Keeping track of 'secret' special damage.

[brdavis]

I'm wondering what tactics people use to remember their special damage limitations that are kept secret? It's easy enough to remember the ones that I don't keep secret (my opponent will gladly help me remember that my guns are jammed) but how do you remember rudder damage, engine damage, etc, that you aren't required to announce? I know I've forgot on occasion, especially the rudder damage. I wonder if in my games we shouldn't announce all special damage just so we can keep each other honest. Another idea I had was to keep the active damage card in hand with the maneuver cards, but then the opponents know that something is up.

Any other ideas?

[gully_raker]

Brian you can get special damage markers from Keith at the Aerodrome Store or just make some up yourself.
Place these on your Cockpit where only you can see them & discard when necessary (except for the Engine one or Pilot wounded of course)

[milcoll73]

I'm wondering what tactics people use to remember their special damage limitations that are kept secret? It's easy enough to remember the ones that I don't keep secret (my opponent will gladly help me remember that my guns are jammed) but how do you remember rudder damage, engine damage, etc, that you aren't required to announce? I know I've forgot on occasion, especially the rudder damage. I wonder if in my games we shouldn't announce all special damage just so we can keep each other honest. Another idea I had was to keep the active damage card in hand with the maneuver cards, but then the opponents know that something is up.

Any other ideas?

this is one of the reasons we play with open damage. sure it gives away the condition of your aircraft but people usually choose to shoot at the a/c with the biggest stack of damage cards anyway.

[Baxter]

Open damage sounds good because even with one of the aerodrome cockpits I still lose track too. Do you display the damage points or just the special damage?

[milcoll73]

Open damage sounds good because even with one of the aerodrome cockpits I still lose track too. Do you display the damage points or just the special damage?

everything, we just have the cards face up in front of us.

[john snelling]

this is one of the reasons we play with open damage. sure it gives away the condition of your aircraft but people usually choose to shoot at the a/c with the biggest stack of damage cards anyway.

I play open damage also.

['Warspite']

At our club games 30/40 years ago using Airfix and Revell 1/72 aircraft on three foot high wooden poles we used open damage, except when there was an independent umpire.

We used umpires for campaign games.

[BellMW54]

We also generally play with open damage. It just makes everything easier to keep track of...especially when you have multiple players per side.

[Nightbomber]

I am truly amazed by what I am reading of playing with open damage. Really? We have never ever done that in spite of tutorial games for the newbies.
No one of my group has ever reported any problem with keeping track of the secret damage.
Of course, it is up to anybody who wants to play that, but the game looses a part of it's flavour.
BTW: X-Wing miniatures is played with open damage (pilot, hull, cockpit, weapon systems) and WoG has always been seen as a game that benefits from the secret damage system...

[Teaticket]

Never thought about playing with open damage other than whats required. Having it secret makes the game more real and exciting. How would one know the other plane had a rudder jam? I've been in games where someone would fake having engine damage by stalling several turns to lure in his opponent!

[brdavis]

There are more people playing 'open damage' than I would have thought. The biggest problem for me is remembering rudder damage. I draw the card and note the effect, but then think its only temporary and I only have to remember it for 1 planning phase. Then, if there are a couple of moves/attacks between the card draw and the next planning phase, I forget. I know I have forgot about it at times and then when I next look at my damage cards I see it again, and try to think back and remember if I planned any turns when I shouldn't have...

I just think that as the rules are written some special damage rules are too easy to disregard, whether by accident or not. One can easily ignore it intentionally if they choose to - if someone examines the damage cards later, then the player can just claim that they followed the restriction at the time they drew the card.

I also have seen at my local gaming group once, when a player drew a card and announces to the attacker, "your guns are jammed". The attacker then asks to see the card and points out that the symbol is not a gun jam, but engine damage. It was an honest mistake but easy to do with the newer cards / newer players. I know the rules state to show the symbol to the attacker, and maybe this is the reason, but we rarely do.

I think younger/newer players in my group are more likely to not play special damage correctly, while some players like me honestly forget. I don't think it happens in our group but some might be "forgetting" on purpose.

I might try playing with "open" special damage but still keep the point total hidden. I'd rather play as the rules are written, but I need a better way to remember to take special damage into account.

[Hedeby]

I'm with the secret damage crowd on this one, far too easy to pick on a straggler if you know they can't turn left for instance....

[gully_raker]

I am with Andy & others on the Open Damage suggestion.
In our Club Games only those requiring notification like Jambs, Smoke or Fire are Open.
All others are secret. You need to be observant to see if a player is playing a stall each turn or only turning one way.
Much more realistic.
No one seems to have a problem with keeping count.

[Stumptonian]

I only play solo so it's pretty hard to keep secrets.
(at least for now)

[BellMW54]

We also generally play with open damage. It just makes everything easier to keep track of...especially when you have multiple players per side.

I'm sorry...I seem to have mis-stated what we do. Damage points are NOT revealed. Special damage is revealed in as much as the damage markers are visible on our consoles or, in the case of jammed guns, on the base of the model. We also use flame and smoke attachments on our models. Again, it just makes everything easier to keep track of.

[LOOP]

I've been in games where someone would fake having engine damage by stalling several turns to lure in his opponent!

Tricky!!

[LOOP]

I'm with the secret damage crowd on this one, far too easy to pick on a straggler if you know they can't turn left for instance....

I agree. That was my first thought. And even worse if you get right AND left rudder damage...

[Boreas]

At our club games 30/40 years ago using Airfix and Revell 1/72 aircraft on three foot high wooden poles we used open damage, except when there was an independent umpire.

We used umpires for campaign games.

Oh wow - someone else who used to play with 1/72 planes on 3' poles! Takes me waaaay back. I used to LOVE that... In my Spad XIII, pilots growing in experience. Sweet!
Thanks for the memory!

['Warspite']

Oh wow - someone else who used to play with 1/72 planes on 3' poles! Takes me waaaay back. I used to LOVE that... In my Spad XIII, pilots growing in experience. Sweet!
Thanks for the memory!

indeed we did.

We actually started with Meccano strips (about 18 inches long with 25 holes in). The end one inch was bent and became the foot (screwed to a wooden base) and the remaining 20 holes were thousands of feet. Aircraft were faster at low (under 10,000 feet) and slower above. So if you wanted to get across the table quicker you would stay low, fly like hell and then try to climb. It did not always work, especially if the other side was already higher!

As the aircraft model was being put together, a slot the width of the Meccano strip was made in the two fuselage halves before it was glued together. Later, when we switched to three-foot dowel poles marked in inches, we used a clothes peg (US clothes pin) to attach the aeroplane to the pole. A blade of plastic card was glued to the side of the clothes peg and fitted in the same slot.

Barry

[Hedeby]

Thats how I first encountered the game at Triples many years ago - always looked for it for a couple of games, then it went missing only to be replaced a couple of years later by Rob running Wings of War -- the rest as they say.....

[Brutal2One]

Something I have done in the past is if I have planned an immalman over two turns is to place the next required card on top of the deck before I place the deck on the table so when I pick the deck up again it's the first card I see, a simple reminder of my next maneuver.

Maybe with rudder damage you could collect all of the turns in the direction of the damage and put them at the back of the deck. It may help to remind you why you collected them in the back of your deck.

[Lt. S.Kafloc]

Try removing a respective maneuver card left/right plus a left/right difficult maneuver o ce card is drawn. Slowly deck is reduced and as it is instantaneous applied no worries.