One Card Planning versus Three Card Planning

[Stumptonian]

Had a friend down from BC over the weekend to visit, drink beer, watch a few war movies and, of course, play some WGF


He purchased the Rookie set from Keith a few months ago and was ready to get his feet wet over the front .....

We played about 7 or 8 individual games, starting with simple 1 on 1 dogfights and progressing through 2-seater Artillery Spotting (using AI for escorts) and finally, chasing down AI-controlled Gothas (finally out of the shrink wrap)


[Sorry - no photos - too busy playing]

We, of course, had post-game discussions about some of the various rules, optional rules, house rules etc.
We did not get enough time to try to incorporate altitude, but he had some ideas I might try out in the next few weeks, involving tracking altitude in a way similar to Richthofen's War instead of counting chits and using pegs. I will run it by you guys when we get it sorted out.

The other thing that arose was using one card to plan instead of three. I knew this had been brought up before and told him I would search the forum and send him what I found. I did find some posts from 2010-2013 (including a response from Andrea) that pretty well explained it for me - the individual decks have built-in restrictions to certain combinations of cards, with limits on availability as well.

I just sent him an email with my findings, but thought I would run a thought I just had by the veterans:

What if you plan one card but still place them on the three slots as they are played ?
That way you still can't play 3 left sideslips, for example, and could still perform an Immelmann or Split-S.
It would also make sure that gun jams, smoke and fire were still tracked properly.

Not sure how to handle Tailing if we went this route, unless the tailing player did put down 3 options to be a limited selection for his move.

What do you long-time players think ?

[OldGuy59]

...

The other thing that arose was using one card to plan instead of three. I knew this had been brought up before and told him I would search the forum and send him what I found. I did find some posts from 2010-2013 (including a response from Andrea) that pretty well explained it for me - the individual decks have built-in restrictions to certain combinations of cards, with limits on availability as well.

...

What if you plan one card but still place them on the three slots as they are played ?
That way you still can't play 3 left sideslips, for example, and could still perform an Immelmann or Split-S.
It would also make sure that gun jams, smoke and fire were still tracked properly.

Not sure how to handle Tailing if we went this route, unless the tailing player did put down 3 options to be a limited selection for his move.

What do you long-time players think ?

Pete,
Interesting idea. I think this would be very workable, to stay within the maneuver limits of individual planes. It takes out the forecasting and planning part of the game, though. And the game was designed to allow for planning complete movements from other aerial combat games, like the Immelmann (although WoW/WoG allowed players to plan those moves over two turns, if desired). The individual phases, allowing shots between maneuver cards was to allow for opportunities that would have been lost if the maneuvers were continuous, not phased.

So, although there are three cards per turn, it was supposed to be one move. We get much more flexibility with three phases, which appears to separate the combatants by lot of distance when we both go the wrong direction at times. What would have happened in other games, if we planned the wrong moves? I haven't played Richthofen's War to compare.

I'd like to try this out, though, just to see. I can foresee the game taking a bit longer, if you have a planning pause every phase. And perhaps use the WWII Tailing rule for this alteration?

[csadn]

What do you long-time players think ?

Thinking "Ten steps ahead of you". :)

I worked out something like this a few years back for a _Crimson Skies_/_WoG_ crossover:

-- Rookie pilots plan moves two cards ahead; Regulars, one card; Aces, no planning. Normal restrictions against consecutive diamond moves apply. Tailing is handled as usual; it doesn't matter when the card is put down, only that the tailed player has to report it.

-- Altitude is calculated in "pegs" and "chits" (so folks don't have to get rid of all their old kit); each five chits equals one peg. The main change is that, all climb|dive rates are figured in "number of chits added|lost", so the climb|dive rates need to be refigured; 1 or 2 Old-way equals 5 New-way, 3 or 4 equals 4, 5 or 6 equals 3; etc., to a minimum of 1. (If one is using dials from AA, the same principles apply; the numbers just get used differently.)

[flash]

What if you plan one card but still place them on the three slots as they are played ?
That way you still can't play 3 left sideslips, for example, and could still perform an Immelmann or Split-S.
It would also make sure that gun jams, smoke and fire were still tracked properly.
What do you long-time players think ?

That's the way to play it - played it at club level in the past and it works fine.
Don't play tailing as it's so rare it comes up so that wasn't an issue and didn't slow things down, if anything it felt like it sped things up.

[Marechallannes]

Then it's more WGS style gaming, but I think you'll loose a lot of thrill.

That's why I always prefer "planing ahead" for WGS & SoG.