"And then we did" Topic

#3 the Med again, but a) against a Vichy French attack force of LeO451, Martin 167, Potez 63's escorted by D520s and Ms406s b) flying Gladiators (lots of them), Skuas, Fulmars, Hurricanes and Buffalos and c) using a modified version of Blue Skies:
The Skuas find that they are outgunned by the targets they are attacking.
The D520s find that Gladiators are nippy.
Buffalos find that Martin 167s can be shot down.
The Gladiators have more sense than to try and tail chase the LeO 451.

#4 Bagging more Japs, but a combined Army-Navy affair with Oscars and Zeros escorting the Sallys against the NEI Buffalos: The Zeros had A BAD DAY – bounced by the Buffalos and losing 2 from 3 in the first firing pass. This sets teh tone for the game.

#5 Crimson Skies clickables lots of manoeuvring and some really poor air to air gunnery.

#6 Air raid over Dieppe as FW190s try and escort Ju88s vs Spitfire opposition, using Air Force: the FWs, trying to kill Spits, get detached from the JUs and those Spits that elude them wreak hovoc on the bombers

#7 Air attack in tbe Black Sea with He112 and Hurricanes defending Constanza against a TB3/I-16 composite attack: the He112 does its disappearing act but the Soviets lose 1 TB3 and three quarters of the I16s.

then off to the Pub for

#8-11, Wings of War WW1 card based dogfights. A couple of pilots find that failing to remember the manoeuvre rules, or plotting one that damage means you can't make anymore are pretty terminal, a protracted duel ends with both protagonists shot down on the same head to head firing pass (forced on each by rudder hits), a photo recce mission ends in failure when, having taken the happy snaps, the recce aircraft is then blown to pieces… the remaining fighter takes revenge by shooting down both attackers.

Phil

Sounds like a great weekend of gaming. Sorry that I could not make it (currently resting my strained ligament following 60 mile walk). At least I'll get some painting done.

MH
(leeds wargames club secretary)

Man that sounds like a lot of fun!

I gotta get into these WWII aerial games…

Brandon

Phil . . . how does Wings of War play as a card game?

I've always been interested in gaming WWI air, and when this game came out I looked into it but have held off. There's just something about playing something this visual (colorful biplanes) with cards that makes me wonder if you don't miss the 3d aspects.

Plus, I read that the box doesn't give you enough cards to build decks for the planes you get, so while you have some choices in aircraft, you really need to buy many more boxes to get the cards, so you can play a flight versus flight game (as opposed to a one-on-one).

I'd love to be talked into getting it though, if it's really a smooth playing and hopefully somewhat accurate game of WWI air combat.

And heck, whil I'm asking, is the expansion that is out now a "must get" if you get the main game?

SeattleGamer

Wings of War is great fun and quick to pick up.
Each set, Famous Aces (FA) or Watch Your Back (WYB) can be played as a standalone without the other, or together (the ruleset and scenarios are common to both boxes)

But you are right about the flights problem: each plane type is rated for manoeuvrability (A-H) – it is these decks that determine what you can do, and form the main limitation of the boxed sets – you get one of each manoeuvre deck set (A-D in FA or E-H in WYB) so, if you want to fly multiple planes of the same manoeuvre deck letter you either need multiple copies of the deck or to limit your manoeuvres so that your planes don't need the same card in the same turn.

That said, the WoW folk (at wingsofwar.it) have said they plan to sell "boosters" – these "kits will include two maneuver decks and several airplanes using them" which should address this if they release four boosters, each giving two decks. The first of these will give a D deck and an all new K deck (for really slow planes)

In the four games we played in the pub (after all the others) the rules were used to check what the special damage effects were and nothing else: movement is, forgive the pun, very straight forward – well, it was for me in the first one as the damage I took locked my rudder bar for me (thank god for Immelmans). We tried out both FA and WYB scenarios so played with single and twin seaters.

I considered myself lucky just to be on fire, with a dodgy engine and a jammed gun compared to Dom, my air buddy for these, who managed to find the "boom" card at least twice in the four games.

If by expansion you mean WYB then its the one I've got – you won't believe just how nippy some of these two seaters can be (the F deck is my favourite, not fast but you can shake off anyone with it) – on the back of these games I'm going to pick up FA in a couple of weeks.

If you mean the "Burning Drachens" third set then this I can't comment on as its supposed to be "in the final stages of production" – and may include rules for altitude… which I have to say I didn't miss that much.

Cheers

Phil.

Thanks Phil, the game sounds like a blast to play. I'm willing to forgo things like altitude if the game plays well enough without it, and it's fun to play.

The two negatives i read were (1) not enough cards to fly multiples of the same plane (which you addressed), and (2) altitude not being represented in the rules, yet this is an air game and "should" plays in 3d.

BTW . . . I forgot to ask, is this a game where you need lots of tabletop space to move your planes (4x4 or better area)? Or is a regular gaming table sufficient (either the plans don't move at all, and it's all "relative" positioning, or they move slowly enough in a turn you don't need to play on a huge table)?

Seattle

I rationalised the lack of altitude to the fact that engine power is less of an issue in this kind of game than agility – power gives you the choice to engage and the option to escape – here players are already committed to the dogfight.

That said the blurb for Burning Drachens mentions altitude counters…

The rules reccommend 90cm/1 yard separation for a dogfight and about 120cm/4 feet for a bombing/photo-recce mission. Movement is done using the 3 cards per turn – a card is about 3-4" so the most you'll go in any one direction is 12".

The pub tables were about 4x2.5 feet, so we played down the length – we had to roll the playing surface a couple of times to keep planes on the tabletop but it wasn't an issue.

Regards

Phil.

Phil … you just made a sale! Can't resist this one any longer. Too cool to let it pass me by.

And I've checked out the official site, and they are supposedly going to release maneuver decks in blister packs so a person can get them without having to purchase the entire game all over again.

Thanks for the details.

PHIL,

How do you manage to squeeze in that many air games in so short a time?

MD

MD

We did this over a weekend (see my earlier post for the first day where everyone played in the same games)and on the second day (from game #3 onward) people played in different games and so we got a lot more done – we started at the club around 1030 and cleared out of the pub around 2100…

The previous day was more of a 1030-1800 style affair, more of a normal club day for us.

How much game time do you get in your sessions?

Regards

Phil.

PHIL,

Usually a couple hours,mostly—prefer to play solo late Saturday night after wife+son have gone to bed.Problem is I am getting too old to stay up until 3-4am then get up at 8am with the family on Sunday!

MD

I've got to chip in and say that it was a blinder of a weekend; got to play 5 miniature games, plus 4 Wings Of War bashes, which is probably more than I've played this year otherwise…. A nice mix of rules as well; rolled out Air Force, Blue Skies and Bag The Hun in games that I played, and others were played as well.

Wings Of War is a very fun little game, and well worth picking up, even given the highish price tag: I shall definitely be acquiring a copy, although as Phil says, I had a real flair for finding the only explosion card in the deck; particularly galling on a photo recce mission, where I'd made a good clean pass, got my piccies, and promptly blew up from a long range pot-shot….

Cheers,
Dom.