Hello all. My wife and daughter were out at the mall yesterday evening, so I found myself with some time to test out WGS for the first time!
Since I was on my own, I did a simple setup-a solo-player bomber intercept. The goal was for me to shoot down the bomber before it exits the opposite side of the board. I set up my new Lancaster bomber using the Automatic Movement rules, and played 3 quick games: One flying a solo Bf.110, one flying a solo Bf.109, and one double-teaming the 109 and 110 against the Lancaster. I played using the Standard Rules (high and low speed movement, but no altitude)
Unfortunately I failed all three times to shoot down the bomber-a good day for the British, lol! But it was fun and here were my first impressions of the game:
1. Overall, I quite like it! WGS takes a bit more planning and preparation than WGF, but it was still fun. Since I was familiar with the basic game mechanics from WGF, I was able to jump in with the Standard Rules without any difficulty.
2. I definitely noticed the difference in plane movement for WGS. Where the WGF biplanes move short distances with very tight turns, the WGS planes cover a lot of ground and are much harder to make tight maneuvers with. The Lancaster bomber moved WAY faster than I expected...I forgot the lessons of playing X-wing, a huge base covers a lot of distance no matter how short the maneuver is!
3. On that note...for future games of WGS, I think I need to find a bigger table. Our small dining room table has always been fine for WGF dogfights, but I found playing these solo games that usually my planes only got 1 or two chances to fire before the Lancaster was off the board. Anyone have any recommendations for size of play area?
4. However, I do have to say I was very pleased with the Automatic Movement system for solo play! It was easy to manage and worked well, with no major issues for me.
5. Though I'd been a bit hesitant about damage tokens versus damage cards, that worked fine also. Except, of course, for my tendency to draw multiple "0"s when attacking. Oh well!
6. One thing that concerned me, though (and I don't remember having this issue playing WGF) it seemed like measuring from the center of the airplane stand when determining firing range was excessively limiting for the fighters. I don't think there was any time during the game that my fighters were able to get into short range. On the other hand, the bombers, because they fire from the edge of the base, were in range far more often. I'm not sure I liked this...it seems to me that if I add in Altitude rules (which further reduce range if planes are at different heights) it will become almost impossible for planes to hit each other in a dogfight...has anyone else had any issues with this? Or house ruled to just measure range base-to-base? It seems to me that would give more opportunities for firing, but I'd be interested to hear from experienced players on this one. Now to be fair, I was using early war Messerschmitts and haven't tried the later war planes yet, which I gather are much faster, which may give them more ability to get into range.
7. I found that one plane versus a bomber simply couldn't maneuver enough to bring down the bomber alone in time. Two planes working together was much more effective. Working together, my planes almost shot down the Lancaster in the last game (32 damage)...if I hadn't drawn 5 "0" counters I would have scored a victory! Curse you, ill token fortune!
I think WGS is quite fun, but in a different way than WGF. WGF is great for getting a lot of people together and doing quick and easy dogfights. WGS seems like it may be more fun using structured missions and scenarios like bombing runs, interceptions and specific scenario rules rather than straight dogfights. I'm hoping to get my first head-to-head dogfight with fellow WGF player DaveZee next week, I'll try and let everyone know how it goes!
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