Has anyone come up with some fun scenarios besides the basic dog fights, recons and bombing/ground attack? I'm working on a league/campaign and want to add some verity to the games.

Thanks and fly safe.

HMS Hajj said:

Well, one I've wanted to try: I forget which pilot it was who found himself facing 50-60 enemy aircraft by himself -- anyway, have one pilot from one faction (Allies or Central Powers) go up against 3-4 acft. from the opposing faction; whenever one of the Opposing Faction units is destroyed, another OF unit enters the field from the OF side. The idea is to see how many acft. the lone pilot can defeat and survive.

For a non-canonical event: Place four cups open-side-down in a square, with the rims one ruler-length apart. Start the aircraft behind a line between two of the cups. The players have to fly their planes around all four cups a prescribed number of times to win. Sounds easy -- until you realize the planes have to pass through the intersection *four times per lap*, and will have opponents coming in from both sides *and* dead-ahead. Oh, and when going around the cups, each cup has to be circled the same way (clockwise, or counterclockwise) for the lap to count (however, complete laps need not be performed in the same direction -- that is, a player's first lap could be counterclockwise, his second clockwise, his third clockwise, his fourth counterclockwise, etc.).

And, of course, everyone is *armed*....

Thanks for the reply. I've actually have an "Out Numbered" mission scripted. However, I was going to do it still as multi planes per side, with just the one side able to respawn after being shot down. My campaign has scripted missions that basically fallow a strategic plan. As one side wins each mission, they progress further and further into enemy territory. My "Out Numbered" mission is just before reaching the enemy aerodrome.

I really like cup mission you shared, just not for a semi-historical mission. I will be playing it at next weeks open flight night though, so thanks!

Here is a pic of my mission tree (in progress of course)...

I'm still working out the text, setup, and details for each mission. I'm pretty much done up to mission 5, just need to add more detail to them and play test them more.

nice work. linking missions like this gives the campaign a bit more continuity and the players a feeling they r heading for the big final battle deep behind enemy lines.

HMS Hajj said:

Thanks Brown. The final mission tree looks like this...

great effort! ive printed this off and am going to use it!

at my school where i teach ive started up a games group and there are about 12 students who im teaching wow too.

they r borrowing all my planes and sets right now but i think they will b buying a plane each for themselves quite soon.

i want to have a Victory Ladder where the top pilots are ranked. Go the Allies!

cheers.

That idea with the paper cups sounds like fun! I'll have to try it.

bsmith13 said:

Let me know how it works out -- I've yet to be able to try it with live opponents. So far the solitaire runs have proven... interesting.

Do remind players that just because the guy in front of him went Left doesn't mean he can't go Right. (Four-way head-on pass at the crossover -- FUN. > )

If you haven't found it yet this web site from france has a solo or multi player scenerio called KING KONG. Yes it is the attack on the great ape on top of the Empire State Building. It is a downloadable package that includes the Empire State Building card, and special King Kong damage cards. All high quality images. Not historical but fun none the less!

http://cockpit-traditions.blogspot.com/

Sorry I'm trying to figure out how to use this forum, it does'nt seem to use the same posting system I am used to.

try this connection to the website I referenced above.

www.cockpit-traditions.blogspot.com

Spy Rescue
Set Up: Defending team place an airbase card anywhere on the playing surface. This is defended by two trench cards.
Attacking team has one two-seater plane with no rear gunner until the spy is picked up.
Objective: Rescue the spy and return him safely to your edge of the playing surface.

Air Mail
Set Up: Defending team must fly a two-seater plane which has no rear gunner. This plane starts at the bottom left corner of the playing surface with a friendly airbase positioned one ruler length from the centre of the playing surface as far as possible from the plane.
Objective: Drop mail suceessfully at friendly airbase and return safely to your edge of the playing surface.

Knights of the Air
Set Up: Each team selects two 1917 fighters and two 1918 fighters. Collisions with friendly aircraft of the same type are ignored. Limited Ammunition.
No random ground targets or observation balloons.
Each team selects one pilot to be the Squadron Leader. This pilot gains one Single Ace ability of their choice. +1 Pilot Point for each kill on a Squadron Leader.
Each team can respawn two aircraft this mission.
Objective: Destroy all enemy aircraft.

Our campaign uses both random missions and huge battles based on real stuff. We started in February 1916 Verdun, now we just played a huge Somme battle and we will soon have a allied long range bombing/escort based on a mission by the Escadrille Lafayette. I have some other huge missions planned also but I rather keep it down, some of my players might be reading this.

Anyways, we usually use a random mission table but the big missions are usually based on time instead.

We usually play one game a month and if a plane I own shows up during that month the side borrows it for that round, if the players want to keep it they buy one of their own (The Roland CII and Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter are very popular right now).

To start the campaign I bought 8 Fokker EIII (and modified one into a Pfalz EIV for myself), 4 DH2 and 4 Nieuport 11 (Modifying one of them into a Nieuport 16 with Vickers gun). Also each side will have a 2 seater for bombing and recon, I bought a Roland CII and a Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter to start with.

After August 1916 will the EIIIs be faced out to Albatross DI and DIIs, After December will the N11 and N16 be traded against Nieuport 17 and after April 1917 will the Dh2 be changed into Sopwith Pups. Of course do many of the players buy their own planes but others are poor or think the standard planes are good enough to play with. The idea is to let the them have the most common planes at the time and then change as the they left the front.

I also like to reward players who bothers to buy planes but since I want to maximize the numbers of players it isn't a must to own one. Many players do try for one time and then buy their own plane but it would be unfair to everyone if I just borrowed out whatever I had, therefor we have made a standard of whih plane each side should have. The planes are not really fairly balanced but anyone who knows about WW1 can tell you that things were not fair and things turn around. From the start had we germans some problem because even though we had better firepower is the Eindecker slow and moves like crap. The Roland made things a little more easy and the Albatross will turn things around.

As you hear are a types of planes interesting for our campaign since we play it long term, you could of course also have a campaign playing under a shorter period like Somme or during a week or even the 5 sorties many flew during a single day. But I like the idea of running most of the war. Maybe if I can find the planes and decks for it I might run the next campaign from 1914-1918. Maybe starting with one game every 3 months until 1916, then go into one every second month into 1917 and one every month the rest of the war.

Pour Le Merite said:

nice! interesting to see how other campaigns are organised. the key i think is to have a gradual introduction of technology but let pilots fly the older planes if they really want to. cool how you have key big battles based on history. ours is quite loosely structured with a group of about 10-14 pilots but only 3-4 of these play every session, so we have alot of rookie pilots entering the war. Ive stuck closely to Keith Upton's campaign rules (available here in these forums) although we dont follow any set mission tree. ive made up over 60 specific mission cards for use in the next campaign we do, this one has been more about testing out rules and working out ytechnology restrictions for each year... 1916, 1917, 1918.

we are currently in the middle of the war and its quite even although it feels like the allies are gaining ground with their Sopwith Camel's.

in 2 wks im organising a wow tournament over 2 days. teams of 2 with 3 specific missions. should be interesting. this will start late 1917 with plane upgrades available for the last mission only.

The_Brown_Bomber said:

Well, like you we usually runs random missions but sometimes is a longer battle really fun, and basing things on history just spices things up. We tend to lose more pilots then of course.

Mission cards is a great idea, Wow should actually have them too. It is also funnier if the enemy don't know you objective in beforehand and have to guess.

A huge tournament sounds really fun.

And yes, Camels and even worse, SE5s are a pain in the butt. Wow have the problem that the Triplane misses much of it's greatest points. In games like Blue max where you have 10 altitudes it is easier to have rules that allows the DR1 to climb at a rate which few if any other planes could and dive almost straight down. It is not enough to make it as good as the camel but it almost even things out.

The real threat to us germans however is the Spad XIII, the most underrated plane of 1917. It was a hard match even for a Fokker DVII even though the DVII is slightly better.

Usually the war Goes 1915-jan 1916 = Fokker scourge, german wins. Feb 1916-August 1916 = Allied wins with Nieuport 17 and DH2. September 1916-May 1917 = Albatrosses rules, even if a Spad VII or 2 might be annoying. Germans in the lead. June 1917 - April 1918. Camels, Spad XIII and SE5 controls the air. Ouch. And after that the germans go into lead again, evening things out for the last few weeks of the war when Snipe reaches the front.

That is how the real war worked even though tactics and the fact that the allied had a lot of more planes but usually had them more spread out also matters in. Enjoy Bloody April 1917, it is the best time to be german If the sides always are matched even then the game is not very well made but Wow is thankfully realistic enough, even though I think the altitude rules are way too simple.