Tournament Style

A blog about different tournament scoring systems, for both multiplayer games and head to head competitions. I would like to be a tournament director someday, both for board games and sporting events. Someone needs to do it.

Recommend

My Problems with Wings of War Campaign

Posted by Jay LaFountain

19 Apr 2011

Jay LaFountain

(Jythier)

United States
Coldwater
Michigan

So, Wings of War Campaign. Basically, I took Wings of War, a simple, elegant game, and threw a load of crap on top of it. Fun, sure, but also fiddly.

The main fiddly thing is not the ace skills, not the keeping track of stuff, but a much direr thing - the novice skills.

The novice skills, once taken, were easy to track. But before they were taken, it was just a hassle. -1 to shots, no shots after an immelmann, So, the idea will be tossed out.

Next season, if there is a next season, there will only be Ace skills, and they will be tiered. So, you can get Sniper (draw an extra card for damage and give the ones you want to your opponent), and then Sniper 2 (draw 2 extra cards) etc.

I think this will make the game that much easier for the newbies, while still allowing for fun pilot upgrades for the veterans.

Wings of War: Famous Aces

6 Comments

Wed Apr 20, 2011 2:54 am

Post Comment

Kevin Duke

(kduke)

United States
Wynne
Arkansas

Knowing what damage you inflict to the opponent is a huge change.

If you know it's fiddly, why not just leave it alone and enjoy what's there?

Posted Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:03 am
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Jay LaFountain

(Jythier)

United States
Coldwater
Michigan

Statistics. Experience points. RPG elements. These are the things that make Wings of War a great game to play, instead of just a one-off aerial combat game. I really don't like the single-mission style play of Wings of War, but I love keeping statistics and I love that what happens in one mission effects the next. What one pilot does will affect him going forward.

I really don't enjoy it without the extra bits.

Posted Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:01 am
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Keith U.

(ColHajj)

United States

Colorado

Jay, I have a set of tiered Ace Skills in my Knights of the Air campaign rules.

Here they are:

Ace Skills

When a pilot accumulates enough Pilot Points, he may purchase skills from the list below. A pilot can choose to upgrade any of his current skills to level II by paying the additional points.

Ace skills are either active or passive. Only one active skill can be used each round. The benefits of passive skills always apply.

Some skills can only be used every two turns. For these skills, turn your Ace Skill card for that skill over to show that it cannot be used at this time.

Acrobatic Pilot I
31 points
Active
The pilot can do an Immelmann turn without having to do the straight maneuver after it. The straight maneuver before it still has to be done. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Acrobatic Pilot II
+16 points
Active
The pilot can choose to replace the straight before or after an Immelmann with any none steep maneuver. The pilot still has to do the other required straight.

Daredevil I
27 points
Active
The pilot can perform two steep maneuvers in a row. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Daredevil II
+14 points
Active
The pilot can perform two steep maneuvers in a row. The player may use this skill once every turn.

Evasive Maneuvers I
23 points
Passive
The pilot cannot be tailed, unless the tailing pilot is also an Ace.

Evasive Maneuvers II
+12 points
Passive
When being shot at in consecutive turns, the pilot ignores the +1 damage rule.

Exceptional Pilot I
29 points
Passive
The pilot can add an extra copy of one card from his maneuver deck back into his deck.

Exceptional Pilot II
+15 points
Passive
The pilot can add an extra copy of two cards from his maneuver deck back into his deck.

Deadly Aim I
29 points
Active
The Ace can use the Aim bonus (+1 damage) even if he did not shoot at the plane in the previous phase. The player may use this skill once per turn.

Deadly Aim II
+15 points
Passive
The Ace can use the Aim bonus (+1 damage) even if he did not shoot at the plane in the previous phase. The player may use this skill twice per turn.

Dedicated Ground Crew I
32 points
Passive
The plane ignores the green jammed Special damage.

Dedicated Ground Crew II
+16 points
Passive
The plane ignores the green jammed Special damage and the first Engine damage that it takes.

Lucky Git I
30 points
Active
The pilot can ignore damage from a single card. The player must show the card to all other players. Shuffle the ignored card back into the community damage deck. An explosion card may not be ignored in this manner. The player may use this skill once per sortie.

Lucky Git II
+15 points
Active
The pilot can ignore damage from a single card. The player must show the card to all other players. Shuffle the ignored card back into the community damage deck. An explosion card may be ignored in this manner. The player may use this skill once per sortie.

Marksman I
31 points
Active
The Ace selects damage cards for his target. When the Ace fires at an enemy plane at long range, he draws one card from his ammunition deck and one card from the matching community damage deck, looks at them, and determines which card the enemy player keeps. At short range, the Ace draws one card from his ammunition deck and two cards from the community damage deck and determines which two cards the enemy player keeps. Shuffle the unused card back into the community damage deck. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Marksman II
+16 points
Active
The Ace selects damage cards for his target. When the Ace fires at an enemy plane at long rang, he draws one card from his damage deck and two cards from the matching community damage deck, looks at them, and determines which card the enemy player keeps. At short range, the Ace draws one card from his ammunition deck and two cards from the community damage deck and determines which two cards the enemy player keeps. Shuffle the unused cards back into the community damage deck. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Quick Shot I
26 points
Passive
The Ace fires and resolves damage before pilots without Quick Shot. Planes shot down do not fire.

Quick Shot II
+13 points
Active
The Ace fires and resolves damage before the maneuvers in a phase are executed. The Ace does not fire again after maneuvering. Planes shot down do not maneuver or fire. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Technical Eye I
23 points
Active
The player can look at the damage cards of one aircraft in firing distance. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Technical Eye II
+12 points
Active
Same at Technical Eye I but can look at the damage cards of two aircraft in firing distance. The player may use this skill once every two turns.

Trench runner I
21 points
Passive
When attempting to evade capture, if the Ace draws a card with a Special damage symbol, he adds +1 to the number. If an explosion card is drawn, he treats it as a "0".

Trench runner II
+ 11 points
Passive
When attempting to evade capture, the Ace draws four cards. If an explosion card is drawn, he treats it as a "0".

I've switched a an experienced based Ace Skill system as apposed to a kill based system. I've found that many players can play in lots games before reach 5 kills. It made sense to me that they would some benefits from all that flying, if not so much as those actually shooting down planes every outing. It also helps keep the really new players interested and having fun since the veterans of the game don't just run away from them (compounded since they get more skill).

You can check out full set of campaign rules in the download section over on Wings of War Aerodrome.

Posted Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:04 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Jay LaFountain

(Jythier)

United States
Coldwater
Michigan

Actually, all pilots in my campaign have less than 5 kills, apart from my own pilot, though 2 players besides me do have 5 kills. (one dead pilot, one piloted for the other side one mission). I have 10.

And I love WoW Aerodrome! I like the KotA but I don't use altitude and it was kill-based when I looked at it last. Also, it's fun to decide what missions should come next...

Posted Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:49 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Jay LaFountain

(Jythier)

United States
Coldwater
Michigan

How are you determining experience? We're using shots fired and kills + a community team score that is split amongst the players...

Posted Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:50 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Keith U.

(ColHajj)

United States

Colorado

Yes, the first version of KotA was kill based. Version 2, which has not been officially released yet has been moved to XP based. It is broken down like this:

Sortie Flown 1 (Pilot must survive the sortie.)
Shooting Down a Plane 5
Shooting Down a Balloon 5
Chasing off a Plane 1 (Must be flying when the enemy leaves the table and must have shot at them in the last two turns.)
Successful Recon 3 (Per objective if the observing plane survives.)
Bombing Run 3 (Per objective destroyed.)
Strafing 1 (Per objective destroyed.)
Being Shot Down -2

We don't go so deep as to track if a player fired or not... to much book keeping for me! I use something similar to community XP, but it is called Mission Points and is used to see if the mission was a success. They go something like this:

Mission Objective Met 10
Shooting Down a Plane 4
Shooting Down a Balloon (non Objective) 3
Chasing off a Plane 1
Successful Recon (non Objective) 2
Target Destroyed by Bombing (non Objective) 3
Target Destroyed by Strafing (non Objective) 1
All planes on your side shot down -3

Each side adds up their points for that mission and side with the most points wins! So, meeting your objective give a big bonus, but it does not ensure a win.

Altitude is still written in to KotA in version 2 as well, but it could be removed pretty easy. Just revert all the altitude specific rules to the 2D ones and you are good to go. Can I ask why your group does not use altitude?

I've got plans to write up more missions for each level in KotA and then allow the Attacking side to select from all of them. I will most likely still keep distinctive groups with in each of the levels ( 3a, 3b, 3c for example) as I like the early mission selections having an effect on what comes next. But with several different missions for 3a, 3b, and 3c, it should give lots of variety and keep the defenders on their toes.

Posted Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:25 am
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Tournament Style

My Problems with Wings of War Campaign

Search

Subscribe

Categories

Contributors