1915 And All That

Inspired by his recent visit to the Hendon collection, Daniel asked if I could run a game of Spandau & Lewis last night. Originally I was going to run some balloon busting, since that suits two people rather well. But with two other people signing up I needed a larger game. Since Daniel had been rather taken with the Vickers FB5 at Hendon I decided to rerun my 1915 scenario.

This is a fairly standard game with both sides having two scouts and two reconnaissance aircraft looking to observe objectives on the enemy side of the table. The fun comes in the choice of aircraft. In 1915 both sides were looking at how to arm their aircraft, so the game mixes up a number of solutions.

In terms of  'scouts' the British had a Vickers FB5 'Gunbus' (famously the first aircraft to be built specifically to shoot down other aircraft). This is a two-seater pusher with a flexible Lewis gun firing to the front. Their other combat plane was a Bristol Scout armed with a front-firing Lewis gun on an improvised mount that would attract a firing penalty. Their observing aircraft were a pair of BE2c two-seaters. One was unarmed aside from a rifle, whilst the other had a Lewis gun firing to the rear. 

The German scouts were an Albatros C two-seater equipped with a machine-gun covering the rear arcs, plus the height of 1915 technology, a Fokker EII equipped with a synchronised front-firing machine-gun. Both of their observation aircraft were Albatros B types, unarmed aside from a rifle for the observer.

Daniel and Geoff took the British whilst Stewart and I took the Germans. We took one 'fighting aircraft' and one two-seater each. 

I went down one side, running the Albatros C. I was initially up against Geoff with the Bristol Scout and the machine-gun armed BE2. We spotted each other fairly quickly. I sent the Albatros B towards one of the objectives as fast as possible and sent the Albatros C to intercept the Bristol. 

(The Albatros C was played by a Roland CII, to keep it distinct from the Albatros B's)

Stewart also sent his B type towards the objective. Both of his planes spotted the approaching British, but were not spotted in return. This gave the Fokker a chance to pounce on the British. 

This he did. He bounced the Gunbus, and inflicted a hit on it. He then turned and shot at Daniel's BE2, inflicting another hit. The Gunbus turned to engage the EII and managed a hit. 

Meanwhile I managed to get my Albatros C into a position to shoot at the Bristol Scout - a tricky job when you only have a rear-firing gun. I didn't score any damage. 

Our side of the table broke up a little. Geoff sent his BE2 towards an objective, trusting that I wouldn't be able to make an effective pursuit with my two-seater. The Scout sped off towards the British side of the lines to engage the German two-seaters who were currently unopposed. 

A broad view after the initial encounters. To the bottom-left The Fokker EII is chasing Daniel's BE2. Despite tailing hm for a few turns Stewart rolled terribly when firing and inflicted virtually no damage. In the centre the Gunbus and the Scout are hunting Germans, but haven't closed up on anything. My Albatros C is to the right, also looking for a target. And at the top of the picture the Albatros B's are both doing their job - observing objectives. 

The luckiest BE2 in the world. 

To add insult to Stewart's injury, the observer on the BE2 managed to get a rifle shot on target and score some real damage to the EII! Both planes were now half-damaged, but really that BE2 should have been wrecked on the ground. 

On the plus side the fight did make it hard for Daniel to turn onto and observe the target.

I's observed one target and was moving up on the second. Stewart had had some issues lining up a good run, but was also now in place. However the Bristol Scout was closing in. My observer popped away at it with his rifle, a couple of shots coming close. The Scout failed to do much in return.

Another set of observations for the Germans. My Albatros B crew had nerves of steel and did their observations with the Scout right on their tail. But again the dice gods failed Geoff and he was unable to convert his advantage to damage. 

With the game over halfway through both sides were looking at whether to turn for home, or hang around for more observations or possible kills. The Fokker EII was briefly out of the fight, but returning. Daniel had abandoned his mission, but Geoff's BE2 had managed to observe both targets. Geoff decided to return home with the Scout. The Gunbus hung around briefly trying to intercept Albatros Bs as they headed home. In fact Stewart sent his Albatros B after the second objective. 

The Fokker returned and briefly chased Daniel's BE2 again, but the British plane ducked into some cloud and escaped. 

With that everyone headed for home. However Stewart's Albatros B had lingered fractionally too long over the targets, and failed to make it off the board by a single inch when the 20 turn limit was reached. So whilst not counting as lost he counted as having failed to return the observations to base. 

VPs were 3VP for each returned observation, 3VP for shooting down an enemy aircraft, 1VP for each half-damaged enemy and 1VP for each enemy still over the board when the time-limit was reached. Both the British and Germans got two observations home, for 6VP. The British had two planes badly damaged (both of Daniel's) so that was another 2VP for the Germans. But the Fokker EII was also badly damaged (thanks to that lucky rifle-shot) and Stewart's Albatros B hadn't got home in time, thus conceding another VP. So that was 2VP for the British as well.

So both sides ended up with 8VP - a draw. And despite our best efforts, and a great expenditure of ammunition, no plane was shot down. 

It should be noted that the last time we played this the Germans won a decisive victory, with the Fokker shooting down both BE2s and the Albatros Bs getting three observations home. So I think both sides were just very unlucky in this game not to score some fatal damage.