Wings of Glory: WWI - Italians vs. Austro-Hungarians

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I met up with a new group of gamers a few weeks ago to play the WWI version of Wings of Glory.  Had a good turn-out with eight people showing up so the host threw together a quick scenario featuring the Austro-Hungarians escorting a photo recon two-seater over Italian positions and the Italians attempting to defend.

The Italians fielded two SPAD S.VIIs and two Hanriot HD.1s (annoyingly nimble little buggers) vs Austria-Hungary's two Aviatik D.1s, one Phönix D.I, and one Albatross D.III escorting a Roland C.II two-seater.

I flew the red Albatross in the photos and had my usual luck.  I was doing reasonably well, staying out of the Italians firing arcs and getting some decent hits in but, on the second hit I suffered, I drew the one instant-kill critical hit out of the damage deck and went down.  At least I set a SPAD on fire befire I died and he burned up a few turns later.

Things were looking pretty dire for AH early on.  I was down and the Phönix suffered a gun jam on its third burst of fire (the guns on this plane are located far from the pilot so jams can't be cleared).  One of the Aviatiks was heavily damaged and couldn't turn right whereas the Italians were still in great shape with only one SPAD down and all their other planes either untouched or lightly damaged.

The final Aviatik stepped up and managed to kill one of the Hanriots and then tie up the remaining SPAD.  It came down to the two-seater vs the final Hanriot in the end.  The Roland was shot up very badly but the tail gunner managed to damage the Italian's engine and it couldn't keep up, allowing our recon plane to limp home with photos intact.


Fun game but I my personal preference is to remove the insta-kill crit from the game entirely. 

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

some more photos

[mirth]

Pretty!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It is indeed!  I prefer WWII as a subject but the WWI planes do look fantastic.

[Barthheart]

Which game play do you prefer? Is there much difference in the rules?

I've played a ton of the WWI stuff and it's always a great time. Usually we just do a rolling furball of 3 on 3. If you die you have to wait one turn then start again on the edge of the map. Totally kills at the end, which is whenever we get tired of playing, wins. We don't use the altitude rules and always use the instant kill cards.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

WWII is a much faster, deadlier affair than WWI.  WWI feels almost sedate in comparison.  The main differences between the two are:

1) Speed.  WWII planes have a fast and a slow speed so each maneuver card has two movement arrows on it.  WWII also uses different sized cards for different planes.  Early war planes and bombers use cards that are the same size as those from the WWI game.  Late war fighters use a larger card so they move a lot farther at high speed.

2) Planning.  WWI requires more planning/guesswork than WWII because you have to choose 3 maneuver cards at the start of each turn.  WWII doesn't really use turns.  At the start of the game, you select two maneuver cards, then everyone reveals and plays their first.  The second card moves to the first card slot and everyone picks a new card for the 2nd card slot and reveals again.

3) Damage.  WWII uses chits instead of cards for damage.  The planes in WWII have a few more hit points than WWII  (18 vs 14 usually) but the guns do a lot more damage.  A big, close range hit in WWI might be 2 B cards whereas WWII, if you get in front of a Bf-109E at close range, you're taking an A and 2 Cs.  Late war planes are often dealing out 4Bs or 2As and 2Ds, etc.  Leads to planes going down a lot faster than in WWI.

[Barthheart]

Thanks.... now I have another money pit to start....  :P

[Jack Nastyface]

SDR,
Too bad I couldn't make the event, as I suspect that I would've been first pilot down.
I agree about the "insta-kill" card...I ALWAYS pull that from the damage deck as nothing sucks more than pulling that on your first or second damage check.
Have you ever tried playing WoG WWI using the "WWII" planning mechanism?  We have also used a "plan two cards" instead of "plan three", which speeds things up a bit.  I find that the "plan three" moves often results in massive over-shoots, followed by a series of immelmans to bring the game back "together".

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've only played WWI a few times.

We're doing WWII tonight.  Come on out!