The Long Road of War - Campaign
Melbourne, Australia

Campaign Rules for Melbourne Squadron social games.

1. One game each month of the war, from August '16 - Nov '18. (27 missions). Aircraft progression follows pilot progression charts in most cases.

2. Random missions for each side are rolled on the day, with conflicting missions being determined by combat location (front is both outbound, opposite side is outbound over enemy lines). 

3. Aircraft table for 2 seaters is determined by the mission; roll appropriately.

4. Pilots with 6 missions/2 kills can choose to roll random aircraft for that month, within his aircraft group, instead of flying the set squadron aircraft. (NB: this could result in mixed Allied flights).

5. Modified HO chart is used [ 1. RW / 2. CW** / 3. E / 4. E / 5. FF** / 6. LW ]. 
No-Deflection shots from 200' or less change possible pilot hits to probable pilot hits in addition to the ramming chance.

6. Modified Climb rules will be under test when possible (social games).  Each 100' of climb costs 10 MPH of throttle, minimum of one square forward movement. 
The only tailing change required is that the Climb card changes to SS*2; +200' below 10,000' and SS*3; +100' above 10,000' before the aircraft finishes out.

If all pilots for a player survive the campaign, you should have at least one experienced pilot.

Annoyingly, the British pilots cannot progress on the Western Front as you can't promote early war pilots past mid-war.  There is also a severe lack of two-gun British aircraft between Feb '17 - Oct '17.

Campaign 1 Results (British 2 gun vs German):

Game 1: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Fokker E.III (11 June 2001)
Mission: High Altitude Patrol vs Patrol.  Nearest cloud was 9800' with combat occuring at 11,800'
Date: September 1916
Forces: 4 Sopwiths (Cian 0/0, David 0/0, Judith 0/0, Michael 0/0 ) vs 3 Fokkers (Doyle 0/0, Brendan 1/0, Hanbal 0/0)
Results: All 3 Fokkers escape after jamming guns and suffering various crits.  (I jammed on long burst at 100', missed and then took a 3/3 tail crit forcing movement before getting away).  No kills, but Cian crashed "overturn flip" with both pilot and observer walking away.

Game 2: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Fokker D.II (03 July 2002)
Mission: Zeppelin Ground Attack.
Date: October 1916
Forces: 3 Sopwiths (Brendan 1/0, Judith 1/0, Pedr 1/0) vs 3 Fokkers (Myra 0/0, Doyle 1/0, Hanbal 1/0).
Results: The Zeppelin is destroyed, but only one allied aircraft escapes (after landing and rescuing another downed pilot).
2 kills to Myra and 1 kill to Doyle

Game 3: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Fokker D.II (14 September 2002)
Mission: Gas the Factory
Date: November 1916
Allies: 3 Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters, carrying 2 x 112 lb bombs (no observer) (Simon 1/1, Cian 1/0, Pedr 2/0)
Central Powers: 4 Fokker D.II (Michael 1/0, Brendan 1/0, Doyle 1/0, David 0/0)
Mission: Allies are attempting to bomb the Hydrogen Gas factory behind german lines.
Special Rules: The factory buildings are highly explosive and will explode as a balloon, with the same results (players were warned beforehand!). Standard balloon defences were rolled (2 AA, 5 MG, 2 Onions)

Results: All the Allies missed with their first salvoes against the factory.
Turn 2: Pedr drops a bomb directly under himself and promply catches fire as the first building explodes. He climbs just enough to falling leaf the flames out on the 3rd turn (but is forced to land doing so). He unfortunately crashes on his attempt to take off again and is crushed by the engine block as the aircraft flips.  Kill is awarded to Michael on the cut.

The ground fire was not a significant factor, except for a single AA burst against Cian which caused some engine damage (but no crits). A deciding factor was Cian not attempting to assist his wingmen in the followup dogfight (his guns were fired once on turn 2 from an opportunity shot), as Pedr had some really bad initiative rolls and was otherwise busy putting flames out.

Game 4: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Fokker D.II (05 October 2002)
Mission: Patrol at 13,200 feet, over the German forward lines (1 square behind the lines)
Date: December 1916
British: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter (no observer) (Hanbal 3/1, Michael 1/0, Brendan 2/0, Rick 0/0, Cian 2/0)
vs
German: Fokker D.II (David 1/0, Matthew 0/0, Pedr 3/0, Gavin 0/0, Doyle 2/0)

Results: Control of the skies went to the British forces.

Play saw Gavin lose initiative and promptly dive for home; with the result that everyone followed him down for an ugly tailing furball on turn 2.

Throughout the whole game, there was only 2 pilot hits; both on Cian by David. The first was a CW, and then he followed the resultant spinner down to inflict a further LW and make sure of his victim.

Doyle found himself suffering heavy damage from several aircraft, but eventually managed to lose the enemy through good initiative and smart tailing choices.

Game 5: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Albatros D.II
Mission: 
Date: January 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 6: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Albatros D.II
Mission: 
Date: February 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 7: Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter vs Albatros D.II
Mission: 
Date: March 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 8: RAF SE5 vs Albatros D.III
Mission: 
Date: April 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 9: RAF SE5 vs Albatros D.III
Mission: 
Date: May 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 10: RAF SE5 vs Albatros D.III
Mission: 
Date: June 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 11: RAF SE5 vs Albatros D.III
Mission: 
Date: July 1917
Forces:
Results:

Game 12: RAF SE5 vs Albatros D.III
Mission: 
Date: August 1917
Forces:
Results:

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