Hello

I have only just discovered FF and absolutely love warhamer invasion and am keen to try out more of FF games. After much hard thinking Wings of War held the most interest. I own the old Crimson Skies games and still enjoy playing it but would rather have games that are still supported and expanded.

So can you please tell me what you really like about the game and how the game plays.

I was thinking on getting the WWII deluxe set and probably 2 (but maybe 4) more planes. I dont expect anyone else to get into the game so my opponents will be using my stuff so balanced pieces is preferred.

Any wife convincing comments are also greatly appreciated

Thanks

Andre

Well, compared to Crimson skies is Wow a lot faster to play, and somewhat simpler. You use cards to move instead of hexagons and move over a game mat (or a piece of green carpet or some kind of aerial picture.

The game have several good things:

1. The setting. WW1 is perfect for aerial combat, it is from a time when people sometimes spent extra work to make the plane look cool both when constructing it and painting the thing. Legendary pilots like the Red baron, Bishop and Nungesser were treated like rockstars today, some people call them for the last knights (well, that is more or less a pr stunt). Anyways, WW1 is the ultimate setting for a dogfight game.

2. The models. The models are perfect for gaming, beautifully painted with a smart stand for altitudes. They can also be used to play other WW1 games if you want some change at times, Blue max is free and a perfect game to alternate with. The scale is very common so you can also buy planes from other places and add them with the official planes as long as you but the cards for the plane or use a similar. The blue max links suggest a fee sites that sells other planes, Reviresco is the best of them.

3. Fast and easy. You can play a game in 2 hours or so with a few friends, it is easy to learn and don't demand a lot of work to set up (like Battle lore or something). You don't need to print out stuff either like in Crimson skies.

4. Fun. Nothing is more fun than to duel with your friends (and enemies). The winner needs a combination of luck and skills.

Well that is probably the 4 biggest points of the game.

The weakest thing is that there isn't any campaign rules or skills in the official games, everyone is equally good (but the planes differs a lot). There is several player made rules for that which you can find on this forum (my one ones are linked in a thread here). That the game is fast and simple is another thing not everyone likes with it, if you want advanced rules with hit locations you might want to look on another game (but you can still use the miniatures).

My players started out with only my stuff too but now most people own at least one model, some many.

It is a fun game anyways

Thanks for the reply

Does the game change much between the two settings. I imagine that the planes of WWII have better stats being more advanced planes but does this change the game experience much. Two reasons I was leaning towards the WWII setting was the deluxe starter looks like good value and I also play Flames of War (WWII land based game) and thought I might be able to make up some funky scenarios.

Are there any rules difference between the two setting. Can I get the WWII starter then later get a handfull of the WWI planes for a change of pace.

Andreh said:

Not only can she learn to play it she can be competitive in the first game or two.

(Let's face it what better way to get her to play than to tell her "you have a fair shot at wiping the table with me"? )

Andreh said:

The game is similar but not really the same.

In WW1 almost every single plane had 1 or 2 .303 machinegun as armament. A few odd planes had either more or a 37mm canon but those planes were rare. In WW2 however the planes had a bunch of different armaments and that means that instead of the damage cards there is for Wow has Dow instead tokens as you draw.

So if you also plan to play WW1 you need to buy either burning drachens or the Wow deluxe set (also a lot of value).

I prefer WW1 but that is me.

The best here is probably to discuss things with your players, what do they prefer? Print out a few planes to show them from the 2 periods. Wow has however more expansions and more planes to.

Of course you could buy lose planes for Dow (1/200, the action serie is ok) from another manufacturer than the official one to get more planes than few available right now but there are fewer card sets for WW2 and still no rules for jets (or heavy bomber unless they released those recently, I play Wow and not Dow so I have more knowledge about it).

Most WW1 planes have maneuver cards and there are 3 series of models out with a fourth in production, for WW2 there is one serie with another one in production. As I said are there several other people that makes models in 1/144 (WW1) and 1/200 WW2 but you will need the cards to play.

Wow has been out for a few years while Dow was released during this year.

As regards the WWI version - my wife didn't take to it, I think primarily because we decided to do a one-on-one dogfight that degenerated into both planes buzzing round in a circle until we got bored and I flew off the edge of the table. Since then I've learned that it's best to at least go for two-on-two fights, and those games tend to go very quickly. I don't think I've ever had a game run much over thirty minutes. So my point is don't just do a one-on-one dogfight for your first game. It might seem simpler, but it's going to probably end up being a lot more boring.

Rakshasa said:

Fully agree! Two on two is the best way to start WWI or WWII. Controling 2 planes in really not much more difficult than 1 and 4 players is even better. My 10 year old daughter loves to dog fght and blow dad's plane out of the sky.

What product would you start with for either of the settings ? I wanna try it as I am a huge World Wars nut but don't wanna invest too much at first.

Toqtamish said:

The delux set is the best way to get started with either war. You can find them for $50 or less. They include everything in a box set plus 4 minis. The WWII set include 4 minis that are new paint schemes and cannot be bought seperately. It also includes some new rules not in the other sets. You can check out all the rules on this site to see what version WWI or WWII would be best for you.

We enjoy both equally, but they arr two seperate games.

HTH,

Aaron

afilter said:

Agreed, unless he wants to play a somewhat different time period than 1917 or 1940. For WW2 that is still a problem since it doesn't have the same amount of cards in boosters and boxes as WW1. Models isn't a problem, there a loads of 1/144 and 1/200 models but the rules are still somewhat limited there (like with Jet fighters).

For WW1 things are easier. There are at least some models from 1916 and 1918 and it is easy to get some lose models if you want different planes. The rules still misses some things but there are a lot of custom rules around for WW1 to cover up what is missing like campaign rules.

WW1 have been around for a lot longer so it is not really that strange. WW2 also had a lot of new weapons that wasn't used before (or at least used very limited like the canon in Spad WII and the Le prieur rockets). Jets, Rockets, auto-cannons, ballistic missiles and some even weirder stuff were used so the WW2 rules will have to cover a lot more.

Most WW1 planes had 1 or 2 machine guns, were biplanes and they didn't differ that much in speed from 1916 to 1918. So I think there will be a few years before we can play 1945 jet fights in DOW.