This was a recent purchase after seeing some of the miniatures in my FLGS. I did some research and thought I would give the WWII set at try.

This game is a stand alone WWII airplane combat game. It is part of a series of games but as far as I can see this is not compatible with the earlier sets (you don't really want to take a Sopwith Camel into a dogfight with a Hawker Hurricane)

Components:



The game box is rather small. The games comes with 2 decks of cards, 3 sheets of tokens, 6 Control Panels and the rules. The tokens are 2 sided and include basic game tokens and advanced game tokens. The 2 decks are a planes and maneuvers. The plans are split between the Axis and the Allies. The Maneuvers decks are broken up into 4 decks. 1 - A deck 1 - B deck 2 - C decks and 2 - D decks. The cards are of a small format and are rather thin. This is not a problem as they are nicely coated and have some wonderful graphics on them. The text could be tough to read at that size and the damage marking as hard to tell apart unless you get right up on the cards (B and C Damage)



The tokens used in the basic game are speed and damage tokens. The game also comes with tokens for altitude and fuel along with pilot skills. All of these would add a layer to the game that I will not get into on this review.

Damage Tokens

Speed Tokens


You will also use 2 range rulers. These are short red sticks made out of cardboard with a white line in the middle of the stick. These are used to figure if a target is withing long or short range.

As for the components I will give them a 8 out of 10. The artwork is great and the box holds everything nicely. I can see you needing to remove the insert once you buy the squadron packs but as the base game it works well. I will have to deduct points for the size of the cards and text. They are very hard to read from your seat (I have 20/10 vision and I have problems telling B from C damage and seeing the A's are hard) and that involves you getting up to see the damage on the cards. The card stock is also rather thin but the game has a MSRP of 30 bucks and most online retailers sell it for alot cheaper. ]

Gameplay:

The base game is VERY easy to teach and has very few rules. As for setting up you will need a clear space to play with clear borders. A Felt pad works great (i.e. Puzzle Mat). You need clear borders as any plane that ends its movement with the red center dot off the mat is lost. You will then need to decide how many planes to have. the game plays 2 - 6 players (or planes) I would suggest (and so does the rules) that in a 2 player game you each take 2 planes. The game has suggestions for which planes to play. As the game only comes with 1 A maneuver deck and 1 B maneuver deck each side gets one of each then you can each take another plane that uses either C or D decks. You will also take 2 control panels, 4 speed tokens for each plane (2 high speed and 2 low speed) and a range ruler. Sit across from each other and get ready for some combat.

There are a couple of rules to remember that are used for placing maneuvers. 2 stalls can never be played back to back and a Immelmann turn has a certain sequence to be played. You must play a High speed straight followed by the turn and a low speed straight or you will fail the maneuver and take damage.



You will then place you planes in front of your control panels and choose a maneuver and speed token for each one. You will then choose a 2nd one for each plane and your ready to start.

All players then simultaneously reveal the maneuver in the 1st slot along with the speed token and all movement takes place at the same time. Then all planes fire at 1 plane within range. You determine range by using the range ruler and you place 1 corner of the rules on the red dot on your plane and swing it through the firing arc on the card. If you touch any other planes card you can fire on them. You can only fire on 1 plane per round. If the card is within the 1st half of the ruler it does the close range damage and if it is in the 2nd half it does long range damage. The person whose plane was damaged takes the appropriate tokens from the cups and applies any number damage to the plane (without showing their opponent. If they got an explosion of took more damage then the planes Hit Points then the plane goes down in flames. If not then you go back to the planning stage (i.e. move the card and speed token from the 2nd box to the 1st box and choose a new maneuver and speed token for the 2nd box on your control panel) and start the new round. Game play continues until there are only 1 players planes on the board (table).



I give the Gameplay a 9 out of 10. It is fast an furious. The simultaneous maneuver selection makes for some pretty hectic gameplay as your opponent zips past you and you need to set up for a Immelmann turn. I think the game is fun with 2 players but I think it would really shine with maybe 4 in a free for all. The advanced rules add a extreme amount of depth to the game and I have yet to play with these rules. I will post a review of these rules at a later date.

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed this game. After 1 play I see ALOT of strategy and depth in just the basic game. When you add in Aces and Altitude rules along with advanced damage and fuel the game would be completely different. The game comes with several scenarios and scenario cards. I look forward to trying them out at a future date.

I am giving this a 8.5 out of 10