On the Fourth of July, a small number of us met at Jay's to try the Wings of War rules. Bill has the WW1 set and Ed has the WW2 set, so we tried them both. Once we got a handle on the rules they seemed very straight forward and fairly easy to remember.
Jim "Col Campbell" flew these planes during our Wings of War games.
WW1 Dogfight #1
With Bill handling the rules, we started with two planes per side. Jay and Jim each had a German fighter and Ed and Sean each had an Allied fighter.
Jim's Pfalz D3 engages Ed's Belgian fighter.
Jim shoots down Sean's British fighter.
Jay's German fighter, shot down by Ed's Belgian fighter, goes down with a thick trail of smoke.
Ed's Belgian fighter flies by to ensure Jay's German won't come back into the fight.
Finally, Jim's German fighter is shot down by Ed, ending the first game.
WW1 Dogfight #2
Now that we seemed familiar with the rules, we started the second game. Jay and Jim each kept their German fighter and Bill jumped in with a German DR-1 triplane. Ed switched to a British 2-seater and Sean kept his British fighter.
Jim's German Pfalz D-3 (foreground) sights the two British planes (right and center) and Jay's German fighter (left).
Jay's German fighter zooms over Sean's British fighter but takes fire from Ed's British 2-seater.
Jay's German fighter is the first to be shot down.
An overhead shot of the British planes circling Jay's crippled fighter like vultures.
Ed's British 2-seater is trailing smoke as he engages Jim's German fighter.
But that doesn't stop Ed, with Sean's assistance, from shooting down Jim's German fighter.
Ed's British 2-seater then engages Bill's German DR-1 triplane.\
And Bill's German DR-1 goes down in smoke.
WW1 Dogfight #3
For the third game, we actually devised a little scenario. Everyone kept the same planes. Ed's British 2-seater, escorted by Sean's British fighter, had to take pictures of one of several objectives. His actual target was hidden from the Germans. Bill, Jay, and Jim had to stop him from taking the pictures or from getting them back to British lines.
While Jay's German fighter again is first to be shot down (by Sean this time), Jim and Ed exchange fire.
Ed's British 2-seater swings to the right, leaving Jim's German fighter (front right) out of position. After shooting Bill's German DR-1 down, Sean's British fighter is trying to close with Jim to protect Ed. Jay's German fighter still burns in the foreground.
Ed's British 2-seater was able to take his photos, but Jim's German fighter shot him down before he could return to British lines. No photos for the Brits today!
Jim's German fighter attempts to get on the tail of Sean's British fighter, but…
Sean's British fighter does an Immelman turn and both Jim and Sean then shoot each other down. But the Germans won because they prevented the Brits from getting the photos back to their lines.
WW2 Dogfight
After lunch, we put Bill's "stringbags" away and pulled Ed's WW2 fighters out. They were smaller than the WW1 planes, being 1:200 scale instead of the 1:144 (we presume) scale of the WW1 planes. Even though the rules are similar, the flying characteristics of the WW2 planes are very different–faster and more maneuverable. It took us a while to get the hang of these speed boys. We started off just zooming by each other without hardly getting a shot!
Sean and Jay choose a pair of German Me-109 fighters. Bill took a British Spitfire, while Ed and I took British Hurricanes (Ed another Belgian and Jim a Brit).
I didn't take as many pictures during this game. We had to plan two actions, then without looking at the second action after we had completed the first, plan the third action. This kept up through out the game.
The two Allied Hurricanes (foreground) approach the two German Me-109s. Bill's British Spitfire is on the right.
Bill's Spitfire makes a high pass of Jay's Me-109.
Trailing smoke from his engine, Jim's Hurricane and Sean's Me-109s make a swift pass of each other. In the background, Ed's Hurricane is trying to get on the tail of Jay's Me-109.
Jim's Hurricane shots Sean's Me-109 down.
Jay's Me-109 and Bill's Spitfire shoot each other down. Ed's Hurricane had flown away with heavy damage. including the pilot being wounded.
That ended our WW1 and WW2 aerial games. We didn't try to use the altitude rules. The games were fun and very quick. We played the three WW1 dogfights in about two hours or so and the WW2 dogfight in about an hour. We'll definitely do these again!