Our campaign rules:
This is the rules of our current campaign, we made the rules so it can either be played with Wings of war or with Blue max/Canvas eagles depending on how many players we have at the time, it works best with 6-8 players in Wow while Blue max is best when you are more, around 16 players is recommended for this.
The stuff you need: 1 game mat, preferably with hexagons on one side and without on the other side so you can use it in almost any WW1 aerial game (Fokker fodder uses squares but it is less fun than Wow and BM).
Models. Each player will need at least 3 models from feb 1916 to armistice. I will list later were you can find the odder planes that not exists in Wow yet, but I really recommend the Wow figures, particulary since the nice stand with altitudes on makes it perfect. My reccomedation is that you buy at least one Wow model to get the stand (and the cards).
Fire/smoke indicators. These you make by inserting a small wooden stick (or better yet, those pins you use for cleaning out pipes). You then glue cotton on them and put some black or fire paint to make them look good. You don’t attach them to the model but to the top altitude marker at the stand.
A few miniatures. Anti aircraft guns, a few houses, 4 balloons.
2 small maps of the gameboard were the squadron leader can mark out targets and discuss tactics with his pilots.
And of course all the Wow boxes (or the Blue max/Canvas eagles rules).
Sides:
The germans creates one Jasta, France/US, RFC and RNAS. All squadrons can choose a insignia or even a paintjob that all their planes should be painted in. Jasta 11 had red fronts, the RNAS no 10 squadron all had names starting with “Black” painted on them and so on. At the start you select one squad leader for each country (2 for britan, but it will merge in jan 1918 to 1). If the squadleader dies the most experienced pilot will become leader.
Each round will symbolize a month in the war, but you ban of course have 2 battles a month or whatever you prefer.
Scenaros:
We usually make up a list of all possible scenarios and then each side draws one randomly without telling the other side.
Here are some of the scenarios we run:
1. Observe an enemy location. In this case the side will either chose or roll a die of the locations you mark out on the map before playing: Enemy airfield, enemy HQ, enemy troops or any other thing like artillery. Usually it is the model the other side placed out before you got the mission but in the case of troops you paint in on the map instead, but you must choose a part of the trenches. All observation must be done on altitude 2 or less (4 in BM). This must be done by a 2 seater so each side must have one which they of course can leave on the ground if the mission they have don’t need it.
2. Bombing. Same locations as observe, or if you feel for it a small factory or zeppelin airfield. If you have more players on one side, that side might have to bamb 2 places.
3. Directing artillery fire. This demands a 2 seater flying at 1 or 2 altitude (4 in BM). Just behind or above its own trenches (you mark this area up before play, it should take 2 turns in full speed to complete the round. You have to do the same area again (but start from any side) until the artillery hits, it demands 1D6 rounds all together.
4. Strafe the enemy frontline. From lowest altitude. 3-5 strafings need to be done.
5. Balloon busting. Shoot down both the balloons on the enemy side.
6. Scramble. You start at altitude 1 at you airfield. The mission is to shoot down all 2 seaters on the other side or if they have none, 2-3 enemy fighters.
7. downing a new plane. This is a bonus mission. If you shoot down the first the plane of a type the enemy got this round you receive a extra VP (15xp for BM). If you down it behind your own lines you get double that.
8. And you of course have regular patrols. There your mission is to down more enemies then they down of your planes.
9. Protect a observation plane. This scenario you just run if you have 1 more players on one side. The 2 seater must fly from the airfield on your side to behind the enemy line (and fly a full round behind) and then return. The other pilots must protect him.
All crews that make something for a scenario, like bursting a balloon for balloon bursting or strafing an area gets the same VP/XP as for shooting down an enemy. The artillery directing gives that also once the target is shot out by the artillery.
After the game receive each side that completed their mission 5 points. The side also gets one point for every plane shot down, and one bonus point if the side shot down a plane that arrived in this round. It loses 1 point for each plane it lost. These points are symbolizing how the air war goes and the side with most points at the armistice wins.
If you want to you could also allow players to use these points, like 5 points to get a pilot ability for a pilot or 1 point to get a plane one month early (they then got a plane for evaluation, that was common at the time).
At the start of each games each side put out 1 plane on the ground (to symbolize the airfield, use a plane you wont use in the scenario), 1D3 anti aircraft guns, a HQ, 2 balloons just behind the trenchline and any other location if you need it for a specific scenario. The side with least mission points place their planes first, if they have the same, flip a coin.
Then each squadron leader briefs his pilots, the squad leaders from the allied side will all know what the mission if and the might or might not be allowed to make a plan together depending on how you want the campaign to be run.
Pilots are not allowed to discuss tactics during the game, but if they are close to eachother on the same altitude you can allow them to do signals with their hands or say easy messages.
These are the basic campaign rule for the campaign, there are several good rules for experiences and abilities pilots can get which you can find on this forum, but if you run both the games depending on how many people that shows up (like us) you will need to make a conversion table between the games. I will post a list of all 1/144 models I found and where you can get them under.
