Hey all,

If you're not part of the yahoo news group for Wing of War, go over and become one. I have posted a PDF of my enhanced rules for the Ace abilities. I think it covers a lot and is quite fun.

Some abiltities I've created:

Longevity: If shot down, pilot survives on a damage card of 3,4,5 (not just 4,5). If downed due to fire, pilot survives on a turn of 4 or 5. This applies to observers in the plane as well, even if they are not aces.

First Aid: Ace avoids first "hit". Also, first aid allows the ace to recover others in the plane from being injured only if the plane lands during the game, after the game is over, or the plane has fled the battlefield.

Upgraded Machine Guns: A pilot or observer can take this ability to upgrade B rated guns to make them A guns instead. This ability only affects the gun associated with that ace.

I've also created "trees" in which a certain ability can't be taken until other abilities are taken first. These special abilities are a bit mroe powerful, but still maintain the flavor of WWI air combat.

To get all abilities, you'd need to have about 95 kills! Take a look at them and let me know what you think of them!

lingster said:

I want another name for the first one, something like tough or so.

And the upgraded machine gun is perfect , then you just make a lewis gun on top of the wing of the model, this was particulary popular on the Neuport 17.

I would prefer a actual deck with Ace abilities

The first aid abiliity seems kinda pointless though, there is a paramedic at the airfield providing that service.

And you could use stuff like Oxygen (rare but particulary the germans had it 1918, some brits too). and parachute (only german).

Anyways, Ace abilities is a good idea and I hope we see a deck or boxed set with some official soon.

I haven't gotten to the yahoo groups yet, but I really like the "tree" idea, especially if it's random. I'm not to keen on the current ace rules on "choose one the following." Another ace rule I like/propose is "Prototype Pilot", but this only works in a campaign. With this a pilot gets to fly an upcoming plane model a few months ahead of its time, similar to what occurred with von Richthofen and Voss. They each received and flew a Fokker Dr.1 (V4) a few months before the production (V5) model came on line.

SHVAK said:

Manfred also got the Albatross DIII(or was it DII?) before time but a wing failure almost killed him, he was able to land and got over to the manufacturer in bad mode, wish I heard what he was saying (He used a Roland DII for months after that). Source: "Under the guns of the red baron", nice book.

And Immelmann was killed by an early verion of the Fokker EIV, hes first shot of the propeller but he survived that. The second time he didn't, Fokker blamed it on ground fire but pilots in the air had a different story. The ability is good however, it was a bit dangerous in the war but still popular with the aces (regular pilots, particulary german ones, got the oldest crappiest plane they had, they would probably just live for 20 mins anyways).

But in a campaign that can also be a feature of the campaign instead of a pilot, so the best pilot of each side gets to try out a plane early

Lingster - I've been to the Yahoo site. Went under both games and groups and cannot find proper site. Wings of War in the group section is a RPG Fantasy game. Would you have a link or provide some steering to the proper spot? Thx

f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sJd9SRA-OJB9_BmnautsJGzw8cfu5128hIU6j_rgoDqi8wcLk9KtMUPhIQzW0wixwL_kBLK3NbVoBKto8ZEKMUXB9vnDplbOTuhd3r3p/Optional%20Wings%20of%20War%20ACE%20rules-lingster.pdf

That's the direct link to the PDF.

Name of the group is: wow_nexus · Wings of War Nexus . You'll know you've got ther ight group as it's got two plane pics on the main page.

Link does not work.

Hornet69, Here is a list of Optional Ace Rules I have put together from various place on the net (based off of the ones the designer post initially)...

Ace Special Abilities

When a pilot or rear gunner becomes an Ace, they get to select one of the following special abilities. If they reach double Ace, they select another one and so on.

The list of abilities is divided in to two sets. The first list can be chosen only by pilots, the second one by both pilots and observers. A plane may have an ace pilot with a non-ace observer or vice-versa. "When the ace fires" means that the ability is applied only if that specific airman (pilot or observer) is firing. If the observer is incapacitated, his individual abilities can not be applied for the rest of that game.

Pilot Only Abilities

Daredevil
Player can do two steep maneuvers in a row. Player may use this ability every two turns. Use a blank counter to remember that you used the ability and discard it after a turn.

Acrobatic pilot
Player can do an Immelmann turn without having to do a straight after it. The straight before it still has to be done. Player may use this ability every two turns.

Lucky Git
Player can ignore a single damage card once per game, after drawing and seeing it. The ignored card is put back in to the damage deck and shuffled. The Explosion card may not be ignored in this manner.

Evasive Maneuvers
This pilot can not be tailed, unless the tailing opponent is also an Ace.

Exceptional pilot
Player can use the same maneuver twice in the same turn. Take two blank maneuver cards and write a "1" on one and a "2" on the other. Add them to your Maneuver deck. When you plan your move, you can use the "1" as the second or third maneuver, and the "2" as the third. When you show the "1" use the first maneuver of the turn again, when you show the "2", use the second maneuver again.

Example: a SPAD XIII plans an Immelmann, a straight and a "1". The plane executes an Immelmann in the first phase, a straight in the second and another Immelmann in the third one.

The restrictions of the "1" and "2" are the same of the card they replace. So if you use a "1" and the first maneuver of the turn was a Immelmann, you have to do a straight maneuver before it and another after it.

Pilots or observer individual abilities

Technical eye
Once per turn the player can look at the damage cards of any airplane. The plane has to be in firing distance from the ace's plane, in any direction (from the central dot to any point of the examined plane). Player may use this ability every two turns.

Perfect aim
Once per turn, the pilot can decide to use the +1 Aim bonus even if he did not shoot at the same plane in the previous phase. Once this ability is used, it can not be re-used for the rest of the turn.

Bull’s Eye
When the ace fires to an enemy plane, he can try to make a bull’s eye shot. This means that when his opponent has to draw a damage card, the firing ace draws two damage cards instead. The Ace looks at them, and picks which one his opponent will keep. The unused card is shuffled back in to the deck. If the enemy has to draw two damage cards, the ace takes three cards and chooses two of them. Player may use this ability every two turns.

Quick Shot
Each time that firing is resolved, all the aces with this special ability fire first. Remove any eliminated planes, then only the surviving planes can fire.

Bullet checker
During the First World War, bullets were often produced by improvised workers aiming more for quantity than for quality. This caused machineguns to jam frequently, but some pilots - as the Italian ace Silvio Scaroni - checked every single bullet before taking off and discarded up to half of them. A plane with this ability ignores the green jammed special damage.

Thanks HMS Hajj i will put them to good use this weekend.

Your are welcome. I should have my complete campaign/league rules out some time next week. They are at 20 pages right now!

hornet69 said:

you'll have to become a member of the yahoo group. then you'll be able to download the pdf of the optional ace rules.

I don't have a way to put them up on the net to share them out otherwise. unless you want an e-mail of it.

HMS Hajj said:

nice! ive done something similar as well and have added this ace ability...

Sniper - This pilot can fire on enemy planes one half ruler length further away than normal (treat as long range). When you use this ability take 3 recovery counters.

ive made up Ace Cards with artwork, text and historical info about actual WW1 pilots (used a free programme called magic set editor.

im working on some mission cards as well, these are still in development but im planning on using specific missions to award victory points (2-5pts per mission), then using vp's to buy special ace abilities like the ones above (no doubt similar to your system eh?)

This is all very interesting chaps. As I am flying as Albert Ball now that I have painted up my Neiuport. as Albert and I both hail from Nottingham I could not do anything else really. With only a B deck gun it is hard going. I cant seem to get under these Huns. I have only shot down four so far, and it is a close call most times. one prang and a flaming landing so far. If I make ace the rules should make it easier, but I still only have a B deck gun. Role on the SE 5 modles say I.