SORTIE 9At the end of our eighth Sortie, we each receive +1 Experience Points. That gives Adler and his rear gunner two Experience Points total, and the Funker (Radar Operator) one Experience Point. I’m going to hold off on Adler probably, to buy the Gunnery skill, which adds +1 hit. That could be devastating later.
Our next alarm is raised; the British are going after Bochum in the Ruhr. The weather is Good (damned near perfect, as I rolled a 1 on 1d10 for that), and our takeoff is uneventful. No electronics failures thankfully, and British spoofing efforts fail dismally. It feels like it’s going to be a good evening for hunting!
We move to the first Endurance box, which is the Ruhr. This will give us a lot of time and endurance to locate any intruding British bombers.
The Moon is Bright, which will give us an easier time of hunting (+1 to Interception rolls), and our Lichtenstein C-1 radar is in working order (another +1 to Interception). Almost immediately, the ground controllers vector us in on a promising lead, and the Funker latches on to it with our radar. We lower our altitude, coming in from below (to better hide against the dark ground), and see we’ve come across a Lancaster.
I’m feeling lucky, so I’m going to have Adler come in at Close Range (+1 hit), and on top of that, we’re going to do an Extended Burst! I’m hoping they’ll be able to down this gargantuan bomber quickly as a result.
The Extended Burst costs us two Ammo, reducing our forward cannon’s capacity to six. Adler is going to aim for the Starboard Wing as usual.
Fortunately the Extended Burst does not jam our guns nor blind Adler (rolled a 10, which gives +1 hit). Now we draw a Combat Card to see how well we do.
Unfortunately, despite Adler’s best efforts, the Lancaster’s gunners are on the ball and spot our approach. They get to fire BEFORE we do, and start to corkscrew this first Round, blast it! That mitigates one of the two extra hits we were going to apply. The GP result (Group) will be done after he fires, with +1 hit applied.
The Combat Card draw for the Lanc is:
What a relief – only one hit. But, we need to resolve it first…
53 = Schrage Musik
Fortunately, it’s a non-existent system, so their one hit does nothing! Now for OUR turn…
The GP result means one hit each on the Controls and Starboard Wing, and two Engine hits. I randomly determine those Engine hits to be one each on the two Starboard Wing engines. We also get one random hit, which is upped to two for that extra hit we made on the bomber. Our random hit rolls are:
10 = Fuel Tanks
8 = Engine (out)
That takes out the outboard Starboard Engine on the Lanc, and gives us a juicy hit on her fuel tanks. However, she’s not going down, and we’ll need to swing around and find her again since we’re at Close Range. My little attempt at downing her in one pass failed miserably, but it could have been MUCH worse, I suppose!
We swing around in the darkness, attempting another go at the Lancaster; fortunately, Adler and crew spot it and I decide they come in at Close Range again – gotta try to keep that -1 hit from them corkscrewing from being applied (rolled a 3; on a 1-2 when attempting another pass, you lose the bomber in the dark).
Our Combat Card draw is:
Defender Eliminated! Adler’s shots prove to be right on the mark, and the Lancaster is immediately destroyed. That’s number 5, making Adler an Ace!
We still have several Endurance Boxes to go, so I move our aircraft to the next one, and conduct more searches.
This time, Adler and crew happen upon a Bomber Stream (rolled a natural 10, +2 for Interception, is 11+, which is a Bomber Stream). This is a nice result, as we keep checking for Interceptions in this same Endurance Box until we get no result. If Adler had the ‘Bomber Stream’ skill, he could Intercept as many bombers as he wants without having to make an Interception roll. But, until then, we’ll need to make rolls.
We come upon our first target, which turns out to be a Halifax. We’re going to do our usual Starboard Wing/Medium Range approach this time; with this attack we’re now at half ammo for our Forward Cannons. Maybe we’ll get lucky…
Five hits are what Adler scores, and we are not spotted before we fire. Our damage rolls are:
10 = Fuel Tanks
6 = Engine (in)
3 = Wing
10 = Fuel Tanks
10 = Fuel Tanks
Holy crap! Not bad at all – THREE Fuel Tank hits. All it takes is two and BOOM goes the bomber. I’d say we overkilled that one a bit. But we’ll take it! Two more kills, and we’re still not quite done with this Bomber Stream.
We roll for Interception again and get a 1. That means no more Bomber Stream, and it also means we’re now lost. So, we lose an Endurance Box, moving two down the track. We still have three more to check, though.
The next Interception roll is a 10. Another Bomber Stream! Maybe we found the same one we just lost…
Now, we find a Wellington. Adler and crew approach it from below, at Medium range, and Adler lines up its shadowy Starboard Wing in his sights…
We fire first and get four hits. Something I’ve not technically been doing is, drawing the Bomber’s result. Now, when you get a DE and destroy it I think it’s pretty clear that you don’t draw another card for the Bomber, but even in cases like this, I need to draw a Combat Card in case we do not shoot down the Wellington. I’ll try to be better about that moving forward.
He’ll get three hits on us if we don’t shoot him down.
My damage results are:
6 = Engine (in)
6 = Engine (in)
5 = Controls
5 = Controls
Adler’s aircraft shreds the Wellington’s controls and takes out the Starboard Engine; while it’s beat down pretty hard, the Wellington is still going, and he fires back…
11 = Crew Injury
46 = Forward Guns
21 = Landing Gear
Looks like our run of good luck is about to run out.
First I’ll check the Crew Injury. I roll a 10, which is a Bordmechaniker; that’s not a crew that’s present and as such can be ignored – thankfully!
The Forward Guns result, though, takes out all of our forward-firing weapons; it looks like this Sortie is now over. Adler and crew are no doubt cursing enough to give the Devil a blushing fit!
Worse, the Landing Gear hit means we need to make a Crash Landing when we return. That will mean an Injury Roll for each crewman.
Adler and crew can’t even have the satisfaction of pressing home their attack thanks to the guns being out. Ignominiously, they have to now turn for home.
I roll an 8 for landing, which is Safe, but again, the lack of landing gear means a Crash Landing, so here are the injury rolls for the three crewmen…
Pilot = 2
Funker = 1
Rear Gunner = 2
Fortunately, they’re all Light Wounds! Well, ‘fortunately,’ in that it could have been a LOT worse. Their Do 217 is a wreck now…but we’ll receive a new one thankfully.
These two kills in this Sortie means we’re at six total now, which confers an Ace status on Adler! That’s +1 Prestige Point and he goes up one Prestige Level, up to 4.
He also gets his Wound Badge ‘upgraded’ to 2. It’s still the Wound Badge in Black, but if he receives another Wound, it’ll go to Silver. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your outlook), he wouldn’t get a Prestige Point for getting the Wound Badge in Silver. Here’s a look at the Pilot Display Mat, as it stands now.
We’re going to be a bit further into September 1943, but Adler is well on his way to earning the Prestige needed to get a good aircraft when the time comes…if he lasts that long. We’ve had a LOT of good luck so far in this game. Time will tell if it holds up.
