Call to Arms -Aeronautica Imperialis: Those magnificent men in their flying machines

 They go upty up up and downty down down. (usually in flames or scattered over a wide area)

Thomas, Alan, Richard and I played a coupe of games of Aeronautica. This isn't a game we have payed in a long time so it was a great chance to play a different game. Many of us have nostalgia or a large collection of models from the first edition.

The first mission had some noble Imperial flyers ambushed by some vile Orks.

Here are the Imperial pilots on patrol, this is a mixed formation of Lightnings and Thunderbolts. The Imperial pilots are preparing their break turns.

Sneaking up behind the Imperial are a multi coloured horde of Orks. Beware of the Waargh in the sun.

The Thunderbolts have cranked around into a hard turn. On reflection this was a rookie move, I should have broken long and used a half loop to turn about and have more distance between me and the Orks. I did manage to climb above the Orks, where they could not easily follow. This also saved me from a number of hits

The lightings turn the other way but flat and one of them gets shot down in the first few moments of the combat. Lightnigs are faster and more maneuverable but more fragile and need to keep their distance. Ork planes tend to have a snout full of kill ware.

One of the Thunderbolts gets surrounded and shot down, the lightnings have dragged the fight down to the corner of the table. A couple of Thunderbolts have great firing positions, two Thunderbolts and three ork machines are blasted out of the sky, two lightnings and two ork flyers also fall out of the fight.

The last lightning is dodging for its life amongst three Ork machines while the thunderbolts try and provide cover.

A close up of the lightning in amongst the Ork flyers, he is hiding out at maximum altitude. Somehow he makes it out of that cluster with only some holes in the airframe. This is just before the black Ork flyer gets blasted.

One of the Ork fighta bommas stalls and starts dropping in a spin. The Thunderbolt damages it and the Last Lighting finishes it off. The Lightning is then in turn shot down.

So both sides are down to 25% of their starting numbers, the Imperials have two Thunderbolts and the Orks one fighter bomber and to fighters. So its a marginal victory to the Imperials, if rather Pyrrhic.