Great War Scenarios

Baer's SPAD VII - Image from Reduced Aircraft Factory

Currently there are three World War One scenario books available for Check Your 6! - those being the Colorful Skies series. These books offer the Check Your 6! gamer over 150 scenarios for the Great War, but only one that features the American 103rd Aero Squadron. To that end, I have put together, with the assistance of AI, the outlines for a dozen scenarios that focus on Paul Baer during his time with the 103rd. That is the good news. The bad news? AI cannot make a clear determination of what types of planes Baer was facing.

Baer's opponents during his short tenure with the 103rd were a mix of Jastas (his patrols ranging from early March to May 22, 1918). However the reports are often not clear on the type of planes the Germans used. We do know on certain missions Baer specifically claimed Albatros fighters, but on others his claims are listed as "scout" or "D" type. As the various Jastas in the spring of 1918 were using the Pfalz D.IIIa, the Albatros D.Va, perhaps a Fokker D.VII or two, and even the odd Fokker Dr.I, when the reports are vague we must make some assumptions, and can also assume that just because Baer claimed an Albatros that does not preclude a mix of planes being used by the Germans for that encounter, as was frequently the case within the German Jastas. Therefore, even though I have done much research and utilized many AI queries to access sources unknown to me, in some cases we simply cannot identify what aircraft types the Germans were flying.

Here are Baer's combats, with claimed (letters) and confirmed (numbers) victories:

For the scenarios I will be adding in tables to randomly determine German aircraft mix when it is unclear what was being used. The red numbers on the table that follows indicate this uncertainty.

Most of the scenarios featuring Baer's service in the 103rd are small in scope, which usually means one side would be potentially out of the fight early in the game. However, I have some ideas on using one plane per player for the smaller scenarios that should help make games last a bit longer - more on that to come as I organize my adaptations for Check Your 6! Great War.

Paul F. Baer - Ace of Aces

Paul F. Baer

Born on January 29, 1894 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Paul F. Baer was the first United States Air Service "Ace of Aces." Baer, much like Frank Luke later in The Great War, went on a scoring tear from March 1 to May 22, 1918 that saw the destruction of nine confirmed and eight probable aircraft in less than three months, all while serving with the 103rd Aero Squadron.

Baer did not have any victories as a member of the Lafayette Flying Corps in Spa.80 but would have gained valuable experience, serving with the French squadron from August 1917 to January 1918. He also received an extensive amount of training prior to joining Spa.80. Some histories Baer is listed as a member of Spa.124, the famous Lafayette Escadrille, and while he was assigned to the unit in January 1918, it was during the period in which Spa.124 was transitioning from a French to an American unit - seeing no flying - and hence Baer is not listed as one of the thirty-eight Americans that made up that famous squadron.

While in French service Baer flew this patriotic themed SPAD VII

The 103rd Aero, formed from seventeen former Lafayette Escadrille pilots, would initially be assigned to Groupe de Combat 21, a French group in which the 103rd formed the only American component. The 103rd would not be assigned to an American group until July 1918 as part of the Second Pursuit Group, before moving to the Third Pursuit Group. The four squadrons each took on a squadron distinctive Indian head design with the 103rd retaining the Sioux Indian head from the Lafayette Escadrille.

Baer's beautiful 103rd Aero SPAD VII 

Baer was described as fearless and an accomplished pilot, having attacked larger formations of enemy aircraft on at least two occasions. Due to his aggressiveness and success in the skies over the Western Front, Baer would be highly decorated by both the French and American air services, earning the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, Légion d'honneur, and the Croix de Guerre. Baer was described as fearless and an accomplished pilot, having attacked larger formations of enemy aircraft on at least two occasions.  Unlike some more accomplished aces, Baer shot down mostly signal seat fighters. However Baer would be shot down on May 22, 1918 and taken prisoner until the armistice. This last action is captured as a scenario in Colorful Skies 2 (titled American Ace).

Confirmed and unconfirmed victories

After the war Baer continued flying in a variety of capacities, even trying to form a squadron of American volunteers to fight in the Polish-Russian War. His final flying employment was in China, piloting floatplanes, and while flying a floatplane at Shanghai on December 9, 1930, upon takeoff Baer's plane hit the mast of a junk in the Yangtze River and crashed. Baer's body was eventually returned to Fort Wayne, where he is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery.

There is one book that features Baer's life, what little is known about it. In 2017, Tony Garel-Frantzen released his book Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer: America's First Combat Ace (History Press). It is an okay effort, relying a little too heavily on a letter Baer wrote after the war that focused on his time as a prisoner of war, the letter being printed in full, which takes up several pages of the book. The author could have used other primary sources (such as Gorrell's History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917-1919) to add more to Baer's story as a combat pilot with the 103rd Aero. However, the book is a solid effort and is, as mentioned, the only currently available title on Baer.

Delving Into 1/200 - First Order

YouTube video HERE

In reviewing the several scenarios I have for The Great War (from both Colorful Skies and Billy's Boys) and after having an excellent chat one evening with Mike at Table Top Flights, I have placed my first order for 1/200 scale planes that are printed with a 1/144 scale post in order to use with the Wings of Glory peg system. I also ordered several of Mike's clear propeller blades to use on these planes.

Nieuport 28

I have decided to go late war Western Front for now, with eleven Nieuport 28s, eight SPAD XIIIs, and eleven Fokker D.VIIs. This gives me the flexibility to create ten scenarios featuring Nieuports vs. Fokkers, and another sixteen featuring the SPAD XIII, again against those same Fokkers. I think this is plenty to work on at this time, although eventually I'd like to recreate some Belgian and Lafayette Escadrille actions.

SPAD XIII

The SPADs will be painted as the 103rd Aero, the Nieuports as the 27th Aero, and I might do a quasi-historical Bavarian scheme for the Fokkers as a bit of an homage to my Bavarian heritage, unless I can get some late Jasta 18 decals made, which I think Bernhard at Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals will be getting around to creating due to recent conversations. These various squadrons are not specifically featured in all twenty-six scenarios I will be able to host, but the two American choices are some of my favorites from the war. 

Fokker D.VII

Delving Into 1/200 - Bases and Gaming Surface

Now that the planes are fairly sorted, I can also plan a bit with the bases and gaming mat I will need for gaming Check Your 6! Great War. The bases are custom 3D prints designed and printed by my gaming buddy Bob. He has been tinkering around with getting a Check Your 6! style base configured to use with the Wings of Glory planes. To that end, he is using (I think) a 1.75" hex base with a 2" hex gaming mat. Works well with 1/144 I must say, but I like smaller scales, and while planes can be had in 1/285, sourcing those are more of a hassle, plus adding a post at the bottom of the plane that will synch with a Wings of Glory sized peg is not practical. 

The compromise is a 1.75" hex, Wings of Glory sized pegs, and having the planes printed in 1/200 scale with a post that will align with the pegs. The hex size works well  - it is in between the official Check Your 6! 1.5" hex, which yields a hex grid of 30 by 45 hexes, and the larger 2" hexes used by some of my gaming companions. Going to the 1.75" hex still gives enough space to adapt the Colorful Skies scenarios with less fudge factor than using a 2" hex. Now I just need to convince my friend to print a few dozen bases and a slew of clear and translucent blue pegs!

Example of a Deep Cut Studio custom mat using a 1.75" hex - red used for illustration purposes

Back to the gaming space - with a 1.75" hex grid, the six feet by four feet gaming mat still provides a playing surface of 31 by 40 hexes, meaning very little fudge has to be factored in when using various published scenarios. The size of the hexes also work well with the size of the 1/200 scale planes. If I went to a two inch hex size, the hex grid would be 27 by 36, which, at least on the long measurement, is a quite a large variance, and would increase the fudge factor proportionately. While it allows more room for planes when they are in adjacent hexes, using the pegs to represent varying TALs should mitigate most overlap that one might have with 1.75" hexes.

Off to place an order with Deep Cut Studio!

Delving Into 1/200 - The Planes

1/200 Scale Table Top Flights Roland D.II

After much time spent trying to find basing solutions and deciding on a scale for the Check Your 6! Great War project, I am going to focus on 1/200 scale - I think. Many planes are available from Table Top Flights, and Mike can create a post on the bottom of the plane that will still function with the Wings of Glory 1/144 scale pegs, meaning that I can use the pegs to represent TALs. With my friend Bob able to print pegs in both clear and translucent blue and creating hex bases in different sizes, I think I am finally onto something. 

With 1/200 now in play, I contacted Sieben Schwaben Spiele Decals to see if they can reduce some of their 1/144 scale Great War decals to 1/200. Yes, they can! Bernhard at SSSD had that request knocked out in a couple of days, and as a result I have placed an order for markings for Jasta 21 (in Albatros D.IIIs) and the 5me Escadrille de Chasse (in Nieuport XXIIIs), along with a sheet of Belgian roundels (you can find these re-scaled decals HERE). This will allow me to do one of the scenarios from Colorful Skies 3...almost. Table Top does not currently offer Nieuport XXIIIs at this time, and while the scenario indicates Nieuport XVIIs, the Belgians actually used the XXIII model, having but a few XVIIs. A quick email to Mike at TTF and he is looking into adding the XXIII, along with some other aircraft not currently on his site.

I also plan to collect Italian and Austro-Hungarian planes for additional scenarios from Colorful Skies 3, but in the meantime there are some scenarios for late war Americans using Nieuport 28s and SPAD XIIIs I can work on as Mike has those planes available. I have sixty-scenarios that feature late war Americans, and while a few of them are huge, many are very manageable in scope, with my target of 4-6 players - more than that and it gets too crowded around the gaming table.

That means that the collection of 50+ planes I have in 1/144 will be thinned out as I move away from Wings of Glory and into Check Your 6! Great War. I will still keep some of my favorites, mostly the ones I have customized or painted from scratch, but the rest will need to be moved along - and selling those will help fund the 1/200 scale project.

Colorful Skies

My Table Top Flights Bavarian blue Fokker Dr.I and the Ares Kempf

Recently I had the chance to play in a Colorful Skies game at the monthly Wright Flight session. Colorful Skies is a set of rules modifications for Check Your 6! for the Great War and are included in the similarly named series of scenario books, all available from I-94. While I will not give much of an after action report, I do want to mention some basing solutions created by a friend that easily allows the use of Ares Wings of Glory planes for the Check Your 6! setting.

The alternating colored pegs in place - here the Dr.Is are at TAL 6, speed 3

I had a pair of Fokker Dr.Is, fairly maneuverable in Colorful Skies but tempered with a low robustness. Across from me were a pair of Camels, similar in maneuverability, but more robust. There were also a pair of Snipes matched against two Fokker D.VIIs.

The Camels Are Coming - here they are at TAL 4, Speed 4

I was able to avoid being shot at as I closed on the Camels by climbing out of gunnery range, but then came in behind the Camels by executing a Split S. Alas, my to hit rolls were too low and the Camels escaped to engage the D.VIIs. I was able to close in, after a D.VII and a Snipe had been shot down, and the remaining D.VII had run out of ammo. I was able to close in on a Snipe for a kill while my other Dr.I, having received both an engine hit and a lucky hit that reduced its speed to 1, dove out of the fray. At that point we called the game.

Come back and fight!

The bases are 3D printed. In this case they are two inches across to adjust for the 1/144 scale planes. The first bottom TAL is represented by the post that is part of the base, then printed pegs, in alternating blue and white, denote the rest of the TALs. A dice is used to indicate both speed and CAB. The pegs worked well, fairly tight and printed to accept the post on the bottom of the Wings of Glory planes. The alternating peg colors were ideal for easy TAL identification. My friend has also made bases with slots to hold colored pieces to denote different aircraft, much like the Check Your 6! official bases use a red, blue, white, black, yellow, or green indicator.

Moving in for the kill, while the Camel missed my Fokker.

Truly the only issue I had is when I climbed to a higher CAB to TAL 1. Changing the red dice to a white one to represent the higher CAB, as I was at TAL 1 I only had one peg on my stand, and my miniature was actually much lower on the playing surface then the Camel that was in the lower CAB. Other than that minor quibble, the bases worked very well! 

I am working with Mike at Table Top Flights to order some 1/200 scale World War One aircraft that has a post that still fits the Wings of Glory pegs. He is hopeful this will work. If so, I look to start a 1/200 project, possibly using a 1.75" hex base and having a custom mat in the same hex size. That is a good compromise between the official Check Your 6! gaming surface and adjusting for the size of the planes.

Contemplating the First World War One Project

While I have dozens and dozens of 1/144 scale planes for Wings of Glory, I am going to try a small Check Your 6! Great War project in 1/285 scale, if Table Top Flights can manage to produce resin prints in that scale (the thinness of the struts at such a small scale is a concern). However, Mike at TTF seems to be somewhat optimistic that some planes can be printed, so that means I will need to start thinking about what I want to tackle first.

I have gathered all the planes needed from all three Colorful Skies scenario books, and there is a wide variety, but also some commonality. I also have a scenario book called Billy's Boys, written for a set of rules called Watch Your Six, which focuses on the American experience in 1918 and has sixty-one scenarios within it's spiral bound pages. If I was to focus on the Americans in 1918, then that does narrow down what planes to start with a bit. However, it also means painted French five-color camouflage on the American fighters, which will take some work, but a scheme I feel like I have "mastered" somewhat.

My take on the French five color scheme - 1/144 scale Table Top Flights Nieuport 28s

To get the most "bang for the buck" one needs to look late war. Focusing on those scenarios featuring American squadrons using the Nieuport 28 between Colorful Skies and Billy's Boys yields of large number of possibilities. Let's run some numbers and see how many planes one needs:

There are forty-two (yes, 42!) scenarios utilizing the Nieuport 28, with a maximum of thirteen Nieuports needed. In those forty-two scenarios, one also needs four Pfalz D.IIIa, three Albatros C.VII, fifteen Fokker D.VII, eighteen Albatros D.Va, three Rumpler C.IV, three Breguet XIV, one SPAD XIII, one SPAD VII (German), five Pfalz E.IV (that is not a typo), one Albatros C.V (I would just use the C.VII version), one Airco D.H.9a, one L.V.G. C.V, and one Salmson 2A2. That yields seventy miniatures for those forty-two scenarios. A bit daunting from a painting perspective, so let's winnow it down by removing scenarios in which an aircraft type only appears once. That removed the German SPAD VII, the Pfalz E.IV, the D.H.9a, and the L.V.G. C.V, dropping the plane count to sixty-three, still a large number. I might consider removing the scenarios with the largest numbers of Nieuports, Fokkers, and Albatrosses. That would take the numbers down to eleven N.28s, ten D.VIIs, and seven D.Vas and a total of 40ish planes for well over thirty scenarios. Now that sounds manageable! 

As I obtain more details from Table Top Flights on what planes are printing well in 1/285 I will get an order placed and will start the project properly.

Check Your 6! for the Great War

Like many older gamers, years ago I used to play the Blue Max board game (the GDW version), but using CinC 1/285 scale miniatures on a hex mat instead of counters. From what I can gather from my feeble memory, I enjoyed the system for the most part, but seemingly there was a part of the rules that seemed "off" - that might have been the ease in which certain parts of the plane became damaged, or was it a random chit pull and I seemed to draw the worst results more frequently than I cared for? Regardless of my own hangups, the group seemed to move away from Blue Max for whatever reason.

For the last few years I have used Wings of Glory for my Great War gaming fix. However, while there are elements I enjoy, there are several gaps in the rules, and trying to get the local group to adopt house rule changes has been tough. Also, the haughtiness of a reply I received to a post on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome has turned me off a bit.

Check Your 6! has its roots in Blue Max, at least from a turn and maneuver perspective. And the concepts of Blue Max have been expanded into Canvas Eagles, still available as a free download. Add to that the Check Your 6! modifications from Brian DeWitt and his series of three Colorful Skies scenario books, and one has a couple of Check Your 6! style options for gaming the fight in the skies during the Great War.

One concept I have is to take the maneuver charts of Canvas Eagles and use them in place of the standard maneuver charts offered in Check Your 6! that Colorful Skies utilizes. Seemingly the Canvas Eagles maneuver charts reflect the historical performance of the widely varying aircraft of the Great War more accurately than the standard charts, but also add a great deal of depth when it comes to climbing and diving. For example, we have the chart for the ubiquitous Fokker Dr.I:

The speed bands are there, and taking, say maneuver 4S3 (in Speed Band 3), one can stay at level, can dive, or can setup into a restricted maneuver the following turn. That equates fairly well with Check Your 6! in which one, using a forward maneuver, can stay level or dive at varying changes in altitude, but can also climb with a possible detriment to speed the following turn. Simple enough, but what about a maneuver like 9R2? A fierce right turn, but one that allows a dive in the current turn, or a required dive in the following turn. The E Chart in Colorful Skies does have a similar maneuver, R14, which is an extreme turn. It does not require a dive, but can allow a climb, level flight, or a dive, depending on current speed. There are some maneuvers available on the chart above that do not exist on Chart E, such as 11R2 or 11L2, so there are some differences between the charts, and these differences add a different element to aircraft performance.

There is also a question of what miniatures to use - I have a slew of the Wings of Glory and Reduced Aircraft Factory color printed aircraft, in 1/144 scale. Within my collection I also have a few planes I have painted from Shapeways and Table Top Flights. However, the standard Check Your 6! playing surface is 1.5" hexes on a six by four feet mat, and I already have three gaming mats with these parameters. The stands for the Wings of Glory planes are a little over 2.5". This leaves a bit of a conundrum. Do I use the 1/144 planes on a mat with 2.5" hexes with a larger mat? If so, to use the scenarios in Colorful Skies, the mat would have to be ten by seven feet! That is going to be problematic - Deep Cut Studio, where I go for custom mats, doesn't make a mat of that size (and if they did, it would be cost prohibitive). Second, finding tables at the local game stores for that size is most likely not happening. 

Of course, I could start collecting aircraft in a smaller scale which solves the mat issue. Table Top Flights make both 1/200 and 1/285 scale aircraft for the Great War, however, in speaking with Mike at Table Top Flights, the smaller scale leads to some quality concerns - the frailty of some of the struts at that scale causes breakage. Mike is going to run some test prints for me on certain aircraft to see how they turn out. 

Going to 1/200 would be a possible option as most WWI planes are smaller than their WWII counterparts. I could still use the mats and the flight stands I currently use for the other Check Your 6! eras I game. Here are a couple of shots of a 1/200 scale Roland D.II (I buggered up the nose a bit when I removed the propeller blades).

The quality is quite good, regardless of how a digital camera captures the tiniest of details.

Decals can be an issue in 1/200 - there are some available, but mostly as part of 1/285 or 1/144 sheets, and very little squadron or personal markings in that scale. In 1/285 there are much better options, using 1/300 as well. And of course, if I do go to a different scale, then I am going to have a lot of painting in my future! World War One aircraft can be very colorful, an I cannot imagine trying to paint German lozenge on such tiny planes. I have some decisions to make....

Historical Board Gamer Decals

After a tip from one of the chaps on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome, I thought I had a solution to the 9mm American and Russian roundels I need to dress up some Shapeways RAF colored prints, but alas the decals sold by Historical Board Gaming are actually for 1/285 and smaller scales. If there was a company making quality 1/285 or 1/300 scale quality World War One planes (at reasonable prices), I would be tempted to paint up a slew, but there does not seem to be. CinC - fiddley to assemble, range is limited, and prices are now stupidly high. Hostile Aircraft fail from a quality point of view (and landing gear...yuck). Heroics & Ros, no pictures means no buying from this gamer. Anyway, my search for 9mm American and Russian roundels continues, although these HBG offerings look rather nice. There is a wide variety of decals to be had from HBG, and there are MANY roundels/insignia of various sizes on each sheet. The sheet I believe is one large decal, so one does have to trim around each roundel/insignia.

Hmmm, one option is still available - Mike at Table Top Flights will scale WWI planes at 1/285...maybe that is the ticket! At this point I could use all my Check Your Six "stuff" along with the Colorful Skies WWI mods for CY6. Then there is also Canvas Eagles, which could work. Seemingly when I used to play Blue Max, which is what Canvas Eagles is derived from, there was something about the rules I did not like. Might have to go download Canvas Eagles and give them a lookover.

Well, to further the story, in chatting with Mike at TTF, scaling his WWI aircraft to 1/285th can be done, but the frailty of such a small print, when doing biplanes, is a concern. So still a bit thwarted in my desire to use 1/285th scale aircraft.