Wings of War Over the Italian Front

Recently, as a way to get myself free shipping for some lizard warrior minis, I picked up the Wings of War WW1 Rules and Accessories pack. That it cost me more than I would have spent had I just paid for shipping is only of minor consideration and it's best if we make no further mention of it. Of greater consideration is that I now have the rule book in print form, trench cards, photo recon cards, damage markers of all kinds, and the damage decks.

With much time spent painting lately, Wings of War was an easy game to get on the table for some minis pushing fun without having to worry about setting up terrain.

I opted for a simple dog fight, with just two planes, and the basic rules.

For the Austrians, a UFAG C.I (Flik 62/S), and for the Italians, Nieuport 17 (Baracc). Neither of these have been on the table yet - indeed they were still shrink wrapped! 

As this was a play through of the basic rules, no pilot cards were in effect.

 

The pilots sight each other from a distance.

Engines buzzing they charge towards each other. Sky cavalry indeed.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! Bullets fly as the planes pass each other. The Austrian getting shots in with it's front MG, and then its rear.

After much aerial ballet, the Italian pilot miscalculates and drifts into the cross hairs of the Austrian. Luck is on his side and he escapes with barely a scratch

The tables turn and the Italian attempts to set up his attack in the Austrian's blind spot. It's all for naught.

Again the planes dance and weave. Suddenly the A-H tailgunner has a chance to put the Italian away.

They will rib him mightily in the mess tonight.

A few more passes don't go in the Italian's favor (he has taken 10 damage of 12 max) and he heads for home.
An Austrian victory.

Total time was near an hour - I was playing and moving both sides and playing only the basic game rules.

The real fun of Wings of War, beyond putting planes on the table, is trying to guess 1) what your opponent will do and 2)just which cards will put your plane in the position you want it to be in.

As a regular solo player I have ample ideas for making (1) part of the game despite the lack of another player. However, for (2), I can only imagine will come more easily with more play because my planes almost never ended up where I thought they would! 

This planning stage of each turn is where the time of play increases. For fun with multiple players, I'd probably use a timer. After all, pilots don't have all day to consider their maneuvers.

The damage deck adds a nice level of variability to the game - will it hit for 0 damage? 1 point but force the guns to jam? Will I destroy the target in a single hit?

An interesting challenge (maybe less so if this was a head to head game), and perhaps one the pilot cards would have mitigated, but the Nieuport has to be very careful or risk ending up being caught in the rear gunner's fire arc when the planes pass.

All said, lot's of fun and lot's of sound effects! I look forward to stepping up and trying the standard rules soon.