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View Poll Results: Do you play with the explosion card in damage deck(s)?

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  • Yes

    300 79.58%
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Thread: Do you play with the explosion card in damage deck(s)?

  1. #1

    Default Do you play with the explosion card in damage deck(s)?

    Do you play with the explosion card(s) in damage deck(s)? I organized a multiplayer game last week and some of the pilots insisted on me to remove explosion cards from the damage deck. What is your opinion in that matter?
    Last edited by Nightbomber; 05-23-2011 at 11:32. Reason: bad english;)

  2. #2

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    I often shuffle the explosion cards into the bottom halves of the damage decks so that they don'r come up too early.

  3. #3

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    Always like to use the explosion card, just for the look on a players face when they draw it!

  4. #4

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    For me, no explosion card equals no fun!

    If there's no risk to lose your plane with just one bloody card, there's much less tension (dare I say adrenalin?).

    petitbilbo

  5. #5

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    We use the explosion card, but have started drawing 5 A damage cards for it per someone here's suggestion. I wanted to change from it being sudden death after drawing it on my first draw in two different battles.

    However, I am preparing to play the colonel's Knights of the Air campaign game and will use it as an explosion, since there is still a chance to survive.

  6. #6

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    We use the explosion card. We also use limited ammo so each person draws eight cards and once they are out time to retreat.

  7. #7

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    We used to always remove the explosion cards, but last year we returned the EXPLOSION cards and gave its victims an un-damaged "free" replacement aircraft if it occured in the first 5 Turns and a progressively more-damaged aircraft as the game progessed. Similarly in all of our games now we also give any player who loses his/her original aircraft or a "Free" replacement aircraft a progressively more-damaged "normal" replacement aircraft. This has eliminated the discomfort of having a few unlucky players hanging about with nothing to do, while also preserving the balance of play in favour of those who did not get shot-down or EXPLODED early in the game. As one rye-wit also said, it also ensures that the better/luckier players have lots of things to shoot-at later in the game. We also allow players to fly-off-the-board without penalty unless it is in the oppsing sides territory; then there is a risk of being forced-down and captured.

  8. #8

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    I didn't like the explosion card so much when I only had one of each damage deck entirely because I hated the "now I'm safe" feeling once it came out. Having removed it however I found I really missed the higher danger level of being shot it.

    Now I have three of each damage deck shuffled together the explosion card is a must. We've never had a situation in our games where it has come up and someone has felt it was unfair but plenty of times it has come up and been the highlight of the game and the talking point for days lol.

  9. #9

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    We allways use them. A realy good shuffle of deck each player takes 8 cards for ammo and hope you have the boom card in your ammo pile.

  10. #10

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    I don't use it -- I've lost too many prospects to a first-draw BOOM for it to be worthwhile.

  11. #11

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    I leave them in, except when playing novice "pilots", but have an ace skill that cancels the first one drawn for campaign play. More often than not we control more than one model apiece, so it's less of an issue.

  12. #12

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    We've never had a situation in our games where it has come up and someone has felt it was unfair but plenty of times it has come up and been the highlight of the game and the talking point for days lol.
    Ian, this very succinctly sums up why we always play with the explosion card.

    The drama added value has far outweighed the feeling of rotten luck in our games.

    I do play an Ace skill in my campaign called "Slippery Bastard" which is essentially the "Good at Evading" skill. If you can get to Ace status and pick that skill you're usually clear of the explosion. Although in the WWII game with the counters, it's not as sure a thing.

  13. #13

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    Of course the explosion card stays in, however, we use a modified critical hit card deck.

    http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/dow...o=file&id=1130
    Last edited by wargamer; 10-25-2012 at 17:33. Reason: added link

  14. #14

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    Always use them. It gives balance to the game with newbies and pros.

    Tom

  15. #15

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    We play without explosion cards - WoW is just like a sport. We are enjoying the "true knight's fight" and we are trying to shoot down another planes "clearly". But, and I know it very well, it is not according to reality.

  16. #16

    Hunter's Avatar May you forever fly in blue skies
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    Terry
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    We initially took out the explosion card to let people enjoy the game without being kicked out early. Now that we have erasable damage cards and all damage decks drawn cards are placed back into the respective deck after drawing, we have now included the explosion card after about two months of playing without it. In our current play it hasn't come up except last week when I, yes the Flight Leader, was drawing the 'A' damage deck for FIRE damage when I drew the dreaded boomer! I have 3 'A' decks and 2 'B' decks we play and all explosions are in. Everyone likes it because we forget it's there until someone draws it, then it's akin to having the real danger.

  17. #17

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    Gotta have that fear factor.
    Use the explosion card.

  18. #18

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    with.. nuf said.. he he he

  19. #19

    g.paoletti's Avatar
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    Gino
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    YESS ... I love it!!

    Though I am often the blast victim.

    G.

  20. #20

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    Of course!...Luck is a factor in real war too.

  21. #21

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    We play with explosion and we play when plane is down all damage counters are going back into the pile immediately. So Others can have also an Hot ride down to Mother earth.

  22. #22

    Exclamation

    We discussed it at our Games Club & all agreed to remove it rather than have someone drop out in the first few turns which had happened suprisingly often (like first damage card! :eek2:)
    We do use it in the Drachen Damage deck as it seems appropiate in that case.

  23. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by gully_raker View Post
    We discussed it at our Games Club & all agreed to remove it rather than have someone drop out in the first few turns which had happened suprisingly often (like first damage card! :eek2:)
    We do use it in the Drachen Damage deck as it seems appropiate in that case.
    Hope that you then remove the Zero damage allso

  24. #24

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    I answered yes but it depends on the game. New players / friendly games / small number of aircraft - no Explosion card in the A,B decks. Lots of planes, more competitive - Explosion card is in.

    I ALWAYS us the Explosion card in the C damage deck for collisions ( wow thats happened more often than I'd care to admit) and artillery fire.

  25. #25

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    One other house rules our club has, is that if a Zero gets a fire dammage card it also explodes, this is to reflect the Zero's tendance to blow up when hit in the fuel tanks!

  26. #26

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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug View Post
    One other house rules our club has, is that if a Zero gets a fire dammage card it also explodes, this is to reflect the Zero's tendance to blow up when hit in the fuel tanks!
    I like this house rule. Will try it out today.

    Tom

  27. #27

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    We use it, but treat it as 10 damage instead of the instant kill. This has proven to be a reasonable compromise as it won't down a plane in one shot, but still hurts...

  28. #28

    RacingHippo
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    We're about to set up a league at our club (run by TomThom), and this is one of the rules we need to decide on before starting.

    Tom ran a scenario (which I wasn't around for, alas) a couple of months ago which lead to this thread on this very subject.
    As you'll see from that thread, he decided to leave the boomer in for future scenarios, but one of the players has misgivings about the prospect of spending weeks developing a pilot only to have him killed by the bad luck of drawing the accursed explosion card!

    I quite like two ideas that are bouncing around here:
    • Reducing the damage it gives (i.e. making it non-fatal, or at least far less likely to be fatal)
    • Bartman's "Jammy Bastard" Ace skill which allows you to negate/reduce the effect. If you get explodicated before getting your first Ace skill, at least you haven't lost too much invested time; if you don't take the skill and THEN get kaboomified... them's the breaks


    Mr Thom is currently without internet access at the mo, else I'm sure he'd be chipping in here...

  29. #29

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    In friendly games we always draw from the Deck created in the files which gives a series of alternatives as to what happens to the plane and pilot after the Explosion card is drawn. It signifies some catastrophic failure rather than an obliteration of the aircraft and automatic demise of the crew.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  30. #30

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    We were talking about a possible campaign the other day and the problem of losing all your hard work to an explosion came up. Our conclusion was something along the lines of treating explosion cards as "plane destroyed, pilot survives" even though it is less realistic.

    The other more complex idea we had which was quite interesting was to have each player control a squadron/flight/jasta/etc rather than specific pilots and to have skills that applied to all your pilots rather than focusing on one representing increases in skill, training and experience in the group. In this way individual pilot deaths would be less catastrophic... and pilot survival could be made a positive rather than the death a negative. We never developed it any further but it seemed like an interesting idea

  31. #31

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    I usually don't use the explosion card.

    Especially not if the players are only flying one plane each. It's just a good way to take all the fun out of an evening of gaming if you explode in round two and then have to sit a protracted game drag on and on (surprisingly, long games and early explosions often go hand in hand).

    Also, we usually play only one battle per sitting which makes exploding all the worse. It's easier to accept being shot down if you've actually been out maneuvered.

  32. #32

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    Niclas, I remeber once (DoW) I got shot down flying a Zero with ONE & ONLY SINGLE Wildcat's burst of bullets in third round. I drew so crazy big numbers on damage tokens that it was even worse and humiliating than an explosion token/card

  33. #33

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    [QUOTE= but one of the players has misgivings about the prospect of spending weeks developing a pilot only to have him killed by the bad luck of drawing the accursed explosion card![/QUOTE]

    BvR would have agreed with him. But, s_ _t happens.

  34. #34

    TomThom
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    In the game referred to by John RacingHippo above, we did use the deck available in the files section where on the receipt of an 'explosion' you draw a card from the 24 which gives you a 25% chance of a crash landing with pilot survival. ( In the game in question we failed to survive in both instances).

    Tom

  35. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by TomThom View Post
    In the game referred to by John RacingHippo above, we did use the deck available in the files section where on the receipt of an 'explosion' you draw a card from the 24 which gives you a 25% chance of a crash landing with pilot survival. ( In the game in question we failed to survive in both instances).

    Tom
    You need to print off about another 15 survival cards and add them to get the proper ratio of survival to death.
    There was a very in depth bit of research on here which took all the leading German aces sucesses, and came up with about 46% prisoners from downed aircraft, if I remember the statistics correctly.
    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  36. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nightbomber View Post
    Niclas, I remeber once (DoW) I got shot down flying a Zero with ONE & ONLY SINGLE Wildcat's burst of bullets in third round. I drew so crazy big numbers on damage tokens that it was even worse and humiliating than an explosion token/card
    Ah, well...Yes, these things will happen, only with the explosion card they tend to happen more often.

    Again, since boom cards get in the way of me and my friends having fun, we don't use them much. But I have _no_ opinion opinion on whether they _should_ be used or not. Whatever floats your boat goes, I guess.

  37. #37

    RacingHippo
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    There was a very in depth bit of research on here which took all the leading German aces sucesses, and came up with about 46% prisoners from downed aircraft
    This place rocks
    In a very geeky way, admittedly, but you know the ol' saying: "The geeks shall inherit the Earth"

  38. #38

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    I thought it was the Greek...

  39. #39

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ginarley View Post
    We were talking about a possible campaign the other day and the problem of losing all your hard work to an explosion came up. Our conclusion was something along the lines of treating explosion cards as "plane destroyed, pilot survives" even though it is less realistic.

    The other more complex idea we had which was quite interesting was to have each player control a squadron/flight/jasta/etc rather than specific pilots and to have skills that applied to all your pilots rather than focusing on one representing increases in skill, training and experience in the group. In this way individual pilot deaths would be less catastrophic... and pilot survival could be made a positive rather than the death a negative. We never developed it any further but it seemed like an interesting idea
    There was a thread where you give one pilot in your group of pilots a skill cause he/she is showing the rest of them how to fly. That way one or maybe two pilots can start off with a certain skill and go from there.
    Tom

  40. #40

    Okie's Avatar
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    Useing the explosion card makes for a lot more tension and excitement in the game!! Okie

  41. #41

    khorgor
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    Take them out.

    Although I have played with the idea of making them severe damage such as "6" or maybe more as mr7q mentioned.

    The main reasoning behind this is that I was playing a solo mission VS a baloon and on the first shot got the boom.
    huh...
    restarted the game and took out the cards.

    I do also like other suggestions on here in regards to leaving the boom in some decks like artillery or collision in where the planes automatic destruction is almost guaranteed.

  42. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    In friendly games we always draw from the Deck created in the files which gives a series of alternatives as to what happens to the plane and pilot after the Explosion card is drawn. It signifies some catastrophic failure rather than an obliteration of the aircraft and automatic demise of the crew.
    Rob.
    Can you provide a link to that file, as I can't find it

  43. #43

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    Quote Originally Posted by Number4 View Post
    Can you provide a link to that file, as I can't find it
    Critical hit deck is on the following page about half way down Stuart. Ignore the german variant unless you fancy a totally authentic set for the Central Powers side.

    http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/dow...at&id=4&page=2

    Rob.
    "Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

  44. #44

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    Quote Originally Posted by Number4 View Post
    Can you provide a link to that file, as I can't find it
    Here's the link.

    Tom

  45. #45

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    Given the huge number of explosion cards drawn from Kyte's damages decks I suspect if we removed them there wouldn't be enough left to play with!! BOOM

    All good fun!!


  46. #46

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    Quote Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte View Post
    In friendly games we always draw from the Deck created in the files which gives a series of alternatives as to what happens to the plane and pilot after the Explosion card is drawn. It signifies some catastrophic failure rather than an obliteration of the aircraft and automatic demise of the crew.
    Rob.
    I started doing the same thing

    I really like the idea of having a definitive story to accompany a downed aircraft. I ended up downloading those cards and making slight edits (mostly correcting punctuation). I also made the text a dark blood red/brown, with a slight drop shadow to make it "pop" off the page. I also changed the image for the card-backs. After having a tricky time getting the double sided prints to line up, I settled for printing the cards (and their backs) on separate sheets. I later purchaed the "red label" European sized card sleeves from Fantasy Flight and slipped each half the card into the sleeve. They fit perfectly; just snug enough to stay put but with enough room so that you can see the card face on one side and the card-back image on the other side. They look great!

    I admit to being a sucker for "flavor text" in boardgames. I insist that people read story fluff in games like Kill Doctor Lucky, Descent, Arkham Horror, or Mansions of Madness.

    Lugz

  47. #47

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    Thanks gentlemen; while it won't make a significant difference as we're not in campaign mode yet, these will add a lot of fun when we run the game at the next club night!

  48. #48

    RacingHippo
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lugburz View Post
    I admit to being a sucker for "flavor text" in boardgames. I insist that people read story fluff in games like Kill Doctor Lucky, Descent, Arkham Horror, or Mansions of Madness.
    Me too. Which is why I couldn't wait for the re-issue of Tales of the Arabian Nights - it's 95% "fluff", and great fun

    We started the league last week, and as PJD was playing, we got plenty of opportunity to try out the "Explosions Deck". You see, Pete has an uncanny habit of exploding - of the six sorties he's flown, he's exploded in four of them.

  49. #49

    The Red Baron's Avatar
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    We leave them in but if a "player" suffers the result in the campaign, we apply 5 points damage to him. NPC's suffer the explosion results.

  50. #50

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    No way. It makes the games end to soon. I'm sorry, but no way am I gonna let the missions end that fast. Back at Origins I was playing a mission in which a swarm of Camels tried to take down 4 Gothas returning from a bombing raid and 2 of them went down like rocks really early due to this explosion card. That's why I don't use it. That Origins mission was just to easy.

    Hunter

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