Game: Air War

Thread: Re: and kills Migs!

Genma Saotome — 2008-07-17T18:09:00+00:00

> In retrospect I would have to agree and this was the reason why microcomputer games were invented.

I actually wrote a very large program that fully automated most of the game, oh, around 1978-82. You'd pull out the game and the program would step thru the sequence of play, prompting the player to type in what you wanted to do in each step. Software did all the table lookups and calculations. It cut out about 98% of the time needed to play a turn, which really improved the pleasure of playing this game.

Unfortunatly, the program was written well before a PC could handle the task and I never bothered to port it. Source code got tossed out years ago.

Thread: Re: Please list Editions

Lamskiy — 2008-07-11T13:24:17+00:00

Hi

I was just browsing through this game entry and found your question.

I own the TSR Version and the update kit with the counters are included.

Hope this helps you ....

Rgds
-Lamskiy-

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521tiger — 2008-05-30T21:26:59+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 13

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521tiger — 2008-05-30T21:23:46+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 07

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521tiger — 2008-05-30T21:17:22+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 06

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T20:05:31+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 14

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T20:00:02+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 12

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T19:55:29+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 11

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T19:54:14+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 10

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T19:50:28+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 09

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T19:48:46+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 08

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521tiger — 2008-05-25T12:47:30+00:00

Air War - Tables & Charts 05

Thread: Re: Please list Editions

geira — 2008-03-12T16:51:55+00:00

Does the TSR version include the Update Kit?

Thread: Re: User Review

tim824 — 2007-03-12T17:09:36+00:00

dave, too bad you never lived in georgia, or else you could've stayed in AIR WAR practice, family permitting of course.

Thread: Re: Please list Editions

riks — 2006-04-02T19:39:30+00:00

1st Edition - 1977, Original SPI edition, in SPI flat box, red cover: ]]>

2nd Edition, SPI, Reboxed in Bookcase format but otherwise identical, red cover: ]]>

Air War Update Kit - 1979, aka Air War 80. SPI expansion containing additional aircraft, scenarios and errata, published as an expansion in Ziplock bag. Has its' own entry on this site.

Air War Updated Edition - 1979, SPI, Combined version with original + Update in one box, bookcase format, yellow cover: ]]>

TSR Edition - 1983 Post SPI reboxed version: ]]>

Hobby Japan Edition, see the image by Gangrel: ]]>

Edit: Use inline images

Thread: and kills Migs!

johnny5 — 2005-10-18T21:56:20+00:00

Airwar has been described by many players who dared tackle it as the most complex wargame ever designed. In retrospect I would have to agree and this was the reason why microcomputer games were invented. Still, playing a flight simulator is not the same and playing something like Airwar as a flight is largely a myopic exercise that denies you situation awareness so evident in this game.

Basically, this game is about air to air combat in the era of jets. The scale is very small, something like 2.5 seconds per turn and each hex being about 500 ft horizontal and 250 vertical. The designer took a lot of pains in modelling the flight physics into the game and looking back there are still some issues. It is a simulation, and less a game that deals with flight mechanics in a 3D world but, for those who really want to learn about modern jet combat this was the game to get.

The rulebook was quite daunting it was over 56 pages long in small print and the technical descriptions on how to manage flight, energy and manoeuvres was very dense.

But, once you get past the learning curve, it was all worth it and we got in a lot of relatively fast playing scenarios. We really got into the Vietnam scenarios as well as finding some additional scenario material from Squadron Publishing "And Kill Migs!"

Tried Falklands scenario with Harriers and that was really interesting especially with the VIFFing rules. These particular rules really underscore the superior manoeuvring of the Harrier and pissed the Argy player tremendously as his Heat seekers had a really tough time tracking.

With simple training scenarios, nothing was more annoying than doing the Top Gun training exercises in which you get your F-14 blown out of the sky from the diminutive A-4 Skyhawk.

Good Times had by all until JD Webster came out with Air Superiority. Then we played that game until we burned out. Nothing beats playing this with the miniatures on antennae stands. We used to play this every week for a couple of years until JD Webster came out with Air Superiority. Then we played Air Superiority every other day for the next two years until one of the buds was shipped off to the first Gulf war with his F-16 group.

Thread: Please list Editions

crusher100 — 2005-08-27T12:38:36+00:00

How many editions are there of Air War. What is the best? What are the differences and year od editions. Thanks.

Thread: User Review

dlminsac — 2002-08-18T19:27:27+00:00

This is a very complicated game of modern air warfare. As such it is not for the uninitiated. With that said the rule book is laid out in a manner to ease the player into the game. You first learn how to fly the plan and you can do this solo. In the first section you also learn how to use your cannons so you can mix it up a bit.

The display used for controlling the plane are very well designed and can handle up to 4 plans each. It could be very difficult to handle more then that at a time. Everything a plane could do is represented on the display which makes it fairly easy to control the plane.

Initiative is figured out for each plane (check how many planes are in your planes forward arc and how many planes you are in the forward arc of and roll on the initiative table altering the die roll accordingly) with the planes with the least initiative moving first. It is usually an advantage to move later but not always. This system works pretty well and keeps the movement portion of the game from being simultaneous as it is in many other air combat simulations.

You have to set your throttle each turn and because the time scale is so short (2.5 seconds per turn) there is a lag between your throttle and actual speed. It is little details like this that make the game so physically accurate but slow the game down a bit. Here again though the displays make it easy to see and control.

Your plane flies in a true 3D environment. You are always flying in one of three modes, level, dive or climb. There are various degrees of dive and climb and rules associated with each regarding energy loss and gain. Energy loss and gain affects your speed and at times must be burned off. Energy is a bit of a fudge to represent gravity and inertia effects. Energy accumulation can be used for added speed or altitude gain while the effects of losing energy can do the opposite.

The planes face one of 12 directions (using both the point and flat side of a hex) and you have to turn 30 degrees before you can turn the plane to a new direction. The degrees you turn are kept track of on your display in 5 degree increments.

There are maneuvers that allow you to bend the flight rules a little. These all have a set of conditions that must be present so a maneuver must be set up before executing.

Once you have a few games under your belt you can add the rest of the rules such as missiles (they are kept track of on the aircraft display and also must follow the physics of 3D flight), radar, plane load and weight, and antimissile capabilities.

Once you master that (and it is not impossible as it all does follow a certain logic) you can add the optional rules. There are rules on searching, both visually and via radar, pilot capability, nature (the sun, clouds and land is introduced), bombing (which adds a lot of complexity), land based antiaircraft components and ejecting.

There are a lot of charts and tables but only a few will be used in each game and there are a lot of scenarios including fighting a dragon and a UFO.

This has always been one of my favorite wargames and while very complicated it is very playable.