The Eagle of Lille

This was another of my lunchtime quickies (who doesn't love a nice lunchtime quickie, eh?).

I set up the threat generation system again, but this time with a single Fokker EIII. I don't have many opponents for the good Fokker Scourge; most of my planes are rather better than the infamous Eindecker and a game with them would demonstrate why the Fokker Scourge was really about how the EIII was used and its forward-firing gun, rather than any superiority of performance. That is, a decent opponent with a front-firing gun ought to take it apart.

I set up the encounter table to have BE2s for the two-seaters, and Bristol Scouts with an improvised gun as the scouts, with a small chance of the odd DH2 or Nieuport 11 as a nasty surprise. The Bristol Scout has a front-firing gun, but to reflect its improvised nature I gave it a firing penalty. Once my Vickers FB5s arrive from Tumbling Dice I can have a proper Scourge.

Anyway, here's my EIII. I made the pilot an ace, since he was on his own. The British/French pilots would dice for quality.

The first few turns saw nothing drawn from the deck. With one plane there could be either one or two encounters in it, each of one to three aircraft.

The penultimate card saw two scouts appear. One was a Scout but the other was a Nieuport 11. Both were experienced pilots. The Fokker's only advantage was that they hadn't seen him yet.

I ran them as individual planes, since they were different types. This meant that they would have to spot the Fokker individually. The Bristol pilot saw the Fokker straight away and turned into the attack. The Nieuport pilot was obviously distracted, and patrolled around oblivious to the developing fight.

The Bristol fired a burst, but missed.

Evading the Bristol, the German pilot headed for the Nieuport. This was a risky strategy, since shooting at it would alert its pilot automatically, and leave the EIII facing two foes. But there's a bonus for shooting at planes that are unaware of the enemy and it was too good a chance to miss. I reasoned that once things got too hot the EIII could escape rather than fight.

The EIII pilot had spotted the Nieuport's patrol pattern, and dropped in from the side in a close-range attack, which filled the wings and fuselage with holes. The French plane didn't fall out of the sky, however.

The Scout and Nieuport tried to pin down the Fokker, but the skill of its pilot kept him just ahead of them. In 'Spandau and Lewis' the ace level offsets the disadvantage the EIII has in agility over the Nieuport or Scout, plus he has an initiative advantage, so can usually see their move before having to commit to his.

Anyway, he dropped his plane onto the tail of the Scout, and put some damage on it.

At this point I decided that a run for home was on the cards, but the Bristol presented itself as a juicy target again, and I couldn't resist damaging it some more.

The Bristol escaped with a tight turn, and the Nieuport came up at long range.

At this point the dice deserted the Fokker, and the ace rolled really badly for manoeuvres, allowing the Nieuport to get on his tail. Fortunately the firing dice didn't desert the German pilot; the Nieuport rolled misses on all of them.

And with the initiative the Fokker was able to see the Nieuport's move, allow it to overshoot and turn the tables. 

Bam!

This left the Bristol chasing the Fokker as it headed home. The ace ducked and weaved, but got closer to home each turn. But the end was less dramatic. The Bristol flew off the table. This leaves it out of the fight for a turn, and then a roll is made for its return. During that turn the Fokker quietly left the table too, and escaped. I tested for the Bristol's return; it rolled badly and with its damage and the fact that it had left the German's home edge, the result saw it lost - shot down by ground-fire or crash-landed behind enemy lines.

So despite the unpromising odds the Fokker pulled off a dramatic victory, downing one plane itself and seeing another lost.

If I ran this again I'd have a different encounter table with more two-seater options, and fewer scouts. Although I'd still chuck in some decent ones just to add some risk for the Fokker.