PrefaceThis flight report was first published on Boardgamegeek here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2323524/crimson-skies-phoenix-con-2019I will also post it in German on BGG!
OverviewThe
Phoenix Con was home to a few
Crimson Skies skirmishes again this year. Altogether I played four times, with a happy mix of new recruits and long-serving veterans.
This time I set up my custom map "Bedloe's Island" aka "Liberty Island" which has all but one red dot obstacle: the Lady Liberty herself.
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In all of the skirmishes we used quickstart crews, i.e. pilot and wingman have fixed skills levels, you just need to assign those to the six skills.
Also, we ignored
Special Characteristics to make it easier for the new recruits. But we did use almost all rocket types, we even tried drill rockets and the beeper/seeker set, which are usually shunned by us.
Main Flight BookThe
1st skirmish was against one of our veterans who tries to shoot me down each year. We randomly rolled for planes and he got a
Hammer Fist (
Coyote mini) and a
Nemesis (
Fury mini) , while I got a good old
Kestrel and an
M112 (
Bloodhawk mini) .
On turn 7 the
Hammer Fist and the
M112 luckily didn't collide, but the
Nemesis took advantage of the situation and landed a few precise hits on the
M112's right wing from behind. One magnesium round was bound to burn into the wing tank the following turn, so the pilot bailed during movement to fight another day...
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But the
Kestrel fought back hard and damaged the
Hammer Fist for good destroying all of its weapons. After having expended all its rockets, the
Hammer Fist retreated from the battlefield on turn 10.
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The
Nemesis and the
Kestrel kept circling each other and finally it came to a heads-on showdown. The
Kestrel pilot had a higher
Quickdraw and started blazing away, but the results were abysmal, despite a high
Dead Eye skill. The
Nemesis' right wing was not looking good afterwards, but still airworthy - naturally it started shooting back.
The
Kestrel had of course suffered before, and maybe it might have survived the return fire, but one of the magnesium rounds found its mark and hit the right wing tank. The resulting fireball consumed the unlucky pilot while the
Nemesis landed safely.
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Kudos to my opponent for downing both my planes this year. But I'll have my revenge!
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In the
2nd fight we were three participants duking it out in a free-for-all: a somewhat experienced pilot, a new cadet and me.
Our new cadet chose a
Brigand and an
Avenger, while the other pilot grabbed a
Vampire and a
Devastator. I chose a
Coyote and a
Defender.
We each started on our own map edge, thus giving the new recruit a few turns to get a feeling for the maneuver template. Nevertheless we quickly converged around the Lady Liberty, launching flare, sonic and flak rockets like crazy.
Going toe-to-toe with a
Vampire is never a good idea, but it happened to the
Coyote on turn 8. The
Vampire suffered quite some damage losing two of its .40s, but thick as its armor is, it generously returned fire. Sporting about half the armor, the
Coyote's wing was sheared off, sending its pilot to an untimely death.
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The
Devastator pilot met the same fate on turn 13 when also the left wing was shot off by the
Brigand's turret gunner!
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Right on the next turn the
Vampire pilot crashed into the Statue of Liberty! Needless to say that plane and pilot plummeted to the ground without any chance of survival (we didn't roll for damage).
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Next turn, next casualty: on turn 15 the
Defender sheared off the
Avenger's left wing. Yes, this is the third left wing to be destroyed this skirmish! The pilot of the
Avenger did not make it...
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The two remaining planes ended up facing each other on the next turn. The
Brigand's right wing wasn't looking too good, but it held and the barrage of its .50s cut deep into the
Defender's fuselage destroying its engine and forcing the pilot to bail.
With two kills - one for the pilot, one for the gunner - the
Brigand safely returned home.
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Five out of six planes destroyed and four pilots dead is harsh, but rookies rarely make it ouf the cockpit...
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The
3rd flight was a training flight for another new recruit who had watched the previous skirmish with great interest. Thus he knew some of the basics already and setting up was done quickly.
He picked a
Kestrel and a
Peacemaker while I chose a
Firebrand and a
Bloodhawk.
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The record sheet of
Kestrel and
Peacemaker were erased after the fight so I can't say for sure when and how the
Peacemaker was shot down by the
Firebrand, but it was definitely before turn 10. In any case we know that the pilot did a successful bail.
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The pilot of the
Firebrand didn't even get the chance to bail, as the
Kestrel's fire bit deeply into the fuselage, severely wounding the pilot and reducing his constitution below 0. Ouch!
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From here on out the
Bloodhawk tried his best to circle and tail the
Kestrel, but by misjudging the intended maneuver in a critical moment, the
Bloodhawk overshot its prey and the
Kestrel was able to double down on the smaller plane's tail. It didn't take many hits to breach the weak armor and destroy the unfortunate bird's engine. While the
Bloodhawk's pilot ejected to safety, the
Kestrel returned home unfazed with two kill markers to be painted on its fuselage.
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Congratulations to the new pilot for blazing through this trial by fire!
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The
4th sortie took off on the last day of the convention and thus we were not able to completely finish it.
A total of four players participated forming two teams: the new cadet from the 3rd flight was joined by another veteran who hadn't played until now, while the veteran from the first skirmish helped me against the opposition.
Our opponents chose
Kestrel +
Peacemaker and
Fury +
Raven while we rolled for random planes. My teammate got a
Warhawk (
Firebrand mini) +
Cloud Raider (
Bloodhawk mini), while I got a
Monitor (
Brigand mini) and an
Ocelot (
Avenger mini).
Teams started on the far edges of the map and both used the long distance maneuvering for advantageous positions. Shock rockets saw their fair share but flak rockets followed suit, directing enemy planes into firing lanes.
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As
Raven and
Fury made a bold push into our map half, we swerved over to the left to greet them with a staccato from our machine guns. Only our
Firebrand held back to try and tail one of the laggards (
Kestrel and
Peacemaker).
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On turn 5
Raven and
Ocelot collided. The former was lucky and got away with medium damage that was barely interal, but the
Ocelot took most of the damage to the nose ultimately destroying its engine. The pilot died from the subsequent crash.
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Without further casualties we had to end the fight after turn 7, but here's an outlook:
Our opponent's
Fury was heavily damaged,
Raven and
Kestrel had suffered medium damage while the
Peacemaker was only slightly damaged.
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Our own flight was missing its
Ocelot while the
Monitor was doomed to break apart after turn 11 due to magnesium burning through its fuselage. The
Cloud Raider had also suffered heavy damage being only able to perform S and R maneuvers. The
Warhawk's damage looks worse than it actually is: it is quite deep, but it still retains all its guns; and its maneuverability wasn't exactly good to begin with.
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Nevertheless, our opponents would probably have taken us, especially if they had waited for the
Monitor to go down...
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ConclusionA total of 22 planes took off this weekend, with half of these not returning home and seven unfortunate pilots being killed. But some of the others showed real promise and might just become the next aces flying the
Crimson Skies!
OutlookI'll certainly be offering to play
Crimson Skies at next year's convention again, but hopefully we can fly a few more skirmishes in and around Braunschweig before that.
P.S.Feel free to comment, especially formatting/style: too little text? pictures too large? too few pictures? tell me!
