Dragon to the End

The Continuing Adventures of the Dragon Squadron

Mission 5
"Bad news, boys" Capt. Devin Drake announced to his men of the Dragon Squadron. "I just got off the line with Group. They want us to go after those artillery emplacements again."

Lt. Taylor Hicks groaned. Two of his comrades were lost on the last attempt to destroy the enemy artillery. Newcomers Al Hartley and Randy Palmer exchanged nervous glances. This did not seem promising.

Drake chose Hicks and Hartley to accompany him. As they approached, the saw only 1 enemy fighter on patrol. "Let's take out their air support and then go after the artillery." Drake commanded. "And if you get hit, head back home!"

The aircraft swirled around each other in an intricate dance of death.

But the Cobra struck first. Hicks fell before the enemy's guns.

Fortunately, Hicks was able to bail out. Alas, he was picked up by enemy infantry.

Back in the skies, the Dragons could not get a shot on the Cobra. But after a few passes, the enemy broke off for home.
Note: the Cobra flew off the side of the board. In my rules, this means that it disengaged from the fight.

Drake made a run and damaged one of the emplacements.

His second pass damaged another emplacement. Hartley missed.

And then gets hit by AA.

Following Drake's command, Hartley heads for home. Drake is then hit by AA.

Disobeying his own orders, he makes a pass at the damaged gun. He misses. With his controls causing problems, Drake also turns back for home.

Final tally - 1 pilot and plane lost with one gun destroyed and another damaged. A bit less than Group hoped for (the objective was to destroy 2/3 artillery emplacements); mark this down as another loss.

Later that day Drake took a call from Group Command.

"We're pulling you boys out of the action."

"What? Why?" asked Drake.

"You seem frazzled, and your boys are all new. Give them some training and get some R&R yourself. We'll need you soon enough."

With that, the Dragons' first campaign ends. With the way I'm scoring, it is technically a victory (3 successful missions out of 5), but it feels like a defeat - 2 losses to end the campaign, 3 pilots and 5 planes lost with only 4 victories. Not exactly a smashing success. But another campaign is in the offing.