Monday Night Flight

At dinner this evening, G asked if we could play a game of Wings of War. After cleaning the table, we pulled out the planes, and she and her little sisters consulted on what aircraft to use. We decided to up the ante a bit by letting both players control two planes. My three year-old randomly chose a couple of planes for me, which both ended up being two-seaters. Gabbi quickly chose a pair of of Rolands, the plane she's enjoyed flying with the most.

The German High Command

As the game starts, the pilot of my British De Havilland, showing a crew from the American Expeditionary Forces the landscape, spots a German patrol on the horizon. He breaks left, hoping to start a flanking maneuver on the approaching aircraft.

My Squad for The Evening

Enemy in Sight!

Break left!  I'll head them off!

The four combatants end turn one finding themselves just out of range.

So close...

About this time, a crazed French pilot buzzed the area. Leaving both the Germans and the Allies a bit puzzled, she skipped wild-eyed off into the clouds without even a tip of her wings.

Uh?  Let's just not mention this to Command.

Getting into turn two, things start to heat up as the forces divide into one-on-one dogfights and start trading shots.

The contest on the right comes into very close contact, bullets ripping through canvas and wood as the pilots and gunners are close enough to toss insults at each other.

My opponent seems very happy with her position at the end of turn two. I was less happy, as even though I had ripped her plane to shreds with all the close combat, her only damaging shot got my pilot, sending my American plane spiraling to the ground.

She's enjoying this far too much.

One pilot down.

Bummer. Perfectly good plane. Dead pilot.

To avenge the newer crew's deaths, my British pilot swung around, prepared to take out an obviously damaged Roland (both her rudders were out). He quickly lined up his sites, pulled the trigger and … JAMMED! The Roland's wing man, with the more agile plane, turned to line up a kill shot.

Jammed!

Another incredibly close round of combat saw another pilot fall, this time on the German side. Gab was left with a crippled plane. I didn't tell her, but I was down to my last few damage points myself. I slowly swung around, hoping that she would get ahead enough to land in my forward sites.

This isn't going to end well...

German down!

Coming around...

Coming around...

Almost lined up...

The next turn found us flying side by side, matching speeds on each phase. The Roland was just barely out of my reach, as she was behind my forward gun, but just ahead of my tail gun. The tail gunner of the Roland could have gotten me, but as luck would have it, her gun jammed, saving me for another turn.

Frustratingly close...

Even closer...

The final turn saw the end for both planes. I managed to pull ahead just enough to site her with my tail gunner, ripping into her plane, causing her to burst into flame. My opponent, however, cleared her jammed gun, sending lead through the last remnants of my fuselage. As I plummeted to the ground, my only solace was that her crew would soon need to bail out of their totaled aircraft, and that they would need to do it over my friendly lines. So while the Allies may have lost a couple of aircraft, they may have gained a couple of prisoners in the end.

Got her!  Oh wait, I'm going down...

Games thus far:

Daughter: 5
Daddy: 0