The Cruelest Month: Air War over Arras, April 1917

An offensive on the Western Front that would be called the "Battle of Arras" but remembered for what the Royal Flying Corps called it - "Bloody April." Still flying mostly outdated aircraft, General "Boom" Trenchard insisted on constant offensive actions and round-the-clock missions for recon, artillery spotting, mapping, etc. With the most common plane involved in this work being the dreadfully vulnerable Be2C, facing up against the likes of Baron von Richthofen's Jasta 11, the results were woeful losses. To the RFC's credit, they continually fulfilled the missions, despite the losses. The Cruelest Month looks at this struggle, with the focus primarily on air operations and ground battle abstracted (similar to Chennault's First Fight). As the British player, you will marshal your limited numbers of fighters to help secure the skies for 2-seaters that would be better suited to training planes. As the German player, you will employ your well-armed modern fighters against waves of RFC planes that simply keep coming, regardless of how many you shoot down. Each hex on the map is approximately 2 miles across. A game turn spans two days of time. An Aerial Unit is comprised of 6 to 12 aircraft. Published in Against the Odds Annual 2020 issue (published in 2023). —description from the publisher