Red Baron gets Browned off

[Baxter]

Armed with Super Ace, Itchy Trigger Finger, and Acrobatics Ace cards MVR is on the prowl. Just across the lines he can see two Camels ambling alone in a straight line and sees the opportunity to increase his tally.

What he does not realize is that one of the planes is piloted by none other than Canadian Pilot Arthur Roy Brown. Brown's wing man is Lt Ellwood, he is no slouch either. History cannot be changed!

Heartened by a near collision of Camels, MVR decides on the frontal assault using his superior Ace abilities.



This first clash is inconclusive with no damage scored to either side.



Using his superior Acrobatic skills MVR swings round and soon has Brown smoking from the effect of his deadly guns.



Brown heads off out of harms way while his wing man exchanges fire with MVR. Despite his superior markmanship MVR's guns are jammed!



Lt Brown bravely enters the fray again and both he and Lt Ellwood his MVR hard!



History will not be re written this day and Lt Brown is once again recorded as the man who downed the Red Baron.



Entente planes flown by WoG Solo app. MVR piloted by Baxter.

[Baxter]

Ahhhhh wrong war sorry

[flash]

Nice one Gary, looks as though the Baron needed a few more ace abilities or maybe some different ones !

[gully_raker]

Ahhhhh wrong war sorry

At least there were no UFO's or Tripods Gary!

[fast.git]

Not the Baron's best day, that's for certain!

[milcoll73]

looks like the same results i get when i fly mvrs dr1.

[Setarius]

Nice story. Different tactics may give different results.

[BwanaJoe]

Very cool.

Newbie question; are those Ace Skills from one of the nearly non-existent Ace card packs? How much do they change the game? Are they worth tracking down?

Thanks.

[Setarius]

Very cool.

Newbie question; are those Ace Skills from one of the nearly non-existent Ace card packs? How much do they change the game? Are they worth tracking down?

Thanks.

Some of the Ace skills are in the RAP book, the most recent boxed set.
As far as changing the Game, I find they enhance the Game. They all in one way or another give you an advantage over someone who doesn't have any.
Check out the list in the OTT rules sticky. There is a list and description for the skills.
Certain combinations in the right hands are hard to stop.

[BwanaJoe]

So how do balance the game between players? Or is it a sort of “gee whiz” lets try it out kind of thing?

[fast.git]

So how do balance the game between players? Or is it a sort of “gee whiz” lets try it out kind of thing?

I'd probably try it again... and maybe select different Ace abilities. One difficulty with this scenario is that the Dr.1 is slow... even the Camel can dictate the range of engagement. Two on one -- in this game -- really negates a lot of the aces ability, as it boils down to a matter of damage cards drawn each turn. Staggering the Camels might change this, or giving MvR a more favorable starting position might help. In terms of ace skills, I'd probably go with these: Lucky Pilot, Sniper, and Bullet Checker. Possibly Perfect Aim...

[zenlizard]

So how do balance the game between players? Or is it a sort of “gee whiz” lets try it out kind of thing?

Could be either; depends on the style of game that one sets up. The ace cards cover a wide range of talents/skills, and can be difficult to evaluate when trying to balance a given scenario. OTOH, they do add a whole lot of variety tot he game beyond just different airplanes, and they can be used to personalize the aircraft controllers. I certainly enjoy their addition to the game, but I will add teh disclaimer that not all ace ability cards are created equal.

[BwanaJoe]

Thanks guys; sounds like an interesting addition. I’ll see if I can locate some of the decks. Still waiting on the RAP on backorder from MM though so it may be a while before I get to experiment.

[surfimp]

I only saw one pilot injury - the real MvR had at least a few planes shot out from under him, perhaps he's just been forced down rather than killed outright?

[Stumptonian]

Thanks guys; sounds like an interesting addition. I’ll see if I can locate some of the decks. Still waiting on the RAP on backorder from MM though so it may be a while before I get to experiment.

Keith has it available in the Aerodrome Store

[Naharaht]

That was a good A.A.R., Gary, and I like your red and yellow crash disk.

[flash]

Thanks guys; sounds like an interesting addition. I’ll see if I can locate some of the decks. Still waiting on the RAP on backorder from MM though so it may be a while before I get to experiment.

You don't have to have the cards Joe - the ace abilities & optional rules are listed here in the forum:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...Interest-lt-lt

I have also created a document to download in the flies section here:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/do...o=file&id=2485

[flash]

So how do balance the game between players...?

I'd probably try it again... and maybe select different Ace abilities....

You'd have to study the skills and try to get a balance between the five types of ability that fit what you're expecting him to do and within the number of skills that ace is allowed. I think Gary was making it tough only allowing MvR three abilities - iirc he has a lot more on his ace cards but if I had to choose three I'd try something like this:

Acrobatic Pilot: Manouevre
This pilot may perform a non-straight manoeuvre after an Immelmann, or, a Split-S.
When you use this skill take five recovery tokens.
Bullet Checker: Technical
During the first world war some pilots checked every single bullet before taking off and discarded half of them to avoid jamming problems during fights. When any airplane weapon with this ace on board fires ignore jamming cards with the green symbol; the weapons only jam when a card with the red symbol is drawn.
Sniper: Combat
When this ace fires at an enemy airplane he tends to hit a bull's-eye. When the ace fires the player may select one of the damage cards that his opponent would have to draw.
The sniper player (instead of his target) draws two damage cards from the appropriate deck, looks at them, then gives the one of his choice to his opponent. The other card is shuffled back into the deck.
When you use this skill take four recovery tokens.

A flying skill, something to cut the Jams down and something to add to damage inflicted.

[Ken at Sunrise]

Very cool.

Newbie question; are those Ace Skills from one of the nearly non-existent Ace card packs? How much do they change the game? Are they worth tracking down?

Thanks.

I'll answer part of the question from my point of few.
The Ace Skills can game the game, from a bit to a lot. You could even give a skill for a newer or less skill player to help even the odds. Of you can give several skills to a single pilot and have a dual between him and several opponents. Really, in my opinion, the skill are not necessary but can add a lot of flavor.

Should you track them down. NO ABSOLUTELY NOT. I thought of that. Then I though of all of the tracking down I did in Star Wars. But with all that effort and money, I still use squad builders for X-Wing and field the cards as seldom as possible. They are fun to have, hard to read as you get older, very fiddly as you get multiple cards per plane, and tempts you into buying multiples of planes you may not ever put on the table.

I took this: >> FAQs & Points of Interest << and copied it in to a Word document. I printed it out and added to to my book of references. I now have every skill, sorted better and easier to find. Some even have explanations. The cards are fun to have, but seldom get used now that I have this reference. On a side note, I printed several references from the file section and have the list of skills with those. Neat little reference book. But I will no longer chase down odd models for the cards.

But thanks to Flash (Dave) for make this list and keeping it up to date.

P.S.
Or you can ignore what I said and just read what Flash said above.

[Setarius]

Joe,

If you want to see what combinations of Ace Skills and abilities do in combat look up Mission 16 Breaking Point, in the OTTBE Mission Sticky.
The mission required 1 guy to take on multiple enemy until shot down or forced to retire. All of us that flew the mission used different combinations of skills and from what I saw we pretty much all chose different.

Good Luck and enjoying selecting.

[BwanaJoe]

Thanks Dave!

You don't have to have the cards Joe - the ace abilities & optional rules are listed here in the forum:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...Interest-lt-lt

I have also created a document to download in the flies section here:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/do...o=file&id=2485

[BwanaJoe]

But I will no longer chase down odd models for the cards.

I may have misunderstood. Certain cards only go with certain planes? I assumed they were generic cards. EDIT: after reading the fine FAQ, I take that to mean hunting for the correct RE8 to go with the cards that talk solely about it for instance.

Also, I thought you guys were talking about the Ace deck promo pack and the Career deck promo pack. Were there others? (EDIT: Just found in the FAQ Doc; “This list is sourced from the Rules and Accessories Pack (RAP), Ace Sets, Crew Skills (Giants sets) and Series 9 releases (s.9).”)

[Ken at Sunrise]

I may have misunderstood. Certain cards only go with certain planes? I assumed they were generic cards. EDIT: after reading the fine FAQ, I take that to mean hunting for the correct RE8 to go with the cards that talk solely about it for instance.

Also, I thought you guys were talking about the Ace deck promo pack and the Career deck promo pack. Were there others? (EDIT: Just found in the FAQ Doc; “This list is sourced from the Rules and Accessories Pack (RAP), Ace Sets, Crew Skills (Giants sets) and Series 9 releases (s.9).”)

In the latest release there are a few 'semi-generic' cards that only come with one version of a plane. Every plane in a new release may have a different card, that might (maybe) be used on any of those planes. A given card might be able to used on all three released planes of a given model but only come with one. That's what I meant.

There are promo packs that are nice to have. I got them, they are cool to look at, you can give the card to the pilot that has the skill. But I guess I'm getting older and the cards are getting harder to read. If I use them, they are reminders of that ability, but still refer to the printed abilities.

[BwanaJoe]

Got it, thanks Ken. I’m ordering a set of the promo cards since they aren’t particularly costly. Don’t know if I’ll use them yet, but, what the heck.

[Naharaht]

We have been told that all the Ace Skills and Equipment cards will be included in the Campaign packs when they come out. However, in the meantime I think that you could make some cards of your own using the text from that FAQ.

[Ken at Sunrise]

We have been told that all the Ace Skills and Equipment cards will be included in the Campaign packs when they come out. However, in the meantime I think that you could make some cards of your own using the text from that FAQ.

It is the Campaign packs that I am eager to get. It would be nice if the missions can be played standalone but more importantly I hope that I won't necessarily need every type of plane made.

[fast.git]

It is the Campaign packs that I am eager to get. It would be nice if the missions can be played standalone but more importantly I hope that I won't necessarily need every type of plane made.

Though I can't say for certain, it would surprise me if the missions required much more than a date-appropriate aircraft type (scout, two-seater, etc.). Can't imagine Ares would wish to preclude people from purchasing and using the Campaign Packs.

[BwanaJoe]

Sorry to highjack this AAR. BUT, I did a search for Campaign Packs and couldn’t find anything. Does someone know the link for the original posting/discussion?

[flash]

There isn't one per-se Joe. Andrea has been working on the aircraft attributes for several years now, cards have been added to the models of the last two releases and I suspect that will continue but he has mentioned that all will appear in a 'Campaign Pack' which is apparently in the final stages of editing. There is no release date as yet so don't hold your breath.

[Angiolillo]

Though I can't say for certain, it would surprise me if the missions required much more than a date-appropriate aircraft type (scout, two-seater, etc.). Can't imagine Ares would wish to preclude people from purchasing and using the Campaign Packs.

Exactly.

As far as balance is asked about, please use this points system:
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...Wings-of-Glory

More details in the Campaign pack. As soon as possible.