Balloon Busting In 'Spandau & Lewis'

I have been asked a couple of times to write up my ideas for balloon busting in Spandau & Lewis. It's only taken me two years to do it.

 
They are inspired by THIS THREAD on the Wings Of Glory Aerodrome, which whilst set up for a specific set of rules has some great bits and pieces for WW1 air gamers. Anyway, fire up your engines, put on your goggles and check that the rockets are strapped to your wings. We're going balloon busting!

Setup

Position 2-3 balloons within 12” or so of the opposite baseline. There should be about 12” between each balloon.

If the attackers are Allied and will be using Le Prieur rockets then you need to determine the facing of the balloons which is dictated by the wind. The balloons start the game facing the Allied baseline (the west, from which the prevailing wind blows). Then roll 4D6. Each roll of 1 or 2 rotates the balloons 45 degrees anticlockwise. Each 5 or 6 rotates them 45 degrees clockwise. Obviously each roll of 1 or 2 negates a roll of 5 or 6 (and vice versa).

(If the Germans are attacking and you need to know the facing of the Allied balloons then they should start facing the Allied baseline. But the Germans didn’t use rockets.)

Place 4 altitude markers next to each balloon.

Attacking Balloons

Balloons are static and can take 24 hits. They generally have two crew and count as a large target. Test for criticals as normal. Crew hits will affect the observers in the basket. Engine hits will automatically cause the balloon to catch fire.

In addition, after any attack on a balloon roll 2D6. If the hits came from a machine gun firing regular bullets take the highest score. If the hits came from Le Prieur rockets or from a machine gun firing incendiary ammunition take the lowest score. If the score of the selected dice is equal to or lower than the number of hits inflicted by the attack then the balloon catches fire.

As soon as a balloon catches fire and at the start of each subsequent firing phase roll a D6 for each balloon that is on fire. On a 4+ it explodes and is destroyed. Any plane within 2” of an exploding balloon takes a 3D6 attack, with a 6 scoring a hit.

Lowering Balloons

At the end of any turn in which a balloon has an enemy aircraft within 6", the ground-crew will try and pull it down. Roll a D6 on the table below; if the score for the year is achieved then one altitude marker is removed. When all four markers are removed then the balloon has reached the ground and can no longer be attacked. The rolls are:

1914-15 - 6
1916 - 5+
1917 - 4+
1918 - 3+

(The technology for lowering balloons progressed throughout the war, with the balloons being pulled down by hand at first, then teams of horses, then steam-engines and finally by petrol-driven winches. By the end of the war the balloon could be pulled down in minutes)

Anti-Aircraft Fire

If a plane (regardless of nationality) is within 6" of a balloon it is subject to AA fire, which takes place before regular shooting. This consists of a 2 dice attack on the aircraft, with a 6 scoring a hit. Criticals are tested as normal, but structural hits score an additional 1D6 damage. The attack is reduced to a 1 dice shot if the target is within 2” of the balloon or is a friendly aircraft.

Le Prieur Rockets

Certain Allied aircraft carry these weapons on their outer wing struts.

Rockets fire at close range only (up to 3"). They are treated as normal gunnery, and get the regular deflection modifiers for shooting into the balloon's front or rear arc. A plane has two volleys of rockets; you can fire one of them or both. The red dice for a single volley hits on a 5+, whilst that for a double volley hits on a 4+. White dice shoot with a -1. 

Scenario Ideas 

If you just want a simple solo game then you can fly one or two planes against balloons. Make it more challenging by having one or two enemy planes turn up at random. I'd limit their willingness to chase the attackers home though. If the attackers break off from attacking balloons (or shoot them all down) and are flying for home, end the scenario once they have got a certain distance away from the scene of the action.

The First Kill

On 5th October 1914 French Corporal Louis Quenault and Sergeant Joseph Frantz became the first aircrew to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

The pair were returning from a mission to bomb the German lines in a Voisin III. As they were returning home and heading towards Chemin De Dames they encountered a German Aviatik B  piloted by Sergeant Wilhelm Schlichting, accompanied by his observer, lieutenant Fritz von Zangen.

Quenault and Frantz had a Hotchkiss machine-gun fitted to their plane. The Voison III was a pusher, and the gun was fitted on a tripod firing forward over the head of the pilot (the observer sat behind the pilot in this type). Frantz engaged the German plane, which tried to escape, being armed only with a carbine carried by the observer. The action lasted around 15 minutes and, as the Hotchkiss jammed, the French crew saw the German aircraft flip over and crash. Both occupants died.

For this feat of arms, Louis Quenault received the Military Medal and Joseph Frantz was made a knight of the Legion of Honour.

This first certified victory confirmed the usefulness of arming aircraft and rekindled the interest of the French general staff in developing machine gun systems.

I thought that it would be fun to play this action through as a quick lunchtime game using Spandau & Lewis.

The Voisin was rated as 3C5 with an observer fired pivot gun shooting into the 12 arc. 

The Aviatik was rated 3C+6, with the observer having a rifle.

I tasked the Aviatik with observing a village across the board. The Germans would win if they could scout the village and then return home. The French plane appeared randomly along one of the side edges. The French win by shooting down the German aircraft. I just used a 16" board for this game as the planes are so slow. 

The German plane headed straight for the target. With nothing to do until they got there the observer fired a couple of shots at the French aircraft to no effect. The French fired a burst from their machine-gun, also with no effect.

The Germans scouted the village, whilst the French, unlucky with their movement rolls, struggled to turn into their rear (which had been the plan).

The only chance the French now had was to latch on to the German as it flew for home. However the wily Germans managed to slip past the French plane and left it behind. 

So a quick game, and possibly one that's a little too easy for the Germans. I may make them roll to spot the target, meaning that they might have to make multiple passes and spend more time vulnerable to the French aircraft. Still, it passed the time, and it was good to get my aircraft out again, even if just for a short game.

Spandau & Lewis v1.3

Thanks to the posts I did last year I have noticed some interest in my free 'Spandau & Lewis' WW1 air rules. I had a look and realised that the version that was currently online is a much older one than the one I'm currently playing, and doesn't include a couple of important changes. So I have now uploaded the most recent version.

One of my goals for this year is to write up a few basic scenario set-up, including the special rules. I have tried to explain how the games work in various blog posts, so you should be able to put things together from them, but really it should be in the actual rules.

Anyway, here's the link (which has been updated on the Free Stuff section of this blog as well)*:

Spandau & Lewis v1.3

*If it opens an older version of the rules try clearing your cache or opening it in an incognito or private browser.

Back Into The Skies

I've been away on holiday this past week and managed not to do any gaming of note (aside from the obligatory Love Letter that is). I didn't taken any gaming projects with me and didn't really go anywhere of gaming interest either. Still, I had a nice few days in Hobart (my first visit to Tasmania).

Anyway, whilst we were away I did mull over Spandau & Lewis a little, and my current quest to strike a balance between how many hits a plane should take and how likely critical hits should be. This was something I wanted to explore in my previous game, and something I was looking at when I played it again this morning.

I set out the same scenario as before, but reduced each side's force by one two-seater and one fighter. I randomised how each sides' fighter were split up and where they came on. The three German planes - two DVIIs and a Dr 1 - came on individually whilst the British Sopwith Camels came on as a pair and a single.

Early stages in the vicinity of the German two-seaters. Two Camels are on the attack, but the Dr 1 is coming up behind them. The DVII hasn't spotted anyone yet, but was about to get a rude surprise.

One of the German two-seaters went down with an engine hit.

On the other side of the lines a Camel was chasing a DVII, whilst the two FK8s observed their first target.

Long range fire from the triplane took down a Camel with structural hits.

The British had spotted one target, but the FK8s escorting Camel was currently out of contact and a couple of DVIIs were closing in on them.

The Triplane made another kill as a Camel went down with an engine fire.

The third Camel lost contact with the fight and was shot down by ground-fire (left the table and rolled badly to come back on).

The FK8s were now on their own against two Fokker DVIIs and a Triplane. One DVII had a wounded pilot, though, and he struggled to bring the plane into the fight. The other two Germans attacked, putting plenty of holes in the British two-seaters. In return the observer in one of the FK8s scored engine damage on the DVII, forcing it to break off.

The Dr1 was also badly shot up and running low on ammo as well, so did a final pass of the two-seaters (no significant damage) and headed for home. 

The final DVII, with the wounded pilot, now finally came up. Time was running out for him to get home, but if he could down one of the FK8s the points would favour the Germans. It was worth the risk. His shot failed to score a hit on the escaping two-seater

But the British observer was having a good day, and his return fire caused a lucky structural hit on the German plane, that caused its wings to come off. Down it went!

(The British scored a critical that meant that the target rolled 2D6, took the lowest score and inflicted that many hits. They then proceeded to roll a 5 and a 6).

So the British lost three Camels, but got both two-seaters home with a full set of observations. They also shot down two German aircraft. The Germans got their two-seater home as well, and shot down three British planes. However the VPs are weighted towards successfully completing a mission, so the British were the victors despite their losses.

I played with aircraft taking slightly fewer hits than in the previous game, which made things a little more dangerous for them, especially with so many planes having powerful twin-guns. But it seemed to work out OK.

In The Air In 1918

We played some more Spandau & Lewis last night. Firstly I wanted to try a couple of small tweaks to the rules. And, secondly, I wanted to try the rules with late-war aircraft, as my predilection for early war planes has tended to skew my testing in that direction.

There were three of us playing and, with hindsight, I probably had too many aircraft in play. However we had a huge dogfight even if we did have to call it before the end.

So, it's June 1918 over the Western Front, and both the RAF and the German Air Force are sending out reconnaissance patrols. The British were flying a trio of Armstrong-Whitworth FK8s, whilst the Germans had three DFW CVs (although the models were Hannover CL class planes; I just wanted to get the models on the table).

Both sides had fighters in play too. The British had a quartet of Sopwith Camels, whilst the Germans had three Fokker DVIIs and a single Fokker Triplane (which ended up being flown by a novice pilot).

Here's the Germans all set up. We rolled a random entry point for each group of fighters, and the Germans (me) came on on the southern table edge.

The RAF fighters both ended up in close formation with their two-seaters. Two of the Camels had novice pilots, but one of the AW FK8s had an ace crew.

Everyone spotted each other fairly quickly. The two-seaters closed up and headed for their objectives, whilst the fighters split up, some going after enemy fighters and others the enemy two-seaters.

The isolated Triplane found two Camels heading towards it, but quickly turned out of trouble.

The DVIIs heading off into the fight.

Daniel was running the British two-seaters, whilst Stuart had the Camels. One Camel stuck close to the two-seaters, as a single DVII (with an ace pilot) attacked. A lucky shot from the front gun of an FK8 wounded the German pilot.

The Camels attacked the German two-seaters head-on, doing little damage. You can see a DVII and the Triplane moving up to support their reconnaissance planes.

The start of a new turn with initiative rolls against each plane.

The Fokker DVII ace tucked in behind the FK8s, and slowly chipped away at one of them; being wounded reduced his firing capabilities, and that was combined with some terrible shooting die rolls as well.

On the other side of the board saw one of the Camels fall apart under thh guns of a Fokker DVII.

The German DFWs had scouted the first objective and were now heading for the second. But one had a Camel on its tail and was suffering badly. The Dr1 came up in support but not fast enough.

The DVII ace plugged away at his prey, and inflicted an engine hit, which slowed it and reduced it's maneuverability.

A second DVII came in and finished it off.

At the same time one of Stuart's Camels finished off a DFW two-seater. The Triplane was now on his tail though.

At that point we called the game. The British were looking likely to get one of their two-seaters home with a couple of observations. Another - the ace crew - still had to run the gauntlet of a number of German planes and, to make matters worse, had irreparably jammed their rear-gun. There was also a Camel with jammed guns running for home. Two of the German two-seaters looked likely to make it back, with a quartet of observations between them, whilst they also had all four fighters still in play. The ace was likely to head home; wounded and low on ammo it seemed sensible. But the other three could probably have finished off another British plane before the end.

So we called it a marginal win for the Germans, as they'd got more observations home and shot down two British planes as well. To be fair the British were very unlucky with gun-jams, which seriously cut down their useful firepower.

Here's a few shots from Daniel:

A Camel pursues a DFW CV

Armstrong Whitworth FKs flying over the target. OK, the models are actually RE8s, but I fancied using the AW FK8 instead.

The ace approaches the FK8s.

A shot from low down.

The two small changes were to the frequency of criticals and an adjustment to the Power checks.

The first is a compromise where, when checking for criticals, you count any 6s rolled for shooting as before, but can include one 5 as well, so long as it registered as a hit. This slightly increases the chance of a critical without pushing it too far. My previous adjustment was to allow any hit a 1 in 6 chance of a critical, with each 6 increasing the likelihood. I found that made critical hits too likely.

The second change was that there's a modifier to the Power check based on how extreme a maneuver is. So a turn over 45 degrees forces a Power check, and it's at -1 if the turn is over 90 degrees and -2 if it's over 135 degrees.

Oh, and you may notice something different about my aircraft models if you look closely.

Fokker Patrol

A few years ago I started playing solo games of 'Spandau & Lewis' using a threat system. Here's the original post in which I tried it.

Anyway, in one post I ran a Fokker EIII and noted that I didn't have much in the way of opponents for it as up until recently Tumbling Dice hadn't made any suitable planes. I came across this observation the other day, and realised that I now had a nice range of suitable options to challenge an Eindecker. So yesterday I set up some games.

I took the opportunity to fiddle with the way the threat deck was created.

You will have a deck which is a mix of threat and dummy cards. Use standard playing cards.

Draw up a list of threats, with each one assigned to a card. I use red cards for threats. Ten is good if you have the models to cover it; mine is drawn up in such a way that I could theoretically field all ten threats.

For each plane in your patrol draw two threat cards. Draw an equal number of dummy cards (obviously I use black cards as dummies). Shuffle them, then discard half of them without looking at them. Then add two card to the deck for each plane you are using - the first should be a threat card, and the others dummies.

e.g. You are running two planes. Draw four threat cards and four dummies, shuffle them and discard four cards. Then add one threat and three dummies (four cards total). Your deck will contain eight cards and may have anywhere between one and five threats in it.

I drew up the following threat list, representing Entente aircraft in the Summer of 1915:

A - 1 x BE2 (1-3  Unarmed, 4-6 MG armed)
2 - 2 x BE2 (1-3 Unarmed, 4-6 MG armed)
3 - 1 x FB5*
4 - 2 x FB5*
5 - 1 x Bristol Scout (1-3 MG armed*, 4-6 Unarmed)
6 - 2 x Bristol Scouts (1-3 MG armed*, 4-6 Unarmed)
7 - Morane L* (Single-seater with front MG)
8 - 2 x Morane L (1-3 Unarmed, 4-6 MG armed)
9 - 1 x Farman MF11
10 - 2 x Farman MF11

Planes with an * will actively hunt and engage the Fokkers. Other planes are on reconnaissance missions and will attempt to escape (although will fight if forced to it).

Only one Bristol scout in the game will ever have the MG mount.

Unarmed planes are assumed to have small-arms.

Roll for crew quality as normal. You can decide on the crew quality of your own plane, allowing you to set the challenge as you see fit. In both of the games reported here I went for experienced pilots.

I drew a card at the start of each turn. If it was a threat then I positioned this direction rose over the Fokker that was closest to the enemy edge:

I rolled 2D6 and the threat appeared in that direction relative to the Fokker. It appeared 3d6" away. I turned the threat towards the nearest Fokker and then rolled on the rose again to see what direction it was actually facing (so if you rolled a 3,7 or 11 it would stay facing towards it, for example).

Threats are considered to be unaware of the Fokkers and must spot them. Until they do they behave as follows:

Reconnaissance planes would determine which board edge was the furthest from their current position. They would turn until they were facing that edge and then attempt to leave the board via it.

Other planes are on patrol. They will turn until they were facing the centre of the board, fly towards it and then circle it.

As per the rules, planes that have not spotted an enemy will move at a speed of 3 and can make a single 45 degree turn without checking for it.

That's a lot of setup information, and much of it is for a future me to read. But it may be useful to others.

In my first game I set up one Fokker. This meant a deck of four cards. 

The first card gave a pair of BE2s, unarmed except for small arms. They appeared about 10" away in direction 9 facing towards the Fokker. Both crews were experienced.

They spotted the Fokker straight away, and attempted to run for the furthest edge whilst banging away with rifles. One actually hit the Fokker but did no damage (it was a scary moment though).

They turned for the safety of a cloud. The Fokker pursued, firing as it did so. But the German's rolls were abysmal.

One BE2 ducked into the cloud whilst the other failed to make the turn and carried on. The Fokker pursued that one.

The threat deck had produced a single unarmed Morane L, but it wasn't worth going after it. It plodded across the board towards the opposite edge, aware of the fight but unwilling to take part.

The Fokker continued its pursuit and continued to miss with every shot it made.

The BE2 found a cloud to hide in. The Fokker chased it through. It would have one clear shot on the other side.

It was the best shot it had had all game. Every dice missed. The BE2 escaped. The Fokker had fired off half of its ammo for no effect. With no other threats in play it went home.

I set up a second game, this time with two Fokkers. Since they tended to hunt alone I split them up on opposite sides of the board. The one closest to the enemy edge would be the threat magnet, though.

The first threat were two oblivious Farman MF11s. These are armed but very, very slow,

One of the Fokkers worked into their rear.

The other waited to ambush them when they came out of the cloud they'd hidden in.

Another threat - a Morane L with new-fangled Garros wedges. And it was hunting the Fokkers. It also rolled an ace pilot.

One Fokker moved to engage this new threat whilst the other tried to get into the rear of the Farmans.

An unarmed Bristol Scout also appeared out of nowhere. This was just looking to head home and with plenty of targets in play the Fokker pilots were inclined to let it.

The lead Fokker swooped in on the Morane L, and inflicted hits on it.

The Farmans were now making their escape as the other Fokker somehow lost contact with them. The Scout is heading off to the right.

The Farmans escaped, undamaged but slightly rattled.

The action would now be the two Fokkers against the Morane L. This is slower than the German planes, but more maneuverable and, of course, with a much better pilot.

The second Fokker closed up on it

They exchanged shots as they passed, bot scoring damage.

But the more nimble Morane got onto the tail of the Fokker.

The Fokker went down with its engine on fire.

The other Fokker had been trying to get back into the fight but was too late to save his companion. However the Morane was fairly shot up and could maybe be finished off.

However it was obvious that the Morane was too tough an opponent for a single Fokker to risk engaging, and the Fokker fled. A straight run for home wasn't a sensible move as, although the Morane was slower, it would still get in a few tail shots before being left behind. So the Fokker attempted to lose it in a cloud.

This gave it enough of a lead that it could pile on the speed and escape.

But with one Fokker shot down for no French or British planes downed it was a bad day for the Germans.

In future games I may tweak how the cards work a little; one idea I have had is to simply add dummy cards after discarding the first half deck. But then draw a threat from those not dealt into the deck on the first turn. It makes sense to have some enemy aircraft on the board from the start. It's possible that this could be the only threat the player faces; the deck may contain nothing but dummies. But you can never be sure. I might also deal dummy cards out so that the minimum size of a deck is six cards; this will spread out the threats a little if you are using a single plane.