Mission 3
Alarms began blaring at the aerodrome.
"All hands to your planes! Incoming air raid!"
Within minutes, Devin Drake had his entire squadron (himself, Howell Green, Taylor Hicks, and Ike Peters) in the air.
Not long after, the squadron spots the bomber formation, 3 Vulture medium bombers, plus 3 Cobra escorts.
Drake has a shot at one of the escorts, but he misses.
The same goes for Green.
A Cobra makes a pass at Hicks. Its bullets slash through Hicks's plane. He begins to spiral to the earth.
Hicks manages to pull out in time. He then tries to nurse his stricken craft back to base.
Note" Planes that are "shot down" get a save to survive. They are removed from the board with the assumption that they return to base. Hicks managed to pass his save roll.
Meanwhile, Drake gets a bead on a bomber. His shots do damage but he then gets hit by the bomber's defensive fire.
But Peters gets revenge! Unfortunately, Drake gets hit by more defensive fire. His plane goes up in flames; he has to bail out!
All alone, Peters chases after a bomber. He damages it.
And then destroys it.
Although the remaining bombers make it to the target zone, their bomb run is woefully inaccurate.
Hicks manages to nurse his plane back to base. He lands successfully, but the plane is a wreck. Drake survives his bailout and is rescued by friendly troops. Likewise, he makes it back home.
Note: Given that the dogfight occurred over friendly airspace, I ruled that Drake made it back to base.
The pilots are all safe but two planes were lost. It was a rough day for the Dragons. Fortunately the enemy bombers failed to destroy the target. Technically, the Dragons' mission was a success!
Note: Out of curiosity, I rolled damage for the lost bomber. If it had managed to get to the target the bombers would have won the scenario. Peters's last minute heroics saved the day!
Mission 4
With Drake and Hicks out of action, the next mission falls on Howell Green and Ike Peters. For a rookie, Peters has shown great promise, already destroying 3 enemy aircraft.
Today's mission is to destroy enemy artillery positions.
Green and Peters approach. A sole Cobra fighter plane flies cover.
While Green circles around trying to get a bead on the Cobra, Peters makes a pass at the enemy artillery.
His first attack damages the target but he is hit by anti-aircraft fire!
Note: I treated the ground targets like medium bombers (2 hits to destroy) with all-around defensive fire, hitting on a 6.
His engine sputters; he cannot get away fast enough.
Note: His activation roll in this turn was very poor so Peters was unable to fly out of range.
This allows the AA to zero in on his plane. Shells smash into his stricken craft; it goes up in flames. Peters manages to escape from the cockpit and bail out. He parachutes safely, in the midst of enemy artillerymen.
Green follows Peters. His attack misses but the AA is again accurate! Now Green is damaged.
As the Cobra turns back into the fray, Green makes a pass at a second artillery emplacement. He manages to score some damage.
Then Green turns to attack the Cobra. Their guns blaze, but the Cobra strikes. Green's plane explodes!
The Peregrine fighter crashes to earth in a twisted pile of metal.
A disastrous outing for the Dragons. Two planes shot down, with 1 pilot killed and another captured.
Notes:
- Once again I made a roll to determine the fate of planes that are eliminated. There is a 50% chance of the pilot escaping with a badly damaged craft. Obviously that did not happen in either case today. For planes shot down, I then make a pilot survival roll. Green failed but Peters succeeded. I ruled that he managed to bail out, but given that he was flying over an enemy position I figured that it made sense for him to get captured.
- Technically the Dragons have already won the campaign, being successful in the first 3 missions. I am still playing out the last two, just to see what happens to the pilots. Alas, it did not go well this time.
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