Monday's Rain of Death, Western Front, April 9, 1917

 Jasta 11 has the superior phone network of the German Army to inform the aerodromes where and how many Allied planes are crossing “No Man’s Land”. The mission parameters for the Germans is simple. Reinhardt gets the report on the Allied flights in his sector and decides who goes up to take it out. Being a man of honor, he will be found most mornings taking the dawn patrol himself. The wire chatters away, 3 Allied planes crossing the frontier! Reinhardt calls for Norbert and Christian on deck. The Zum Ruhm, Rachieniel’s Ruin and Unruhinger Tod are pulled out on the runway and started. The brilliant red spider emblazoned on the tail sections stands proudly on the grey canvas stretched tight over the Albatrosses’ aerodynamic frame. The new d3 has turned the tables in the skies and the nimble NIE/17 withers under the sustained fire of the German’s twin Vickers. Reinhardt, as Ace, is the first up into the frosty morning. Raindrops begin to spit across the wings and soon the flight captain is heavy with the wet.

The fighter group climbs to 4K and soon spots the enemy. Two Nieuports are at 4K while the Fe2 is a thousand meters higher. The Allied strategy is to engage the Germans and let their recon plane cruise by unmolested. Reinhardt pulls back on his stick and begins his long climb to intercept the Fe2. Once he gets in range the Fe2 doesn’t stand a chance. The pusher-prop aircraft dives to increase speed, but the d3 is much faster. One well-sighted blast and Reinhardt rips past the flaming Fe2. Pieces of scrap and fuselage rain across the sky like tickertape. The Ace records his 6 kill, banks hard left and dives towards his wingmen. They must have rattled the Allied fighters. The Nieuports are diving for the home front and Norbert and Christian seem keen on pursuing. Reinhardt follows after until they see his wing-wag and the fighter group returns victorious to the aerodrome.

With Mission 1 a failure Mission 2 is sent immediately out. The rain is hard driving and the recon group climbs high hoping to get above the clouds. 4,500-5,000 meters and the rain is present. O’Dennell’s coordinates are the same as the last chap’s. And he didn’t come back. “When you see the Huns, dive to the deck and make your run.” This is what Workman had told everyone yesterday. “The fighters will keep the enemy off your tail long enough to take your photos. Remember, no photos means no successful mission. No successful mission and poor Teddy down there doesn’t get to go home!” I wonder if Workman forgot to follow his own advice? There was no debrief to be had so O’Dennell could only speculate.

Five more minutes and many compass corrections later O’Dennell starts to dive. He can’t see anything from the front perch of the Yorkshire Pudding this high up in the rain. The brown, ugly cut of the trench lines cones into view. No sign of his escort? Then the wet droning in the wind is ripped apart by screaming air and hissing bullets! A German fighter comes out of the black clouds on O’Dennell’s 10 o’clock, stitching his left wings and tail section. A Nieuport gamely follows in hot pursuit but the Albatross seems unphased by its fire. I wonder how much harder I can dive? O’Dennell wonders. Then, he can’t, doesn’t want to believe his eyes. A shadow, a fury of grey death rings yellow fire at him. He doesn’t even hear the growling diesel engine as the Alb3 kills him in the onslaught of head-on gun fire. The Fe2 lopes forward and spirals down with a dead man at the stick.

With two failed missions in a row the squads operational staff is in a panic. Emmerson suggests flying a decoy. Scrub mission 3 and send up instead a single bomber. At the plane’s ceiling, just like the last two. When the Germans scramble to intercept we send in a flight of Nieuports low and hit our urban bombing target of the day, Mission 4. The Germans should have less planes to throw at our bombing mission since we have three busy elsewhere.

Westly draws the short straw and is sent up in the Paradise Garden without escort. He is instructed to fly at ceiling towards the same point as the last two missions. When he has lured out German fighters, hopefully three of them, he is to turn around and fly back as fast as he can. 60^th squad air control gives the bomber from the 11^th ten minutes lead out before the flags are shown for the 3 fighters going out to conduct the real bombing mission. Taylor, Lee and Hildred in route have a mind only for vengeance. The squad has yet to see a bomber safely home and Jasta 11 has been chasing them away with their fields of twin-Vickers machine gun fire. The bombing target can wait. But no one challenges the Allied flight. They line up over the city road junction and toss their bombs over the side. Not until they are returning over the Allied lines do they encounter the d3 Gottes Verrater and the d2 Schuchtermer Rabe. Trying to use their numbers against the Germans, all three pilots head for the d2. Dietmar is no coward and both Albatross’ charge at the attacking Nieuports. The Crimson Claw is smoked by Korbinian but Taylor gets a lucky critical firing defensively and the Gottes Verrater ends up with severed elevator cables. Korbinian banks left in a bid for friendly lines. Lee and Hildred joust with Dietmar. All three planes are taking hits and Hildred breaks apart under a blast from Dietmar’s Vickers. Only Lee is left and he is not giving up until one of the two pilots remaining is dead. An engine hit forces the Schuchtermer Rabe to lose power and go into a glide. Lee makes another pass and kills the German with a well-sighted tail attack. HQ will call this mission a success! Lee sees it as the German side of the ledger still is not in the red!

With no break in the weather and the wet fields of muddy France being lashed by freezing rain XIII Army HQ orders another recon mission immediately. They have not received any useful intel from the Wall Cat’s today and are ordered to photograph road networks immediately behind the German trenches. HQ needs these photos or the ground attack tomorrow in this sector will be going in blind. Failure is not an option! Elton from the 11^th and Brendan and Tye of the 60^th are tasked with the group’s most important mission yet!

Bloody April 4/9/1917 during Richthofen's War

 I've played with all the variants, except the 5-Second Game for this wargame classic. I can only see to mash the variants I have played together and run the full campaign scenario, Bloody April, which comes with the original game. I am playing a solo run through so my game master knack for creating stories, plots and adventure seeds will embellish this play and create my own fictional battle over Arras during this Allied offensive. None of the titles and descriptors relate to anything in real life. I completely made all this up for color as I played through the daily missions.

Personalizing the roster for both sides is the first step. The Allies consist of two squadrons from the 13th Army Wing. These are the 60th Fighter Squadron, the "Night Sheets", and the "Screaming Wall Cats" of the 11th Bomber. The sluggish Fe2s 11th Bomber must work with the NIEU17s from 60^th or they will be nothing but target practice for the German Alb3s!

These two elements assemble in Pizel on Thursday 4/5 under grey skies. The 9 Nieuports are piloted by Emerson (RAF), Darin (RAF), Duke (USA), Linwood (RAF), Taylor (CAC), Lee (CAC), Hildred (USA), Brendon (USA), Tye (USA). Emmerson is an Ace and the "Old Man" of the squadron. His fighter is called Wicked Jinx and he never goes anywhere without his wingman Darin and his plane Dead Bride.

 

11th Bomber matches with 9 Fe2. A single-seat photo recon aircraft, the pilot is responsible for flying and taking the mission photos. He is equipped with a front-firing Lewis machine gun, but the Fe2s best strategy is always to dive and bug out from any fighting. These brave and fool-hardy pilots are Workman (RAF), O'Dennell (RAF), Westly (RAF), Hayes (USA), Elton (USA), Zachary (RAF), Allan (USA), Karl (USA) and Ezekial (USA).

Jasta 11, the Rote Spinnen is led by two veteran fliers, Reinhardt and Nicoli, both Aces. Reinhardt, Norbert, Christian, Burkhard and Korbinian are tasked with attacking any and all reconnaissance missions. Specifically targeting the reconnaissance plane itself. Nicoli, an Austrian and an ugly racist, leads the 3 Alb2s in the squadron in his own Alb3, Glockliter Kafer. The d2s are flown by Dietmar and two Italians; Teobaldo and Vaso.

Monday morning comes cold, damp and drizzly. The pilots today are going to have to do all they can to keep their numb hands limber and to stave off hypothermia while flying through the rain at 4,000 meters. The mission board for the day is up and XIII Army Wing has many recon flights to execute. The Arras Offensive is hot and the ground forces need to find the Germans flank. A constant update on German Reserves and troop movements is vital to sustaining the attack!

Mission, Daily 1. PHOTO-T: NIE/1 and NIE/2 will escort Fe/1 to the German lines for 11-hex trench recon mission.

Mission, Daily 2. PHOTO-T: NIE/3 and NIE/4 escort Fe/2 to the German lines for11-hex trench recon.

Mission, Daily 3. PHOTO-T: Fe/3, Fe/4, and Fe/5 to the German lines for 11-hex trench recon.

Mission, Daily 4. BOMBING-U: NIE/5, NIE/6 AND NIE/7.

Mission, Daily 5. PHOTO-R: Fe/6, NIE/8 AND NIE/9.

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!

 

Advanced Level Richthofen's War

 Promises simultaneous movement and combat. I hope it doesn't bust the game's simple mechanics. One of the strong points of RW is fast set up and fast play.This variant from David A. Bottger gets high praise from the editor at the General, Avalon Hill’s house organ for their line of classic wargames. The main feature of this variant is simultaneous movement and firing. The game turn changes from an IGO-UGO

move and fire schedule so a game turn is only 1 segment instead of 2 segments per RAW. What this gives a pilot in the game is an edge to the one who knows their plane the best. In ariel combat absolute understanding of your plane’s capabilities is an essential ingredient for survival. To me this means the variant is off to a very promising start. 

The other feature is “Tailing”. This returns the real-life advantage of being on your enemy’s 6 to anticipate their move and line up your shot for the kill. Awesome. The tailing mechanic is a target number set by position, range, and the two plane’s maneuver schedules. Degree of success determines the percentage of the tailed plane’s plotted movement which must be revealed to the tailing pilot. This information should be limited to the players/pilots involved because WWI craft had no radios. From my first read through of the variant I do not believe there is a limit to the number of planes which can tail a target and the tailer can be jumped and tailed by other enemy craft at the same time. Getting even better!

Take note, the field of fire is no longer limited to a straight line out from the front of your plane. It has been increased to a 60 degree front-facing arc. This is to compensate for the difficulty of getting directly in line for your shot when there is guess work in where you and your opponent is going to end up at the end of the movement phase. I do not know if this is necessary, but we will go with it for now. I anticipate much more shooting in this variant then regular play.

Unexpected Maneuvers are expected to be used. But unlike Flying Lessons the author gives very clear instructions on their use. I am now going to set up the first scenario again and run through some turns to reach a verdict on this variant. Does it enhance, does it detract, does it play with little or no ambiguity? I set the pieces on the board differently than the previous game, but it does not change the start of the game much. The planes are shooting at each other in the first turn! I messed around with different throttle settings in the previous game to see the effect. I came to the conclusion speed is king. All planes in this start come out full throttle with no intention of letting up. The Sopwith Camel has a top throttle speed of 10 and the Fokker Dr 1 is 9. The Fokker can climb and dive farther than the Sopwith in a turn, but all in all these two planes are an even match. I see the Fokkers climbing and diving in this match up much more than the previous run.

But not for the first two turns. I plot movement and resolve. Everybody is eager to shoot someone down so almost all the aircraft are currently at 3,000m. The combatants blow by each other spitting hot lead and turn around and do it again. With the increased arc of fire there are many more shots being fired, and hits! 7 damage points are spread among two of the Sopwiths while one of the Fokkers takes 6 points of damage. This first clash sees the Sops getting the better of it. They have 12 damage points compared to the Fokkers 10. With only 4 points left the stricken German is going to scoot out of the engagement real soon.

Top of turn 3 and we are looking at our first tailing opportunity. Sop2 forgoes shooting at the Baron who is right close and picks a Fokker farther out flying away from the Sops ten o’clock as its target. With the increased distance the Sop is increasing its chances of a successful tail. The fire resolution is a miss and reading the tailing rules closely I find the Allied plane is too far away to force the tailing rules on its opponent. Everybody plots their moves in secret!

Turns 4-8 see the Sop3 spraying most of the ammo. It got one good shot on Fok3 reducing it to 4 pts of damage. This is over 50% of the triplanes hit points so its climb and speed have been reduced. With his plane holding together by the merest strips of canvas the Fok 3 heads to the deck and bugs out. The rest of the planes circle, maneuver, pull special maneuvers- all trying to get behind their enemy close enough to tail. Interesting. Both the Sops and the two remaining Fokkers find themselves shooting at the limits of their range and always just one hex away from being close enough to tail. Everyone is just keeping that 50m cushion putting this advantage out of reach of their opponent.  Shots are traded, but we are now scoring 1 or 2 hits of damage an attack. The Baron did drop right in behind Capt. Brown, but the altitude difference was too great to achieve tailing.

The rules are all working fine with little to no ambiguities. It is easy to see how and when you can perform a special maneuver. There are easy to assess attack modifiers which consider angle of attack, speed, Ace status and the like. The tailing rules make a great substitute for the RAW spotting rules. Side-Slips and Barrel Rolls and Loops keep the action tight. 

And I don’t like it as much as the “Flying Lessons” variant. What is up with that?  It is the ease of maneuver, which is also present in RAW, the planes can produce. The previous variant locks you in to a left, right or straight flight path for your entire movement. But if you start receiving a hail of bullets the variant asks you to bust out the Unexpected Maneuvers schedule or pull extreme Gs to roll out of a certain death tailing situation. I may be frustrated with the holes, the vagueness in the rule interpretations for the Flying variant, but pulling the stick and shifting the rudder to set up my attack run was more fun. I didn’t notice a difference in firing chances either, which you would expect because “Advanced” increases the arc of fire. The Flying Lessons variant remains true to the RAW, your firing arc is directly ahead. While the Advanced must add an additional rule to shooting your guns to cover the flexible maneuver abilities, the Flying variant forces you to target more carefully. But I had just as many firing chances during the session. Go figure.