Spitfire! (1994)

"Spitfire! captures the drama of the war in the air in Europe in 1939-1941, with scenarios drawn from the war over Poland, France, Britain, Malta, and Greece. Over 50 historical scenarios (5 of them solitaire) are provided, each featuring one or more fighter aces . . . The 40 aircraft types include the Polish PZL 11, French Potez 63 fighter bomber and the highly advanced Dewotine D520, the German Fieseler Storch, Focke-Wulf 200C, Dornier DO 17Z, and Messerschmitt 109, British Hurricanes, Spitfires and Beaufighters, and the archaic Fairey Battle, plus US and Italian aircraft."

This game extended Jim Hind's Aces High game system from World War I into World War II. 3W also announced but never released Messerschmitt, which apparently would have included additional World War II scenarios.

Note that Spitfire! is not related to the 1973 SPI release bearing the same name.

Note: The complaint below regarding the aircraft data charts appear to relate to only the first printing of the game. Later copies, copyright 1995, do indeed have the altitude "increment" listed on the datacard for all planes.

Sptifire! looks like a good game to play, it promises to take the Aces High system and translate it to the WW2 period, with a new map scale, loads of fighters representative of the period and updated rules to cover several new situations propper of the aircraft capabilities of this new era of aviation.

Unfortunately, several omissions and mistakes make it unplayable not because or complexity but because of missing vital information. That, I believe, may have contributed to the very poor rate it has.

Inside the box, you find a set of counters, as usual, printed on both sides. Spitfire! standard rules of play (updated and generic Aces High rules for WW2), Spitfire! special rules and scenarios, a data chart blooket (aircraft stats) as well as a sufficient, yet mediocre hexed map (considering quality standards of previous AH series games).

The main difference with classic Aces high comes down to movement rules, several maneuvers changed their cost, speed gain/loss for changing altitude becomes +/- 1pt. per 500 ft clmibed/dived (instead of a fixed increment as in previous games) and a new maneuver. Everything seems fine until you get to page 8 of the basic rules and try to interpret the movement and maneuver example on page 3.

After a lot of confusion, you will realise that the movement and maneuver example (for better comprehension) is all wrong. This is because the maneuvers plotted correspond partially to the old Aces High rules (turn and maneuver costs), while others make nosense with either set of rules.

Worse yet, after trying to find the difference betweeen an "increment" in altitude (+/-100ft or +/-0.1) previously known just as altitude change and an increment in maneuvering (that is, the minimum climb/dive for an aircraft while performing some maneuvers) you realise, the author completely ommited these fundamental stats on each and every data chart.

Thus, despite the faulty example, the rules are fine and usable, but with the missing stats on the data charts about climb and dive "increments" one can only guess which would be the minimum altitude or dive required for several key maneuvers. There are other missing stats on some data charts, such as the stall/recover roll statistics on planes such as the Fw-190 A3.

Thus, the game is unplayable unless of course you develop some house rules to compensate the ommited "increments" stats. The scenarios tough, seem interesting, but you can only guess because you have not planes to play out of the box.

It is curious, the author states "No mercy to the offenders!" referring to those players who plot their movement incorrectly, while the very rulebook example is catastrophically wrong, not to mention the omission.

A good game for a collection, considering its faulty value, you may want to try playing it after creating your own rules for increments.