We started early, with only Jim Barber, Marco Fabiani, Chris Janiec, John Palchak, and Bob Stiegel present, hoping to play a "quick" game before the rest showed up.  It was a French ground attack mission, two Sopwith 1½ Strutters (Jim and Bob) escorted by a Nieuport 17 (Marco) bombing a stationary German troop convoy protected by two Albatros D.IIIs (Chris and John) on 18 July 1917.  Anything but quick, Graham Cox and Jason Stubbs arrived on turn two, missing the French surprise attack that resulted in three misses (they all rolled 6s).  At first, they merely watched, until Chris recommended someone help John as this was only his third mission ever.  Graham humbly volunteered, saying, "He might as well learn from the best."

In the first six turns, Chris went first in initiative half the time and second the other half.  His rolls were all very high, prompting Marco to remark that Chris was getting out all of his bad Karma early.  Graham replied, "No, Chris is just filled with bad Karma."  Graham's comment proved prophetic for the rest of the day, especially as it related to his hit rolls.  The average damage he did per hit was only 2.27 and never did more than 4 hf in any given burst.  At one point, he actually hit with both guns and rolled better than a 2 on the die, but it was on a 300' side shot which prompted him to launch the offending die across the room.  Sort of like a live action role-playing session for Graham and Marco who were near the firing line (but never really in any danger).

Graham and Jason could take it no longer and entered the game that was turning out to be anything but "quick" on turn 4.  Jason's Albatros D.III flew cover over the convoy while Graham's SPAD VII (150 hp) from another escadrille came in from the side of the map to help.  Not much help, Graham jammed his only gun and spent most of the rest of the mission out of the action.

Jason dove right in and gave Jim's heavily laden Sopwith a critical causing his turn speed to drop to 50 mph.  Jim forgot this fact at 200' above the ground as he neared the bomb run.  A barrel roll quickly threw his plane out of control, crashing just short of the convoy.  His rookie pilot was killed in the crash, but the rookie observer got out of the wreckage but went right into a German POW camp.  Amazingly enough, he escaped and returned to duty only to see action later in the day.  Bob carried the day when he bombed one of the horse-drawn wagons, sending wagon, Boches, and horse sky-high.  Chris' single aileron critical caused him to flip end over end as he landed at his aerodrome, but no one was injured in the crash.

The second mission, our obligatory Italian front mission and only dogfight mission of the day, introduced the newly arrived Jay Mischo.  Four Austro-Hungarian Öffag D.IIIs series 153 (Jim, Graham, Marco, and John) encountered four Italian 180 hp SPAD VIIs (Chris, Jay, Bob, and Jason) over the front lines on 26 September 1918.  Graham's rudder was hit and jammed into a left-hand circle right off the bat.  No one bothered with the easy prey and instead went off to form their own furball some distance away, allowing Graham's Catch-22-inspired pilot, Milos Yossarian, to unjam his rudder in complete peace.

Marco moved first in turn 3 and got jumped by three SPADs.  In a selfless move, Jim flew his Öffag between Bob's top attack and Marco's ship, then proceeded to take a 150' head-on shot on Chris who was attempting a tail.  Jason attempted to alleviate the head-on on Chris by taking a 200' head-on shot at Jim, which he ignored. Chris returned Jim's fire, abandoning the tailing move, allowing Marco to escape most of the SPAD feeding frenzy.  Amazingly enough, the damage sustained was minor all around, and there were no collisions.  Marco nominated Jim for the Bronze Medal for Bravery but was laughed at by all in attendance.

Bob checked the critical charts after a 7 hf volley from Marco knocks out his fuel pump.  Forced to pump while flying, he decided to quit the battle and declared his intention to escape.  The whole thing quickly fell apart and by turn 6 everyone had dropped into the clouds, ending the brief and bloodless confrontation over the Alps.

The third mission, after lunch, featured a French artillery spotting mission of Breguet 14s (Jim and John) returning home, escorted by 150 hp SPAD VIIs (Chris and Jay), running into a mixed German patrol made up of Jason's and Marco's Albatros D.IIIs, Bob's Albatros D.Va, and Graham's out-of-date Pfalz (D.III) on 19 February 1918.  Jim's escaped-prisoner observer from mission 1 teamed up with another pilot only to be critically wounded in the opening shots of the fight by Bob's pilot, Walter Winkle.  Jim flew straight off the map, diving most of the way, never using his turn speed once, while Bob tried to stop him.  Jim escaped, and his escapee observer recovered from his wounds.

Chris helped Jay work the numbers after Jason wounded Jay's pilot, Jean-Claude LeMerite.  Jay escaped from the battle on the same turn that Jim did, reducing the odds to four-on-two in favor of the Germans.  That would lead to the third casualty on the French side during the mission.  Jay's pilot passed out at 900' over the German lines and augered in, killing him instantly.  Jason received credit for the victory, of course.

John got stuck at low altitude while trying to evade the ever-pressing German attack.  After Marco stopped John's Martinique-born pilot from escaping on the third turn of his declaration, all four Germans took a shot at the already crippled Breguet.  The Breguet was unable to climb, so he decided to preserve as much altitude as possible, but when he flew off of a hill, it allowed the Germans to get underneath his machine.  Marco missed, but Jason, Bob, and Graham did not, with telling effect.

John was assisted by Chris, the only remaining Frenchman, while Jay stares off into space from a bed in a French hospital.   John's engine came loose from the stricken machine, but not before it exploded, consuming rookies Caporal-Pilote Jean-Claude Delon and Sous-Lieutenant Felix Martin in the blast.  Graham won the cut, getting credit for his first victory of the day.

John had to go after mission 3, making our last mission of the day a three-on-four.  Chris sorted through the counters looking for Archie in what turned out to be the longest mission of the day.  Four Germans in Fokker D.VII (Graham, Bob, and Marco with big blocks and Jay in a small block) tried to blunt the British Cambrai-Hindenburg Line advance on 7 October 1918  by attacking a British observation balloon defended by a flight of Sopwith 7F.1 Snipes flown by Chris, Jim, and Jason.

Graham, acting as flight leader with pilot Johanne Schmidt (9/4), held a pre-mission meeting with his flight.  The attack on the balloon was plotted out in great detail, and the 1,000' "advantage" the British received at the start of the mission proved to be just the opposite.  The Germans dove on the balloon with all the precision of an air-show routine.  All four Fokkers fired on the drachen from the corners.  Only Graham and Marco hit, but they knocked it down easily without having it go up in flames. 

After the balloon went down, the fight broke up into two sections, Jay and Marco fighting with Jason and Chris to the north of the balloon emplacement and Graham and Bob dealing with Jim alone to the south.  All three Brits were hard pressed to hold their own with so many Fokkers in the air.

 Bob must have sat too close to Jim throughout the day, because his moves started to take longer and longer as time progressed.  At one point, Chris commented that we should start calling him Jim Stiegel, but Graham preferred Bob Barber.

Jay and Marco continually traded shots with Jason and Chris, but the Brits were on the sharp end of the stick.  Here, Jason laughs when he reads the result from the critical hit chart after one of Jay's volleys.  Jason and Chris dove back to the Archie in the hopes of getting some relief, but Marco followed and put one last burst into Jason's engine.  It caught fire, but he managed to set his Snipe down from 100' above ground.  The rough set down crash allowed rookie pilot Richard Archibald to escape unhurt.

The long days are a little too much for some people to take.  Marco got credit for Jason, giving Leutnant Hermann Werner his third victory.  Graham and Marco cut cards for the balloon with credit going to Graham, making it his second victory of the day and enough to propel Fokker pilot Johanne Schmidt to ace status.

Graham Cox was undoubtedly the leading flier of the day with two victories scored and no machines lost:

Graham Cox - two victories (John and British balloon), none shot down

Jason Stubbs  - two victories (Jim and Jay), one assist (John), one pilot & observer shot down but survived

Marco Fabiani - one victory (Jason), one assist (British balloon), none shot down

Bob Stiegel - no victories, one assist (John), none shot down

Chris Janiec - no victories, none shot down

Jay Mischo - no victories, one pilot shot down and killed

Jim Barber - no victories, one pilot & observer shot down (pilot killed)

John Palchak - no victories, one pilot & observer shot down and killed