Hello,

My gaming group started playing WoW last weekend. We liked it so much we got the expansions and a few minis. We have a few questions for the veteran WoW gamers here.

1. I've got 2 planes - an Albatros D.Va (B/A/15) and a Sopwith Snipe (M/A/16). During our games, I noticed that the M deck appeared superior to the B deck. Why would I not always use the planes with the better deck? The Watch Your Back set comes with planes that are E/B/10. With no point value, I cannot figure out why any of these other planes would be used.

2. Are there any optional rules for campaigns and/or pilot experience? I'll always play with the same group and we thought it would be interesting to keep track of victories.

Any other suggestions or advice for new players?

Thanks.

Well, I am kinda new to the game myself (usually play Blue max/Canvas eagles but no way I miss out a nice WW1 miniture game like this) so I will at least answer your first question.

Albatross DV Hit the western front June 1917. Sopwith Snipe arrived in September 1918. Never have the difference between a few months mattered so much as in WW1. The DV was still in use 1918 but it was considered inferior to the Fokker DVII, mostly fresh pilots got the DV that late.

The reality is that the plane differed at the time, the Albatross should be paired with planes from 1917 like Camels, Spad XIII and SE5, the Snipe should be paired with Fokker DVII. And things were not fair in WW1, in april 1917 (known as bloody april) did the allied lose most of it's pilots, it was when the Albatross DIII hit the front in number but the SE5 and Sopwith Triplane was out in numbers.

War ain't fair but try to pit the right planes against each other.

As for the XP part, I wonder the same thing. One of the reasons Blue max/Canvas eales is so fun.

It's too bad that there isn't some ranking system on the card or at least an year when the plane was built. It would make it a bit easier on us who aren't history buffs

A bit of topic, I heard about Blue max here and on Board gaming geeks but not that much detail. What's the difference compared to WoW and is it still for sale? I gathered from the discussions that is an old classic

Hello, and welcome to the new players (although i'm fairly new myself lol)

On www.wingsofwar.it you will find a topic on "Optional Ace Rules". It has some good reflections on campaign rules and a points system for pilots. The nice thing is that pilots get special abilities after a number of victories. Worth a look.

Cheers

Another option that you could try is flying three less able machines against a couple of the more advanced ones. This did happen a lot on the front. Also consider that some of the aces stuck with older less speedy machines even after the advent of better ones. The older plane may be slower but more manoverable, or it may be that the ace is more at one with a particular machine. you as a rookie fly boy will get better as you gain more experience and may well find you can shoot down a superior machine flown by a novice. On the other hand you may crash and burn. Many aces did. That is all part of the fun of the game.

Do read some memiors if you get the chance, even if you are not into w.o.w. in a big way. You can get a good insight into the warfair of the times and the feelings of the pilots quite quickly. hope this is of some use to you and your group.

Thanks! That's the direct link:

http://www.wingsofwar.it/read.asp?id=1273

If you take blue boxes from Series 1 minis, they are all at the same level - some more agiles, some more sturdy, but all balanced.

If you take Snipe and D.VII from Series 2, they are balanced between them but if you use them against the Series 1 minis give each of them a couple of ace skills to balance the better maneuvrability. Of course it's easier if you balance sides - a D.Va and a D.VII are then perfect against a Snipe and a Camel (or a Snipe and a SPAD XIII).

If you take Albatros D.III and Nieuport 17 from Series 3, they are older and not at the same rank of the Series 1; besides, the Nieuport is less sturdy than the D.III. I would give 1 skill to balance Ni.17 against the D.III; 1 skill to balance D.III against the Series 1 minis; so 2 skills to balance Ni.17 against Series 1 minis.

I'd say that any B/B firing two-seater can be more or less balanced with any Series 1 mini (they are all A firing).

Scenarios in rulebooks give you some already balanced sides.

Have fun!

Andrea

I've just posted my expanded ace rules. go over to the yahoo group for Wow Nexus and you'll fnd the PDF there. "Optional Ace Rules by the LingSter" in the files section. (see my other post for more about it)

At boardgamegeek.com someone ranked all of the planes, primarily on their maneuvrability status.

As is mentioned earlier, the Sopwith Snipe did not appear at the front until a couple of months before the war ended - and only 497 were built. Compare this to the 2512 Albatross D.V/D.Va that were introduced nearly a year and a half earlier, and the fact 725 were still available in early 1918. (note that figures vary by source).

Also, while the Spad XIII was indeed a very fine plane in reality, I find that it tends not to do to well in the game due to it's restricted maneuvrability choices. Oddly enough and given the choice, I'll take the Sopwith Camel over any other plane in the game.

Harms said:

www.eaglesmax.com/ The rules of blue max. The Wow models are perfect for it too. Blue max isn't sold in box anymore but the creator made it a free game, you still need some planes and a hexagon map (link to nice cheap manifacturer of those is on the BM homepage, but as I said, half of the planes I use are Wow planes.

Big difference is that in Wow you uses card while in BM you uses hexagons. I kinda feel that BM is a little faster too when you are many players in BM (we did some games with 14-20 players in less than 2 hours a while ago). In Bm you move with the help by a chart, different planes can do different manouvers. Then you have a combat chart which you use to get a damage table, you roll a D6 on the table and then you drae that numbers of damage bricks (blue are regular hits, red are crits).

I am not going to say that BM is a better or worse game than Wow, both have it's good points but BM have nice campaign rules, and before you start you roll a random mission for each side. You also have bombers there (I own 2, a AEG and a Breguet which are avaliable to the sides for bombing missions, we also have bombs on some of the 2 seaters).

In my current campaign we started Feb 1916 over Verdun, with Fokker EIII, DH2 and Neuport 11. Then each player can get 3 additional models. There are also some extra planes for certain missions like a bomber each and a 2 seater. Sometimes when a new plane comes the side also gets it one game to combat test it. Each game is a month and the new planes players bought is being put in the months it came into active duty.

We also record when a side completed it's mission and the pilots XP and so on.

As for the ranking system, this link will help you: 1917-1918 1914-1916 All planes name and when they hit the front.

SHVAK said:

Yeah, the Spad had actually many advantages to the Camel (particulary greater speed than any other plane of 1917, and it could take a lot more punishment than the camel) and was the choice of many aces. But it is kinda one of the bad things with the card system, it is very hard (or impossible even) to exactly make the planes move on a boardgame compared to how they really performed in the air, so you have to make a fast and fun way of moving the planes.

And yes, the Snipe was a rare plane, there was no squadron flying only Snipe, they put in one or 2 together with Camels.It was also used in Russia by the brits in 1919. Fokker DVII was used a lot more, the Snipe should be against Fokker DVIII to be really fair.