My friend Neil has been thinking about the game and last evening we played two games with radically altered rules. It was very bloody but worked remarkably well.
I had 4 off ME 109 E-3,s against Neil's 3 off Hurricane Mk.1,s.. We played two games and he lost both.
The changes were:-
Only 5 (yes that's right only 5) maneuver cards 1 x Straight, 2 x Sharp Turn 1 to port and 1 to starboard, 2 x gentle Turn again 1 port and 1 starboard.
Maneuver Cards were chosen one at a time each move so, as in real life, you were able to react immediately to your opponent.
Game 1 ended with 3 Brits and 3 Germans shot down and all in only 10 card moves. Most special damage was ignored, a fire was regarded as the end of the contest and the pilot got a chance to bail out.
We think that in a campaign game you can possibly accrue points which will buy you extra maneuver cards as the pilot gains experience.
Second game was more decisive for the Germans ending 3 Brits down for only 1 German and again fairly quick in time. The Boom card was just that and seemed to appear quite often. Oh by the way all zero's were also removed from the damage decks.
We considered that for most of the special damage it invariably resulted in the aircraft going down either in or out of control so you could have a format for surviving a crash landing (but we haven't got that far yet). We decided that a fire would very rarely go out, if a rudder got damaged / stuck there was again little (no) chance of it repairing itself the same as jammed guns unjamming theirselves, well in WGS you can hardly crawl out along the wing to hit it with a hammer like in WGF. Engine damage and pilot wounds stay in but most damage was a game changer, I mean if your guns jammed you went home; if your aircraft was on fire you bailed out, you get the drift!
I must admit that when these experimental rules were laid before me I was sceptical but now having played them I am quite surprised at how easy and lifelike they are. I found it very easy to control 4 aircraft and I didn't end up at the end of a frustrating evening not having fired my guns all game.
I'm sure this will not go down well with the purists but give it a try before you knock it