In Clouds of Glory (1995)

In Clouds of Glory (ICOG)is a tabletop game that recreates aerial combat during the World War One. The game was developed in Denmark the 90's by 3 friends with a common passion for the WWI "Knights of the Air". The game has never been published and only exist in two homemade editions.

The game features true 3-D action with accurate models of all the greatest planes of this era: SPADs, Sopwiths, Fokkers, Pfalz´es, Nieuports, Hannovers, Rumplers, Albatrosses, Bristols, Gothas, Zeppelins, S.Es...

The game represents individual plane movement and individual pilots.
Each plane is represented by a 1/350 scale model with at 360 deg. nose mount that allows the model to be positioned in all directions. The nose mount is then itself mounted on a four foot long pole made of carbon fibre. The plan can then be moved up and down the pole, thus denoting actual height - No altitude markers here. The pole is sharpened and set directly into the foam gameboards. See pictures.

Each plane also has a "Cockpit" sheet to which the Pilot sheet is attached and where the data (and possible special rules)on each plane type is represented. On the cockpit sheet also contains a speed indicator telling the current speed of the plane, and indicating the amount of energy the plane currently posses. This energy level tells how tigth the plane can turn and its ability to climb or dive. Going fast equals the ability to zoom high up, but turns are wide. Going slow allows for tighter turning but severely limits your ability to get out of trouble by zoom climbing and thus limits the tactical options. In this game speed is life.

Piloting skill can make planes turn tigther than their speed normally allows for, but this drains speed and at higher speeds also stresses the airframe, thus creating a risk of breaking of important bits such as the wings.

The "Cockpit" sheet is also where you record damage to the plane: Structural damage, damage to maneuver ability, armament, engine and so on.

Each pilot has a set of 3 basic skills: Reaction (situational awareness), Piloting (ability to make tight turns, avoid or recover from spins and stalls) and Gunnery (hitting your target). A pilots skills are decided by rolling 2d6+6. Pilots also has 2 atributes: Macho (hit points and ability to figth when wounded) and Luck (Denotes number of dice re-rolls and Used to check for collisions) found by rolling 3d6. With experience pilots gain better skills as well as possible "Ace abilities" such as Divine luck, Deflection shooting, Aerobatics and so on.

Skill and attribute checks are done with a d20 against a basic target number (for example Skill or Attribute level) modified by conditions (for example deflection angle or target speed). The difference between the target number needed and a the number rolled on a successful check denotes the success level which is then carried on as a modifier to the damage roll.

All the game materials you see on the pictures are hand built, but the planes could easily be substituted by 1/285 and 1/300 scale pewter cast planes from various companies.

The game has been mothballed from 2000 to 2007 but has now been refurbished and has had a major overhaul to the rules and campaign system.

22. February 2010: The design on the new version is advancing steadily. When development on the Danish language prototype is over, we will start translating into English.

Currently there is two written campaigns to the game. A late 1917 Ypres campaign and a Late 1918 campaign set at the second battle of the Marne. A campaign is comprised of about 10 interlinked missions where the outcome of each mission influences what subsequent missions will be played and other factors such as the ressources available to each side.

November 2010: We have now started on the new 1917-18 campaign running the entire period from January 1917 to November 1918 playing one mission per month. In this way we will see the full technological advance in plane technology in those two years starting with slow pushers barely being able to reach 85 mp/h ending with fast two gun fighters reaching 140 mp/h. We have also completed the Zeppelin rules and have now started (albeit slowly) to translate the core rule to English in order to get feedback from BGG users and others.

March 2011: The 1917-18 campaign is aproaching June 1917. All in all we have to play 23 game days - One game day per war month. Sometimes playing two parallell games. A lot of rules and campaign missions has been finalised, but we still need to tackle the beast called translation to English.

Oktober 2011: We have just started a shared translation effort among the campaign players. No deadlines out yet, but expect a more focused effort.
A test Sopwith Camel model in 1/350 is now available as a 3D printed model from shapeways.
http://www.shapeways.com/model/346402/1_350_sopwith_camel.html?gid=sg85287
Stay tuned for an evaluation of these models. If they match the needs a series of 3D models will follow allowing others to build their own ICOG games when combined with the coming UK rule set.

Until then people who can read Danish can see more of the rules, the campaign score and the missions here: http://icog.dk/ICOG/Forside.html

February 2012: The Rules translation is 90% Finished and we are working on the graphic design. Expect a basic ruleset along with cockpit panels and a set of scenarious out as a free PDF Download out around Easter. Also more than 25 different 1/350 scale plane miniatures is available for the game (including nose mounting hole) at:

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/wow
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/kampfflieger

- the ICOG team