Greetings. May I first express my gratitude to Pier and Andrea for designing such a wonderful game. A rather old-timer to board games, WoW WW1 has only been recently added to my play list, and as a military aviator I've toyed around with some ideas to take the game to the next level.

I would like to offer the idea of an "Advanced Rule" set. Stumbling through various forums, I see that a campaign/scenario set has already been proposed. I've tested some house rules, namely with regard to altitude, ammunition count, and critical damage cards to enhance play realism. In doing so, I found that attempting full realism really bogged and hurt the game, so I can best offer the designers (or anyone else) some compromised (and non-proprietary) ideas that enhance realism, yet allow the current simple and fast paced game play. For example:

Plane On Fire: plane cannot fly straight nor climb; it must play at least one side-slip (S-turn) card each turn. As well, a pilot with a plane on fire cannot unjam or reload guns. Realistically, the pilot would also try to land, but adding a dive made for bad game play, considering the already low altitudes and a "fixed" play area (table top). As well, if the rudder is jammed in both directions and plane cannot side-slip, it takes an additional "A" damage card at the end of the turn.

I also have some ideas on Ace rules, chances of returning to flying ops after being shot down, and have designed a 1D20 (twenty-side dice) Airplane Selection table for Spring/Fall seasons between 1916 and 1918 that reflect historical Orders of Battle percentages (or best I could, since information varies and is dependent upon the author). In essence you roll for your planes randomly (or choose cards from numbers 1-20) to select your plane. For example, in early 1918 a SSw D.III is only available if you roll a "20".

While house rules are fine, as are optional ones, I would think that several players would like to dwelve at the next level, using "designer approved" advanced rules that are not optional.

If nothing else, could I propose that for miniature play, coloured altitude pegs become available in a future product. The coloured pegs could indicate an altitude of 5. Thus an altitude of 11 would be 2x coloured pegs (10) plus 2x clear pegs (one to make 11 plus the one base peg that always remains in play. I've already painted some pegs myself which has allowed dropping the altitude differential restrictions.

For your consideration, Perry

Check out the campaign rules the french dude linked too, he worked quite hard on them and have some nice things in.

But yeah a campaign mode would be really nice. Maybe with a card deck with abilities for aces and veterans.

Making the game too advanced is never a good idea, particulary if you have many players (which of course is a lot more fun). But yes the campaign box is one of the top things I would like too see.

I've read the campaign rules "en francais" and agree that there are many good ideas. I particularly like some of the proposed maneuvres such as a looping, etc. The aircraft order of battle chart is somewhat amiss however.

Hi...

Yes I know my Plane timeline is not very nice...

I ll think about a new one, much better.

I am Pleased to read that you liked what I ve done.

I am opened to every suggestions to make it all better.

We could all share ideas and come up with some common "house rules." Mon francais est up peu "rusty", donc je dois re-read votre rules. My random aircraft selection chart can be posted here; however, it's on MS excel - anyone know how to upload it to this site?

I am not sure you can upload on that site.

You can share by using and uploadsite like rapidshare or megaupload.

Dont worry about your French. I can read english (but i have difficulties with american argot ) Maybe it can be a good occasion to work also our languages !

@+

Well, you could also create a torrent to share it, or a FTP. But the easiest way is probably take it as screenshots and put them on photobucket unless you have a lot of pages. Fileshare pages is usually a lot of bother.

Easier for me just to post my Order of Battle here.

Below is my Order of Battle for each given 6-month time period between Jan 1916 through Nov 1918. The results are essentially a ratio of planes when compared to each other during that set time, and thus what you could expect to see. For example, at the front lines in late 1918 the allies would have 5x Se5a to every 6x Spad XIII. I make no claims to being 100% correct; results have been researched and interlaced from multiple sources. Errors probably exist, as figures varied depending on the source. As well, Nieuport and other figures are approximated since records no longer exist. Note that some fudge has been made in rounding up the total for underdog planes so they would be playable (ie Hanriot HD1 and SSw D.III), while more common planes have been rounded down. Also, many HD1 have been rounded up to "A" damage for play balance. Aircraft assigned to training, and planes removed from the front for refit or modifications may or may not be included.

Only fighter planes in WoW are reflected: Sopwith Pups, Rolands, Spad VII, Pfalz XII, etc. are not included into any calculations. Albatross Dv and Dva have been combined, as have the Se5 and Se5a. Se5 do not have the Lewis gun (thus "B" damage). Vickers gunned Nieuport 23s are imbedded with the Vickers gunned 17s.

My list is in an excel spreadsheet and each plane in the time period has been given a number from 1-20. Rolling a twenty-sided dice would indicate which plane you would fly - thus it is a Random Aircraft Selection Chart.

* equals "B" damage Vickers/Spandau guns, while ** equals "B" damage Lewis/Parabellum guns and "no asterik" means "A" damage (twin-guns). This is only useful for my advanced reloading and unjamming rules and can be voided for normal game play.

Early 1916

1x Morane-Saulnier Type-N*; 4x Airco DH2**; 10x Nieuport 11**; 5x Nieuport 17**

1x Fokker A.III**, 17x Fokker E.III*; 2x Halberstadt D.III*

Late 1916

4x Airco DH2**; 3x Nieuport 11**; 4x Nieuport 17**; 4x Nieuport 17*; 1x Sopwith Triplane; 4x Nieuport 17

9x Fokker E.III*; 6x Halberstadt D.III*; 1x Fokker E.IV*; 4x Fokker E.IV

Early 1917

4x DH2**; 3x Nieuport 17**; 4x Nieuport 17; 3x Sopwith Triplane*; 2x SE5*; 4x Nieuport 17

3x SSw D.I*; 1x Halberstadt D.III*; 1x Halberstadt D.III; 14x Albatross D.III; 1x Albatross D.Va

Late 1917

2x Nieuport 17*; 1x Sopwith Triplane*; 2x Hanriot HD1*; 2x Nieuport 17; 1x Sopwith Triplane; 2x Spad XIII; 5x Sopwith Camel; 1x Hanriot HD1; 4x SE5a

9x Albatross D.III; 7x Albatross D.Va; 3x PfalzD.III; 1x Fokker DR.1

Early 1918

6x Spad XIII; 7x Sopwith Camel; 1x Hanriot HD1; 6x Se5a

3x Albatross D.III; 7x Albatross D.Va; 1x Pfalz D.III; 5x Pfalz D.IIIa; 2x Fokker DR.1; 1x Fokker D.VII; 1x SSw D.III

Late 1918

6x Spad XIII; 7x Sopwith Camel; 1x Hanriot HD1; 5x SE5a; 1x Sopwith Snipe

1x Albatross D.III; 2x Albatross D.Va; 2x Pfalz D.IIIa; 1x Fokker DR.1; 12x Fokker D.VII; 2x SSw D.IV

Enjoy

Looks good to me, but my books says the Albatross DIII was only used for home defence late 1918. Also the germans had Fokker DVIII and a few Fokker DVI.

Here is my list when the planes hit the front lines, might as well post it next to your list to makes things simple

Germany:

October 1915: Fokker EIII

November: Albatross CIII

February 1916: Fokker EIV

May: Roland CII

July: Halberstadt DII

October: Albatross DII

January 1917: Albatross DIII, Roland DII

March: Gotha GIV

April: Siemens-Schuckert DI

June: Albatross DV

August: HalberstadtCLII, Pfalz DIII

October: Albatross DVa, Fokker DrI

May 1918: Fokker DVI, Fokker DVII

July Fokker DVIIF, Hannover CLIII

August Fokker DVIII

Allied (Planes that was used by the other country usually got it 2 months after the manufacturer country)::

November 1915 Bristol scout D (E), Neuport 10,11, 12 (F)

February 1916 DH2 (E)

April: Sopwith 11/2 strutter (E)

May: Neuport 17 (F)

July FE8 (E), FE2D (E)

August: BE12 (E), BE2e (E)

September: SPAD VII (F)

December: Sopwith Pup (E)

January 1917: Neuport 24 (F)

Februaty: FE8 (E), Handley page 0/100 (E)

April: DH4 (E), DH5 (E), Sopwith Triplane (E), SE5 (E)

May: Spad XIII (F)

June: Neuport 27 (F)

July: Bristol F2B (E), SE5a (E), Sopwith Camel (E)

October: Bristol M1C (only Macedonia, never western front) (E)

February 1918: Sopwith Dolphin (E)

March: Neuport 28 (F)

September: Sopwith Snipe (E)

October: Martinsyde F4 (US), Sopwith Salamander (E)

This is not a complete list, other planes did exist too. Note that the Neuport 17 sometimes had a Lewis gun on top, making it a "A" plane. However as far as I know only certain Aces had it, like Sgt. R. Soubiran of Esq . Lafayette. It wasn't the only plane which had additional guns but the most common. Certain planes had a Autocannon but it was rarely succesive since the aiming was hard and loading even worse (it was 1 shot). I seen pictures of a Camel with 4 Lewis guns but since there is no cards for that we can ignore that. The Neuport 17 had the extra gun fairly often though so a rule for having 1 in play have some merit.

I've stuck to the planes in the game - thus no Fokker DVIII, Albatross D.I, DH4, etc, or rare birds like the "Kondor E111a" and "Armstrong Whitworth". My only anomoly is the Pfalz D.III vs D.IIIa, as the two are differentiated in an updated WoW climb chart. I could break down other planes such as the Camel and SE5a by engine type - each providing different performance, but chose not to do so.

The Albatross D.III was indeed moved to defence in late 1918, my data shows Sept. My "Late 1918" fields summarize Jul through Nov inclusive, thus the inclusion.

Well, I got 2 different version, in Ospreys "aircraft of the aces" book it said that they were used in spring 1918 before being sent to the front. Wikipedia say that there were 54 left late august. so it depends on who you believe. Anyways it was a rare sight in 1918

Most of my list is planes in the game, and the rest will probably come soon, like the Gotha. But I never tried to balance any game based on what was on the front.

A fun campaign idea would be using a real squadron and Jasta and replacing the planes after what they really had and when they got them