Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Algernon Pulls It Off! in the Clouds


For the last scenario in the Jasta 18 project, I needed some rules for clouds in order to give the R.E.8 crew a chance to hide from the attentions of Junior Ace, Ltn.Mendel, in his far more manoeuvrable Fokker DVII. The R.E.8 flew like a house brick and had a reputation as being a bit of a flying coffin, easy prey for a nimble high performance scout, so it was common tactical doctrine to run for the nearest cloud in order to evade an attacker. Here's what I came up with, designed to be very simple but also realistic in historical terms, while not unbalancing the chances for Ltn.Mendel to score his final victory.

SPECIAL RULES

At the start of the game, roll 1D6 and scatter this number of cloud templates, each the size of a medium blind, on the table. To determine the position of each cloud, divide the table into twenty four squares, and roll a D4 and a D6 for each cloud. The D4 corresponds to the short table edge and the D6 to the long table edge. Place a cloud template in the corresponding grid square. There can be no clouds in horizontally or vertically adjacent squares (re-roll for a different position). To determine the altitude of each cloud, roll 1D6+2 and mark the height on the template.

In this example the player has rolled 5 on the initial D6 and then the following scores for positioning: 1/1, 4/2, 2/3. 3/4, 2/5 and 1/6. If he'd rolled adjacent squares, he would have re-rolled so that there were no 'walls' of cloud. 

Any aircraft entering a cloud template may emerge from the cloud in any direction when subsequently activated for movement. To enter a cloud the aircraft must be at the same alititude. An aircraft may not loiter inside a cloud. Any movement measurement begins and ends at the edge of the cloud template. If an aircraft has been spotted previously, it will emerge from the cloud as a new small blind at the same altitude that it entered. It must be re-spotted before any attacks can be made. Clouds only block line of sight for spotting if both the target and the spotting aircraft are at the same altitude as the cloud.

....I think this will work?

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