This survey covers as many rule sets as I've been able to obtain. I'm sure, however, that I missed several sets... I include several board games, in addition to miniatures rules because of a) their prevalence and b) their generally ready adaptation to miniatures play. I left a couple of games out of the survey because of their general long-term unavailability, notably, SPI's Flying Circus, TSR's Fight in the Skies, and Winston Johnson's Sopwith (Did these ever get released commercially in "final form"?). I also omitted Paragon's Dogfight rules because I couldn't obtain a copy! Note that this is a survey, not a review. I've played, either solo or with a live opponent, all of the sets of rules I describe, just to be sure I understand the various rules mechanics - how to fly, how to shoot, etc. Because I do comment on how well the various rules work, I guess this is a review of sorts, but that's not its main purpose. B. C. Milligan, in his article, "Between Wind and Water", back in The Courier, volume 6/5, said it well: "The sole purpose is to attempt to give those interested in gaming this period with (substitute "World War I aircraft miniatures" for) naval miniatures some idea of what is actually available." There are a number of rule sets out there - many of which the reader may not be aware. I don't attempt to establish a "winner" - a best rule set, or recommend that a specific set be purchased. I will, however (being generally opinionated), note what I feel to be their strong points, as well as these rules' weak points. I'm a rules junkie. I don't want only the best set of rules in a given genre, in this case WW I air combat. If I see several sets that are good, I want 'em all ! You'll note that several of the rule sets are, in fact, board games - one, in fact, has appeared as both board game and miniatures game. I include them because of their ready adaptability to the miniatures genre, either by overlaying the playing surface with a hex grid (or using a board game map) or by translating hexes into inches, centimeters, or whatever... The chief constraint of the board game is that, in most cases, turning and facing is limited to sixty degree increments. Against this must be weighed the board game's clarity in play. That is, board game rules traditionally have been written in a more legalistic, all inclusive style. What a miniatures rule makes implicit, a board game rule typically makes explicit. Miniatures rules almost always include the disclaimer that they cannot possibly address every detail and that the players must expect to have to extrapolate. Board game rules typically try to account for every eventuality - if it's not in the rules, it cannot happen... Both approaches have their adherents and both are, to one degree or other, valid. Both certainly produce some enjoyable and exciting games! All of the rules described below are played at one to one scale, i.e., one model represents one aircraft. Those few sets that allow the player to control more than a single aircraft - the squadron level games - put the players in the position of viewing the entire air battle as a process. Players insert changes into the process - by maneuvering and attacking with the various aircraft on their side - but aren't part of it. They're not role playing anything. In a tank versus tank game at higher than the individual tank level - say, at the platoon or company level, the real-life analog has ongoing communications among the people manning the tanks and between the tanks in a given formation. Players can role play platoon leaders and company commanders because of this communication. The platoon leader player may maneuver subordinate tanks because the platoon leader would (nominally) be in communication with those tanks during the battle. In the WW I squadron level air game, once the battle is joined, inter-plane communication almost stops, the various aircrafts' crew relying on their training, perceptiveness, and drill to tell them what to do, rather than ongoing signals from their commander's aircraft. The net result is that the squadron leader player, in a WW I aerial dogfight, would concentrate on fighting his own battle and rely on training and drill to carry the rest of the squadron through. This was, of course, not absolute - escorts and their two-seater charges did communicate with one another and flight leaders did direct, via hand or other signals, their wing men to targets - but it was pretty much the norm. I guess the bottom line of this little rant is that WW I air gaming is one area in which "... the more players the merrier" really rings true - especially if one limits inter-player communications to simple hand signals! Many of the mechanisms in the various rules work, despite differences in numbers, in similar ways. "Normal" rules for climbing, for example, suggest that aircraft lose speed when climbing - lateral movement as well, because part of the move is taking place in the vertical axis. "Normal" rules for diving suggest that aircraft gain speed. Depending on the length of the turn, diving aircraft may also move farther on the game table, because some of the increased speed is considered to have taken effect during the turn of the dive. Spinning aircraft almost always go around and around, pulling out (if they do) in a random direction, several altitude levels lower. Some rules use banking, which means that a plane must be banked right to turn right, left to slip left, etc. Aircraft flying too slow to maintain altitude will typically stall - the nose drops and the plane gains airspeed until it regains control. Sometimes this combines with a spin, again, depending on the rule set. Rules that allow "overflying" (this term came from one of the rule sets; I think it 's appropriate) permit a plane to dive faster than is safe, but the plane may lose its wings, break up, etc. The more complex rules require the player to pay attention to airspeed in a dive - one may inadvertently gain too much airspeed, causing them to overfly, risking destruction. Likewise, in combat, guns may jam and several rule sets reflect this. Typically, the more frequently the gun fires, the more likely it is to jam, determined by die roll. Jammed guns, can typically be unjammed, again by die roll. Gunfire damages planes. In the lower complexity rules, damage eats away at a plane until it falls apart. As complexity increases, so does damage. Critical hits appear, allowing lucky crew hits, fuel tank hits, structure hits, etc., to catastrophically destroy aircraft. The number of factors influencing whether gunfire hits its target increase, as well. Play sequence is a determinant of how quickly a game plays. Of the three types used, the first , "pure" sequential movement, allows one side to execute all movement and combat, and then allows the other side to move. This is, I think, the least suited to an air combat game; it simply doesn't work because air combat was not like a simple board game. Interactive sequential movement, where individual aircraft move one-at-a-time, but where such movement may shift back and forth between the opposing sides during a turn, and where combat takes place simultaneously, works much better. Aircraft can react, typically based on situation and crew experience, to hostile aircrafts' actions. Because movement is still sequential, it's not necessary to plot it, which speeds game play. Simultaneous movement, with all moves preplotted, can be at once, the best and the worst type of movement for an air game. If turns are too long and movement too great, aircraft will zoom all over the game table without ever being able to engage in combat. The very real ability of good pilots to react to their foes' actions is missing (see Mike Spick's The Ace Factor in the bibliography for a good discussion of the ability to react). However, if turns are kept short enough - with the more complex maneuvers taking more than one turn to execute, thereby giving opposing players clues as to what planes are going to do, simultaneous movement can work very, very well. Of course, there's a price to pay - players must record their moves each turn. This is where the trade-off with interactive sequential movement takes place. Some groups readily accept preplotting moves and others don't. Accompanying the survey is a table, comparing many of the rules' quantifiable measurements, that tries to capture these similar mechanisms. If an entry such as this in this table suffices, I'll not further mention it in the individual notes. Note also that, in cases where specific mechanics are, by coincidence or sheer soundness of design, very similar (and there are such occasions), I have no reluctance to refer, in one rule description, to a mechanic described in another rule description. This diminishes neither the former nor the latter set of rules - it just saves space! I'm not a pilot, nor am I particularly well-versed, beyond general reading, in the mechanics of flight. I have, however, read a fair amount of WW I air history. This survey approaches the various rule sets from the point of view of gamers like myself. How clear are the rules? What's in the box (or bag)? What are the production values? What components come with the rules? Do things make sense? How do they (in the cases where I've played them) play? Onward! Two of the rule sets reviewed - Ragwing Warbirds, and Aerodrome 1.1 - were received after this article was submitted to The Courier. Both games are based on the premise that you can mount 1/72nd model aircraft on collapsible radio aerials and have a good time pushing them around a large hex field - and both are right! Aerodrome 1.1 is, of course, Stan Kubiak's (formal) update and revision to the original (unpublished) Aerodrome rules. Ragwing Warbirds is, I understand, Mark Base's extrapolation from the original Aerodrome. What I found interesting is the widely divergent paths the two rule sets took from a common ground. The mechanics of flight - the number of phases to a turn, the use of several altitude levels, etc. - are similar but little else is. They provide a good study of how two enthusiastic World War I air gamers can travel different but parallel - and equally valid - paths in pursuit of an enjoyable game. Aces High This game and its expansion set, The American Aces, are the current renditions of World Wide Wargamers' WW I air game dating back to 1980 with the release of Aces High and its expansion set, Blue Max. The game was re-released in the late 1980s as Red Baron, with major revisions, and has been re-released in final form as the current titles. Aces High comes with game map, aircraft counters, and a rule book, scenario book, and aircraft statistics book. The American Aces comes without the rule book. Though no longer published (with the demise of WWW), there are so many copies of this game in game stores, etc., that I included it here because of its easy availability. The price, incidentally is for both boxed sets - they sell for $28.00 each. As the author, Jim Hind, states in the designer's notes, Aces High is based on the original Airforce and Dauntless - as was Wings (see below). What is interesting to note is that this game came out a year before Wings, . It's obvious that both games trace their ancestry back to the same source. While it may seem a bit unfair to refer to Aces High as a sort of Wings-lite, that's what it is. The basic mechanics are very similar, but where, for example, the Fokker E.III in Wings has seven different flight levels, in Aces High it has only three. Maneuvers, too, are simpler. There's no impulse movement as in Wings, but this isn't a problem because movement rates are approximately 40% of those in Wings; aircraft simply don't fly far enough in a single turn to allow simultaneous silliness. Generally, things seem to be at twice Wings' scale, so simpler movement would seem to make sense... Gun fire is likewise a bit simpler. Each aircraft has an assigned fire strength. 2D6 (modified for deflection, range, target size, etc.) are cast against this strength on the hits table to determine how many hits strike the target. 2D6 are then cast on another table against the number of hits inflicted to determine the specific damage inflicted and its location(s) on the target. Critical hits are not separately addressed, but are incorporated directly into the damage table and mainly inflict more damage than a normal hit. Though tailing isn't specifically mentioned, a rules mechanism accomplishes much the same thing. Better aircrew can reserve some of their movement points until after lower quality aircrew have all moved. The better crew then plot and move their final movement, taking advantage of their foe's already-executed movement. One place in which Aces High really shines is in the scenarios. There are extensive rules governing flying missions. There are also no less than 96 (!) scenarios and minicampaigns, with various set-up rules, victory conditions, aircraft rosters, and, where appropriate, historical commentary. The two scenario books will be right at home in whatever WW I air game you play. I've played and enjoyed numerous games of Aces High and look forward to many more. Blue Max These rules, originally published as a board game, were re-released in 1995, with enhancements, as a miniatures game. Components include a sheet of information counters, combat charts, and separate maneuver schedules for each aircraft. All movement is executed by plotting maneuvers from these schedules. This takes a bit of getting used to if one's played other air miniatures games because there isn't movement and maneuver - there's just maneuver. That said, it works. Each maneuver has a code on the maneuver chart. A movement plot consists of noting that code. Certain maneuvers allow altitude changes, which, if desired, are also noted. Simultaneous movement is often criticized in air games - what I've read suggests that things weren't all that simultaneous and that there was a lot of action-reaction up there. Moves in Blue Max are short enough, though, that there's plenty of action-reaction and, surprisingly, for a game using plotted movement, the game moves quickly. Combat is simple. Based on range (maximum fire range is 3 hexes, suggesting that a hex is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 - 60 yards wide), the firer is assigned a combat value which is modified by a number of situational factors including deflection, aircraft stability (all planes have a stability rating), burst length, etc., and compared to a chart against which a D6 roll is made. Results indicate how many damage chits (that come with the game) are drawn from a cup. Damage is applied against five aircraft locations, destruction of any one of which will bring down the plane. In addition, several of the chits denote critical hits, with their typically deleterious effects to the target. One feature almost unique to this game is the use of fuel limits. Each maneuver uses fuel and after 15 or 20 turns at combat speeds most aircraft will break off and attempt to go home. With the closing of GDW's doors in February 1996, the rights to Blue Max reverted to the authors, who are examining their options. The possibility exists that the game may reappear under another publisher's label. I hope so, because Blue Max is an elegant and simple introduction to WW I air gaming. Canvas Falcons Possibly the most complex set of rules of the lot. This is the game you probably saw at Historicon or Cold Wars being played in the lounge on the floor. Aircraft are mounted on poles on small trolleys and are wheeled about the floor during play. The authors play with 1/72nd scale aircraft and, when using full scale, things take quite a bit of room (impressive, though). Instructions are included for making flight stands - the trolleys that one wheels about the floor - that allow for full three-dimensional positioning of one's aircraft. The rule book actually contains two games, Triplane, and Legion Condor, dealing with WW I and inter-war period air combat, respectively, and both derived from Mustangs and Messerschmitts. Of the 94 pages in the rule book, Triplane comprises the first 50, Legion Condor, the next 20, and the formation cards, pilot sheets, etc., the last 24. Aerodrome 1.1 I first played Aerodrome several years ago at Historicon, under the tutelage of Winston Johnson and thought "Won't these be nice when they're published!". They never appeared, however. Stan Kubiak has taken the original work, rewrote and updated it, and the result is a fast, simple game that's quite enjoyable. Aerodrome is played on a hex grid and has five altitude levels. Each aircraft is mounted on a collapsible antenna (not supplied), its altitude being denoted by the extension of the antenna. Though playable with any scale of miniature, the author recommends 1/72nd scale just for the visual effect, which anybody seeing it played in public will attest to... Players plot all three phases of a turn's movement on their control panel. A single movement phase typically only involves entering a single hex, though, so plotting is reasonably simple. Gun fire can take place after any movement phase, but firing during successive increments may cause guns to jam (they can be unjammed, but it takes time...) Gun damage is deterministic, i.e., a gun will, at a given range and under given circumstances, inflict a given amount of damage. The likelihood that a critical hit will happen is based on the amount of damage inflicted during combat. All movement consists of maneuvers. Tailed targets (w/in 2 hexes directly to front of tailer) must give tailer information on their move. Aces get extra damage points on their planes and can better maneuver their aircraft. Clouds, fire, spins, forced landings, etc., are all covered at a reasonable detail level. Aerodrome includes general scenario descriptions equating to the several mission types common to the period: dogfight; balloon busting; photo recce; bombing; and trench strafing. The campaign game isn't a specific historical campaign; it's more an Aerodrome game league. Stan sells a full range of game supplies for Aerodrome including flight stands, aircraft (1/72nd scale), play mats, wooden control panels, etc. Aerodrome is a well-presented, fun game. It doesn't push the limits of WW I air combat simulations but is an ideal, highly visual, game for introducing new players to the era. Well recommended, and available from the publisher at PO Box 190381, San Francisco, CA 94119-0381. Triplane Triplane uses a very short turn length, which, combined with the detailed movement rules, ends up almost as a time-motion study of WW I flight. I called the sequence of play interactive sequential, though this doesn't adequately describe how things work. Each turn's move is broken into three impulses, typically of several inches' length. Maneuvers don't just move a plane from one spot to another over the table. They must be learned and generally don't circumvent the normal movement rules so much as they show the players how to fully use them... The rules went to considerable effort to explain to the reader just what's going on during a maneuver and it shows. Oh - they work, too. The plane that can see the least moves first, with aircraft moving in sequence until the plane with the best overall picture moves last. In dogfights where things get muddled, aircraft move in increasing order-of-altitude. If there's no way to sequence movement between two aircraft, the next impulse's move is plotted for simultaneous movement. Spotting is detailed, straightforward, and is central to game play. Fire combat is straight-forward, with the firer casting 2D6, modified by a number of situational factors, on a range table to determine how may hits are scored against the target, which will fall apart when sufficient damage is inflicted. Critical hits occur periodically and hasten the target's demise in a variety of ways. I had only one problem with the combat system: Nowhere could I find in the rules, just when firing takes place! I decided (for the purpose of my balloon shoot-up) that it can take place once per turn, at the end of any movement impulse (player's choice), but not in two impulses in a row. Jamming isn't dependent on frequency of firing, so this seemed reasonable. By the way - the only place the fire tables appear is on page 12 of the charts section. I only found it after a page-by-page look-through of the entire book... The scenario generator is among the best I've seen. WW I is broken into six distinct periods, with a variety of aircraft available to each. Various charts detail how, when, and at what altitude the participating aircraft arrive. The scenario section is filled with informative commentary on the aircraft. The commentary, which pervades the rules, is at once Canvas Falcons' strongest and weakest point. Whenever a new point appears, explanatory commentary accompanies it in an almost stream-of-consciousness manner. This does much to explain how things work and why, but makes looking things up a real chore and sometimes muddles game rules with historical comment. In some cases, the commentary made the rules seem more complex than they actually were. In fact, the impression I got from the rule book was that it should've been a supporting text for somebody's class. Things are likely all there, but an experienced player is a real help when trying to fit them all together. Triplane combines long-proven game mechanics with enough background and explanatory material to choke one - all in all, a good combination for the WW I air gamer! Chocks Away These are the most unusual rules I've seen, from the perspective of what one actually gets in the box. In this case, the box is a deep metal storage tube - like a very tall, skinny, cookie tin. In it come a rule booklet, two assembled and painted Skytrex 1/144th scale aircraft (a Fokker Dr.I and a Sopwith Camel), a pair of flight stands (cosmetic only - models do not physically change altitude or attitude during the game), 6 normal six-sided and 22 hand-marked six-sided movement dice, turn wheels, aircraft data cards, and maneuver cards (all must be cut out from card), and a green felt playing surface that comes wrapped around the lot. The whole was rather home-grown (rough) appearing, though a lot of effort obviously went into making a presentable product. I'd much rather have simply got the rules - without all the accessories - and saved much of the purchase price. Players plot moves using movement dice marked on their six sides with the possible maneuvers - turn, snap turn, slip, and straight movement. Tailed aircraft display the first half of their dice before the tailing player plots any movement. Agility is accounted for by an aircraft's turn rating, which establishes how far one must fly straight forward before beginning a turn. Aircraft turn at different rates, based on which of eight turn wheels they use. Snap turns are like normal turns, except that they're tighter, and cause more speed loss for the turning aircraft. Combat, too, is simple, and may take place either after all movement, or (advanced rule) during movement. Players cast their movement dice when they fire, the quantity depending on their weapons suite (e.g., a Lewis gun, a pair of Vickers, etc.), range (4 bands, out to 160 yards), and numerous situational modifiers including target attitude (front, side, or rear), firer crew quality, and current target maneuver. Combat results depend on the various combinations the dice may show (sorta like Yahtsee) and generally inflict hit points on the target. An aircraft falls when it's got no hits left or when it's pilot dies. Only cursory attention is paid scenarios - eight lines describing general mission types. Spotting is probabilistic, determined by die roll against range, modified by crew quality, spotter orientation to target, etc. Chocks Away breaks no new ground in air gaming, though the use of movement dice was a good idea (anything that reduces written movement plots is a good idea!) The rules themselves are simple and clearly written, but due to overly ambitious presentation, the whole is quite a bit more expensive than the $10.00 or so the rules themselves should sell for. Confirmed Kill This moderate complexity set of rules comes in several digest-sized books, only three of which concern us. The 54 page core rule book actually addresses WW II air combat, but the 24 page WW I supplement revises the basic rules as necessary for that conflict and provides WW I aircraft statistics and scenarios, while the WW I mission booklet includes numerous additional aircraft and still more scenarios. The cost noted in the comparison table is for all three booklets. Movement is in initiative order - crew quality, altitude (the higher the better), and being tailed (Bad!) all affect initiative. Aircraft movement is detailed over three dimensions. Speed parameters - maximum level speeds, dive speeds, and stall speeds - vary over several broad altitude bands (typically 5000 feet). In each altitude band, an aircraft has a unique turn code that defines how far it must fly straight before turning, and how sharply it may turn. This adds quite a bit to the game because different aircraft perform optimally at different altitudes; one plane may be superior to another at one altitude, while the reverse might be true at another altitude. Within the framework of altitude bands, aircraft climb, stall, dive, perform maneuvers, and generally fly in a "normal" manner. Gun combat is simultaneous; a number of situational factors including target range, air crew quality, target speed, and shot deflection are compared, on a fire table, to produce a hit likelihood that must be beat with percentage dice to score hits on target. Damage is allocated to several different target areas (wings, engine, cockpit, fuselage, fuel, etc.), the destruction of any one of which will destroy the plane. Additionally, damage inflicted against any area typically reduces aircraft performance in an appropriate way (e.g., wing hits reduce turning and diving capabilities). This is one of the more detailed (but simple to use) damage treatments surveyed. Scenarios are present with a vengeance. Between the WW I supplement and the mission book, there are 111 basic scenarios, including dogfight, fighter sweep, bombing, photo-recce, and balloon-busting missions, as well as four different mini-campaigns. These latter are quite simple and provide a way of stringing together mission scenarios. Though my only play of these rules (so far) consists of several balloon-busting missions (balloons make easy enemies - they don't move much!), I found the rules easy to learn, simple to play (much more so than this write-up would lead one to believe), and quite enjoyable. Dogfight Over Flanders These rules are on the simple side of moderate complexity. Unusually, play is in a strict "I do my move and combat, then you do yours" sequence, which, considering the amount of detail found elsewhere in the game and the relatively recent publication date (1992), was disappointing. Movement is consistent with most of the other rules, with maneuvers simply being a mechanism to allow aircraft to change direction or position quickly. Spins are treated mainly as a maneuver, which surprised me - one can spin by stalling, but the gist of the rules is that the spin is something one would use to get out of a tight spot... Three sizes of turn circles are used to control aircraft turn radii. Inline-engine aircraft typically use the medium circle to turn in either direction, while radial-engine aircraft use the small circle to turn in the direction of torque and the large one to turn in the other direction. This seems a bit generic but does reflect the perceived effects of torque on maneuver. Gunnery is broken into four range bands and, like one other rule set, uses firer and target crew quality comparison as the main criteria to determine the die roll necessary to score a hit. Damage resolution is much more detailed, with separate hit tables for five different target areas, and special damage for each. Though scenarios aren't addressed at all, several types of missions are detailed and there's a discussion of the effects of aircraft and air crew damage on later missions and also provisions for air crew to increase in quality by flying missions and scoring kills. Finally, the rules provide guidelines for creating aircraft statistics for aircraft not included in the game. Dogfight Over Flanders has potential, but only after the play sequence is modified. Fly or Die! These simple one-on-one rules are played on a gridded surface using four altitude levels. Each turn consists of two movement phases, each player's aircraft using half its movement allowance each phase to move forward, climb, dive, or perform a single maneuver. Movement is in ascending altitude order, with threatened aircraft (those tailed) moving first. Aircraft exceeding their limits may stall or break up (depending on whether they were climbing or diving). Players draw maneuver cards such as loops, barrel rolls, etc., based on crew experience (e.g., number of kills and number of missions flown). These cards are used up during game play, as air crew "run out of ideas" - the better crew, having more cards, obviously have more (or better) ideas... All aircraft fire after each movement phase, but aircraft firing too frequently may jam their guns. Combat is bloody. To shoot, players cast dice, the number being dependent on the range to their targets, with the sum of the exposed pips being the number of hits inflicted. Aircraft go down as a result of accumulated damage or critical hits. An inveterate rules tinkerer, I saw a number of rules begging for elaboration, but I leave that to the purchaser (hint: there are no deflection modifiers). Though no order-of-battled scenarios are presented, two pages of scenario design notes provide suggestions on how to set up a game and fly the missions most common to the Great War, including patrols, photo recon, ground attack, and others, as well as how to determine victory. Lest I forget, Fly or Die! also includes a page of color pictures of the Orv Banasik's 1/72nd scale games in progress and also suggestions on mounting model aircraft (on telescoping antennae) for play. While these rules aren't (and don't claim to be) the last word on detailed WW I air combat rules, they provide a quick and enjoyable game. Fokker Fodder These rules are designed around recreating a mission over the front. The first half of the rule booklet describes setting up for play - organizing one's forces, selecting a mission to fly, establishing victory conditions - general scenario setup - as well as providing suggestions for basing aircraft, making a game board, etc. Aircraft movement is variable - the general maneuver types allowed to each aircraft are determined by die roll, with modifiers for crew quality and aircraft condition. This doesn't cause random aircraft movement, but does limit what individual aircraft can do in a given turn, with better crew typically capable of more. The play area is gridded in 1000 meter squares; aircraft move from square to square. Maneuvers are simply alternate methods of getting from one grid square to another (i.e., players aren't concerned with the mechanics of the maneuver, only its effects) As games typically last two or three game hours, aircraft endurance becomes a critical factor, as well as the timely arrival of reinforcements to support one's mission. Due to Fokker Fodder's mission-oriented nature, anti-aircraft guns and balloons play a significant part and appear in most games. Combat is resolved by casting 1D10, with modifiers for firing crew quality, target attitude, and other situational factors, with both destroyed and damaged results, the latter limiting the future behavior of the damaged aircraft. Depending on crew quality, a side will break off missions after taking varying numbers of casualties. Rules for mission execution, e.g., spotting, strafing, bombing, etc., are simple but get the job done. The extensive aircraft data charts are easy to read if you keep in mind the key that explains the abbreviations used throughout. These, I think, are worth a look if only for the campaign ideas they suggest. The rules themselves provide an interesting 'grand tactical' viewpoint of air combat - entertaining and simple. Hostile Aircraft H. A. is a boxed game that includes a rule book, duplicate sets of game charts, two Goblintooth Enterprises' 1/285th scale aircraft (a Sopwith Camel and a Fokker Dr.I - see review elsewhere), and a pair of Goblintooth's flight stands. These last are something like a tabletop equivalent to the Canvas Falcons trolleys mentioned above. An eight inch rod mounted on a metal hexagonal base serves as a mounting point for an ingenious aircraft holder made from an alligator clip and some wire that allows full 360° positioning of the mounted aircraft. Notes on assembling both the stands and the aircraft are also provided. The extensive designer's notes - always an important part of any rule book to me - are, in this case, a must-read. They provide a very informative overview of the game's development and about the design decisions and the earlier rule sets that inspired H. A.. Further, the notes describe very clearly how one goes about researching aircraft statistics when data is scarce - certainly important when one considers how many aircraft are portrayed in this game! The play sequence is quite simple. First, all players adjust their aircraft control settings for the new turn. Then, players move their aircraft in each of five movement phases, firing guns as they are able during any of the phases. One thing conspicuous by its absence is spotting. This is by design as, according to the author, players have enough to frustrate them without having to worry about not even finding the enemy. I'll leave this one to the reader - I like spotting rules, but it's easy enough for me to graft somebody else's to H. A.. One thing included that surprised me - by its absence from most other rules - is limited air crew field of vision. This is 120°, and if crew aren't looking in the right direction during a movement phase, they could suffer for it. Remember - with a 15 second turn, each phase is only about three seconds long! Movement order is important and is calculated from the speeds, altitude, crew field of vision, and the tailing status of each aircraft, with several tie-breakers to keep things sequential. As aircraft move, they may fire, with jams possibly occurring when planes shoot too often or with too-long bursts. Movement is governed by any of seven movement schedules that determine how many movement points aircraft pay to change heading by 30 degrees or more. Aircraft banking is not explicitly addressed in H. A., I think, because the turn schedules account for proper banking. Complex maneuvers are, very logically, built up from simple maneuvers - there few, if any, movement rule violations that must take place to allow advanced maneuvers - as with Canvas Falcons, it's mainly a matter of learning how to use the movement rules to perform maneuvers. Gun combat is executed by first "Targeting" a foe - by keeping it in one's fire arc for a specified amount of time, based on the firer's weapon type. After determining the range, crew quality, target deflection, etc., one casts 2D6 on the target damage table to determine hits and any critical hits. These latter are, as usual, quite traumatic to the target, and are resolved on their own table (a separate 2D6 dice roll). Planes go down when accumulated damage exceeds the damage rating for the aircraft, as there are no separate hit locations. Critical hits, however, do assign specific (e.g., struts, engine, etc.) damage, and are common enough to play a big part in a plane's destruction. My flight experience with these rules consists of several unprovoked attacks on unescorted two-seaters, as well as a couple of one on one dogfights with a friend. They showed H. A. to be easily learned, despite the length of the rule book. Over half the rule book consists of aircraft statistics, scenario generation charts, designer's notes, etc. The actual rules are clearly and understandably written, even for a pair of unsupervised novices! There are extensive scenario-generation charts but players will need to know what aircraft were operated, by whom, and when in order to best use them. Fortunately, the aircraft statistics charts provide this information. These statistics are the most extensive I've seen, covering all of the major combatants, as well as countries like Japan (No, I didn't include a colors section for them!) and several short-lived post-World War One countries - remember, these rules go up through 1920. The rule book winds up with a very good annotated bibliography - many more sources than I've read, with concise, informative comments on each. I look forward to the planned expansion, Offensive Patrol, which will have complete mission rules, as well as lots of historical scenarios. This is a good, coherent game system that I plan to play again. Knights of the Air This game, covering combat on the western front during 1917 - 1918, is TAHGC's "complex" entry in the WW I air game arena. It comes with the normal components for a board game - aircraft and information counters, a game map, and aircraft data cards. These last contain an amazing amount of information and speed game play considerably. Players determine (via dice roll) their spotting range for each turn and can see all aircraft within that range. One may select an opposing aircraft as one's target each turn. This focuses movement, which makes me think of the play sequence as being reactive-sequential. Targeted aircraft without their own targets move first, followed by aircraft with targets, and finally by aircraft not involved in the scrum. Within each category, aircraft move in increasing height and pilot quality order. Aircraft maneuvers are unique in their details to each aircraft type and performance varies with height. All movement is considered maneuver, with straight flight just one more maneuver type. Each aircraft may expend 20 action points each turn. Altitude levels climbed and dived all eat up action points and each maneuver has an action point cost. Targeted aircraft can seize an evasion opportunity each turn, freezing movement at some point and requiring any pursuing aircraft to expend a proportionally equal amount of movement. This has the effect of committing the pursuing aircraft to a course of movement to which the target may react. Pursuing aircraft may do something similar, the attack opportunity, with like results. In game terms, this works well, as it does commit aircraft to courses of action. I'm not sure how well it reflects reality, though - even perceived reality - because it allows players to define the length of an impulse movement to the disadvantage of their opponents. Maneuvers are clearly detailed on the aircraft data cards and in the rules. Combat is somewhat simpler, with the attacking aircraft determining the number of hits inflicted on the target on one table, and then determining where the hits strike on another table, based on a comparison of aircraft speeds and attitudes. The game plays smoothly enough (balloon-busting again), though the mechanics took some getting used to. I found the rules challenging to read, though I'm not sure just why. There are a number of scenarios, both historical and hypothetical, involving a number of different mission types and including several aircraft mixes. There's also a page of campaign rules that allow players to set up a loose campaign. I plan to give Knights of the Air a further look after this article's done. Red Baron When I bought at these rules, my first thought was "Ah - Wings for miniatures!" Having studied them and flown a few missions with them, my initial impression stands, but it doesn't do these rules justice. Numerous things've changed -mainly in the details - that speed play of Red Baron and that make it truly a miniatures game. Movement is preplotted, in impulses, and quite detailed. An aircraft turn rate is based on one of seven turn arcs (turn wheels). Further, aircraft agility is measured, in part, by its roll rate - how quickly can it change its bank. This is important because banking controls the direction of flight to a large degree: aircraft in a left bank can turn left (either climbing or diving) but not right; aircraft in a level bank can climb or dive but cannot turn; etc. Maneuvers mainly allow aircraft to make abrupt facing and/or altitude changes and are straightforward. Two mechanisms provide clues to the opposition about what a player intends during movement. Tailed aircraft are required to show their pursuer the first part of their next turn's plotted move. Aces may also refrain from plotting the last few impulses of their next move until after all "normal" movement's taken place, in a manner similar to that in Aces High, above. These two devices allow aircraft in positions of advantage to more effectively cling to their foes... One thing missing from Red Baron was spotting - the game simply doesn't address it, which, considering the overall complexity level, surprised me. Combat takes place in two steps. First, one checks to see whether one's guns jam, based on a D10 roll against the number of bursts (1 - 3) one intends to fire. Next, one casts 2D10, modified for range, firer and target flight attitudes, number of bursts, deflection, etc., and compares the result to a hit chart which indicates how many (and the location of) hits to mark off the target and whether any critical hits are scored. Aircraft have several hit locations; destruction of some (e.g. guns) is a nuisance while destruction of others (e.g., wings) is fatal. Critical hits get fatal fast. Several pages provide some very general scenario guidelines but don't get into much useful detail. An appendix explains, in detail, how to mount one's model aircraft for play on flight sticks - the principle's the same as for Canvas Falcons, above, but the methods for mounting aircraft are quite different. A second appendix provides a good bibliography, containing books, movies, miniatures, and even competing games - a welcome addition. An expansion set is apparently planned - to include more aircraft, scenarios, a campaign game, designer's notes, and maybe even some spotting rules (?). These will all make what is now a good game even better. Richthofen's War The oldest of the currently available games, these rules are quite simple, and, with incorporation of the variant maneuver cards later released separately by TAHGC, have made a valiant effort to stay up-to-date. Play is simple - player A moves and attacks, with return fire from player B, then the sequence is reversed. Aircraft turn using one of five turn templates that govern how many movement points are expended to turn one or more hex sides (H. A., above, took its inspiration from this). Maneuver consists of climbing, diving, and turning. The maneuver cards aren't used to expand one's repertoire of movement options, but are used in an abstract manner: when a plane's under attack, the defender uses maneuvers to try to evade the attack, in a purely defensive way, with the possibility that the attacker will match the maneuver. This works, in a manner designed to have minimum impact on normal game mechanics, but doesn't fit with my normal concept of maneuver. Combat is simple, too - 2D6, modified for crew quality and for any deflection, are cast against a chart to determine how many hits are scored and whether any are critical (there's a separate chart to work out critical hits...). A briefing manual provides a novice's introduction to the Great War in the air, as well as designer's notes and several forms for use in the campaign game. The seven scenarios are clear, concise, and filled with variants. The campaign game is limited to one week in April 1917 (Bloody April). All in all, Richthofen's War shows its age but is still useful as an introductory game. I still play it occasionally, but more for nostalgic reasons than due to its currency... The Blue Max I seem to recall that these rules were either free or of nominal charge. They consist of photocopies of four pages of small, handwritten text, including several charts. As one may guess, they're designed for large, low complexity games using 1/600th scale miniatures, though larger models can easily be used. The first two pages are devoted to setting up games - the composition of forces and mission type determination - within a loose 1917 - 1918 campaign context. Players operate entire squadrons or wings. Air combat is based on the toss of 1D6, cross-referenced to the relative crew qualities of the firer and target, and damage consists entirely of crew kills. Each aircraft type (OK - there're only six...) has its own turn and movement rate. Movement is randomized by multiplying aircraft movement rates by 1D6 to determine how far they must go during a turn. Remember - players do not control single aircraft, but entire squadrons, so individual aircraft movement will appear a bit random. The Blue Max is simple enough that additional aircraft types can easily be added. These are the De Bellis Antiquitatus of WW I air gaming - the functional equivalent of rules-on-a-postcard. Wings The current edition is licensed to Excalibre Games from Yaquinto Pubs. Inc., who originally released it in 1981. The chief differences between the original game and the current edition are that it's now in a bookcase box and that the counters now have less useful aircraft profiles adorning them instead of the original, highly functional, aircraft plan views. This game is playable in any of several ways. The basic game (complexity 3) introduces the essential game system. The advanced game and optional rules (complexity 4 to 5-) incorporate various options and enhancements that give flavor to the game at the expense of speed-of-play. Finally, the duel game, with all stops thrown out (impulse-by-impulse movement plotting), involves the player in a gritty, sometimes slow, one-on-one game. Oh - there's one more way to play: the mass combat game. This variant allows the players to control entire squadrons in a simple, quick, melee. Note that Wings is a very table-driven game, as were all of Yaquinto's games. Charts abound and almost anything that can happen in the game will appear on one chart or another. There was to have been a second game, Wings II, that would have included statistics for 50 additional aircraft, a set of strategic game/campaign rules, and would, generally, have completed the game system. This, unfortunately, was never published, but the additional aircraft statistics cards have informally been making their way around the country's miniatures conventions, and many have appeared in the pages of Air Power. Noting that Wings is a board game, it comes with a full suite of counters, charts, aircraft data cards, and a map board. In the "normal" (basic/experienced/duel) game, movement is quite similar to that in Red Baron, above, with two important exceptions. The first is due to the limitations of playing on a hex-grid - aircraft do everything in terms of hex-side facings, so all turns are made in sixty degree increments. Instead of using turning circles, aircraft have straight-flight requirements before performing turns, etc. Second, Wings breaks aircraft flight envelopes into as many as nine or ten altitude bands, with different speed and maneuver characteristics for each band. Thus, the British practice of stacking their fighter patrols - Dolphins on top, SE5s in the middle, and Camels on bottom - makes sense, as each aircraft has its own optimal combat altitude. Movement is plotted for each turn. In the basic/advanced game, the relatively short turn length is all that prevents the zooming-about problem I mentioned in the introduction - Aircraft simply cannot do enough in a single turn's impulses to stray far from their foes. The duel game, however, neatly takes care of this. Players now plot their movement on an maneuver-by-maneuver basis. The assumption is that if one decides to make a left turn, one is likely to do that before reacting and, say, banking to the right in order to reverse the turn (remembering that all of this is taking place in a matter of seconds!) Aircraft are moved a hex at a time, with aircraft that complete maneuvers plotting new orders as necessary. This takes awhile, but really gets one into the cockpit as one tries to stay on a twisting and turning foe... As a final option, the duel game allows hex-by-hex plotting - players plot one impulse, then execute it, before plotting another. I'm not altogether sure about this one, not being a pilot. Essentially, it allows the players to push the rudder pedals and jerk the joystick around several times per turn, as they fly... The virtue of this option is that players can change their minds in mid-maneuver. The fault is that even a single plane-on-plane duel takes forever to play... Spotting is quite detailed - each aircraft has a unique spotting diagram with various sighting likelihoods for each viewing angle, along with a number of modifiers. Combat is quite involved - one decides how many bursts to fire, checks for jamming, finds a hit table number (the bigger the better) based on range and bursts fired, modifies the hit table number by a variety of factors (deflection, target and firer attitudes, crew quality, etc.), finally casting 2D6 on the final hit table, marking damage against various parts of the target and checking for critical hits as appropriate. Scenario notes are very extensive and take the players through the set-up of a variety of mission types, including terrain set-up, force selection (the equipment selection tables are broken out by era, quite similarly to those in Canvas Falcons, though presentation is very different), mission objectives, and victory determination. A couple of sample historical scenarios are also included to get players started. In the mass game, chits identifying each squadron (6 - 12 aircraft) in play has an identifying chit placed in a cup. Movement order is determined by moving the appropriate squadrons as their chits are drawn from the cup. Most combat takes place simultaneously after movement, though aircraft passing through hexes containing enemy aircraft can be shot at as they pass. Movement consists of moving, turning, climbing, and diving. Fire combat is simple, 1D6 being cast and compared to a modified (once again, by situation) hit number. Most aircraft go down after two or three hits. Mass combat aircraft data are provided for all aircraft included in the normal game. Wings is one of those games I'll always play, and not just for sentimental reasons - it's good! Wings was ahead of its time when it was released back in 1981. Now, in 1997, it is, at the very least, near the front of the pack, if not leading it. More WWI Air Introduction to WWI Air Gaming Survey of WWI Aircraft Gaming Miniatures Survey of WWI Air Combat Rules Bibliography Air Rules Chart Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #74 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com