I introduced three new people to Wings of War yesterday, as our first game of the day. We did a three on three game with experienced folks on both sides, with the allies represented by Rene Paul Fonck in his Spad, Aubrey Beauclerk Ellwood in his Sopwith Camel and Francesco Baracca in his Spad. The Central Powers flew in with Ludwig Weber and Kurt Jentsch in their Albatrosses and Otto Kissenberth in his Sopwith Camel.

The allies showed a little more coordination, though none of us talked with the other pilots on our teams to prearrange movement (seems somehow wrong, you know?). Sadly, poor Ludwig Veber split well off to the left, Jentsch to the right, and Kissenberth down the center. Rene (my plane) and Francesco both split left, letting us gang up on a single pilot. They tried to come back together, but poor Ludwig ended up being tailed by one allied pilot and flying into the path of two others, sending him down in flames. The allies swept back around, managing to cut down Otto Kissenberth in a vicious crossfire as he desperately maneuvered for a shot on Rene Fonck. Left on his own, Kurt Jentsch did his best, but he could hardly keep up with three allied pilots dogging him, and his Albatross tumbled down to the fields below.

Given the intentional lack of communication (beyond "Help!"), it was impressive and helpful that two of our pilots managed to stick together for much of the game. Similarly, it was tremendously problematic for the Central Powers forces that they split up immediately, especially since Weber flew from bad to worse and ended up being the first casualty, before the Allies could take that much damage. At the end of the game, we'd only taken eight damage cards across all three planes and had dealt out over twenty.