WW1 Air Combat Game

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sweeteye
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WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Decided to make a post before my internet service gets shut off....my winter heating bill has gone up a lot and the cost of keeping a car on the road has caused me to get behind on my internet bill....will have to do without for a few months.....With the coming 100th anniversary of WW1 coming up my interest in this period has grown again.I have quite a number of combat flight simulators and WW1 has always been my favorite type to fly. Decided to try something a bit different though....A board type air war game. I found the Vassal module for the old Dawn Patrol roleplaying game by Mike Carr.The rules for the game do not come with the module though.I did find some free WW1 air battle rules at the Miniatures Wargaming site which I have adapted to the Dawn Patrol game.The rules are called "Spandau and Lewis".Very basic airwar rules but they are effective and seem to work well so far.I am not thrilled about the maps that come with the Dawn Patrol game so I decided to download some appropriate WW1 maps from the net and plug them into the Vassal module.I now have seven new maps to work with ....The most important aspect of the game is the movement which is determined by rolling a die for each plane...highest roll moves first with ties being resolved by pilot experience, less experienced move first.Works out good as there is uncertainty about who will get to move last.Moving last is best as you have a better chance of lining up for a shot.I have been playing by myself of course but it still is very unpredictable and makes for some fun.First two screenshots are from a german recon mission I just finished.Last two are just a hypothetical setup just to show one more of the maps.I am playing a type of campaign....one scenarios outcome affects the following scenarios....perhaps I will be back to the forum in a few months...In the meantime this is what I will be working on.................

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decaro
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by decaro »

brilliant concept: I never thought to game this type of combat before.
Is there a scenario to recreate the Red Baron's demise?
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Thanks Joe......it is kind of cool.....You could certainly recreate any scenario you wanted to do.....there is lots of room for creativity...There are a lot of miniatures table top games played in a similar manner,using model aircraft instead of counters.I spent part of the weekend pouring over the web for more maps and getting info on the battle of Arras 1917....going to focus on this battle...found several good maps of the Arras area.Also found a newer game called Bloody April 1917 Battle of Arras.Seems to have come out just last year.It is more on the strategic level...There is a vassal module for it and I found rules to download but there are no game charts[&:]....will have to purchase the table top version and it is fairly expensive.....rules are very complicated.Have been able to get some useful information for my own Arras campaign game from it though....I am now ready to start my Arras air battles.Going to lose my internet connection soon,what a drag................

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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by decaro »

ORIGINAL: sweeteye

... Going to lose my internet connection soon,what a drag................

My local library offers patrons broadband for one hour per day; perhaps yours does as well.

There is a WW I AGEOD game that also modeled air (and naval) combat, but I had a hard time understanding the in-game messages that were roughly translated from French.
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Yes ....I will have to go to my local library fora while....it is good to at least have that option available....
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by nate25 »

Sweeteye, forgive me for hijacking, but what happened to the Waterloo game?

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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Hello Nate....no problem about hijacking,I thought perhaps I would be hearing from you.....My apologies for not getting in touch with you sooner....Actually I got so tired of working on it and I was literally getting nauseated and had to stop for a while.....Also my cat kept wrecking the game testing....still have to cat proof my table....with a little work I could have it ready to send to you...No rulebook though just yet...that will take considerable work...Will just have game charts for an explanation of how to play....Hearing from you sparks my interest in finishing it out some and getting a copy to you....I will PM you with my mailing address and phone number so we can correspond with one another....as I have said previously my internet service is going down for a while as I am in financial dire straits......would be nice to have a finished game to sell to perhaps bolster my meager income...
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by nate25 »

Thank you.

Look forward to hearing from you.
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by Aurelian »

Could try these rules too. http://www.eaglesmax.com/
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Nate...private message sent ......thanks for getting my inspiration to work on the Waterloo game going again.....Now have two projects going......A WW1 airwar game just for fun....and a more serious project on the Battle of Waterloo...[:D]
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Thanks Aurelian....that is exactly what I would like to develop my ww1 air game into.....A table top game with model aircraft....Nice[:)]
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by Aurelian »

I had both Fight in the Skies and Dawn Patrol. Never had Blue Max, but I figured if you're don't have the DP rules, these would work. (In the pdf section :) )

Some more info: http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/1/bluemax/
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by gradenko2k »

On the videogame front, there is a (very light) port of these sorts of games in the form of Sid Meier's Ace Patrol and its stand-alone sequel Pacific Skies.

The venerable Over the Reich / Achtung Spitfire games from Charlie Moylan in the mid-90s is probably more appropriate for the grognard crowd, but I find Ace Patrol to be much more playable.
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RE: WW1 Air Combat Game

Post by sweeteye »

Yes I downloaded all the needed BlueMax files....read over the files into the early morning hours.Nice set of rules....not overly complicated yet detailed enough to make a scenario interesting.One thing I found odd is that there is not much of a fuel allotment for the planes....seems you would run out in short order....no big deal though,will just increase the fuel boxes some if needed.Nice to have rules for an air battle game available that are free to download,although someone must have put quite a bit of effort into them by the looks of it....Thanks again............Oh yes, I ran across the Ace Patrol game ....also looks interesting...plus I downloaded a couple of abandonware ww1 flight games from the 90's that are in DOS...
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