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A
Tale from the Great War Server - by vonBaur
You
know the difference between a Fairy Tale and a War Story? The Fairy
Tale starts out,"Once upon a time..." and the War Story
starts out, "No s***, this really happened."
Well,
No s***, it was fun-danged-tastic tonight in Richtofen's Skies.
JoGunn had to leave early, but SPA124-DKE
(a name I recognized from Red Baron) and Sokal stayed
around. Not sure about Sokal, but DKE
was new to RS and JoGunn was helping him learn the
ropes. I offered my meager assistance after Jo's departure and DKE
seemed to enjoy himself quite a lot. He was in a Dr.1 and Sokal
was getting some stick time in the FK-8 and since Jo had been in
a tripe I had chosen a Bentley Camel (ya might as well fly the best
version ya can ). Well, I figured it might be fun to put the 8's
gunner to the test so I asked Sokal if he'd mind my
switching. He generously told me to go ahead and I landed my Camel
at Laon and defected, being duely awarded a shiny new Fokker.
Fortunately,
JABO came along soon after that and picked out a
Camel of his own and the fun commenced. I don't know if he knew
DKE was new or not, but I was sure glad he split
his attention between us. He was still able to hold out until Energizer,
who came in as Allied a few minutes after JABO, crossed
the mud and got into the fight. It was a merry mixup for a while
with two Camels, two Dr.1's and a FK-8 whose gunner occasionally
hit the trigger by accident .
Before
long Berserker joined as Hun followed in a few minutes
by zmeg on the Allied side and Sokal
decided that an F1 was a better ride. More fabulous furballs ensued
until JABO, after initially switching sides, went
back Allied and picked up the refueled and refitted bomber. That's
when it really got fun.
There
we Huns were, trying to find this lone bomber the old-fashioned
(Richtofen's Skies) way...looking for flak bursts and moving dots
in the haze without some cheesy 'here he is' key to guide us. And
all the while we had to be wary of the three Camels trying to prevent
our doing so. Twice I spotted JABO only to have to
abandon the hunt either to help a teammate or because a Camel or
two stood between me and my quarry. After about 15 minutes CrazyTaz
came in as Hun and the sides were even, numerically, but JABO
was at a disadvantage in the two-seater. This became apparent when
I finally found him. My Dr.1, as slow as it is, had no problem closing
on the higher bomb-laden FK-8 and soon I was within range.
My
first burst struck but did not penetrate the left radiator and the
auxilliary fuel tank (gotta love those logs). My second hit the
right bombrack. The third inflicted a slight wound on the observer,
which may account for the light return fire I took, although I was
hit a bit later. I felt a slight twinge of sorrow for JABO's
predicament as I raked his plane with machine gun fire, striking
his engine, radiators and fuel tanks and even wounding him. It really
wasn't a fair fight with my nimble triplane dancing around his lumbering
bomber. Finally one of my bullets struck a Mills bomb and he exploded
in front of me. And I am fully mindful of the fact that this could
not have been accomplished had my teammates not been keping his
busy. All in all it was about the most realistic action I've had
in an online sim.
JABO
was good-natured about the outcome (it's easy to be that way when
you can go right back up) and didn't abandon the bomber. Energizer
also decided to try the FK-8, though I thought it was Sokal
(a fact which will become significant later), and they flew as beautiful
a two-ship formation as I've ever seen across the mud for another
go. In the meantime Troublemaker had joined as Hun
after an earlier unsuccessful attempt and CrazyTaz
left, returning the sides to 4-4. But this time it was two bombers
and two fighters on the Allied side against four of the Kaiser's
best in Tony Fokker's three-winged falcon.
After
a brief skirmish with one of the F1's I caught a glimpse of the
two bombers already high above me and away to the east. DKE
appeared to be in pursuit and once my opponent had become engaged
with Berserker I took a course to intercept also,
knowing the Camel driver's fate was sealed. As I climbed to position
myself for the attack I noticed DKE break off. I couldn't
figure why but assumed he might have been running low on fuel. I
continued the chase and soon found myself closing to firing range.
My
earlier encounter had left a cavalier attitude toward the back-seaters'
agressiveness and I opted to come in from slightly above. My brashness
was soon rewarded by a burst of British gunfire and a shower of
splinters as both right cabane struts disintegrated . Apparently
JABO was paying this guy better than the last one
. I dropped and made all further attacks more prudently from below.
As
I raked both bombers with gunfire I saw one of them break off left.
About the same time Sokal announced that he was leaving
the server and I mistakenly thought he was the departing FK-8 so
I pressed the attack on the remaining one. Berserker
gave me a 'check 6' warning just before another burst of gunfire
struck my machine. I broke right and looked for my assailant, assuming
it to be a Camel, but could find nothing. Then I saw that the other
bomber had not been Sokal leaving but Energizer
circling to bring his pilot-operated gun to bear on me. Fortunately
for me Berserker then engaged him drawing his attention
from me. But Energizer's ploy had succeeded in distracting
me from JABO long enough to allow him to reach his
target. I felt an odd combination of disappointment at my failure
and joy at his success this time as he called "Bombs away".
And it wasn't all bad because I had apparently inflicted enough
damage that he chose not to try to return to his base, instead landing
and becoming my prisoner. (we put him to work cleaning up the mess
he'd made .)
Soon
after that nearly everybody left almost en masse and the vaccuum
created by their departure caused me to net out (jk ). By the time
I reconnected the last two had cleared out. I decided it was a good
time to call it a night. Lots of fun, lots of fights and a very
enjoyable night. Next Thursday I will be working once again and
not able to participate in the games. Hopefully the people drawn
by the new planes will come back more often and on Friday and Saturday
nights when I am available. Maybe DKE will spread
the work among his red Baron squad and more of them will come, too.
And the more people can find others flying the more they will come
back often.
_________________
SALUTE TO ALL
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