"Betancourt: New arrivals" Topic

Here is a photo that didn't make it into the book. Still quite like it though!

link

"Trevelyan, Sir"
"Hayes, Sir"

Major Stanhope nodded slowly, "Hour many hours flying time?"

"Fifteen, Sir"
"The same, Sir; fifteen"

"Solo?", asked Stanhope.

"Two, Sir"

Trevelyan lowered his eyes, "One, Sir"

"One", repeated Stanhope mechanically. He forced a weak smile, "Well, I've assigned you to 'B' Flight; Captain Osborne will look after you. See the orderly; he'll show you to your billets and you can get unpacked."

The two subalterns saluted and left. When the door was closed, Stanhope slumped back in his chair. Sergeant Cranham whistled and pulled open a filing cabinet. Pulling out a bottle of Talisker, he poured out a generous glass for the major.

"Getting younger, Sir. Do you think it's worth getting them unpacked?"

Stanhope drank pensively, "We ought to, Cranham", he said after a while, "if only for the look of the thing".

* * *

I've finally got all the painting and stands done for a Western Front campaign which I'll be playing with my son, the Boy Henry. Today I received my new mat from Deepcut Studios, and it is truly gorgeous!

I'll be using "Dual of Aces" from Wings at War. The aircraft are 1/600 from Tumbling Dice – dauntingly small when you first get them, but they paint up quickly and beautifully.

Over the next few months we'll see how Trevelyan and Hayes get on, if they last that long. For the moment, it's late July 1917 and 76 Squadron have just been formed as an active SE-5A squadron and have shipped out to France to cover the area around Betancourt. The flight leaders are experienced airmen, having been instructors back in England, but the rest of the men are inexperienced. It will be a tough show; facing them is Jagdstaffel 85 with their Albatross D.Vs, all of them well trained pilots.

'B' FLIGHT ON PATROL – THE GREEN 'ENERGY' DICE DENOTE INEXPERIENCED PILOTS (EEK!)

SOME OF THE GERMAN ALBATROSSES OF JASTA 85

For the campaign, I'm using a mechanic derived from the board game Pandemic (yep, I know) to create build ups in certain sectors which the British and German players will try and disrupt or protect using resources such as photo reconnaissance, artillery observation, bombing missions, etc. Planes for these missions will be supplied by outside squadrons of two-seaters, so their losses won't count in the campaign, though if they fail their missions this will make a difference.

A PAIR OF HALBERSTADT CL.IIs WITH AN ALBATROSS FLYING TOP COVER

A SPOT OF BOTHER FOR THIS FLIGHT OF 'ARRY TATES (R.E.8s)

For the tactical battles, I'll be using a balancing mechanism to make play a little less depressing for the losing player; if a player rolls two consecutive 6s when shooting a random event favouring the losing side will be generated. This can be anything from a random engine failure to a lone Ace returning from their own patrol and deciding to join the fun, hence the red DR.1 above. For the British, the random Ace will be some help from across the pond.

CANADIAN ACE ROY BROWN STALKS A HALBERSTADT

For anyone who hasn't seen just how small the TD 1/600 planes are, this is the Sopwith Camel on a British penny – the grid is 1" squares!

"Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds"
Y.B. Yeats

Our first clash should be in a week or two, I'll be posting our progress.

Nick

These look great! I also have the same Deep Cut Studios mat but without any grid. You are using Wings at War? How are you doing that with the grid and your stands? I need to finish painting my Hostile aircraft 1/300 aircraft. I picked up a load of them when they had a sale earlier in the year. Do you have a blog with more info about your campaign?

Thanks.

Cheers John, I really wasn't convinced by the TD planes at first, but now I really like them. And the mat – well, the mat is a thing of beauty, as I'm sure you'll agree if you have one yourself. It'll also do nicely for a future Battle of Britain campaign.

Yep; I'm using Wings at War, but I found that the movement templates really slowed down the game and planes got knocked quite a bit, meaning that all that careful movement could be undone in a moment. Using a 1" square grid might take some of the 'finesse' of the movement, but for me the speed of movement and ease of determining firing arcs and ranges makes the game so much more fun.

When I first started thinking about using squares the main problem was the diagonal verses lateral movement, the former being a greater distance. When I sat and worked it through, though, I realised that 3 lateral squares movement was pretty much bang on the same distance as 2 diagonal squares.

As Wings at War uses standard movement 'units' of 5cm, it's easy to translate to movement by squares with turns being either 45 or 90 degrees, depending on the action used.

Firing ranges are also easy to translate in the same way, with the arcs easy to define.

I have introduced a new action from necessity; this being the 'slip'. It is possible to end up offset from a target and for it to be impossible to get a shot in – a bit like black and white bishops in chess. To allow for this a 'plane can take a 'slip' action – moving forward as normal but 'slipping' one square sideways. This costs 1 energy loss as kicking the rudder to achieve it creates drag, but it does allow lining up for a shot.

I have today created a blog – I've no idea if it works!

bloodybetancourt.wordpress.com

Best wishes,

Nick

I will check out your blog. We have yet to try WOG. I'm old Blue Max player. I have 1/72 WWI aircraft to and will use them or perhaps try the set from the CY6 folks.

Thanks.

John