After a week or so of work and family commitments having
the audacity to interrupt my tabletop gaming time I have at last assuaged my withdrawal
symptoms with my first game of Wings of
Glory.
Of course, my fellow gaming mates will no doubt will take great
delight in reminding me that I have so easily bought into 'yet another system'. To be fair, it's the first new system of the
year so I'm not doing too bad!
So why Wings of Glory? And why the world war one edition?
Well to answer the first question, because I simply fancied a new game that was
set in a different arena to the ground based battlefield so an aerial combat
game was one option. As for the second question, pure nostalgia! And it's a
period I haven't gamed before. And to seal the deal, the planes are pre-painted.
Wings of Glory, (originally Wings of War), and now
published by Ares games, simulates air combat in the 20th century using model
airplanes on 1/144 scale and are made of pre-painted pewter and plastic. There
are two systems covering both world wars.
I opted for the WW1 'Albatross Duel ' starter set
containing the Albatros D.Va for the
Central Powers and the Spad XIII for the Allies. This starter set
contained the two models, flight stands with game stats, altitude stands, Airplane
cards, Manoeuvre, Damage and Special cards, 40 x counters, 2 x measuring rulers,
2 x airplane consoles and, of course, the Rulebook (Basic/Standard rules). All
for around £24 and ready to play straight from the box!
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| Albatros D.Va |
The set arrived whilst I was away travelling with work,
so I was eager for the un-boxing at my local club, where one of the regulars
volunteered to help me test it out. I was quite impressed with the two miniatures
- both were detailed and brightly painted. As I have negligible knowledge of
warplanes I can't account for their accuracy, but they look fantastic!
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| Spad XIII |
Playing the game - basic rules
The only preparation I'd had for our first game was a
video tutorial by Talk Wargaming on YouTube, which was very useful for getting
a quick run-through of the basic rules and game concept. So once we'd set up
our 'console' for the basic rules -
which can be flipped over when using the standard rules - and placed our planes
on the transparent movement base, it was chocks away!
Each plane has its own manoeuvre and damage card deck, denoted by a letter on the movement
base and the plane card. For my Spad I used manoeuvre deck 'A' and Damage deck
'A'. The Albatros D.Va used manoeuvre decks 'B' and damage deck 'A'. The planes
also have a number indicating their damage resistance. When this is equalled or beaten by
accumulated damage cards its curtains for the pilot.
Each turn is composed of four phases: a planning phase, followed
by three action phases. Each action phase is further divided into a movement
step and a firing step. Players perform these steps simultaneously.
The Planning phase
In the planning phase the players choose three cards from
their manoeuvre decks which are placed down in the manoeuvre slots on their
console. This is where the players plan in advance all the manoeuvres they will
perform in this turn. In some respects, this is similar to X-Wing, where manoeuvres
are pre-planned and only revealed to the other players when activated. Except
there are three cards to plan for and lots of options to consider from the manoeuvre
deck!
These include special manoeuvres, such as stalling,
representing steep flying which can't be used consecutively. You can also plan
the Immelmann
turn which enables you to reverse the direction of flight, leading to
some real fancy flying!
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| The Basic Console: Blue manoeuvre cards bottom, Pilot card top left, Damage cards top centre |
The Action phase - manoeuvre
With the planning done, the players then simultaneously
manoeuvre their planes by revealing the first manoeuvre card on their console.
The card is placed in front of his aeroplane base so that the start of the
movement arrow on the card matches the black line in front of base. Then the
aeroplane base is placed on top of the manoeuvre card (hence why its
transparent) so that the black arrowhead at the rear of the plane base matches
the manoeuvre arrowhead on the card. Simple!
Once the players have completed their first manoeuvre,
they check to see if the enemy plane is within range and their firing arc, indicated
on the aeroplane base. This is done using the supplied measuring sticks, which
has a marker indicating short and long range. If any part of the stick can
reach an enemy base then it's a hit. A damage card is taken from the Damage
deck, two if it's at short range.
Now this is where it gets interesting!
If you take a hit you take a note of the firepower number
on the damage card and then place it face
down on your console - only you
know how much damage you have taken, so your opponent will not know whether
your plane has taken no damage from the attack or whether the enemy plane is
only holding up by a wing and a prayer!
If neither plane has reached its Damage Resistance,
action steps two and three are performed and then it's back to the Planning
phase. It's as simple as that!
Initial Thoughts
What becomes quickly evident with Wings of Glory is that it's
all about the manoeuvring - which is pretty much how it should be. The basic
rules are simple and fun and we were having an 'ace' time dog-fighting with our
wee world war one era planes within minutes of the un-boxing.
The nearest system I have played to compare with Wings of
Glory is X-Wing, but only because they both are 'play from the box' systems and
appear, initially at least, to have a similar manoeuvring mechanic. But they
are not the same. Wings of Glory, even from just this first game, plays faster
as the manoeuvring is simultaneous, the rules are simpler and there is no
points system or initiative order.
WG is probably best played with two or more players, or two
players with at least two planes, otherwise there is probably a propensity towards
a lot of cagey manoeuvring but little firing! So for me, from what I have gleaned so far, is that WG
is a great, fast club game whereas X-Wing is more your squad-building tournament
system.
Of course, there's a lot more to the game than the basic
rules. The standard rules start to introduce special damages which can have
your plane or pilot suffering all sorts of debilitating damage, such as trying
to plan manoeuvres with a broken rudder where you cannot choose manoeuvres from
either the left or right. You might even suffer a jammed rudder, leave a smoke
trial or have a fire onboard!
Optional rules for Aiming and Tailing are also
included, along with four varied introductory scenarios such as Wings Over Cambrai where a fighter is
equipped with bombs to attack ground positions indicated by a Trench Card.
This first demonstration game was immense fun. So much so
I quickly ordered up the Wings of Glory Rules and Accessories pack which
includes rules for Altitude, anti-aircraft guns, rockets and balloons!
I've also ordered up two more planes, the Fokker Dr.I and
the Bristol F.2B fighter. I'm keen to try out tall those extended rules, particularly adding the altitude dimension, so another game is being arranged for next week. AAR incoming!
I fly close to my man, aim well and then of course he falls down.
-- Captain Oswald
Boelcke
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