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.

Ra-tat-tat-tat! Air War Over Italy Commences

Somewhere high above the Austrian coast of the Gulf of Venice, 1918, an Austrian UFAG C.I and an Italian M.5 seaplane on a recon flight catch sight of each other.

The Austrian pilot, arguably in a less nimble* plane, still manages to bring the Italian broadside into his front sites.

He opens up with his front-mounted Schwarzlose machine-gun, perforating the flying boat.

The Italian pilot attempts evasive action, with hopes of turning the tables ...

 

but the Austrian swings around behind him.

RA-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! The Schwarzloze spits again, biting into canvas and wood.

Knowing it's better to live to fight another day, the M.5 breaks off from the fight and begins the journey back across the Gulf of Venice.

 The Austrian cursed his luck - the Italian got away. Perhaps next time.

* My judgement about handling is based strictly on the Wings of War maneuver deck included with the plane, comparing it to the M.5's maneuver deck.

The rules for this little engagement were the WWI Aerial Combat Rules from Junior General (no optional rules used) combined with the Wings of Glory Duel Pack rules (free download) (the basic rules section) and maneuver cards. The former appears to be based on or at least is very similar to the latter given the presence of a deck of maneuver cards in both. Saturday night, I wanted something quick to get the planes on the table (bed actually) and not spend my time nose buried in a rule book and these suited the bill.

The Junior General rules use a hex grid, and Wings of Glory uses some kind of proprietary ruler. So, I marked a short rod with 2" range bands corresponding to the Junior General hex ranges. 2" was based on a gut feeling. 3" or even 4" might make more sense. In any case, it worked for me.

Honestly, I was expecting to only be mildly amused by such a small encounter with no altitude rules, nary a cloud, no ground cloth, etc. but it was so much fun. I didn't track turns or how much time I played - but it was more turns than you'd think, even with 3 cards played per plane per turn. The rules were quick to pick up and honestly the lack of altitude rules didn't seem to impact my enjoyment.

Top down view of the recently received Austrian UGAF C.I. I love the camo pattern.

My poor judgement of how much distance the Wings of Glory cards move a plane led to the break off of the fight by the M.5 - it literally moved off the bed to my surprise. No special solo rules used - but it was easy to make the best decisions for each without bias or pretending I didn't have knowledge of both sides, because I couldn't remotely anticipate how the maneuvers might work out in play. That might change as I develop familiarity with them.

It may be too soon, but I'm already looking to expand my air forces.

In the meantime, with these two planes, I'll play more dog fights, add trench strafing missions (using some recolored Junior General top downs - or maybe someday, 1/300 infantry) and some ship strafing missions (perhaps with 1/2400 ships) as well.

Oh and try some other rules. Maybe. 

If I have learned anything from my figure-based wargames, simple suits me better - which is why I return to Morschuaser and his mechanisms and leave the complexity for my boardgaming.