WOW - FIGHTING ACES

As you all know last weekend I had a few fellas over for a WOW (Wings Of War) gaming night, I was hoping to get about six guys for a 3 vs 3, but it ended up being just 2 vs 2 which worked fine, bad timing had some potential gaming friends interstate, maybe next time well get more fellas involved, much fun was had anyway.

Allied players Chris (left) and Berend (right)...
someone doesn't like getting his picture taken.

John (Brother) AKA Candyman, he and I made up
the Central Powers Team.

So once everyone turned up we ordered pizza and started to distribute some drinks, scotch, coke, Cinzano, yep you get the idea.
We played two scenarios that night, as my brother had to go home to his wife and sick child (who is better now) earlier than expected, I will only post on one scenario this time and in the next few days I will post the other one up, so here is the mission statement and parameters:

‘Fighting Aces’ (Team Aerial Dogfight)

Mission Scenario
Feb, 1918, during the Great War
German and British fighter patrols meet over the muddy trenches of Europe; they battle it out for air supremacy.

Allied player:
Air Assets: RAF Se5a or Sopwith Snipe
Primary Objective - Destroy enemy fighters.
Allied Deployment:
All planes deploy a half rulers distance from the edge of the allied side, on turn 1.

German player:
Air Assets: Fokker DV II’s
Primary Objective - Destroy enemy fighters.
German Deployment:
All  planes deploy together a half rulers distance from the edge of the German side, on turn 1.

House Rules used
*Altitude rules will NOT be in play.
*Only one explosion card will be used in two damage decks
*Limited ammunition rules
Any plane that uses a lewis machine gun must draw 10 damage cards, this represents the small ammunition drums that were used for this weapon, reloading takes three phases, during this time you cannot fire.
RAF Se5a  planes draw 10 damage cards (97rnd drum, Lewis)

Collisions rules will be in play for this scenario.
If the model plane of one player overlaps the model plane of another player (friend or foe), this constitutes the dreaded mid air collision, for each plane that a player collides with they must draw a card from the ‘c’ damage deck.

Game Notes
The game ends when the planes of only one side are left on the gaming surface.

Winning conditions
Team with the most points win.

Shooting down an enemy plane = 2pts for team
Being shot down by enemy plane = loss of 2pts for team
Being forced off or flying off playing surface = loss of 1pt for team

Starting positions

First engagement had Chris and I in a game of chicken
with minimal damage done to Chris's plane only.

In a freak incident Berend clips Chris's plane causing
lots of structural damage to both planes and also injures
Chris's pilot in the process.

After a couple turns of maneuvering we managed to

separate the two and we caught Chris outright gunning

him down, not only was the pilot hit and killed instantly, 

but the planes structural integrity failed also, losing a wing,

Chris's biplane plummets to the muddy trenches below. 

In the very next turn Berend attempts a flybuy but collides with
the Candyman's plane, this being his second collision, his plane
crumbles, and he also nose dives to the muddy trenches below   

A really bad run for the Allied forces, doing more damage to themselves than to us, but we must remember that this was there first game, the Wings of War mechanics can be so unforgiving, a good introduction game, this only made the allies even hungrier for revenge in the next scenario.
Allies 0 Central Powers 1.

Here are some actual photos of the game, sorry about the quality, bad lighting and poor camera skills is the cause, shall work on this for next time.

  

WINGS OF WAR COLLECTION

'Trenches of Europe'

                                                                  

This week I have a WOW (Wings of War) night planned with friends on Saturday night, hopefully we will see about six guys turn up for a 3 x 3 Allies vs Central Powers match up, there will be fast food, alcohol and hopefully lots of laughs, so for this post I am going to show off our (mine and my brother's) collection of terrain, planes and observation balloon.

'Observation Balloon'

                                                             

We have managed to collect a good mix of planes on both sides of the conflict, most of the planes that we have collected were in use from about early mid war until the end of the war, we don't really have anything that is early war and we don't have anything as far as the giants of the sky go, I'm talking about a zeppelin and the really large bombers, like the Staaken, these are on the too get list.

'Planes of the Central Powers'

                                                        

'The Allied planes'

                                                            

Here is a handout I did for the night with the scenarios that will be played on Saturday, simple and fun is the idea, fingers crossed I hope all goes well.

WINGS OF WAR PROJECT

By now from my previous posts I'm sure you all know that Wings of War has become a favorite and it is a game I really want to play again as quickly as possible, with as many people as possible, this particular project is a little different from the others in that you can buy the miniatures already painted and assembled, this is a major bonus for obvious reasons right? the only thing that you need to add, is some terrain (I have taken care of this) and as many human players as you can find, outside of that you are good to go .

The fun factor in this game is huge, gun jams, mid air collisions, exploding planes, near misses, teamplay, and a real simple easy to learn game mechanic, what else could you ask for? more depth ? ... maybe, but we did only  play a simple version of the game (no altitude rules) I included a quick description straight from the rule set of how this game plays:

"Wings of War is a game series which merges card and board game mechanics to recreate aerial combat. The first series of Wings of War games focus on the "knights of the air" age, World War I, portraying the abilities of the fighting planes of this period, Wings of War uses an innovative card-based movement mechanic. By selecting from his maneuver deck, each player can plot out the loops, rolls, and twists that his dogfighting plane will undertake. Each plane has a specific maneuver deck with its own unique options, so you'll fly differently from game to game. Outwit and outmaneuver your opponent, and you will reap the rewards !"

There is also a huge variety of aerial machines to choose from, anything from a large range of fighter Biplanes, Triplanes, Two seaters, Bombers, Observation planes, Observation balloons there is even provision to pit your fighters against enemy Zepplins ! this game has so much potential, the scenarios that could be created really get the creative juices flowing, if you haven't played this game before, at least try playing one game before you give it away. 

CANCON GOODIES

Hi all, took a bit of a break from it all, between the hot weather and my laziness not a lot could get done, so I'm just going to show off some of my Cancon Goodies that I picked up while I was up in Canberra, you would have read that my Brother and I got involved in some demo games while we were at the convention and as a direct result ended up purchasing two versions of Wings of War, which is an air combat game using miniature planes, I purchased the WW2 version and my brother picked up the WW1 version of the game.

Once we got back to Melbourne, I joined an online forum which is specifically to do with the Wings of War game, I quickly realised that the WW1 version of the game was quite popular and that most of the planes were hard to get, coupled with the fact that the license rights were sold to another company and the WW1 planes were not being made anymore, so I decided to put the WW2 version of the game to the side, and help my brother purchase as many WW1 planes as possible, the race was on !! buy them as cheap as possible and as quickly as possible.

Wings of War forum: http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/content.php