Category: Night Witches

My Monday crew just finished our second session at Pashkoskaya.

My Monday crew just finished our second session at Pashkoskaya.

My Monday crew just finished our second session at Pashkoskaya. It was a pretty smooth time overall, with a few difficult (mainly interpersonal) moments. 

My new airwoman Galya has made the crucial realisation that she can cope with this after all, although she needed to be humiliated by our fierce armorer on the way. 

The rivalry between our two highest ranked airwomen came to a head when the acting leader (Valya M) passed over command back to the Leza (who had been delayed arriving at the station). Leza immediately laid all the blame for the two MIA and presumed dead aircrew on Valya, and most of the section beat a hasty retreat as the two of them had that out. A tense truce was the outcome, but I;m not sure how long it will last.

Other dealings around the airfield were fraught as well – several of us are now having to live with the consequences of bad calls with people over the past few sessions/game months.

We had a bit of a discussion about plans for the Monday crew after we finished, and everyone is pretty keen to play through the war before we try anything else. Cool!

I started a campaign with a new group using the structured introduction and it went pretty well, until the second…

I started a campaign with a new group using the structured introduction and it went pretty well, until the second…

I started a campaign with a new group using the structured introduction and it went pretty well, until the second training mission, which turned out to be an utter disaster.

The lead plane, already damaged, barely made the wayfind roll and choose enemy fire as a consequence. The pilot then failed which placed them in pretty bad shape. Nevertheless, they decided to do the attack run, the pilot rolling a two before tempting fate and taking all the mission pool to succeed. The second plane’s navigator had a great roll, but the attack run turned out to be another failure. Tempting fate also proved to be a failure, which led to a plane on fire with one airwoman leaping to her death and another dying in burning wreck. After which the first planed attempted its wheels down, the pilot rolling another two, resulting in both airwomen dying in the crash.

At that point I was afraid they would not want to continue, but they took it in good cheer and we are gearing up for Duty Station 2.

This evening’s game was grim.

This evening’s game was grim.

This evening’s game was grim. Our first airwoman dead, my pilot Hanna. She went down in a shootout with Nazis rather than be captured. Her navigator is still lost behind lines. 

That followed some fairly crazy hijinks as we tried to fit in to the new airfield, making it hit a bit harder. 

As the rest of the section tried to deal with the loss, the two of us with missing characters made up new airwomen – totally green pilots just out of training. The veterans gave them a tough introduction to the unit.

I forgot to do a writeup for our last game, oops.

I forgot to do a writeup for our last game, oops.

I forgot to do a writeup for our last game, oops.

We’re done with Trud Gornyaka now. Our last two missions there (including one of the nasty ones) went super well, it was totally unexpected and awesome. 

Of course, without planes to repair during the day we got ourselves into plenty of other trouble. There were mechanics to be calmed down after the wrecked and damaged planes of the last session, an informal interview (with the character concerned suddenly “called away” – player will be GM for the next duty station).

We had time to do the initial setup for Pashkovskaya. Looks like that is going to be crazy, we’ve set ourselves up for a lot of conflict with the 218th, beyond the already significant baseline anger.

From the new handout, Twenty-four hours with the 588th: “You may need to ASSESS or ACT UP”.

From the new handout, Twenty-four hours with the 588th: “You may need to ASSESS or ACT UP”.

From the new handout, Twenty-four hours with the 588th: “You may need to ASSESS or ACT UP“. What’s “assess”? Written that way it seems a move, but there isn’t an “assess” move. It’s meant to be EYEBALL?

Also, in the GM reference sheet all squadron and section are said to have the same composition (three plane, plus a reserve), while in the manual each section in the squadron has something unique  (reserve plane, ambulance, limo). It’s a semplification since it’s just a reference sheet, a typo, or there has been some change?

After the success of playing a one-off set in Trud Gornyaka, we decided to “reboot” and go back to training.

After the success of playing a one-off set in Trud Gornyaka, we decided to “reboot” and go back to training.

After the success of playing a one-off set in Trud Gornyaka, we decided to “reboot” and go back to training. We did the Engels Aerodrome duty station, with all three training missions in one 3-hour session (so I could deliberately set the pace very fast) with four players and me as GM.

Training was punctuated by encounters with a psychotic, goat-kicking officer trainee scarred by her experiences in Soviet orphanages and with a sleazy boiled-egg eating military police who was sitting on a stash of vodka.

The highlight was when it turned out that the Raven Adventurer was a former ballet dancer from Moscow, forced to retire through injury and now living only to fly. The Owl Zealot wrote a letter to the editor of the Red Army Gazetta praising her comrade and this caught the attention of the 218th brass who demanded that she perform for the men. Although accompanied by the conservatory-trained Hawk Misanthrope on piano, the performance was a disaster (miss on a Tempt Fate roll) leading to further injury and resounding humiliation from the men.

The session was called “Black Swan Down”.

Last Monday we played another session at Trud Gornyaka.

Last Monday we played another session at Trud Gornyaka.

Last Monday we played another session at Trud Gornyaka.

The first mission had some very bad rolls and ended up with two airwomen hospitalised and lots of damaged planes. It felt like the rest of the session was catch up from that – there wasn’t much socialising beyond what was needed to get the airwomen and planes back in action (although this did lead to lots of confessions as part of reaching out moves).

As we prepared for the final mission of the session, our section leader went to ask a favour from Major Roskova – and missed the act up roll totally. As a reward for the section’s keen attitude, they got to fly one of the especially tough missions that night (the rail crossing). This mission went much better than the first, with a successful hit on the target. We lost a plane coming back (failed wheels down on a damaged crate) but the characters are all okay.

Next time, I think the squadron commander may have a little something to say about the section’s rather bad record losing planes…

Are these still the most current character sheets and moves and such?

Are these still the most current character sheets and moves and such?

Are these still the most current character sheets and moves and such?

Printing for Origins play!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/56qcg0tgntcnwuw/AAAhgv-cbxDmxtAoMxajhvwHa?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/56qcg0tgntcnwuw/AAAhgv-cbxDmxtAoMxajhvwHa?dl=0