We prepared to fly our obligatory Italian Front mission early, to get it done and over with.  Little did we know that six hours later we would finally wrap up our first and only mission of the day.  The mission originally pitted John Palchak and Jim Barber as the Germans in an Albatros D.V and D.III defending a balloon.  At least they had twin guns.

The Italian roster originally included Marco Fabiani and Adam Lash (on the left), a newcomer to our gaming group, until Don McCalmon (right) arrived to add a third single-gun SPAD VII (180 hp) to the Allied force.

At a pre-mission briefing at the Italian aerodrome, it was decided to coordinate an attack on the balloon in turn three.  But the plan didn't count on three more arrivals coming.  Marty Miller was inducted to the Regia Aeronautica Italiana while Jim Robertson and Steve Caldwell joined the Luftstreitkräfte.  Here we see the German flight of John, Jim B., Jim R., and Steve.

John, having recently moved, had not been able to locate his dice, and Adam also being diceless, Jim Barber brought out his stash.  Much like the guy selling $10 Rolexes out of his truck when the cops aren't looking, Jim opened for business with his dice already being marked with price tags.  Prices were good and like the diceaholics we all are, the game paused while wallets were opened.

Pay special attention to the six-siders.  Notice anything odd?  Neither did we.  This may seem unimportant, but it comes into play in a moment.

Jim Robertson shows off his new purchase, a nice shiny new set of dice.  You'd have thought that he never owned a set of dice before.  What is it that makes us gamers simply love dice?

John selects the percentile dice he's always wanted, and at a steal too.  You can also see Jim "Moneybags" Barber with his stack of singles.  He should take Marcia out to dinner with his proceeds as appreciation for serving everyone pizza.

The SPADs dove on the balloon in turn 3.  Marty caught on to the plan and was right with them as they hit the balloon.  Unfortunately, Marco and Don missed (to much embarrassment being only 100' away) and Marty and Adam failed to down the Drachen.  John did an overdive to pursue, but despite a hit helped the Italians by causing the flak to hold their fire, making the Italian first turn miss not so costly.  He wised up on the next turn, left the area, and Archie gave Marty 7 hit factors from the top.  Don helps him compute the damage (which turned his SPAD into an Albatros!).  The next turn, all four Italians hit, the credit for the kill went to Marco who drew high card.

Later, Don, who had been doing very well for initiative for a few turns after having bought a pair of really lucky orange dice from Jim, rolled double twos to hit on a pilot chance against Steve.  High Fives all around on the Italian side of the table.

When he picked up the double-twos to get his picture taken with the roll that put a bullet through Steve Caldwell's first pilot ever, he noticed something odd.  The double-twos were facing the camera, and facing him at the same time.  Notice a disturbing lack of fours, fives, or sixes on these dice he bought from Jim?  His dice purchase made him go last in initiative, and always hit, but never do much damage.  The mystery was finally solved: Jim had sold him not a pair of lucky d6s, but regular d3s!

Having caught his mistake, he rerolled his to hit numbers (hit), rerolled his damage numbers (added two more hf to the burst!), still got his pilot chance, and then, as if it were written in his horoscope that he was destined to shoot someone's brand new pilot, rolled double twos anyway!  The shot gave Steve Caldwell's pilot a critical wound.  He managed to find the only serviceable stretch of road on the map and set down gently without mishap.  Then proceeded to die anyway.

Marco's gun had jammed, Marty's SPAD was smoking and otherwise flying like a brick, and Don had simply run out of ammunition, leading all three to escape.  That left Adam alone with one, then two, then three Albatri as they each turned their attention on him.  But he was tenacious and displayed that Italian spirit we've all come to expect.  Here you can see him rolling his sleeves up in order to get down to business.  The Italians had put a lot of lead into Jim Barber's plane and Adam was determined to turn that into a kill.

John put a burst into him which jammed his rudder, forcing him to fly straight.  In the ultimate irony, he got good numbers on initiative the following turn.  Despite the perfect chance to finish Jim off, he flew straight ahead.  Realizing that one gun versus six was not good odds, Adam decided to head home.  The crit that John gave him caused him to crash on landing, doing an end-over-end flip, destroying the SPAD.  Adam's pilot, Benito Incognito, walked away unharmed.

Marco and Don split the honors, though Marco's victory was really one deserved by the entire Italian flight.  All in all, not much to show for a six-hour mission, other than a few new faces and some loaded dice.  It is worthy of note that despite being outgunned eight guns to four, the Italians not only accomplished the mission but got two victories . . . not against Austro-Hungarians flying Öffags, but against Germans!

Don McCalmon  - one victory (Steve), not shot down

Marco Fabiani - one victory (balloon), not shot down

Jim Barber - no victories, not shot down

Marty Miller - no victories, not shot down

John Palchak - no victories, not shot down

Jim Robertson - no victories, not shot down

Adam Lash - no victories, not shot down, crashed on landing

Steve Caldwell - no victories, forced to land, pilot died of wounds