Designer: Friedmann de Pedero
Publisher: Pilot Games in Europe / Z-man Games in N. America (2007)
Age range: 10+
Duration: 45 Minutes (per “night” - can play multiple nights as one longer game)
Players: 1-2 (up to 5 if you use the 3-5 player expansion rules. 2 players is best)

What's in the box?
Mould! Hahaha. Yes, it has been said before and there are documented methods for cleaning this up listed here on the Geek that you can follow to deal with most issues. Having read all the comments before I bought the game I was prepared for some mould and bought the game on the understanding that the worst of the games had already been replaced and if I did happen to get a game that was actually wet or badly affected by mould, then I was confident that it would be replaced by Pilot games. As it happened, I did have some mould on the insides of the box. I got rid of that with antibacterial cleaner. The cards were plastic wrapped but were a little damp so I had them on a radiator for an hour and they were sorted. The box insert had a small mould issue, but as it doesn’t allow the board to fit in the box and the box to shut properly once you have made it, I threw it away. The board has a slight trace of something along part of one edge, where it’s been stuck together or stuck to the box, but if you didn’t know to look for it, you’d not notice. I had to point it out to the guy I played with recently. Finally, the card components and the rulebook were all 100% fine. There was a bit of a smell, but no way as bad as some people have experienced, so I would not say that you should have any real issues with buying this game, despite the mould reports.

So, now that’s over, lets get on to say what comes in the box…
There’s a board which folds into 6 and has the map board on one side and a poster type look to the other side with descriptions of the game components. That’s great use of something that often doesn’t get used and is a nice touch.

There are 2 large, legible player aid cards, which cover all the scoring options for both players. These are great. They have English language scoring on one side and German language scoring (for the other nationality in the game) on the other side. This means that if you flip the card over, your oponents scoring is on the other sife (albeit in foreign) but numbers transcend language. I like this setup.

There is a box insert which has instructions of how to fold and secure it to split the box into 7 or so individual compartments. As stated above, this is too tall, but you can now get a replacement from the Pilot Games site for a couple of Euro’s postage. Check out the “News” section of the website at http://duelinthedark.com/ I’ve sent off for this as I like an insert that works!

*UPDATE* I have received the reduced height box insert, but I have to say that I am still not impressed. Although the reduced height is good and the board can now fit in the box with the rules on top and the lid close properly, I have to say that it's partitioned incorrectly. There is no room for the scoring cards I mentioned above to fit flat in the box which is a drawback. There IS generally room for the expansions for the game, but again, there is a problem. The scoring track for the 3-5 player expansion is also too long to fit flat in the box with the insert inside. I still have my insert in the game box for now, but I want to make a better one myself.

You get sheets of really good thick card that punches out clouds, thunderstorms and fog and a wind direction pointer. There is also a British Bomber and Mosquito twin engine fighter-bomber, 3 German ME110 nightfighters and a Dornier Do17 nightfighter and also fuel cards for the four German aircraft. There’s plastic dials to fit into the fuel cards and plastic rods to mount the planes and clouds. Great stuff. On top of all that, there are 40 double sided hexagonal card counters which are the Germans ground defence resources.

The rulebook is solid, printed on thick paper and is well illustrated.

There are also a whole bunch of (quite thin, but just acceptable) cards which have a number of different functions, which I will discuss later on.

Finally, there’s some wooden cylinders to use as the score marker and to notate weather conditions - full or new moon and summer. These are all well sized and easily identifiable.

Production
I have to say that I really love the artwork in this game. All the counters and cards are well illustrated and the board itself looks great. In addition, the quality of the card components is superb. The game looks absolutely amazing when all the clouds and planes are on the board on their plastic poles. I am a big fan of the Wings of War miniatures and I love the added dimension that the mini’s bring to WoW. Duel in the Dark has the planes and clouds sitting above the board, which is even better!

The Rulebook I have is in German and English. There are a lot of illustrations in the body of the text, but the best thing about the rules is the illustrated example of play. Superb! There are even some additions and clarifications in the example of play that are not clear in the main body of the rules, so this part is definitely worth reading! The English rules require some re-reading to allow the reader to grasp all the points involved. Some items in the German rules didn’t make it in to the English Rules, such as the fact that in the solo game both English planes fly at high altitude at all times. The latest edition of the FAQ (available here at BGG) is also a must have.

Rules of the Game
Both the actual rules and the example of play are freely available both here on BGG and on the game website. The FAQ is also freely available in the same places. In fact, a lot of the counters are available on the game website too, along with some additional cards, planning maps and some layouts to help the German player plan his defences. The website is well worth visiting!

The rules can be a bit confusing to read at first, but you can work things out after a read or two. There are only half a dozen pages of rules, so you can get into a game relatively quickly. As there is also a solo game explained within the rules then there is no excuse not to be familiar with your game before you go to play it with someone else.

There is a logical layout to the 6 steps you need to take to play the game. This part of the rules reads quite well. The first 5 steps are the setup part of the game. The 6th part is by far the longest part of the game as this is all the movement of all the planes, from bomber / mosquito takeoff to landing.

Phase 1 – The German player positions the four German planes.
Phase 2 – The British player draws a weather card and all weather components are put on the board. This will be clouds and fog, plus moon state, summer and the wind direction. There is a good mechanism here where the cloud positions can change once or twice sometime in the game. This is a great mechanic which makes the game more realistic.
Phase 3 – The British player selects (all in secret) takeoff airfields, a target city and airfields to land in. The 2 British planes have to use separate airfields in England. The British player now has to pre-program his route to and from the target city and can then add in a card for summer if applicable and cards for weather changes as determined in phase 2.
Phase 4 – The German player then places 40 ground defence items on the board in any of the hexes in mainland Europe that he deems fit. The double sided hexagonal ground defence counters give the German player a number of choices to make in laying out his defensive dispositions.
Phase 5 – The British player places his two planes on the board.
Phase 6 – The bomber will fly to a target city, bomb it and fly home. The planes move in a set order. First the Mosquito, then the German planes, then the Bomber. This move order is important due to the clever scoring mechanism. If a German plane moves in to (or remains in) the same hex as the Mosquito, then the Mosquito will attack. Also, if the Bomber moves in to the same hex as a German plane (or planes) then the German attacks and if the Bomber moves in to the same hex as German Flak, then he can also be attacked. Moving planes in to hexes in other ways does nothing.

When the bomber flies over the target city, it releases its bombs and then turns for home. The VPs awarded for the bombing raid depend upon the distance flown to the target and are marked on the board. This is where the British player scores most of his points.

There are a lot of conditions in the rules that alter the VP’s you are awarded for air combat and for the bombing raid itself. No plane counters appear to be shot down during all this, the VP awards reflect individual planes that are shot down from the squadrons of planes that the counters on the board actually represent. I’m not going to go in to all the VP modifiers, as you can read this yourself in the rules.

Suffice it to say that German Searchlights or Radar help the German Flak and fighters to attack. Weather conditions and relative altitude of the planes modify the combat results and the bombing raid VPs. There is no random factor in the combat, you will know what the outcome will be before the move. The key features are that the Bombers route is predetermined and the German planes can run out of fuel and have to land to refuel (British planes don’t run out of gas). The wind direction also affects the German planes. The 3 ME110’s have a fuel capacity of 8 “lines” and the Dornier has 12. Moving a hex directly in to the wind costs 3 lines, whereas moving with the wind is only 1 line of fuel per hex. Other moves cost 2 lines.

All the Victory points and conditions of how collectively or individually they apply and are modified are covered on the two player aid cards that come with the game. You don't have to refer to the rulebook at all for scoring, it's all clearly laid out and explained on these cards.

Whilst the Bomber moves are pre-programmed at one hex per turn, the Mosquito is where the Brit player has his fun, as it can move 2 hexes per turn. The Mossie can escort the Bomber but can also go off and do a lot of other things. It can drop bombs to disable German defences or airfields (gaining VPs if planes have to use damaged airfields). It can also drop target markers, either as a bluff or to give VP bonuses if the markers are in the correct target city. The Mossie can also be used to blockade airfields and shoot down nightfighters as they land or take off, which also gives VPs. The German player has barrage balloons to counteract the Mossie and an add-on to the game gives him quad flak AA guns to protect his airfields.

There are also smoke generators to obscure target cities and fire trucks which all affect the scoring in the game. The German player also has refuelling trucks which he can use to allow more planes to land at the same airfield to refuel in the same turn. There are also some advanced rules you can incorporate, including fuel tanks for an ME110, rules to keep German fighters and Flak separate, more realistic rules for searchlights and also a ruling in which you can gain “Medals” for certain actions which you can spend later in the game to give you 3 additional options for each player to cancel VPs, repair destroyed resources and so on. The weather changes mentioned earlier are also advanced rules. I like the advanced rules and the additional realism that they bring. Once you have played one game of this (even a solo game) then you’ll happily incorporate all the advanced rules in to your next game.

Further additional components that you can buy for the game (either individually or in a cheaper package deal) allow you to use up to 4 German players who compete against the British player for the win and then amongst themselves to find one winner. There are rail mounted flak guns, acoustic mirrors, a “The walls have ears” add-on where the British player hands the German player 5 counters representing the real target city and 4 bluffs, so the German can reshuffle a few defence tokens and other stuff too. Interestingly, you can also have British searchlights and AA guns to deploy, as long as you give the German player extra stuff too. These add-ons are quite cheap (particularly if you buy them collectively) and this is highly recommended as it just gives players extra options and increases the replayability of the game.

The last neat aspect is that you can choose to play the game just the once, or play over a number of nights as the same side or you can play a faster game and swap around so both players play both sides.

There’s very little downtime in the game, the only parts you really have to wait for is whilst the German lays out his defences and the Brit picks his route. Other than that, it’s really immersive for both players, all the time!

Theme and Mechanics
The theme is great. This is definitely a “Dripping with theme” game. Yes, there is a bit of a bluffing and guessing game aspect to the game, but the quality and use of the components is absolutely superb. You do get drawn in to the aerial combat aspects of the game and the theme just works.

The mechanics of the game are also well done. The pre-programmed aspect of the Bomber is good to inject tension in to the game and the fact the Mossie is totally unfettered allows the British player to bluff and double bluff, which is a really great mechanic.

Overall Impression
This is a unique game, with wargame and eurogame aspects, no dice (which I always like) and is a whole lot of fun. So far I have only played this game solo and twice with one of my gaming buddies, but both of us are already looking forward to playing it again. Both of us really enjoyed the game, as both the German and British sides.

The game will give players good value for money as it has a huge replayability factor. There are many choices of routes and target cities for the British player and an almost infinite number of options for the German player to lay out his defences. The different weather layouts and the potential for changes in the weather just add to the variety.

Pro’s: Great components, immersive game play, big range of options on both sides. Good player aid cards.
Con’s: Hard to pick many. Rules could be better worded and the mould could upset folks.

I would give Duel in the Dark a rating of 8 out of 10 based on 2 plays and would figure that this rating could go up a little more after more plays.