Wings of War - Battle Report

The Orientation Flight

Lt Algernon Smythe of the RFC was given the task of taking Capt Cornetto, a representative of the Aeronautica del Regio Eserciti, on a familiarisation flight over the Western Front. Smythe was of the Devonshire Smythes from Dartmoor, a place of few women and many sheep (and a hound).

Smythe flew his trusty Sopwith Camel while Cornetto insisted on using his Spad XIII, which was painted in the colours of the Aeronautica.

At 14.21 hours, Smyth spotted two dots approaching from the east. These resolved into a Roland two seater reconnaissance escorted by one of the new Fokker scouts. Smythe immediately waggled his wings and his moustache to get Cornettos attention and signalled his intention to attack.



Karl Ritter Von Schmidt, in the Fokker VII, noticing the approaching scouts, signalled to the Roland to close up on his fighter.


The two flights closed rapidly and Smythe opened fire, initially at too long a range, but soon fire from the Fokker fighter ripped through his wings. Cornetto slid around to the right flank.

The photo at left shows the control boards for the allied scouts. Note the system of three manouvre cards that are preselected for each turn. These must be used in order, simultaneously for all planes with simultaneous firing coming after each phase.

The intial exchange of fire was disastrous for the allies. The Camel took a hit in the rudder preventing right turns (the rotary engined Camel's party trick) and its guns jammed (see counters). the Spad took an engine hit that caused it to play at least one mandatary stall card each turn.

The position of the counters mark when special effects, such as jammed guns, can be removed.










The photo shows the position of the planes at the end of the turn. Note how the manouvre cards are used to 'fly' the planes.


Each plane has its own set of manoeuvre cards that show different distances, turn abilities and so on. The plastic bases have firing arcs on and other info.






The planes go into tight banks to dogfight with each other.


After another turn of three manoeuvre phases, the allied scouts have outmanouvred the dastardly Hun and are on their tails.


The Camel rakes the Fokker VII to no obvious effect. Fire from the Spad killed the Roland's observer. However, the Fokker snapped a long range shot at the Spad. Von Schmidt had spent his boyhood hunting boar in the Black Forest and showed himself again to be a skillfull marksman. There was a large bang and Cornetto's Spad fell out of the sky trailing black smoke.

In game turns, I had drawn a 'sudden death' damage card (see above photo) for the Spad.


Poor old Smythe was left to fight on alone. Army Intelligence had assured the RFC that the new Fokker was a poor piece of work. Smythe begged to differ when Schmidt made a tight Immelman turn and closed in on his rear, shooting holes in the Camel.






Schmidt was now in a 'tailing' position (can rearrange his manouvre cards) and followed the Camel firing all the time (its damagesum was starting to get close to the the total structure points of the machine).

Smythe took a pot at the Roland which had wandered out in front of his guns but both his Vickers jammed - again!







Smythe twisted and turned to stay out of the Fokker's twin Spandeau machine guns. In doing so, he had to accept hits from the Roland's single gun.




Finally, Smyth managed to disengage and flee.





The Camel limped back to the airfield. Smythe landed, taxied to the hanger and switched his engine off. The silence was only broken by his top wing collapsing.

Some time later he was fortifying his nerves with a snifter in the mess when the door flew open and in mached Cornetto with a blond on one arm, a brunette on the other, and a redhead following with his cap.

Apparently, he had crash landed on top of a detachment of the women's auxiliary balloon corps.

It was, Smyth reflected, going to be a long war.



I enjoyed this game greatly even though I lost (congrats to Shaun). The ergonomics are well thought out and slick. Cards are used for manouvre and damage - no dice needed. The battle took less than an hour. It would play well with multiple planes and multiple players.

Highly addictive.