"Wings of Glory AAR, or the Unruffled Rumpler" Topic

I've just published on my blog an AAR from a game of Wings of Glory I played recently, three Spads attack a Rumpler, but what happened next? Find out here:

link

Thanks for looking!

Great report!

Nice report – gutsy to take on three German scouts plus the observation plane with three fighters

Thanks guys, yep, I gave him the choice and he still took the Spads… I guess he's a glutton for punishment…

Looks like a fun game. A friend of mine has invited me to play it, but I've been on a Bolt Action kick. I guess I really do need to take him up on his gracious offer…
Thanks Alex.

Thanks Rrobby, you won't regret playing it, I promise! It's a dead easy game to learn and is good fun as well! I'm sure there's more 'realistic' aerial combat rules out there, but Wings of Glory is perfectly suited to my needs!

Nice report. I like your game mat, very nicely done!

Thanks DeRuyter, everybody admires the mat! It's from Terrain Mat: terrainmat.com in their WW1 range.

Great report, and we've played similar games to what you've done. We've noticed that the 2 seaters are hard to destroy when given a proper escort of scout plans.

Thanks Von Blucher, they really take some punishment and even two against scouts, it is a hard fight for the scouts as the two seaters can cover each others backs!

Something that most game designers seem to be unaware of is that two-seaters were not clumsy compared to fighter/scout aircraft. Many two-seaters were more like fighters with a sting in the tail.

If the scout stalking a two-seater does not get in the blind spot beneath the tail and up real close there is very little likelihood of a kill, unless it is the scout! A competently piloted two-seater, even one as infamous for lackluster performance as an RE8, is nearly always more than a single scout can take on.

There are a couple of anecdotes in McCudden's autobiography where he admitted that if he had persisted against a two-seater, that the gunner would likely have gotten him instead; McCudden, arguably the best two-seater killer (his choice of prey) of the Great War, knew when he was up against someone too good for him. Dogfighting two-seaters was seldom his decision and he would break off combat. That's because a two-seater being thrown around the sky is an entirely impossible target without exposing the scout to the extreme danger of return fire from the gunner. Even if the gunner is rendered moot because of the pilot's maneuvers making return fire impractical or even impossible, the turn radius and roll rate of two-seaters were, with very few exceptions, on a par with or even superior to the scout planes that were trying to shoot them down.

McCudden again: reported one memorable fight where he tried to get a Halberstadt, but the pilot knew his stuff so well that McCudden never could line up on him long enough to do any effective shooting. At one point McCudden reports that he was passing over the Halberstadt in an inverted posture, and could have sworn that he saw the observer-gunner lying on his back on the floor of his nacelle looking straight up and grinning. His pilot was throwing the very maneuverable Halberstadt into diving turns so expertly that the gunner's presence was unneeded, and in that case not really possible. (I have wondered from that story if the German pilot resented being a two-seat jocky and flew his plane like it was a pursuit plane out of spite. The gunner seemed to be happy enough with the situation at least!, indicating that he was familiar with his pilot's MO….)

That's interesting info GWA. I guess that explains why Brisfits were used as fighters as well as observer aircraft/bombers.

I suppose that's why they were called Bristol Fighters …. :)

There's nothing more dangerous in this period and combat environment IMHO than an aggressively flown fast two-seater with a forward-firing machine gun or two… Worse for le Boche was when the opponent was a three-seat Caudron R-11 with twin Lewis guns in both gunner's stations:

The R-11 was bigger and not as maneuverable, but it was plenty fast and with all those guns, a real menace, with the added bonus that French R-11 crews were known for their aggresive tactics, going after German fighter aircraft like they were SPADs or Nieuports!

This reminds me, I still gotta get me a Rumpler and a trio of Halberstadts to bedevil my Frenchmen (my poor Rolands have been much abused!)… whichever side I'm flying, just don't give me a pair of two-seaters -especially if I can get one of yours between my two air gunners; flying buzzsaw, anyone? Mwahahahaaaa!!!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

There were very few of them, however. But was there a more dangerous battle plane than the R-11? Maybe a Breguet Br14 was comparable when flown aggressively, also twin Lewis guns and nimble and metal construction. Used for many years after the Great War….

There were very few of them, however. But was there a more dangerous battle plane than the R-11? Maybe a Breguet Br14 was comparable when flown aggressively, also twin Lewis guns and nimble and metal construction. Used for many years after the Great War….

Luckily for the Germans, the R-11s were somewhat rare, but as for those Breguet 14s, they were often escorted by a marauding R-11 or two flying as gunships, which is what became the R-11s default operational role until war's end after their light bomb load was determined to be inadequate…

Both the R-11 and the Breguet 14 are personal favorites of mine, especially if I can run an R-11 riding shotgun on a trio of Breguet 14s…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net