Almost Bloody April

[MengJiao]

It suddenly occurred to me that it was almost 100 years since Bloody April.

I rushed to commemorate that bloody month and found that Manfred v.Richtofen had almost been shot down on the 6th or 9th of March.  I'm picking the 9th because on that morning, he led five Albatross Diii into about 30 RFC planes.  Benbow in an FE8 is one possible candidate for the pilot who almost killed the Red Baron when the Red Baron was busy making his 25th Kill when it was almost Bloody April.

Anyway, here's the scene (the poor Baron will have to use the German Scout Matrix as I try to bring him down):

[Gusington]

Five vs. thirty...

[MengJiao]

Five vs. thirty...

Actually, the Baron wasn't quite that confident.  In my commemorative haste, I assembled the March 6 RFC versus the March 9 DLK by mistake and shortened the map area erroneously as well.  So I'll reinforce the DLK and give them a win if they stop the three recon objectives of the RFC (all-new 3, count 'em -- three).

Still, either Benbow or a two-seater gunner will probably get some quasi-historical shots at the Baron.  So we will see!

[Gusington]

I forgive you.

[MengJiao]

I forgive you.

  Good!  And As I always say, when playing solitaire, mistakes are indistinguishable from fate and the bigger the error, the more horrid the fate might turn out to be.

[MengJiao]

I forgive you.

  Good!  And As I always say, when playing solitaire, mistakes are indistinguishable from fate and the bigger the error, the more horrid the fate might turn out to be.

   Two minutes til things get messy.  The Nieuports with a camera are likely to be too high for the Baron, but there are FK8s, DH-2s and BE2s low enough to attack.

[MengJiao]

I forgive you.

  Good!  And As I always say, when playing solitaire, mistakes are indistinguishable from fate and the bigger the error, the more horrid the fate might turn out to be.

   Two minutes til things get messy.  The Nieuports with a camera are likely to be too high for the Baron, but there are FK8s, DH-2s and BE2s low enough to attack.

  Things got messy, but no aerial machine guns opened up for another 6 minutes,  then:
  Jasta.11 hit the DH-2s for one shot down and one damaged, taking no hits in return
  But the next turn, Benbow dove in with 6 FE8s, crippling 1 Albatross and damaging 2.
  Which sort of reproduces the historical result that nobody is quite sure whether it happened on the 6th or the 9th of March 1917...
  Which seems commemorative enough for me.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I really have to get around to punching the counters and reading the rules for this one one of these days.

[MengJiao]

I really have to get around to punching the counters and reading the rules for this one one of these days.

  It's an interesting game, but probably needs to be played in conjunction with reading Peter Hart's Bloody April to make much sense.  I guess the
artillery-spotting missions are the real point of the whole aerial blood-bath, which isn't that obvious from the game itself.