of the 2", which is:

*no more than two planes per participant when playing against human opponents (guess this depends on my friends being fairly new to the game);

*no more than two planes per side in solo games (4 planes is all I can really control without slowing down the game too much if playing solitaire!);

*no more than two ground targets/AA units per side for each standard gaming mat or equivalent surface (I had to limit myself after discovering AA guns on my transition from the original WoW rules set to the WoG equivalent - I would spend a lot of time manouvering Archie instead of looping and diving in my planes!)

So far the above has worked fairly well in my modest gaming sessions.

How do you guys go about it? Do you tweak the manouvering/damage decks much to create more balanced games?

Looking forward to your wisdom!

By example, the balloon Rules says that an observer can’t bail out if the balloon is at altitude 1 or 2.

The current game approach seems to grant unlimited ammunition to each pilot...you can fly and fire as long as you remain in the sky...seems very unrealistic.

The concept regarding limited ammunition seems pretty straightforward...

shuffle the damage deck for A or B guns prior to the start of the game and deal each pilot a set number of cards for the plane.

The damage cards remain shielded from the pilot (no selective damage option...play them as the occur).

In the event the pilot needs to reload they must exit the board on a friendly side and return to the board at the start of the next run, with a new "load of ammunition".

Just wonder if anyone has tried this, results/observations....???

Seems like and interesting concept worth a few trial runs but wonder how the level of ammunition differs from one plane to another?

Any thought or worthwhile comments anyone?

Is there a table or a "rule" showing the different speeds of the planes and the displacement letters?

For example

-100km/h such letter

from 100 to 125 km/h such letter

from 125 to 150 km/h such letter(s)

Etc...

Question 1: I know this only matters if you're playing with altitude, but... How do we denote unusual firing arcs on cards? In a different thread, the question of the trap-door ventral gun on an A.E.G. G.IV came up. That's a gun that could only be fired at a target at a lower altitude. It couldn't even fire at something at the same altitude, since it only points "downward". Similarly, the gun above it was mounted basically on the rear deck of the bomber and could only fire level and upward. The front gun on an A.E.G. G.IV, however, could be swivelled around and used on targets below, level, and above the plane. The auxiliary Lewis guns (if any) on a Sopwith Dolphin could only be fired at an upward angle.

We'd have to cover these cases:

1. can fire above, level, and below
   
2. can fire level and above
   
3. can fire level and below
   
4. can fire above only
   
5. can fire below only
   

If we don't already have a convention, I'd propose that the color of the "gunfire arc lines" on the card give a clue. (Edit: see a post below for a proposal.) Those using altitude and who care about such things can pay attention to the color and others can ignore it.

Question 2: For planes with gun-sets that do not converge, like the main Vickers and upward-firing Lewises on the Dolphin or the main gun and upward-firing Lewis on some Sopwith Babys, how do we denote the guns on the card? (For simplicity, let's assume they're both single "B" guns for now.) "B/B" is usually used for two separate guns by different gunners (like the pilot's gun and an observer's gun). "B+B" implies that both could shoot at the same target, drawing two "B" damage cards. Maybe "B|B"?

I'd guess it cannot because the special damage condition applies for the second fire phase also.

However i can't see a clear word in the rules.

My understanding is, that the pilot pressed "le button" and then he had no control over the rest of the procedure except from flying straight (actually diving in 45° angle) towards the target, as the rockets were launchig in a semi random manner. So i can't see why he couldn't spray the balloon with bullets also.

More precisely, the rear machine gun of the Handley-Page and the Gotha is not on the center point of the aircraft (blue point on the Aircraft card).

It is located slightly forward of this center point and is a bit further of the rear edge of the base.

The rear machine gun of the Zeppelin Staaken and the Caproni are placed on the center point of the plane (or just beside it for the two machine guns of the Staaken).

This often negates the advantage held by the fighters in shooting at a larger plastic bomber base plate.

Actually, not.

In the case of the Gotha and the Handley-Page, be careful to place the ruler from the red dot of the rear machine gun and not from the center support.

When attacking from the rear at a specific distance, this allows an attacking fighter to avoid the rear machine gun fire.

Correct position of the rear gunner's ruler

Incorrect position of the rear gunner's ruler

HOW TO ATTACK A BOMBER ?

The base of the bomber is wider than that of the fighter.

By attacking the bomber from the side (or from one of its four corners), this allows the fighter to escape a long-range shot (or a short-range shot at a closer distance) from the bomber while still being able to hit it.

But this configuration can only occur exceptionally and is played at less than a centimeter.

Standard attack from the rear : mutual fire has the same range.

Attack from the side (or one of the angles) : the mutual fire has a different range.

I'm surprised that the Austro-Hungarian fighters did not descend quicker - they would have been a lot less vulnerable to the Caproni's higher platform gun.

The Caproni doesn’t have a rear blind spot.

So, it wouldn’t have changed to attack the bomber from the same or lower altitude, as the Caproni arc of fire is the same at these altitudes.

The rear MG fires 360° at targets at a higher altitude.

A plane at a higher altitude in front of the bomber can be fired from both front and rear MG. It would be the only case of a penalty for the fighter to be at a higher altitude.