WINGS OVER FRANCE: IT IS BALLOON!
For the time being, instead of my own creations, many of these posts will be accompanied by quotes from various memoirs of the first world war. For Balloon-busting, the obvious choice would be the memoir of Willy Coppens, but I haven't tracked down a copy in any local libraries yet. Instead, here's a passage from Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis:
A mile or two behind the front, on both sides of the lines, floated the kite balloons. They hung in the sky like pensive and somewhat inebriated tadpoles, while observers in the baskets beneath ranged batteries by telephone. They thus fulfilled the same function as aircraft in artillery patrols; but, being stationary, were more accurate, within their limits of vision, than a moving machine. They were run up on a steel cable from a winch mounted on a lorry, and at a sign of danger or foul weather could be quickly hauled down.
A string of these observation posts stretched along the salient on the German side, and before the push it was decided that Jerry's eyes must be put out. It was not an easy matter, for their winches were powerful, and at the first sign of danger hauled down the balloons before they could be attacked. Moreover, their position was carefully ranged by their own anti-aircraft batteries, so that any machine attacking them would be flying into an Archie trap....
There were two methods of attack: one with special tracer ammunition, the bullet containing phosphorous, which would set the gas in the envelope on fire; the other by means of rockets. These were mounted in tubes wired on to the outer wing-struts, pointing forward in the line of flight, four rockets on each side of the machine, eight in all. They were ugly-looking things, with heavy iron-barbed heads to tear open the balloon fabric as they entered and then explode and set off the balloon.
The "special tracer ammunition" was also called "Buckingham Ammunition," and is well-described above (and is similar to the heftier
Pomeroy Bullet). The rockets were named after their French inventor,
Le Prieur and, despite their shortcomings, are generally described by breathless narrators of History Channel documentaries as the first air-to-air missiles.
In the game, as in life, the rockets are very powerful but also unpredictable, hard to use, and more prone to Very Bad Things happening when it hits the balloon (i.e., a giant fireball taking one's plane with it). For my mission, I am giving my top balloon-buster (Hydrogen Hopwood) the Buckingham ammunition rather than the rockets. The other pilots may also attack the balloons with conventional ammunition, but Hopwood may not engage other planes with his special ammo.
This mission has been assigned the southern- and northernmost sectors of the Line to patrol for balloons. This is, of course, foolishness; I seriously doubt that the SPAD VII has enough range to even patrol all of the southernmost sector, but that's neither here nor there. (They just might have enough range, assuming that they don't run into any Hun aircraft, but that's rather unlikelly as we have to go behind the lines to find the balloons.)
The mission starts 20 VP in the red; you get points for each plane downed (as before, but not doubled), and a further 25 points for destroyed and 5 points for damaged balloons.
We know how a basic turn goes, so we'll spare the gory details of the early turns. The excitement begins two-thirds of the way in towards the line, with the first encounter...
The hex has an encounter level of "5," which is modified to 4 due to the weather (which is still "overcast"). The enemy comes in at 5,000 feet, which is well within visual sighting range, so we roll for the identification of the aircraft: a single Halberstadt D-III. German aircraft always try to decline combat when outnumbered more than 2-1, and thus it's up to the Brits whether they want to attack or not. Edney motions to his fellows to press on and let the Hun get away; better, it seems, to not risk a dogfight until the basic mission is accomplished.
Two turns later, another encounter: Another D-3--hell, probably the same one--which continues to hightail it, and Edney & Co. continue to let him.
Things heat up when the flight moved over the trenches. It was misting over the trenches, so the ceiling was much lower--while Archie couldn't see very far up, this allowed the flight to climb 1000 feet to avoid detection, while still allowing them to see down far enough to scan for balloons. They cross the trenches, scan for activity--and lo and behold they find a balloon! (i.e., they rolled a 5 or 6.) With no fighter cover, all three planes dive towards the inebriated tadpole.
The heart of air-to-air combat (and balloon busting) is the "initiative track." Balloons have an initiative rating of 5 (that's a small number). Each Allied pilot rolls two dice and adds his skill rating to it, and then takes that result to a small chart that indicates how that translates into initiative for each plane. This takes into consideration such things as a plane's maneuverability, speed, pilot skill, and so on. You may only attack a balloon if the end result is higher than 5--and for all three, it is.
How long a burst you may fire at the balloon depends on this final initiative number. Edney and Hopwood are at 10 and Saville is at 8, so all may fire either a short or a medium burst. (One may only fire rockets at the balloon if the initiative is 11 or higher--that is, eligible for a long burst.)
It takes eight points of damage to destroy a balloon--a hit from a normal gun does two points, and Hopwood's special ammunition does four points. (A rocket would do five. Honestly: It's harder to fire and it doesn't do a whole lot more damage. What's the point?) Everyone gets to fire; if everyone hits, the balloon goes boom.
Saville goes first, because Why Not. His accuracy rating is a D, he decides to fire a medium burst. He rolls two dice: The gun jams on a 3 and hits on a 7 or a 9. 6--a clean whiff. Next comes Edney: He has "B"-rated accuracy, so he jams on a 3 (again, a medium burst--if it were a short burst, it'd jam on a 2) and hits on a 7, 8, or 11. A 5--this could be going better than it has been. Finally, Hopwood gets his first chance: He takes a medium burst as well, and hits (he's C-rated) on a 7, 8, or 12. A seven--kerpow! He rolls to see if the balloon explodes (this would be bad for Hopwood): He doesn't roll doubles on two dice, so it's just critical damage.
The balloon begins to winch down. It has a "clock" of 33 points; after every series of passes at the balloon you roll two dice and reduce that from the current clock level. A 9--we're down to 24. When it reaches (or passes...) zero, the balloon's on the ground and that's all. (Since the balloon's 1000 feet up, each point is about 30 feet, so the winchers have brought it down 270 feet or so.)
The machinegunners, however, have been alerted and fire at the aircraft before our heroes get to take another shot at the gasbag. Dealing with ground-to-air fire is kinda neat; very visual. There's a grid of 36 boxes, each with a two-die combination in them (1-1, 1-2, 1-3, down to 6-6). You place your planes on the grid, one to a box, however you want. Then you roll two dice (one red, one white) and read them in white-red order (or vice-versa, if you're feeling that way). If you roll for where one of your planes are, it's a hit (which has a variable effect, from "none" to "down you go"). Sure it's unnecessary, but it's pretty neat to see the fire explode around your planes (the counters are well-done and add to the effect). In this case, however, the machinegunners have no luck hitting my nimble SPADs.
We roll for initiative again, and this time Hopwood may take a long burst at the balloon. (Edney and Saville stay in medium-burst land.) Hopwood takes a long burst--jams on a 4, hits on a 7, 8, or 9. A nine! He rolls a double-two (to determine whether the thing blows up--and it does), and just escapes the fireball.
So that's 25 points in the bag.
That was two rounds of combat, which use up 2 AFT each, so after all that we're at 87 AFT. Our heroes decide to scout another hex or two. They climb above the mist again, move northwest--still no Hun fighters, a miracle--and behold--another balloon! They swoop out of the clouds, evade the machine guns again, and move into position.
Saville and Edney are, again, just out of long-burst range. Hopwood, magnificent balloon-buster that he is, starts able to fire a long burst of his tracer ammo. Edney and Saville each take medium bursts to try to soften it up for Hopwood. They both miss, but Hopwood connects for four points of damage. They wheel around for another pass, as the winches below pull the balloon down 180 feet (they rolled a six).
Again the MGs miss their mark, and this time all three flyers are set up to take long bursts. Edney goes first, and hits for two points of damage, and Hopwood finishes it off--and a fireball is avoided this time, as the balloon sinks, burning, to the ground and its crew parachutes to safety.
Another balloon down! That's 30 VPs right now (50 for the balloons, plus the -20 you start with), which is a dam'd good haul. Hopwood's star is burnished further, so everyone decides to hightail it back to the base.
The three zoom high into the clouds to avoid detection as they recross the lines. They climb to 10,000 feet, and head back west.
The flight heads home without incident until just two turns out from the airfield, when Cpt. Edney's engine starts to have serious trouble. He is forced to bring it down just a few hundred yards from the airfield, but it comes down in plenty of time to repair the plane for the afternoon's mission, and Edney is unhurt.
(That's not entirely cricket according to the rules, but Good Lord. The "emergency landing" happened in the Amiens space, and it wasn't major damage, so I'm bending the rules here. If it were even a hex out, I'd follow the rules--which state that the plane is unavailable until the next day.)
A fine mission! Perhaps I should have been a shade more daring and explored a few more hexes, or tried to go after that German plane, but this is merely Day One, and this is a marathon rather than a sprint. Finishing the game with an average of five VPs a day is considered a major victory, so there's much to be said for cashing in one's chips, especially with a major mission coming up in the afternoon.
The afternoon's mission--the bombing raid--comes tomorrow, if that makes any sense.
