SORTIE 3“Raid on Peenemunde,” the briefing says as we huddle inside the command tent, the warm August air still sticking to the ground outside, smothering us and our aircraft. Our third sortie is lined up, but we’re already pessimistic. Surely, we think, the odds will be in our favor sooner or later. We are reminded, before we head out, that we should be careful what we wish for.
We have a bit of luck; the weather is holding up despite the summer humidity here in Holland, and the Moon will be bright, giving us a bit of an advantage in finding the enemy.
We take off, but our ground controllers are confused by particularly effective bogus signals from England, so we lose an Endurance Box automatically. This only gives us three Endurance Boxes to check for an Interception.
Again, because the Moon is bright, we get a +1 to our Interception roll. This means we will succeed in finding a bomber on a roll of 8, 9, or 10 in each Endurance Box.
On our first try, we roll an 8! We find an enemy bomber. Rolling on Table [A3], Aircraft Target Chart, we get a 6, which means the bomber we find is a Lancaster.
We move over to the Bomber Target Mat, which shows various enemy aircraft. The middle one is what we’ll use for the Lancaster.
Notice the columns; each Hit scored means I place a Hit Marker in an open space at the top of the column. As more Hits are (hopefully) scored, another Hit Marker is added to that column. If we place a Hit Marker in a space with a circled X, that’s all she wrote and the bomber goes down.
First, we determine if we want to attack with our Schräge Musik or our forward guns. Since our aircraft has no Schräge Musik, this is an easy choice – we’re going with the forward guns.
The next choice is, do we engage at Long, Medium, or Close Range? Engaging at Long Range means one less hit, while Close Range means one more (random) hit. Medium confers no penalty nor benefit; Adler chooses to engage at Medium Range, so the Range Marker goes there.
Now, where to aim? Like Adler, I’m of the mind that a Wing is much weaker than the Airframe itself; this is very true on a Lancaster, which would require five hits to the Airframe to bring it down, whereas only three are needed to shoot off a Wing. I’m going to have Adler aim for the Starboard Wing.
I place the Aim Marker on the bottom space of the Starboard Wing column, which reminds me three hits are all that are needed there to blow the Wing off.
Looking on our Aircraft Display Mat, our Ju-88 R-1 has a total Firepower of 12 (9 for the Forward Cannons and 3 for the Forward Guns, which are machineguns). I have to expend an Ammo Marker from the cannons’ supply (which can hold four Ammo on this aircraft).
I could choose to do an Extended Burst, which gives the chance of additional Hits for the expenditure of two Ammo Markers, and a good chance of jamming the guns, and possibly even blinding the pilot. I’m not quite comfortable with the risks there, so Adler chooses to fire on them normally.
Now comes the time to resolve combat. This is where the Combat Cards come in; I draw the top one to see how our attack works out.
First, we look at the Contact section; I see that the bomber has not spotted us, so we fire first. Normally, combat is simultaneous. There’s a chance (albeit a small one) that we could shoot this bomber down before it gets to retaliate. Had the bomber spotted us, even if we did shoot it down, it would get to retaliate.
This Contact section only applies for the first combat.
Note, too, the ‘12’ column. We use this one to determine how many hits we land on the enemy Lancaster.
These four hits we score are resolved on the Bomber Random Damage table, using the Wing column (since we’re targeting the Starboard Wing). Rolling four times, we get the following results:
6 – Engine (in)
7 – Engine (in)
3 – Wing (Starboard)
8 – Engine (out)
I mark this damage on the Bomber Display Mat. This is not the best result; though we’ve taken out the inboard Starboard engine and damaged the outboard Starboard engine, game-wise we’d have to take ALL engines out to technically shoot the plane down – we’re not even halfway there.
Normally, we would draw our Combat Card and then draw another Combat Card for the enemy, immediately, to determine how many hits they get against us. Since we didn’t shoot this Lancaster down, it gets to retaliate.
The Lancaster gets two hits on our nightfighter. I roll for both of these on Table [B6], the Nightfighter Damage Chart, and get the following results:
34 = Crew Injury
52 = Airframe
The Crew Injury result takes further rolling; referring to the Crew Injury section of Chart [B4], I roll an 8, so the Funker is hit; I further determine he gets a Serious Wound. This is NOT good.
The Airframe hit isn’t that bad, as we can take three of them total. Any hit, though, is just that much closer to getting shot down.
Given that the Funker has been seriously wounded thanks to a lucky tail gunner’s skill, I have Adler break off the attack and not push his luck. The Funker needs immediate medical help and pursuing a damaged Lancaster with him bleeding to death is not the greatest decision. I break off the attack, which doesn’t require any special rolls, and immediately move our Aircraft Marker to the Landing Box.
This isn’t the worst of it, though. I roll boxcars for the landing, which is normally a Crash Landing; however, with Adler’s Landing Skill, this is lowered by one, so it becomes a Rough Landing instead. However, this means each crewman receives a Light Wound. Fortunately, it takes two Light Wounds to equal a Serious Wound, so a LW on top of a SW for the Funker doesn’t kill him. It sure as heck doesn’t help him, however.
At least we’re on the ground, now.
There is a rule that lets you roll for an enemy bomber that has suffered damage at your hands, which you had to break off from, to determine if it crashes or not. The one engine out is a bonus, but I roll a 9, which means that Lancaster gets home safely. Figures.
Now that we’re on the ground, both Adler and his rear gunner must sit out the next Sortie, which is noted with an ‘R’ instead of a Raid Target. The Funker, though, must have the severity of his Serious Wound determined. Of course, I roll snake eyes, which means our poor Funker is the recipient of a double amputation.
Though it’s not covered in the game, I make up a random injury location and roll 2d6, and find he must have both his legs amputated. A terrible injury that ends his career in the Luftwaffe, not to mention no longer flying with us. We now need a new Funker, whom will join us immediately. The thing is, a new/replacement crewman has zero Experience Points, but as we’re new, none of us have Experience Points (remember, Adler spent his two starting Experience Points on two skills).
It’s unfortunate, but Adler and his rear gunner must sit out the next Sortie, representing time to recuperate from their minor injuries. This is unfortunate as we finally have a Full Moon during the sortie we must miss.
Note - I know I spelled his name incorrectly (as "Alder" instead of "Adler"); I'll fix that in the future. Maybe.
