Playing Wings of Glory the Harold Wood way...
For some time now I have been wrestling with my major objection to Wings of War and Wings of Glory, namely the 'guessing game' element of choosing cards and trying to get your aircraft into the correct attacking position. Inevitably this gives two-seaters a certain advantage they did not enjoy in real life as their arc of fire is always greater than a fighter's restricted front gun arc.
Going back in history, let me explain that at the former Romford Wargames Club and its successor, the Harold Wood Wargamers, both in the London Borough of Havering, we played a similar style of game from the early 1970s and well into the 1980s. In our version 1/72 scale Airfix and Revell kits were assembled with a narrow slot in the two fuselage sides which matched the width of a piece of Meccano strip. Pieces of Meccano strip were then fastened to wooden bases and created a vertical metal strip of about 20 holes in height which neatly matched the 20,000 feet or so of combat altitude in WW1. A matchstick could be inserted into any hole and the model slid down until it sat on that stick. Therefore an aircraft in Meccano hole 10 was at 10,000 feet. Each aircraft type had a climb and dive rate matched to known or suspected performance; if it dived two levels we took out the matchstick and moved it down two holes. We used cardboard turning circles (size A [small] to size G [large]) matched to each aircraft's wing loading in pounds per square foot of known wing area. Percentage dice were used for obtaining hits. If a hit was achieved, you then diced for each area of the target; engine, crew members (each), fuel tank, wings, tail. We used the same system as Wings of Glory for points as the aircraft weight in pounds was divided by 100 gave us the points value. A 1,300 pound aeroplane like a Nieuport was 13 pts. When all points were lost it broke up. Aircraft could also crash if the pilot was killed, an uncontrollable fire was started, etc. But wing and tail hits also increased your turning circle. Engine hits could reduce speed or climb. Leaking fuel this turn increased the chances of fire if the fuel tank was hit again on later move.
Now all this was fine and it worked very well. What I objected to - at that time - was writing down the next move in advance and having to guess where the enemy would be. In real war one can steer towards a constantly moving target. The guessing game element in the rules also somewhat mitigated against the tighter turning aircraft as they often could not use a tight turn to throw off a fast but wider turning attacker. Instead he simply guessed where you would be and flew straight there.
After a couple of years I developed a set of rule adaptions which allowed each pilot to 'fly' his or her aeroplane on to a target and also penalised aircraft which were at lower altitude and benefitted aircraft which were higher. In other words - real height advantage, another thing which I think is missed in Wings of Glory as we play it today. We also ended up with some very hairy multiple tail chases!
THE HAROLD WOOD SYSTEM:
Take two packs of normal playing cards with differing backs. Choose different backs as this makes it simpler to separate them again if you ever want to play Poker, Whist or five-card Brag.
From pack one take all the cards from 1 to 6, that's 24 in all, plus the two Jokers. Discard the rest.
From pack two take all the cards from 1 to 4, that's 16 in all. Discard the rest.
Shuffle all cards into one big pack which clearly favours 1 to 4 but which has outliers of 5, 6 plus the two Jokers.
During play deal one playing card card to every aircraft in play each move. That is each THREE card move. The cardboard dashboard is no longer used except to place played cards face-up upon and thus keep track of what you have just done. Add the current height level peg of your aeroplane to the playing card it was just dealt. The aeroplane with the lowest overall score has to move first. It plays one movement card from the aircraft deck of the player's choice, then the next highest aeroplane moves one movement card and so on. When all aircraft on the table have moved one card the firing is completed, as normal. Keeping the playing cards in place, the second movement card is played by all aircraft in the same numerical sequence (lowest to highest) and firing is completed again. Finally the third movement card is played and so on.
At the end of 'three movement cards' all the playing cards are collected up, put on a discard pile and a second move takes place using new cards dealt one to each aircraft in play. One playing card to each aircraft in play and then three movement cards in turn to complete the second move. Simply repeat this process. When the playing cards run out shuffle the discard pile.
Modifiers: yes there ARE modifiers
+1 to any aircraft which is within the tail arc and gun range of another aircraft and has declared it is trying to tail. The target must be within the potential tailer's front gun arc and range. Rear guns do not count.
+1 to aces who have 5 kills or more
- 1 to rookie pilots on their first mission or game
If the Joker card is drawn then that aircraft automatically moves last INCLUDING moving after all those aircraft which are currently much higher than him/her. In other words the Joker aeroplane has either been hiding under a cloud or, more probably, no-one can currently see him or her. They are simply looking somewhere else or this juicy target is lost beneath their lower wing.
In the event of two aeroplanes achieving the same adjusted score, any aeroplane with a red card moves AFTER a black card. If they still draw on the adjusted numbers and colours the two pilots must choose and play their movement card simultaneously, keeping their choices hidden until they are revealed and played.
Example:
An RE8 and an Albatros DV are alone on the table. The RE8 is at level 3, the Albo is at level 5. The RE8 draws '3' while the Albo draws '5'. Adjusted for height this is 6 and 10 so the RE8 must move first and the Albo moves second for the three movement cards following, attacking the RE8. During this the Albo dived to 4 and is in the RE8's tail arc.
Move 2. Both aircraft draw 1. The RE8 is now on '4' but the Albo is '5' - height 4 plus tailing 1. The RE8 must move first again.
Move 3. The damaged RE8 draws 5 which means its adjusted score is '8' but the Albo draws '1'. Plus height 4 and +1 for tailing, the Albo must move first. The RE8 may attempt to evade either by diving or playing a stall turn card on moves 1 and 3 to make the Albo overshoot it.
Of course if this was a Fokker Dri and a Spad XIII then the whole move 3 would see the Spad in trouble as the Dr1 could quickly snap to its right and attempt to attack the passing Spad. Clearly this will favour manoeuvrable aircraft which may lose out otherwise. It certainly favours height advantage,
Thoughts?
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Originally Posted by kalnaren
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