Wings of Glory Aerodrome Tournament Weekend - Doncaster - Part 1

As a member of the Wings of Glory Aerodrome I attended the annual tournament weekend, held in Doncaster at the South Yorkshire Air Museum. This was only the second year that this event had been held and the first time that I could attend.

I was really looking forward to a very fun filled weekend and to meet up with a the rest of the members, a few I have met at various wargames shows, but the majority I would be meeting for the first time.

I arrived at the venue in plenty of time on the saturday morning after a very uneventful journey up the A1. The numbers began to swell and the first games were set up ready for our gaming pleasure. First game of the day I had signed up for was a WW1 Ground Attack scenario ran by the previous years Ace of Aces winner - Andrzej from Poland.

I was flying a Fokker DVII of the German airforce against SE5a's of the RFC and straight away headed for the nearest ground target and destroyed it. Soon the air was filled with aircraft twirlling around in a dogfight dance. SE5a's were kindly positioning themselves in front of my gunsights and my Spandaus were red hot by the end of the game after downing 3 of the RFC's aircraft as well as destroying a few ground targets, which also netted myself an Ace skill.

Points were awarded throughout the game for such successes and after the totals were totted up I had won the scenario. Andrzej had brought a wonderful little boardgame as the winners prize and I also got to choose from the prize table which had been set up, taking a two seater Rumpler as my spoils.

Just after a very nice lunch of Stotties with peese pudding, game 2 was underway. This one was a two seater challenge. Players had to fly their two seater and uncover targets which could be a bombing mission (where you actually had to throw darts at a dartboard to simulate bombing runs) photo missions, landing to collect a spy or unfortunately uncovering flak batteries.

Again I chose to fly as a member of the German Airforce and took off in a rickety Rumpler. I decided throughout the game to ignore the targets and go for shooting down opposition aircraft, therefore allowing my colleages to fly safely. Again my deadly aim proved to much for the Royal Flying Corp and I downed a DH4, A Bristol Fighter and an RE8. Points at the end again saw my gain second place this time but I was starting to achieve a deadly reputation.

Last game of the Saturday and it was a massive dogfight with roughly 15 vs 15 players. Sides and aircraft were randomized by choosing a playing card and I started in the middle of the table flying  for the RFC. All players started off with a low class plane and each time you were shot down you got to pick a progressivley better aircraft. Red pokker tokens were given to you if you shot down an opposition plane and a Blue pokker token given if you were shot down.

Starting off I dived straight at my nearest opponent and downed her very quickly. She respawned with another plane and I downed that as well. By now a few of the other players to the left of me drifted into range and the lead was flying filling the sky. A couple more German kites where knocked out the sky and I had been shot down twice. Respawning the second time I skirted to the right and took on new opposition. Already badly damaged, it also fell under my guns.

The game ended and my tally was 4 Albatross's, 2 Seimans Schucket DIII and a Fokker DVII

Seven Red tokens and 2 Blues saw me overall winner, becoming 2015 ACE of ACES!!!!

I was gobsmacked and bloody well Chuffed to Bits! Everyone had a blast and we ended the day with a very nice meal out at a local restaurant. Sunday would see a very large Battle of Britain game and that will be in Part 2.