Dawn Patrol (TSR) miniatures campaign pictures.

[razorramon31 0]

I am also on MK2's gaming group and let me tell you all that when he plays a game, any game it's all 200% involvement! I have never in my life played with anyone as dedicated or "clutch in the trenches" as my good buddy, MK2.

 

Just for the record, I am playing DelVechio and Raymer (for the American and French forces respectively) during this campaign.

 

Balloon runs are the most horrifying experience in Dawn Patrol. Right now as it stands the record for surviving passes at a balloon are four by Del Vechio.

Just to give you an idea:

Imagine flying in at 2500 ft, the Balloon is at 800 ft.. You start your run 3600 feet away.

first turn, you max out the throttle and your within 2300 feet but the balloon realized your coming in and just lowered to 650 ft.

Now is when the "fun" begins.

As you dive like a Hawk swoping down on its prey right into the mouth of the dragon, You come under fire from 4 AA guns blazing all around you,

you get within 200 ft of the balloon you get a healthy dose of "burning onions",

surviving that, you face off agains 4 machine gun nests, all waiting to bring your craft down in a hail of smoke and flames...

The plane takes not one, not two, but three engine hits!!! (realize that your plane can only take 6 engine hits)..

now rolling on the critical table with a six sided die (a 7 or 8 is basically death). you roll and get an 8!

now you roll on the critical table which on an engine is devastating. you only have basically one chance on that chart to survive ....you roll a.....6!

amazingly enough, your carburator gets shot to hell causing smoke to come out! So you manage to survive that and then you open fire.

You lay out a full "long" burst, and the hail of bullets explodes the balloon so you bank left just in the nick of time, of the devastating explosion, while you feel the searing heat!!! (only a bank lets you survive as anything else sees you engulfed in flames)

You then turn your craft and head home victorious knowing that you have hampered the enemy from gaining important recon information of your Allies postion and reinforcements.

 

Now take a breath, and imagine that instead of destoying the balloon, it survives, and you dare to make another pass at it!

Now imagine doing that two more times!!!! Brave? No its actually suicidal!

But when your a Cocky American pilot and you have 13 missions under your belt and no confrimed kills, sometimes it just seems like the thing to do!!!

As the old sayig goes..."It seemed like a good idea at the time..."

Edited March 21, 2009 by MK2

[+MK2 12]

Great game tonight with plenty of highlights.

 

Scenario: Lamb to the slaughter

 

2 british Se5As with 0/0 pilots on their first mission have been seperated from their squadron (one is very badly damaged).

German Jasta 11 lurks a few thousand feet above them ready to pounce.

2 brave British Camel Pilots climb desperately to try and save them.

 

it was a spirited fight that saw the SE5as turn agressive and deliver some blows. In the end one Se5a pilot surivived and the one flying the damaged plane perished.

 

Congratulations to Martin Von Scrub in his rickity crate Albatros for getting his first kill (him and Von Rolshoven had to cut a deck of cards to see who got the kill as they both scored and equal amount of killing hits on the SE's last turn).

 

 

Other squadron news that was taken care of:

 

Adolph Bulow has joined the squadron with a few missions under his belt and a Shiny new Pfalz XII has been issued to Jasta 11.

 

James Cunnigham , leader of the 94th aero squadron, has been promoted to Major

 

Rene Jeannot has recieved the Croix de Guerre medal for his outstanding achievements in combat.

 

and of course Martin Von Scrub has a confirmed kill.

 

 

 

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Wow!.....That is awesome!!

[+MK2 12]

Here are some of the balloons we are working on and a Zep...

 

 

 

 

[WarlordATF 1]

Thats really cool. It Looks like alot of fun! Great job on the Balloons!

 

I never played Dawn Patrol, but i used to have a Luftwaffe board game when i was a kid, I loved that game.

[+MK2 12]

Luftwaffee is a great game and they actually made an updated new version of it ...here it is at Decision games:http://www.decisiongames.com/html/luftwaffe.html

 

 

 

Here is the finished product on balloons

 

 

[+MK2 12]

Action on August 5th 1918 :

 

2 German Fokker Dr1s and one Albatros DVa vs . 2 French SPAD 13s and 1 Spad 7

 

The battle lasted 8 turns and saw all planes receive damage (two extensively barely able to make it back home).

 

Leutnant Oswald Wittowski of Jasta 11 (a 0/0 pilot on his first mission)flying a bright blue Albatros was hit first and received and engine critical on the first turn of the game. He was able to shake this off and 5 turns later shot down a Spad 13 flown by a 6/2 veteran French pilot named Didier Pissotte (he went down in flames). Oswald then came very close to shooting down a second SPAD13 the very next turn (flown by noted Ace Jean Raymer) . He needed to roll just two 1s out of 5 dice but just came up short. Raymer disengaged 2 turns later and left for home with a badly shot up engine.

 

The player who controlled the allied side admitted to making a tactical mistake that led to the Frenchman's demise (Didier's) by not knocking Oswald's blue albatros out of the sky when he had a chance (He chose to attack a fresh Dr1 instead). Both sides broke off after 8 turns with the advantage going to the Germans. It was a blast.

 

I also think the game saw a record amount of criticals, struts, engines, wings, all were hit and made for an extremely lively game, I don't believe we rolled a 6 while shooting not even one time. Everyone collected lots of led.

 

 

 

 

 

[+MK2 12]

New update

 

August 12 1918 has proven to be a very exciting day in the annals of dawn patrol.

 

The ebb and flow of battle has rarely been put so on display.

 

The scenario consisted of a damaged Albatros trying to make it back to friendly territory.

 

German ace Helmut Steiner and Martin Von Scrub crossed allied lines to defend the wounded bird and they were opposed by Erwin (1 Kill pilot) Del Vechhio (very experienced ace level pilot but with no kills) and James Cunningham (the current top allied ace with 5 kills) of the 94th aero squadron.

 

Martin Von scrub set the pace with aggressive play. Helmut Steiner scored first blood by severely damaging Erwin's plane with a double critical. James Cunningham lost initiative and was besieged by Von Scrub. Cuningham( even though a top ace ) could not shake the determined German pilot as he scored hits (they were scary moments) .

 

Steiner also shot at Cunningham all seemed lost for the allies (every time Steiner shot there was unease on the allied side as they still remembered the brutal double pilot kill from the previous game) .

 

Del Vechhio scored an amazing 17 bullets through two turns on the wounded bird (piloted by Wilhelm Outof-luck ) but the Albatros would not go down. Del Vechhio also found the time to score 3 engine hits on Steiner's plane on a single turn.

 

Wilhelm Outof-luck flew back into the fight and managed to throw his wounded plane into an out of control spin.

 

Von Scrub maneuvered the Red albatros with expert ease and managed to score a the third critical on Erwin's machine.....Erwin snapped into a spin and burned all the way to the ground...Von Scrub had scored his second kill.

 

Cunningham (on the same turn) shot Von Scrub with one 3 bullet short burst , it had the patented Cunningham luck , the burst scored a possible pilot hit. Cunningham promptly rolled double threes and Von Scrub was critically wounded. Scrub left the battle on his way to being shot down.

 

At this point Steiner retreated with the engine hits, Cunningham had jammed a gun and felt that caution was better part of valor and after his unbelievable lucky kill of Scrub decided to also retreat .

 

Del Vechhio faced off with Wilhelm Outof-luck. Del Vechhio shot his wings off and scored the kill (congrats on your first kill!) but the most amazing part of the night was the die rolling display by Martin Von Scrub. He plummeted through allied lines , crashing just a few hundred feet in German territory , surviving going unconscious , unfriendly territory, height, and crash landing safely ....he will live to fight another day.

 

what a game.

 

 

 

 

 

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Wow! Simply wow! Words cannot describe what you have done there, nor my jaw hitting the floor when I opened up this thread! What artistry! What dedication!

 

Where are you from? I'm thinking I may have to save up for a plane ticket just so I can see this live Dawn Patrol in action! Congratulations!

[+MK2 12]

This week brought us stuff that have never been seen before in this campaign

 

The scenario was a low level aerodrome attack by British Se5a airplanes . The board used is the 8 x 4 hand painted recreation of the original dawn patrol board.

 

It starts with 2 German planes that have managed to get up in the air pass all the carnage occurring on the ground (the aerodrome is partially on fire, wrecked airplanes etc. liter the runway).

 

2 of the tail end Se5as decide to turn back and attack the German planes that just got off the ground and table is now set for the encounter.

 

Keep in mind that altitudes designated on the board do count, in other words there are hills in some places that are at higher altitude than the 50 feet starting altitude etc. So extreme care must be taken if you are staying low.

 

Here is where the game got a little surreal.

 

The allied Se5as never once won initiative in the first 9 consecutive turns of the game. The allied planes either lost the rolls outright or were successfully tailed every single turn....for 9 turns....both of them... Kalman Berthold flying his all black Fokker Dr1 triplane literally had his guns almost melt from all the firing. Berthold fired on all turns except one where both guns were jammed (he unjammed one the following turn and continued firing).

 

Oswald Wittowski , who had previously flown one mission and had one kill, got behind a pilot by the name of Tubby Jenkins and managed to fire on 7 of the 9 turns. On the last turn he fired he managed to tear the wing of the Se5a at only 150 feet in the air and the plane crashed killing the pilot. Wittowski now has the distinction of getting one kill each in his first two missions ...this also gives the Albatros DVa (against all odds) the lead as far as the plane "type" that has shot down the most enemy planes ,flown by player controlled characters, 2 by Von Scrub and now 2 by Wittowski)...amazing...the weakest statistical plane has gotten great results.

 

This led up to possibly the most interesting part of the night. The other Se5a used the final turn to break off the attack and dove as he did so...the only problem was that there was a hill in the way......Berthold graciously offered Tompkins a chance to make it over the hill if he rolled a 4-6 on a 6 sided die....a 1 was rolled and the pilot Earl Tompkins died on impact...Berthold claiming the kill.

 

enjoy the pictures!

 

 

 

 

[+MK2 12]

This week featured a reverse of last week's scenario. A low level (starting altitude 50 feet) aerodrome attack by the Germans against a British squadron.

 

It consisted of the German players taking an Albatros DVa, a Pfalz XII and a Fokker DV 7 on an airfield attack mission. The Allies were flying Sopwith Camels for the British.

 

The British had not yet scored a kill in the entire campaign while racking up a whopping 5 pilots Killed in action.

 

We also play tested experimental wound location rules (which I will post in a seperate thread).

 

The second turn of the game saw all planes firing on an opponent. Von Scrub (a 5/2 pilot flying Albatro DVa) was flying with a light wound (as he had not yet fully healed) and we had rolled the location of the injury (his leg) preventing him from more than one 45 degree click in the direction each turn of movement.

 

As usual the Von Scrub luck held and he was not fired at for the first half of the game.

Everything seemed to be going the British way as all three Camels took turns slamming the Fokker DV 7 (pilot Gustav Lieber 0/0) with bullets.

Von Scrub quickly turned the tables and scored a pilot hit on Oliver Drake's camel (a 6/1 pilot)and he was critically wounded , he then passed out from the wound at an altitude of 200 feet and slammed into the ground going full speed. He died on impact and practically over his own airfield.

Von Scrub was not done yet as he scored a critical engine hit on Adam Barker's plane (Squadron leader and a 10/2) and smoked filled the Camel's cockpit.

 

At this point Alexander Fisher (5/1 pilot)) caught up to the Fokker Dv 7 and delivered 3 engine hits on one turn knocking the Fokker Dv 7 out of the sky. The pilot Gustav Lieber (0/0) had to land promptly and was subsequently captured.

 

Alexander Fisher then turned the tables again on the Germans and scored a critical on the Pfalz flown by Emil Vogel (10/0). Von Scrub continued to pepper the Camel flown by Barker and Barker finally put her down on the ground. Although technically he was not shot down and landed on his own recognizance , Scrub claimed him as a plane forced down for his second kill of the night! Fisher then decided the odds were against him and broke off combat. The Germans went back home.

 

Some notable facts. Von Scrub now has 4 kills and is one away from being an Ace.He was nominated for the Bavarian bravery awards and will be rolling for them as soon as he gets his next kill.

 

My pilots have the distinction of socring a kill for each of the squadrons in the game, German, American, British and French.

 

It was a fun night and a tight game that see sawed back and forth.

 

Enjoy the pictures.

 

The furball begins

 

 

Von Scrub scores his 3rd victim and first of the night shooting Drake down out of control.

 

Fisher scores a crtical engine hit on Vogel and barker has one scored on him by Scrub. (Barker eventually landed the next turn)

 

 

Fisher forces down Lieber. Lieber is captured and spends the rest of the war as a POW (having failed his escape rolls).

 

 

Updated kill board

 

[Wildfowler 0]

Many years ago I was given the game "Blue Max". A really wonderful board game depicting WW1 combat.

Loved that game and played it it for hours!

 

I still have it and really must try it again.

 

Anyone else remember it, or played it?

[carrick58 23]

Totally awsome, great job Would love to play that sometime

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

I saw a copy of Avalon Hill's KingMaker in there (the newer edition)!

Wow, did I spend a lot of time playing that game! Great collection of AV games..Rich. War, etc.

So much fun....more about the guys being together than anything else... :)

[Baldric 42]

Just saw this thread. Very cool indeed! Brings back awsome memories of tabletop gaming (and boardgaming) with buddies. I had copies of Fight in the Skies and later Dawn Patrol (both long since lost after numerous moves/postings). Love the idea of the dowelling as altitude markers, the alligator clips and wire. Is it possible to obtain the instructions for making those bases? I still have a copy of Richtofens War and might try to adapt it- be a nice project for my son and I. Cheers!