Things of Glory

Last night at the NWS presented a chance it demonstrate Sails of Glory to Julian of the ANF.  I tried to go easy on him as it was his first time, but look where it got me:

After this insult I showed no mercy, particularly when Julian sailed HMS Defence into the wind losing control of his ship while I sailed the Generaux around and blasted away, filling him full of holes which is not a good thing for a boat when it is out and about on the high seas.

I hope I haven't put him off.  Julian is very keen to fight a big Napoleonic naval battle.  I'm not convinced Sails of Glory is the right set, but today I came across this post in Facbook:

Hopefully there will be a write up of this event as it will be interesting to see how a 50 player game goes.

Then it was time to take to the air.  At this stage I must confess I have been playing Wings of Glory by email (purely as a participant, not the host/adjudicator - and hats off to them as it is a lot of work).  This extra play may have sharpened my skills somewhat, if not my luck.

Somewhere in there are supposed to be three Sopwith Camels trying to take down a Halberstadt.  For the life of me I can't see the third Camel although I am sure it was there when I took the photo.  The plane on the tail of the Hun is mine, while the other one is Mark B.  Julian's is the one that is missing; he would insist on using altitude and so my guess is that he is above the picture :-)

Stephen N is in the Halberstadt and he was a lucky so and so as it seemed every time we closed our guns would jam.

These photos are just testing my limited camera skills and also the cloudy terrain piece in order to get some front on photos rather than the usual top down ones.

We flew round and round.  Getting repeated 0 hit and guns jammed results (on both sides).  I'm not sure Julian ever got a shot in.  My opinion of the altitude rules are that whatever real life advantage being above your target might have had, it is not replicated by the game.  It is hard enough getting in long range never mind short range and when you do get in short range you find your bases are overlapping and you are too close!   

Eventually Mark B got in a shot that set the Halberstadt on fire (he does carry a lighter), but it didn't burn very much...

More circling around and I was getting closer when the Halberstadt started to dive.  I dived too.  Even Julian dived, but once a plane has the drop on you, you are not going to catch it until you are at ground level.  The Halberstadt went into a spin and looked as if it was going to get clean away, but its luck ran out as it spun down into the ground.  I am sure that Stephen jumped out just before it crashed and ran to safety.

All planes and associated aerial terrain is from Stephen's collection.