Conwy Wargames Club WW1 Air combat Game 3

The 3rd game of the day saw us graduate to the advanced rules and a scenario game.

The advanced rules were additions to the free rules added by Chris. These were rules for height which in summary were:

In the command phase you set which altitude you are at by playing a climbing card - max move 2 out of 4 altitudes, diving and flying level.

Collisions now mean planes crash during movement.

During the firing phase if you were diving you had a shortened range and less dice.

The Scenario

A British squadron is patrolling in no ones land specifically to catch the Red Baron alone and shoot him down.

The British have 4 planes (Dave, Dickey, Pete and Pete)

The Red Baron (me), and Tony with 2 German planes that can come to the Barons rescue.

The Red Baron starts the game behind the German lines and air defences (the British don't know about the air defences)

The Game

The British squadron ready for the revenge

Squadron leader Dave reduces his flight by 50% by colliding with Dickey. Words were said. 

The Red Baron flies away from the British drawing them forward.

Pete flies in to flack and takes 3 hits

The Brits close in 

The Red Baron strikes and the British are down to 1 plane

Pete the last hope for the British chases the Baron over German air defenses and doesn't make it out!
Victory to the Red Baron!! My smugness at winning 3 games in a row was becoming a physical presence in the room.

Conwy Wargames Club WW1 Air combat Game 2

The second game of the day started with Dave, Pete, Pete and Dickey finishing their game 1's first and deciding to move to 1 table and fight it out. Once Tony and I had finished we too flew over and joined in.

The British form up,  Pete and Pete

The 4 planes split off to fight it out one on one with Dickey's German plane taking the first hits. Then in to the mix arrived my Red Baron and Tony's newly selected British pilot: Phil Fulford

Lots of manoeuvring

Planes overlap and the Red Baron gets in to position. Dickey controversially uses a rule whereby flying off table wipes your hits off. This is allowed then banned going forward, only allowing 1 hit to be removed using this tactic. 

First blood to the Baron! Pete's plane goes down in flames. History changed as Billy Bishop is downed by the Red Baron

Next the Baron nearly ends Tony's game

The Baron's superior flying skills ends Jim Mcudden's career and the final Pete is out of the game 

Tony downs Dave to be in turn downed by the Ace Red Baron

The Red Baron wins! 

Conwy Wargames Club WW1 Air combat Game 1

The first game we split in to pairs on the 3 tables to battle it out using the basic rules in one on one dog fighting.

Table 1 Dickey and Pete

Dickey took to the air for Germany as Ernst Udet and Pete flew as the Canadian Billy Bishop.

 They started heading straight for each other

 Jockeyed for position firing at every opportunity

Then played chase

 Dickey proved the better pilot downing Pete's Billy Bishop

Victory for Udet

Table 2 Dave and Pete

Dave took on the persona of Herman Goring flying for the Kaiser and Pete took the role of Jim McCudden a British Ace.

The game started with both players trying to get in to position to get a shot

Pete proved to be better at this than Dave

As the above picture testifies Dave got one shot at Pete scoring 3 hits but Pete changed history by shooting down the future head of the Luftwaffe.

Table 3 Myself and Tony

The final table saw Ian as the Red Baron face off against Tony as Eddie Rickenbacker in a borrowed plane

 Tony flew straight at the Baron who banked left to make sure he wasn't in Tony's line of fire

Tony adjusted his flight plan while the Baron fluffed his move flying in the right direction but facing the wrong way

The chase was on

The Baron scores the first hits

Both planes move in close with Tony's Rickenbaker scoring some hits

Rickenbacker couldn't avoid the Baron's accurate flying and firing

The longest running game 1 ended with a win for the Baron!

2015-05-31 Conwy Wargames Club 1/72 WW1 Air combat

For the monthly Conwy Wargames Club in May new member Chris volunteered to put on a WW1 air combat game using 1/72 planes. We were warned they were simple rules designed for kids, and in fact he'd played them with kids he taught. Sounds ideal for an afternoon gaming, easy to pick up rules with the focus on fun.

The rules Chris used can be found here: WW1 Air combat rules

We used these for the first 2 games then we moved to the advanced rules developed by Chris but not yet tested. We played the advanced rules in 2 scenario based games.

Game 1 - 2 players squared off in a dog fight. Since there were 6 of us this was actually 3 games on 3 tables.
Game 2 - The players from 2 tables joined each other for a mass dog fight, shortly joined by the final 2 players once their dogfight had concluded on table 3.
Game 3 - Hunt the Red Baron. A British squadron tries to intercept the Red Baron caught  on his own behind his lines.
Game 4 - A Russian  Alexander Kazakov must ram the German planes as his machine guns are jammed. A British squadron comes to his rescue


What great fun we had. The landlord of the The Anglers popped in because we were laughing so much at each others misfortune and the tall tales being told he thought he was missing out. The joy of simple rules is that they allow more chatter. We also met a prospective new member who popped in to say hello and who had timed it perfectly to join the start of Game 4.

Teaser pictures from the games with follow up posts for the After Action Reports as quick as I can write them.

Game 1

Yours truly against Tony

Dave and Pete rewrite the history of the Third Reich

Pete and Dickey duke it out

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4