Pups and Albatros

I played another game of Spandau and Lewis last night, using the same scenario as the previous ones, but setting it a few years earlier. So this time the mission was being undertaken by a trio of BE2s - I added one extra two-seater, because BE2s are very poor indeed.

(You can see the complex aircraft stat sheet in that picture - that's all the info I need for the eight planes in play.)

The Germans flew a trio of Albatros DIIs

And the RFC were protecting the two-seaters with a couple of Sopwith Pups

Early moves. The Germans misjudged their approach, and only got i a couple of shots, taking return fire from the BE2s as they did. The two-seaters can only fire to their rear, which is a pretty risky strategy.

The Albatri turned for another pass as the BE2s approached the target. The Pups also maneuvered badly and flew through the dogfight, only getting off a couple of shots before having to turn back into the action.

They did get in a long-range shot on one of the DIIs, and scored some significant damage.

The BE2s photographed the target. But the DIIs were on them as they did so.

A Pup continued to chase the damaged DII, as a BE2 turned away from the target and made its bid for home.

A BE2 was chased by a DII ...

... and brought it down. 

Actually another BE2 was shot down on the other side of the target, but the war-artist missed getting a picture.

The last remaining BE2 came under fire ...

... but managed to dodge the worst of the German attack as the plane struggled to turn after it.

A Pup shot down a DII.

The lucky BE2 didn't stay lucky for long.

WHAM!

Now all the RFC could do was avenge the two-seaters by shooting down the Germans before they could run for home.

They chased them, and even got in a couple of shots, but eventually the Germans made their escape. One of their planes was on its last hit, though.

The BE2s are really easy to shoot down, thanks to a modifier I put in making certain classes of aircraft easier to hit. I may need to rethink it, as it's probably excessive given the granularity of the game. Otherwise the Germans did well because the Pups maneuvered really badly; they have a high agility, but if the dice are against you there's not much you can do about it.

I used dice-based initiative again, and it worked well. In addition I tried variable ammo - a plane can fire five shots OK. When it fires the sixth it tests to see if it is crossed off or not (4+ to 'keep' the last shot). So every plane can be sure of firing six times, but may get to fire more. I'm still looking at how much ammo to give to planes; having them shoot every turn regardless of range seems to make things too easy, so a limit would help, but I don't want to make it hard to shoot enemy aircraft down.