Friday 15 February 2019

Wings of War/Wings of Glory

I think the former is the original name for this card based WW1 aerial warfare game, whilst it is now marketed under the latter name.

Anyway, we had a game of this a few days ago, amid much hilarity. For those who have not seen/played it, you basically have a deck of cards specific to your aircraft type, and pick three cards each turn, to play in a specific order, determining where your aircraft will go. As no one knows what other players have selected, this can have interesting outcomes when the aircraft are in close proximity!

Initially the two sides are closing on each other, but of course pretty soon it turns into a dogfight and that's when the card picking can have some amusing results - in our four games (which the Brits, Chris and I, won 3-1) we had multiple instances of collisions - John even managed to collide with himself (we had two aircraft each)

I cant really remember the details of the games now but here are some images and if they jog my memory I will add some comments!

One of my aircraft in game one - Julian has bought some very nice commercially produced gaming mats over which to play

Two British aircraft in line astern over the trenches

One of the packs of cards used to decide what movement the planes will make

The Brits gang up on my Little White Fokker....

But the Red Baron comes to my aid!

Then heads off in the wrong direction....

Two Brits collide as I swerve past their rear!

She's back - the Red Baron returns to the fray

This may have been the start of game two - the multi coloured aircraft was my new addition...

Six of the eight combatants in one shot - the other Brits were so slow they are not even in sight!

Manouvres over the enemy front line

Two collisions ensue as I fly sedately by...

Two brits collide - very nearly a three way event!

The ultimate - Johns two Brits collide with each other, Chris collides with Julian and my Little White Fokker glides between the chaos!



11 comments:

  1. Looks like fun! For me, WWI aerial combat is a terrific beer and pretzels genre.

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  2. Thanks Jonathan - yes I agree, that's about the level of seriousness in this game!

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  3. Great fun Keith, and the group I game with always enjoy it as a welcome change of pace. I also have some of the WWII models, but haven't managed to get them into action as yet.

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    1. Yes indeed Lawrence - our Friday night host Julian went a bit mad when he discovered this game and purchased almost every model (could be every single model for all I know - there are certainly A LOT) so no one else had to do anything - we just turn up and play!

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    2. Yes, Lawrence, would love to try the WWII rules set. We didn't use the altitude rules,(cos we'd never have got to shoot each other), or the'trenchfire' anti aircraft stuff. Interesting the Ares Games guys have a 'War of the Worlds' expansion for the WW1 rules, the WWII ones AND a 'Sails Of glory' Napoleonic rule set. interesting the Fantasy Flight 'X-Wing' game copied the system and did amazingly well. I hope ares got their cut.

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  4. Have to try this one day, looks nice and so atmospheric with this mat!

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    1. The mats are certainly very nice Phil and from memory not very expensive either - there are three in this game so one mat only measures approx. 800mm x 400mm or something like that

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  5. Lovely looking planes, great looking Matt and sounds like tons of fun!
    Best Iain

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  6. Thanks Iain - it is a fun game - not very serious and I would not want to do it all the time but once in a while its nice to have a change!

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  7. Well, what can I say keith? All you have to do is mix up the arrow direction thingies and - bang! A mid air collision. Don't drink and fly, kids. A great fun game though; hope we get to play it again.

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    1. Ahhhh….but it took a special kind of skill to collide with your OWN plane Professor Leigh!

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