CrashCraig

Next gathering of pilots at the Gritty Goblin is next Thursday, December 12th. At this time of year, we usually play a Jingle Bells, Machine Gun Shells, Red Sleigh Down scenario. Robert had a great idea IMHO of having Santa visit the North Sea this year. Bring a seaplane or use one of ours.

Challenging & inventive scenario Gary.🙂

Thank you Gary, Dan, Dave for your positive comments. I find that posting these AARs is easier than under the old version of Aerodrome. I made a few missteps but with a little trial and error and Dave's help, I got it figured out.

Good to hear from you Spoonfrog!😀

Flash, We were trying to use the writeup described by you in that attached page. If we are off then at least we were consistent😀

Pair of Tripes vs DH4 AAR #2: In the second game, after my son had to leave, Jim W and I flew Fokker Dr.Is against Irish John’s DH4. My Red Fokker is on the left and Jim W in the Blue is on the right squaring off against Irish’s DH4 First exchange with my Fokker getting smacked with 5 damage points and a gun jam with Irish only getting hit with 2 points. Note the detail in the top wing ribbing of my TableTopFlights printed plane. Irish continues to pour it on with me getting another 5 points of damage. Irish gives another parting shot of 1 plus a tailing bonus of 1. I now have 12 points of damage with only one left before my demise. Fortunately Jim swoops in to take on the DH4. The relentless DH4 puts a severe hurt on Jim with a Boom card, a damage point and rudder damage. I’m able to return to the fray and score a hit on his crew which results in the observer being wounded and unable to return fire for the rest of the encounter. Unfortunately for me, Irish puts another 3 damage points on me and I spiral into the dirt. The Blue Fokker and the DH4 duke it out over several turns. Fortunately for Jim, the loss of the DH4’s observer makes it a more even fight. Finally the Fokker gets a telling starboard shot on the DH4. And down goes Irish. Jim’s Fokker is beat up but still airworthy with 5 damage points to spare. A good match up with these aircraft and an enjoyable game.

Silence the Paris Guns November 2024 AAR #1: We had four pilots this time around with Irish John, Jim W, my son Ben and myself. Our first scenario got to use my three recently procured Paris guns made by Historical Board Gaming. Scenario: German heavy artillery is shelling Paris and it needs to stop. The French & American recon squadrons are out in force to locate and silence them. The French have caught sight of gun flashes and immediately head in that direction. The German gun crews spot the two-seaters and call for support. A German Albatros D.Va is enroute. Special rules: 1. The two-seaters each have three bomb loads. But they cannot shoot up the guns. 2. The observer cannot fire his gun in the phase when he drops his bombs. 3. If the Albatros is shot down a Fokker Dr.I is dispatched the next movement turn two rulers distance from the closest Entente two-seater along the German side of the mat 4. Boom card is half damage rounded down and no altitude rules. Bombing rules: A bomb card covering the red dot on the artillery card equals a destroyed gun. A bomb on any part of the artillery card equals a partially damaged gun. Two partial damages on a gun destroys the gun. Victory conditions: German victory all the French are shot down or driven off the mat and no guns are destroyed. French victory if all guns are destroyed. Any other result is a draw. The Allied two-seaters: American DH-4 piloted by Irish John in the foreground, Jim W in the French 1&1/2 Strutter in the center and Ben flying the American Salmson 2A2 at the far end, I’m in the Albatros D.Va along with the three Paris guns. I thought I could save at least one gun and force a draw One of the 3-D printed Paris guns. All three Entente planes fly straight ahead and I go after the Strutter in the center since it has B-firing guns. My son’s Salmson goes in and makes a perfect bombing run destroying the left-most gun. I may have made a miscalculation on how hard it’s going to be to make a successful bombing run! The Strutter gets by and makes its first bombing run on the center gun. Jim lets go his first bomb and comes up short. The Strutter is able to come about and make his second attempt. This time successfully. Now two guns are gone. Irish John’s flight path takes him too far off the right-most gun and he will have to circle around. The Albatros finally gets stuck in but not exactly in the best position. Irish John’s DH-4 finally gets in a good position and delivers his first bomb on the remaining gun for half-damage. Meanwhile my Albatros takes more shots. … and more shots. And the Albatros plummets to the earth. The German replacement arrives in the form of the Fokker Dr.I. The Tripe immediately suffer a gun jam. Irish makes his second bombing run and scores another half-damage effect on the remaining gun which takes it out of action. So the Entente forces score a complete victory and save Paris from further bombardment with minor damage to all Entente aircraft. Meanwhile the Fokker took rather significant damage for the little action it saw. Paris Gun & Crewmember Paris Gun Firing

Another game at the Irish John Aerodrome was a replay of a scenario we had done before. But this time roles were reversed with the French seeking out to destroy the German Krupp artillery. I wanted to try this scenario again in preparation for a bigger one at our next Gritty Goblin meeting in November. German heavy artillery is shelling the French lines. The French recon squadrons are out in force to locate and silence them. A lone Strutter has caught sight of a gun flash and immediately heads in that direction. The German gun crews spot the Strutter and call for support. A Pfalz D.III is sent up to defend the guns. Irish John is in the Strutter while I am back in the Pfalz. Special rules: 1. The Strutter has four bomb loads. But it cannot shoot up the guns. 2. The observer cannot fire his machine gun in the move where he is dropping bombs. 3. Boom card is half damage rounded down and no altitude rules. Bombing rules: A bomb card covering the red dot on the artillery card equals a destroyed gun. A bomb on any part of the artillery card equals a partially damaged gun. Two partial damages on a gun destroys the gun. Victory conditions: German victory if Strutter is shot down and no guns are destroyed. French victory if both guns are destroyed. Any other result is a draw. Two German heavy artillery pieces with a Pfalz D.III flying cover The Strutter spots the gun flashes and heads for them. The Strutter banks to starboard presenting me with a clean easy shot – to no effect I am able to follow up with a better result although it costs me a gun jam. Irish finally gets into a good bombing approach but pays for it with a boom card plus some extra sauce! Another gun jam on me is definitely worth it. The Strutter finally gets aligned and bomb load #1 is away. Gun #1 is totally destroyed! But the Pfalz follows up with another telling shot. And that ends the Strutter’s attack on the guns. So with one gun remaining but no Strutter, the game ends in a draw.

Many thanks Dave.You are always there to lend a hand! Much appreciated.

After a long hiatus, Irish John and I were finally able to get together again for a couple of one-on-one games. The first was another engagement featuring one of John’s favorite WW1 pilot, Mick Mannock. Since Mick historically had several victories in his SE5a over Pfalz D.III and Irish had received a Pfalz D.III, we played a one-on-one with Irish in the SE5a while I was in the Pfalz. As in previous engagements at the Irish John Aerodrome, we played this encounter on the late Baltic Bob’s homemade terrain board. Irish John’s SE5a My Pfalz D.III staring down Irish’s SE5a First exchange of lead Irish scores some serious punishment including engine damage. But I do him one better with a Boom card inflicting half of his total damage value. I’m able to chip away at his mount with a hit or two. But he keeps scoring bigger hits I find myself having trouble getting into a good firing position with my engine damage effects of having to play a stall card with one of my three movement cards. And when I do get a shot, Irish seems to be shooting better! Finally after a lot of circling and further modest damage, we mutually decide to salute each other and return to our respective bases. Our final damage totals were the same: 10 points each. In my haste to escape Mick, I didn't take a pic of our total damage cards.

Capt Willard let me know he plans to attend as well. I expect Irish John too so should be a good turnout.

Since the Aerodrome is going into radio ...er Internet silence next Tuesday, I thought I'd put the Gritty Goblin meeting notice in now. We will meet at the Goblin on Thursday, October 10th (2nd Thursday) starting at 6. I'm planning on running our sort of annual Great Pumpkin Balloon scenario with Snoopy and Woodstock defending against the Red Baron(s) and friends. Todd had suggested a Tripods & Triplanes game as well. Hope to see you all there.

Nice scenario Gary. May give it a try.