Air Combat is Fun (and Deadly)

Aeronautica Imperialis is a very good game. Fast, deadly and just enough tactical planning to satisfy an air combat aficionado. Warlord Jeff and I had a little dust up, and it was a good battle.

We tried the Resupply mission. My Orks were air dropping some Stormboys into two landing zones. Fly by, kick them out the hatch, and go home, what could be easier?
I ran into a bit of a problem...

Jeff's Thunderbolts look awesome. Sharp and clean, they have a great Naval Aviation feel to them. Four of them and a Destroyer he borrowed, plus some flak awaited me across the table.

I ran the Orks very fast across the map hoping to get some separation between the Imperial aircraft and my bomber-transports. My escorts were outnumbered 3-5, so that didn't really work out.

As usual the merge was a deadly messy affair. I lost a Fighter before it could shoot, but I did kill a Thunderbolt in one amazing volley of fire. Those would the last good dice I had this game.

Some people are very critical of the random dice factor in this game. It is hard to hit somebody, and then you have to do damage. There are a few negative modifiers, but no positive ones. I'm okay with it. I do think it puts a bit more of strain on the Orks, but they do get a lot of dice to throw, so if you get a hot run, it can be glorious. Or the dice can just give up on you like mine did...

The transports slowly rumbled towards the objectives, then I had to slow down even more to let the Stormboyz out safe-ish. Well I tried to, but the 3 out 4 Stormboyz on the first transport failed to land on target. The second transport got very close to the drop zone.

Here's  a hot tip: Don't get in front of a Destroyer. It won't go well for you. My second bomber/transport was ripped apart by the mass of autocannons in nose of the Destroyer, taking the cargo of Stormboyz down with it.

Moments later my last escort went down in flames, leaving my last bomber to try and escape.

No luck in that happening.  I did shoot down three Thunderbolts, but missed the Drop Zone and lost all my aircraft. The Imperials won by a wide margin.

A very fun battle, I look forward to the rematch!

So Many Dice, So Many 1's.

Time For New Dice