I have just tested solo rules designed by Richard Bradley (Tyneside wargames club 2011) using a template for an AI pilot and predesigned sets of 3 manouver cards made by him, chosen by: 1) enemy plane position and 2) a die roll.
How it went? I had a lot of solitaire gaming fun, till the eight turn...
In that turn I was downed by a phantom AI pilot (YES!).
And I'm not a newbie WoW player.
This is the after fight report.
I chose EIII (Udet) and Morane (Chaput) cards, mostly because I had never played with those monoplanes before. Both planes started at the edges of my big dining table.
Both fighters were heading each other for 2-3 turns till the french pilot found himself in a 2 ruler distance from my Eindecker. Then the fun began! I had to choose my 3 cards and then 1 out of 3 preprogrammed sets of manouver cards depending of the position of my plane. It worked smoothly. Both planes started making turns to get a chance of a shot. I made some immelmans to get into position, but my aggresive "phantom" opponent always managed to slide out of my gunsight. I fired once or twice, but missed. He returned fire from a side and I got damaged. Important: My opponent didn't make any immelmans while I used them several times. And abruptly we passed each other without taking hits and both made immelmans (it was a small "dice" chance for him to do it) to make an "aggresive" head on attack! It was thrilling! We both fired our guns, I damaged the opponent and saw a smoke tail from his fuselage but that was the last thing I remember for ... I draw an explosion card and my Udet was killed.
Below you see the final scene and the outcome.
I must tell you that Richard Bradley's solo rules are a great option of expanding the WoW experience without a F2F opponent, providing a sort of challange and fun. They simply work!
On the right side down you can also see a home made "life saving die" reducing the explosion effect. But that's another story... This time I rolled a cross, so the pilot was killed
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