Well I introduced someone to Wings of War this evening. We kept to the two dimensions with no special damage for the sake of simplicity. We only had time for two games this evening as the two hour Lost premier was on tonight so we had to break for that. The first game wasn't really serious because he was just learning how to fly. I chose a Dr1 and the Camel for that game. It was a typical, uneventful game with us buzzing about, turning circles and performing Immelmanns. The second game was for real. On one of the narrow ends of my 4x6 table, I set up a Camel and DH4, on the other end I set up a DR1 and an DVa. The mission for the Brits was to fly off the end of the table with the DH4, stay off the table for one turn and then return the length of the table to exit the starting side. This represented a recon photo mission over the German trenches and getting bak with the film. The Camel was an escort and could not leave the table. The reentry point on the German side was decided by a die roll of 1-4 to determine within which 12inch section it would come in.
This game was very good. The Brits started out by drawing the Germans in, getting them pointed in the wrong direction and them racing for the German side. The tactic worked and the Germans were completely taken in and the DH4 easily made to German lines, all planes took some damage in the process though. As luck would have it, the Germans were in one corner close to their lines trying to corner the Camel when the re-entry die roll had the DH4 returning right into the middle of the dogfight. However, the DH4 and the Camel managed to combine fire on the DR1 which, unbeknownst to the Brits had pulled a 5 and 4 damage cards in the very beginning of the game. One more shot form the tail gunner took out the hapless DR1.
The DH4 then made a bee line for the exit edge of table but had about 5 feet to go and the DVa was too close behind to get away from. The Camel, though, was close on the tail of the German and it became a question of whether the rear seat gunner in the DH4 and the Camel vould take down the DVa before the DH4 made it to the British lines. The DH4 made some turns to slow the Hun down so the Camel could line up on him. It only took a few turns to fly the length of the table and both the DVa and DH4 were collecting damage cards.
The DH4 finally went down about eight inches from safety and the DVa was taken out by the Camel in the very same turn.
The was a tense game that played very, very quickly and was up for grabs up to the very last turn. The German won by preventing the completion of the British mission even though both his planes were lost in the process.
Observations:
The planes were chosen at random for the series one and series two miniatures that I have on hand. As it turns out, they were very well matched, though I think the German might have had an easier time had he not had the misfortune of taking so much damage early on.
The table was 4x6 and it was all used. The DH4 was making sweeping turns, jinking the best it could) to catch the Germans in a crossfire betweent he Camel and rear seat gunner. Amazingly, this historical worked perfectly using this very simple game mechanics. On the German side, the tactic was to concentrate on the DH4 and plot intercept courses approching the less lethal front arc attempting to come in between the front and rear gunner on both side at once. The German was less than successful with this tactic as the DH4 would turn into one of the fighters and present its tail (and rear gun) to the other. The table luckily turned out to be exactly right as well.
Finally, though the game mechanics are extremely simple, there is enough meat to the game to present tactical challenges tot he players. If air combat is about anticipating the enemy's next maneuver, then this game is all about that. It foregoes the details in favor of simple fluid mechanics that give the players the illusion of continuos, simlutaneous, movement.
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