2nd July 1917, Phalempin airfield, northern France. Pilot: Leutnant Richard Festner

My flight of five Albatros, led by Oblt Sommerfeld, is tasked to patrol the lines. But by the time we're in our cockpits, all that has changed. Enemy aircraft are nearby and we're to intercept them.



Isn't that the Rittmeister's aircraft over to the right?



No time to fret over that. We race across the grass, the sky alive with flak bursts. The biggest concentration is tracking some barely-visible aircraft higher up, but lower down, the gunners are also letting fly at individual aircraft which are zipping around our base.



As my wheels leave the ground, one of the intruders comes in fast from my right. I can see from his stubby appearance and squared-off wings that he's a SPAD.



'You'll do!' I tell myself, and swing around after the enemy. I find that I can overhaul him by cutting across the fast but wide turn he's making.



Behind us, our airfield is being bombed! That will be the higher fliers I glimpsed. Fortunately for us, their bombing hasn't been accurate.



I catch up with the SPAD and after a short turning fight, his wings come off following several short but evidently well-aimed bursts. That'll teach him!



I quickly pick up another Frenchman and see an Albatross who tried to take him head-on crash into a field. Shot down or stalled in? I can't tell. I get onto the second SPAD's tail and give him much the same treatment.



Clearing my tail, I'm surprised to find that the skies are suddenly empty. No aircraft, no flak, nothing. All I can see is some crash sites and disconnected cream SPAD wings on the ground. I gain some height and look around. Still nothing!



Orienting myself, I head for the lines at full speed and in a gentle climb. Maybe I can locate and catch the bombers, who are likely to be retreating in that direction. Or link up with my comrades who are still in the air.



Nothing doing! So I call it quits and spiral around and down, back towards Palemphin.



Back at base, I claim two SPADs shot down. Sommerfeld got one, also. In return, three of us had crashes, not apparently attributed directly to enemy action, for some reason. The crash I saw seemed quite dramatic but must have looked worse than it was, as no-one has been seriously hurt. The map replay revealed all, but unfortunately the written record (all in PWCG) got somewhat truncated. But it also shows the hat trick I scored on my last trip, before we moved to Phalempin. So it looks like I have made ace status - and I'm awarded the Iron Cross, second class!



I resumed my PWCG Jasta 11 campaign after recently applying VonS's new AI improvement mod ( https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4557118/rof-united-ed-ai-improved-ver-1-1#Post4557118 ) and I'm looking forward to continuing this campaign, to see it in action. As a single player only, I have no notion of moving to Flying Corps. I've invested in a lot of RoF aircraft and while the lack of a BE2 limits the realism of campaigns prior to mid-1917, I reckon RoF still looks great, has plenty of content and plays pretty well, especially with PWCG campaigns - and now also this AI improvement.