Adv Lvl Richthiofen's War again

 Just finished playing out yet another variant from the pages of the General, the old house organ of the long defunct grand daddy of wargame companies Avalon Hill.

This article is written by Kenneth Erby and smacks of the perfect tenor for the Campaign Game, the April air war when the Baron met his fate. This is indeed what the game was designed for, to play out this large, multi-day scenario. A week of airel combat over France April, 1917. The Brits need to complete a series of photo-recon and bombing missions and the Huns attempt to blow them to pieces. 

It is a complete departure from all three previous variants I have played through this weekend. Erbey believes the game is incredibly broke. Once you are aware of the nature of the flaw you may never enjoy playing it ever again. He argues effective fire should not be determined by range, but by how long you have the enemy in your sights. I fired up two NIEU/17's and a piece of shit Fe2 and headed for the German lines. The Fe2 was to conduct photo-recon on the trench line. Up against the Allied cause was 3 Alb/d2's, a plane which should soak the enemy planes in curtains of machine gun fire. The German planes have a clear advantage in firepower, and with the focus shifting away from range the agile Albatross easily got long runs at the Allies with excellent sighting numbers and BLEWY. The Fe2 got smoked first. I wasn't even intending for the plane to carry out the mission. I hoped to peel off a single Alby intent on shooting down the Fe2 and swing both NIEU/17's onto the German's tail. The pilot of the slower recon plane was instructed to tuck tale and dive for home as soon as the enemy is sighted. 

It all happened like that, except the German plane blew the Fe2 out of the sky before the NIEU/'s could catch up! They fired at the distant enemy’s tail but had to tuck tail themselves as the other two Alb/2's closed in. They got shot up but risking Overdive got them off the map in time to get home and land. I don't know if this variant destroys any "balance" between the planes and makes it unwinnable for the Allies in the Campaign Scenario? No one it seems has logged any record of playing it.

I then set up a single contest between a Fokker dr1 and a Sopwith Camel. The planes flew and engaged each other like you would expect in a real ariel encounter. The two kept circling each other, climbing and diving for extra speed, and making snap shots at their opponents tail briefly sighted. This has to do with the planes, in game turns, having equivalent firepower and turning ability. Trying different things to get a target sighted for 4-5 movement points, which increases effective fire, Snoopy fucked up and the Baron blew the shit out of the Sopwith. Speed reduced, no ability to climb, you can guess the rest.

Conclusion

More of so far what I think, because the 5-second game needs to be assessed. This variant will make for a faster playing campaign game. The performance differences between the planes is amplified so once combat is engaged slower, less maneuverable planes get wiped out quick. Evenly matched fighters circle each other looking to fly at their opponent for as many hexes in a row they can accumulate before firing, which is tough to do, for effective firepower.

But for setting up the board and engaging some friends for two or three random games I think you have to return to the Unexpected Manuevers with plotted movement or with preset flight controls prior to movement. This makes for free-wheeling fun and makes it harder to shake an adversary if they stay on your six too long.

There really is nothing left to do for this analysis except play the much touted 5 Second Game!