Age of dogfights WWII -kickstarter preview gameplay part 4

January 1945, the battle in the Ardennes is in full swing. Both sides have been struggling with supply and ammo shortages on the ground for a while, but due to poor weather neither side could send planes to assist. Than one day, the weather started to clear. So much, in fact, that apparently the snow melted away. That's the reason we're using this map, and not the fact that a winter map isn't available.

The Americans send their transport planes to drop supplies to the troops on the ground, and divert a squadron of P-47 Thunderbolts (4) to provide cover against any German fighters they are likely to encounter. The Germans, not wanting their enemies to receive the much needed supplies send a squadron of Fw 190 fighters (4).

Since the Germans were struggling in the previous games, we decided that they would have 1 Ace pilot among them, and the rest would be regulars, while we gave the Americans 1 rookie and 3 regulars.

The Germans start off in a tight formation, forcing the Americans to not spread their planes too much. There are no special rules for this, just fly the planes close together. The randomness of the movement dice makes it difficult to stay in formation, so we may come up with a house rule for this sort of thing in the future. 

The Thunderbolts start separate from one another, but soon start forming up on their leader.

Zoey figured out that I was protecting my planes like this, so she groups up the Thunderbolts. One Jug flanks the Würger's, as Zoey likes all her planes to have a chance to shoot at something every turn. 

Why have a big map when you can play everything in the middle..

The flanking Jug misses.

Both #6 and #8 miss their marks. #5 is the rookie who wasn't able to get into a position to fire as well.

The 190's split up at this point. #6 and 8 go after the flanking Jug. 

Numbers 5 and 7 swing around and have a go at the trio of Jugs, with the rookie Thunderbolt pilot presenting itself on a silver (chrome?) plate for the German. 

Number 8 misses, and just as we think the Germans misfortune in dice rolling is incurable, number 6 hits his target. 

Both #5 and #7 miss by a small margin. Shame, as both were in a good spot, and had decent odds of success.

190 number 6 had an itchy trigger finger, so his target turns into a ball of fire as it plummets down to earth.

With their target gone, this pair of 190's can shift their focus on the main group of Jugs.

Thunderbolts 5 and 8 have a go at the same enemy plane, but they both miss.

The Germans circle around to better firing positions. 

All 3 German planes hit their targets. We might add more d6's so that we can show more hits on camera at the same time.

Two Thunderbolts go down, with only the rookie remaining.

The lone American pilot doesn't like his odds of surviving alone against a whole squadron of enemies, so he turns tail and heads for home. The Germans are having none of that, being tired of their poor dice rolls from all the previous games, so the whole squadron gives chase.

They catch up to their prey, just as he was about to make his escape. Just one of the Germans barely makes the shot, in all their eagerness to finish off their foe.

Content that they again rule the skies (or at least this part of the skies) the victorious Würger's tip their wings to the troops on the ground, and head back to base.

The butcher birds really proved why they got their nickname. We both enjoyed formation flying, that we plan on adding another squadron per player in the following games. It shows how well the game system handles multiple craft at the same time.

This game showed us that the Demo set lacks a few more extra flight stands for each height level, but I'm sure the final release will have more provided. 

As no planes were damaged before being shot down, we still feel the damage table should be at least 13+ for a destroyed result. This is easily house ruled if the final release stays with 11+.