In Progress Let's Plague the Skies in Eindekker

[Awor Szurkrarz]

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/63397/eindekker

I start by rolling skills for my pilot. Let's call him Gustaff. I roll one skill and I pick "gunner" which makes machine gun fire more effective. Normally one plays with Boecke or Immelmann but I'm using optional rules for pilot creation.
I roll for a random mission and receive Combat Patrol.
So starts day one:

Combat patrol happens over friendly territory.
I start at base and a moment after taking off I get under friendly machine gun and rifle fire, but luckily they miss me.
I fly to the friendly territory. The patrol is largely uneventful.
Just before the end of the patrol I spot an enemy light recon/bomber plane. I attack it. I manage to rake it with a few burst of machine gun fire but it seems to be largely unaffected except for a little structural damage. Then it turns it tail and begins to run away. Before it gets away I manage to hit it with another ineffective burst.
Then I resume patrolling and return at base just before I run out of fuel.

There are 10 turns during a day and in the beginning of each turn one rolls for a random event. This day I rolled 7 events that don't apply to my situation.
I end up the day with 10 victory points. 7 for patrolling and 3 for lightly damaging the enemy plane.

The gaming board is divided into several sections:
Friendly Base
Friendly Territory
Trench Lines
Enemy Territory
Enemy Base

During one turn one can move one section.

Day two:
This time I got a Trench Patrol mission.
Trench Patrol takes place over the Trench Lines.

I got to the Trench Lines without anything happening.
Soon after I began patrolling, an enemy light recon/bomber plane appeared. I managed to hit, inflicting light structural damage. Then it managed to hit me, lightly damaging my engine. The handling characteristics of my plane worsened and I had difficulty hitting it, but it didn't manage to hit me either. It turned to flee and I managed to send a long burst into it, inflicting heavy structural damage. It managed to flee but it was badly damaged.
At the end of my patrol I got under enemy AA fire twice, once it included artillery. Luckily they hadn't hit me.
Then I encountered an enemy light recon/bomber plane. It managed to hit me but without effect. I ran away as I was running out of fuel.
When returning from the patrol, I got under friendly rifle/machine gun fire, but they missed me. I returned to base and landed safely.

At base they managed to fix my engine.

During round 6 I rolled a random event that had a chance of instantly destroying my plane. It's an event when the propeller got damaged by gunfire. There's a 1/6 chance that it makes the plane crash land or destroy it outright if it has a damaged engine. So, flying with a damaged engine is a gamble.

I got 15VP. 10 for patrolling and 5 for inflicting heavy damage on enemy plane.
In the end of day two I have 25VP.

 

[Azira]

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

What?

 

[m4davis]

we are waiting for explanation and update

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It's a solitaire board game published by Minden Games. It's an AAR of a 7 day campaign in it. It's action happens in France 1915, during the period called Fokker Scourge. During that period, Germans had a huge technical advantage because their Fokker EI monoplanes had a machine gun synchronised with propeller and were purposefully built fighters.

Wait. Does the Codex Playground have it's own exclusive posters, whose existence I wasn't even aware of?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Day three:
I have received a trench patrol mission again.
The flight to the trench line was uneventful.
Soon after I started patrolling, I encountered two light bomber/recon planes. I managed to hit one but without effect. Then I managed to hit it and destroy it. The poor bastard inside had no chances to survive. Meanwhile the other plane tried to join combat but I easily avoided getting hit. He saw what happened to his comrade and ran away.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. Had some engine problems but they didn't cause any damage. Decided to fly back with a bit of fuel reserve in case something would stop me.
Flew around the base a bit and landed when the fuel started to run out.


During the flight I rolled the potential propeller damage random event (and avoided it happening again) and a potential engine problems event which I also avoided.

I got 18 VP. 10 for the destroyed enemy plane and 8 for patrolling for 4 turns.

 

[SerratedBiz]

So what the fuck are VPs (Victory Points, I know, but in detail) and what are they good for?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

So what the fuck are VPs (Victory Points, I know, but in detail) and what are they good for?

The amount of victory points decides whenever one lost or won the campaign.

 

[oscar]

Hey I like it. Though I wonder what 'the campaign' means in the context of you being a single pilot. Like if you win a medal, die or get discharged? How well you did in comparison to Boecke or Immelmann?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Day 4:
No encounters with planes. I received ground fire twice. Once from multiple machine guns. Luckily I wasn't hit.

VP received: 14 for patrolling. Oh I checked out a combat example in the manual and I discovered that I made an error in VP calculation. The first turn my plane ends on right altitude in right place counts for victory points. So, I should have +3VP. On the other hand apparently, plane damage counts as negative VP, which is weird because it isn't written in the rules .
So I got -3 VP for damage.

The sum of VP is: 57
Apparently I need 80VP to score a draw.

Hey I like it. Though I wonder what 'the campaign' means in the context of you being a single pilot. Like if you win a medal, die or get discharged?

Just a victory/defeat/draw. Sadly, no fluff like getting a medal.

How well you did in comparison to Boecke or Immelmann?

I already destroyed one enemy plane and damaged further two. Boelcke had 6 victories during the entire 1915 and Immelmann had 5. So, I think it compares quite well.

When it comes to skills, Boelcke has an ace skill and a gunner skill and Immelmann has an ace skill and an initiative skill. My pilot has just the gunner skill.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Day 5:
Got a combat patrol mission.
I got some engine problems but nothing serious. I flew to the friendly territory. The first half of the patrol was boring. Nothing happened.
Then a lone recon/bomber appeared. I shoot him up pretty badly and it ran away. I think I have wounded the pilot.

Not a long time later, I encountered my first enemy fighter. Its pilot was no match for me. I shoot him up badly too, though about half of my hits seemed to have no effect and it escaped. Which is too bad as I was hoping for another shot down.
In the end, the engine problems reappeared and my engine got damaged. I landed safely in the base a moment later.
They successfully fixed my engine, so the plane will be ready to go tomorrow.


I got 13 VP: 10 for the fights, 6 for patrolling and -3 for plane damage.
The sum of VP is: 70.

The fights were really brutal. One thing that is nice is that plane damage affects the combat ability. An engine or pilot hit gives the opponent a hit bonus and two structure hits too. And that bonus is cumulative. So, for example I hit the enemy fighter in the engine on second combat round, and then I had a +1 bonus to rolls against him. Two rounds later I got another bonus from the structure damage. He never managed to hit me and I was hitting him every round.