War in the Air - Wings of War AAR

Wanting something lighter to put together for this past weekend's game night, Ted brought out his sizable Wings of War collection for some lightning-fast engagements. 

And it has been a while since I've seen a "Wings of" game! The last time I can recalling playing was way back in 2014!

Our first game saw Steve and I piloting a pair of Fokker Dr.1s while Chip and Ted flew in a pair of Sopwith Camels.

To start, we only played with the Jamming rules in the damage decks, to get a feel for how the maneuver decks worked.

Unfortunately, Steve's conspicuous red plane ended up being the main target of the British pilots and was shot down first.

Steve ended up flying off the table by accident, so Ted and I ended up dueling to see who would control the skies. Luckily, that ended up being me!

For the second game, we played using most of the damage deck conditions (jammed steering rudders, fire, smoke, etc). 

With a better handle on the maneuver decks, both sides were learning how to keep themselves alive for longer. 

Immelmann turns were a favorite, since the slower-yet-nimble biplanes could spin around and fire at an enemy plane that was closing in from behind. 

Like last game, Steve and Chip had the bad luck of being shot down first, which gave Ted the opportunity to take his revenge and shoot down my plane. 

For our third game, we switched up the planes. Steve and I moved over to a pair of Fokker D.VIIIs while Ted and Chip piloted a RAF S.E.5a and a Sopwith Snipe.

Ted's S.E.5a was lightning fast compared to the rest of the planes, while the D.VIIIs and Snipe had some absolutely mind-boggling maneuver cards (like the D.VIII's ability to use two stall cards in a row, or being able to use stalling turns for quick turnarounds). 

While I chased Ted for a few turns, Steve and Chip went at it like a pair of bare-knuckle boxers.

Which, despite the more 'robust' builds of these later-war planes, ended in somewhat predictable results. 

And then led to what Steve called the "Ted and Brian Show." While my Fokker was less damage, I had suffered a broken steering rudder and could no longer turn left. Ted's S.E.5a had a bunch of damage cards. It came down to who could get the right angle, and that ended up being me (thanks again to the Fokker's tiny turn radius). 

Three games in as many hours! Wings of War makes for a fast-past but still complex game. The pre-programming of the planes actions makes for some fun guessing games and brilliant moments of tactical foresight (or coincidence, depending on who's firing at who!). 

It's a shame I wasn't around for WoW back in it's glory days. I believe that Wings of Glory is almost completely compatible, but the game doesn't seem as popular as it did a few years back (after Fantasy Flight Games dropped it). 

Jousting in the Skies - Wings of War AAR

I'm back again with another community game. With the coming of the 100th Anniversary of the first World World, or the Great War, there has also been a mini-renaissance of the same era in the wargaming community. Our own group at 7th Dimension Games has been similarly affected, most visibly with the revival of Wings of War/Wings of Glory, the card-driven WWI biplane combat game. The main backer behind this effort has been Gary, whose games I've written about before, and whose massive WoW/G collection was made available for the events he has been organizing. 

This event was a 9-person game played across 3 of the WoW/G play-mats, so an area a little larger than 3'x6'. On one side were the Allies - 2 single-seat fighters, a two-seat fighter, and two bombers. I was the pilot of the Sopwith Camel with the two hearts on the top wing. 

On the other side were the Germans, all in single-seat fighters. You can also see the three trenchline cards, which represented the objectives for the game. The Allies had to escort their bombers across the table and destroy the trenches, and the Germans had to keep their trenches protected. 

With both sides being so far apart, it took several turns to close the gap, and so almost all of our cards took us straight forward at max speed. You'll notice that both sides basically flew in formation for the beginning of the game - once combat was joined, however, orders were damned and pilots flew at their own discretion. 

The first pass! Shots were exchanged, cards were drawn, and several pilots just gave each other a grim wave as both sides flew past one another. At this point, however, the Allies had a slight advantage, since three out of their five planes were two-seaters with machine guns able to fire out of a rear arc. 

The Germans didn't waste any time, however, and quickly came about to pursue the Allies, who were now flying at high-speed for the trenches. Thinking myself clever, I planned to come about at give the chasing Huns a bloody nose. 

Unfortunately, these three colorful fellows foiled my plan. While I managed to fire at the purple, green and yellow biplane, my own Camel was promptly shot down. I wasn't the only casualty, however - Russ, the pilot of one of the bombers, also pulled some high value cards and nose-dived into enemy territory. The game had just started, and the Allies were already down two planes, including one of the all-important bombers!

Not yet deterred, the remaining Allies fighter pilots came back around as the remaining bomber stayed on target - the rightmost trench card!

Amazingly, even with air superiority, the Germans couldn't manage to take down the bomber, whose gunner happily sighted in and wiped one of the trenches off the table. 

And then incredibly destroyed the second trench! With all of its bombs gone, the bomber turned away and started to retreat back to the Allies lines, covered by the two remaining fighters.

It was at this point that Russ and I started to suspect we had drawn all the high value cards from the damage decks - it certainly seemed like our fellow players were drawing plenty of zeroes!

The unfortunate bomber was eventually shot down, having drawn enough cards from the fusillade of bullets fired from the following Germans. 

And so went the last Allied single-seat fighter. By the now Germans had taken quite a few blows of their own, and had been reduced from six fighters down to three. 

Now the game turned into a cat-and-mouse chase between the two-seater Allied fighter and the remaining Germans.

But even with a pile of damage cards with plenty of zeroes and ones, the last Allied fighter was taking too many shots from too many angles, and eventually went down.

The end result was a 30-26 win for the Germans - if the Allies had managed to shoot down just one more plane, they would have won!

It was another fun, big community game. I'm looking forward to playing WoW/G again, and Gary's still working away on his 20mm terrain for a game of Through the Mud and the Blood.