Day 2 over the Somme 1916

Day 2 over the Somme 1916.  The Blue Baron, Manfred Von Pumphosen, is scouting over the lines.  He wants to shoot down Allied spotter planes.
Named the Blue Baron because of his swearing Manfred sees a British patrol and gains height to creep up on it.

The Baron, trying out bigger height, ammunition and aircraft robustness dice.

The RFC patrol, Dominic Rabies and his gunner Andy Leadsome in the escorting FE2B and Steady Algy Soubry in the BE2 on an Artillery spotting mission.

 The BE2 had real power issues, and frequently a pilot would fly solo without the spotter to save weight and give the plane some kind of better performance.

Up against German Engineering technology however...

The blinds go down.

Dodging around the balloon the Baron spots the RFC patrol below him.

The British split up, the FE2B goes for the German, and Steady Algy tries to get clear.

But the Blue Baron sweeps in, and that gunnery speaks for itself.

The FE2b goes down in flames.

The Baron moves in, and I finally realise he's too high to shoot.

Algy dives for the deck, and fires his shotgun with predictable results.  The Roland CII is far too high anyway

The Baron dives  over the lines but Steady Algy Soubry is already too low.  Next turn he makes it off table.  The Baron is on three kills.  Time to upgrade him to a Fokker Eindekker I think.

In the next game Algy will once again be the bait in the trap, but in the spirit of Anglo French cooperation the Baron will be facing Maurice Le Coq in his Nieuport 11.