Farman Shorthorn

Somehow I convinced myself that what I really needed to add to my 1/600th WW1 air collection was a Farman MF11 Shorthorn. I have no idea why, since I already have three Farman F20s, which are similar, but there it is. So I spent far more of my weekend than was healthy designing and building a couple. 

The booms were really fiddly to do, since they are both angled, one set from the top-wing down and another from the bottom wing up. I had to glue them to the wings and then carefully bend them to meet where the tailplane would be. The first one took me over an our of frustrating trial and error.

I spent some of yesterday painting them. 

They're not on flight stands because I'm currently out of the clear acrylic bases I use. I have more on order, as well as the entire 1/600th French WW1 collection from Tumbling Dice. So expect some French-themed action at some time in the future. 

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. 

Get Yer Gothas Out!

After my Handley-Page bomber game from last week I had a request to get the Gothas out again. I'm always happy to het my big bombers out for an appreciative audience, so yesterday I ran the same scenario but with two Gothas bombing London (probably).

I used randomised defending aircraft as outlined HERE. The RFC would get three planes. 

I'm still tweaking VPs for this scenario. In addition I added a -2 spotting modifier because it's night. However when resolving anti-aircraft fire, if any dice score a 5 or 6 then the target plane is considered to be illuminated and the -2 modifier does not apply. 

There was something else I tried out as well, but I'll come to that later. 

Here's the Gothas heading across the darkened south of England, heading for London. 

The first RFC defender came into view - a Sopwith Pup. The two side spotted each other fairly quickly, but the Pup seemed to be a bit reluctant to close with the bombers. Poor manouvre rolls meant that it took ages to turn into the action. 

The bombers approached the first target, but one took a near direct hit from anti-aircraft fire and was very badly damaged. It kept on though. 

A second British plane was in play now though - an Armstrong-Whitworth FK8. It slowly got onto the tail of the bombers. 

The bombers attacked the first target as the first serious exchanges of fire took place. Both sides took light damage. 

One bomber got its bombs on target. I was playing around with VPs for hitting the target but also 1VP per target for the first time a bomber attempted a bombing run on it. This would encourage attacking both targets in order to to accumulate points. 

The bombers are quite close together and I think I may need to make some slightly larger circular target zones rather than these square ones. 

The bombers turned towards the second target as a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter joined the fight. 

The British defence seemed reluctant to close throughout the game. The Sopwith made the first truly aggressive attack, damaging the already damaged bomber. However return fire from the Gotha's rear-gunner killed the observer on the Sopwith two-seater. 

Both bombers missed the second target. But they got a point for trying. All of the British planes were now closing in though. Unfortunately this was the moment the Pup's guns jammed. The pilot couldn't fix the problem, so turned for home.

I wanted to try out a method of preventing the defenders harrying the attackers all the way to their home edge, as it's not an interesting phase of the game. I assumed that once teh bombers were heading home they'd be left to other interception units and that the on-table defenders would be more concerned with other bombers not depicted. 

What I did was allow the bombers to declare that their mission was over. From that point on they couldn't voluntarily move or remain within 6" of the targets, and couldn't drop bombs. They'd just head home. At the start of each turn each British plane would roll a D6. On a 5-6 it would be removed, having flown off elsewhere. 

Anyway, the Pup just headed home on its own initiative with a jammed gun. And the Sopwith two-seater went off in search of other prey. Only the FK8 chose to harass teh bombers on their run home. And now it was pressing them closely. 

The damaged Gotha couldn't take the sustained fire and fell apart. 

The FK8 closed in on the other bomber and its guns raked the fuselage. The front and rear gunners on te Gotha were both mortally wounded, but their last return bursts finished off the already damaged FK8 (it had taken a few flak hits).

The Gotha headed home with just a pilot. 

I gave 1VP for the first bombing attack on a target, plus 1VP for each bomb load that lands on target, up to a maximum of 2VP. So you can score a maximum of 3VP per target. In addition the Germans got 1VP for each British plane shot down (encouraging the defenders to possibly head for home when damaged). Meanwhile I gave the British 3VP for shooting down a bomber.  So in this scenario the Germans got 2VP for bombing attempts and 1VP for bombs on target. They also got 1VP for the FK8, for a total of 4VP. The British got 3VP for the downed bomber. So a marginal German win. 

The British breakoff didn't quite work for me, so I'm going to try something else. 

A Bloody Paralyser Of An Aircraft

I realised the other day that although I have two Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale Handley-Page O/100 bombers, I'd never actually used them in a game. Since I have been pondering how best to do bombing scenarios for the game I thought that this afternoon would be a great chance to try them out.

Here they are, heading off to bomb some German infrastructure. I put two targets towards the end of a 3' long table (which was also 3' wide). Each bomber had two lots of bombs, and the aim was to try and get bombs on both targets if possible. 

Because I haven't used them much I gave the German defenders three Hannover CLIIIs. I'm not sure if they were really used as interceptors, but it looks like two-seaters of some kind may have been, as well as single-seater scouts. Anyway, for this game that's what I was going to use. They'd be interesting because although they lack the twin forward guns of the scouts (just a single one instead), they have an observer in the back with a rear-facing gun, so get more shooting opportunities. 

The defenders would appear in dribs and drabs. At the start of each turn I rolled a D6 and on a 5+ a defending aircraft would appear. If one didn't appear then on subsequent turns the roll would be at +1 until one did. Then the appearance would reset to 5+ for the next defender. I used the clock-face placing method from THIS POST to determine where the aircraft appeared, and set the distance at 2D6 + 1D3. Frankly this didn't work for me so in future games I'll use 2D6+3. 

I used the spotting rules, so even after a defender appeared they had to spot the bombers. 

The first defending plane appeared in front of the bombers at close range.

They flew past each other and the German plane turned to pursue. The bombers opened up with their rear guns. Both sides took some damage. 

A second Hannover appeared, also in front of the bombers and also at close range. 

The Handley Page is actually quite quick; in game terms it has the same speed as the Hannover. With enemy planes in sight they piled on the speed towards the target. The first Hannover was already behind them and kept up, but the second would have to turn and was moving to intercept the bombers after they'd reached the target. 

Within 6" of the target all planes are subject to anti-aircraft fire. German planes are attacked by 1 dice whilst the attackers are hit by 2 dice. A score of  '6' hits and criticals are tested as normal. The rear bomber took a near-direct hit that tore a large hole in the fuselage. The Hannover was lightly damaged. 

Both bombers flew over one of the targets. I set the chance of getting a stick of bombs on target as 4+ on a D6, with a -1 for each of being at a speed greater than 3, not ending your move over the target and not having flown straight with no turns or sideslips. One bomber got a hit. The damaged bomber flew fast, trying to avoid being shot at by the Hannover, and consequently didn't get any bombs on target. 

The second Hannover was moving to intercept, but took some damage from AA fire. 

The Hannovers kept ending up in this position, which is not good for them. The bombers can fire their rear gun, whilst the Hannovers can't shoot into their 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock arcs. Needless to say having maintained a close pursuit of the bombers the first Hannover was not looking good and had suffered some serious damage. At this point its pilot was wounded as well. 

The Germans' reinforcement die rolls had been terrible, and their third plane didn't appear until now. Meanwhile one bomber was lining up on the second target, whilst the other was looking to do a wide swing around it and head for home, having taken so much damage that it couldn't risk another anti-aircraft gun hit. 

All of the planes in action. The damaged bomber kept up a steady fire, damaging the Hannovers.

A stray anti-aircraft burst finished off the damaged Hannover as it tried to head for home.

But the damaged bomber was shot down by the second Hannover. Meanwhile the other bomber managed to bomb the second target. 

It would now be a race to see if the defenders could shoot down the bomber before it could get home. The green Hannover got in a long-range shot, but scored no damage. 

Unable to catch the bomber it broke off and headed for home. 

This left the yellow Hannover to finish off the British plane. It dropped into its rear, keeping up a steady fire. But the rear-gunner on the bomber did a great job, scoring a steady stream of hits back.  

The bomber managed to get the Hannover into the position again. The bomber's rear-gunner kept on firing. 

Damaged, but still flying, the bomber escaped. The Hannover was badly shot up and was lucky to survive. 

I created some provisional Victory Points. I awarded the British 2VP for each of the first two hits by bombs on the targets. In addition they scored 1VP for each plane the Germans lost. The Germans scored 4VP for each bomber shot down. So in this game the British had a narrow win, with 4VP for bombs on target and 1VP for a shot down Hannover against the Germans' 4VP for the downed bomber. I'll need to see how these points pan out in some other games. I feel that maybe the Germans should get a VP for each target the British don't attempt to bomb, to stop the British hitting one target and then just running for home. 

I realised after the game that I'd forgotten to apply the large target modifier to the German shooting, so possibly they would have put the bombers under more pressure. Again, I'll have to play this again and see how it works out. 

Anyway, that's the Handley Page bombers blooded. 

The First Kill Revisited

 Last year I tried a quick scenario for Spandau & Lewis based on the first confirmed kill in an aerial dogfight, scored by a French Voisin 3 crew over a German Aviatik in October 1914. You can read about it HERE.  

I set it up again this afternoon, although on a 2' square play area this time. In addition I added two objectives for the German plane to observe. If they could spot one and get home then that would be a draw. Spotting two and getting home would be a German win. Shooting down the French plane would obviously also be a German win, so long as they spotted at least one objective as well. The French simply have to shoot down the German plane. 

I note that in my previous write-up I missed a couple of stats. Both planes have a power rating of 0 (as you might expect), and both crews are average. 

Here's both the planes and he two objectives. Once again the French Voisin is played by a Farman. Tumbling Dice now do a Voisin 8, which will pass as a 3 at a pinch. I'm looking at ordering a set of their newer French planes. 

The German tried to throw off the French plane by switching objective. The Voisin turns to follow. There is an exchange of fire and the Aviatik takes some damage. 

The German observed the first objective as the Voisin came in for another pass. It scored some more minor damage.

The French crew was slow in turning in pursuit. These early-war planes are not agile. 

The Germans observed the second target and turned for home, but the French plane was coming in on an intercept course. 

The German observer kept up a steady fire with his rifle, but didn't come close to hitting the French plane. The French dropped in behind the German aircraft. 

But the French couldn't finish the German lane off. The Germans turned to throw off the French pursuit. Both aircraft were now low on ammunition. The Germans fired one last shot, which missed. The French observer kept his last burst back until the pilot could get him into a better position. 

The final French burst missed, and both planes headed for home with no fight left in them. The German plane was damaged - it had taken half of its hits - and the French plane was unharmed. But the Germans had made both observations so were the winners.

(I did test for the damaged German plane turning back onto a course home; if it went off one of the side edges then there was a chance it would be lost. And the damage it had taken made that a possibility.)

The second game went badly for the French from the word go, as the Germans slipped past them, firing a cheeky rifle shot that almost hit the Voisin. 

They observed the first target whilst the French plane struggled to turn in pursuit. 

Try as they might the French crew couldn't get a clear shot at the German plane. 

The Germans observed the second target and headed for home. 

The French pursued, but some nifty side-slipping by the Aviatik prevented a clear shot. 

Indeed the Germans managed to completely wrong-foot the French plane and leave it heading in completely the wrong direction. A burst of speed saw the German heading for home, undamaged and with both observations for a convincing win.

The French crew had managed only four shots all game. The German observer had, once again, emptied the magazine of his rifle, but had, once again, failed to score any damage.