Wings of War: Dawn of War
From: Fantasy Flight Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Wings of War: Dawn of War is a new Tile & Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games.
A few months back , I bought Wings of War (WoW): Famous Aces at a con dealer room because I had played it at my local game store and thoroughly enjoyed it. Within a few months of that, GR sent me a copy of WoW: Dawn of Warto review. Being more of a WWII buff myself, I was elated.
The entire WoW series is a card-based aerial combat game where players fly period-specific plans in either WWI or WWII, and try to take out their opponents. It is a merging of a card game and a board game to create an interesting miniature-game-like simulation mechanic. In fact, Fantasy Flight makes miniatures for this game, as well. Each game set is a stand-alone game, but games of the game era can be combined and played together for a larger than 4 player game.
Where the first few games in the WoW series dealt with WWI, Dawn of War specifically centers on WWII aerial combat. It adds a few changes to the game to simulate the differences in aerial combat between the two wars and has cards for many of the great planes of that era.
From the website: “Thrill to the action of [WWII] aerial combat!”
Game play starts with players dividing up into teams and choosing sides – Axis or Allies. At the same time, they pick an airplane and place an airplane console card in front of them. It is recommended to play with at least four planes and suggestions are given for the types of plans to try on your first time playing. Each plane has a specific set of maneuver cards that go with it, designated by a letter. There are also a variety of damage tokens to be separated out and speed tokens that each player must have. There are also tokens for certain special rules, if the players decide to use them, like Ace Skill tokens, Special Damage tokens and Altitude tokens. These will be covered more later.
Each turn is composed of three phases – planning, movement and/ fire. Planning involves laying out maneuver cards face down on the players console in the two designated areas. These represent the maneuvers the plane will be taking in subsequent turns – the first space for the first turn, the second space for the second turn and so on. There are specific rules behind what kinds of maneuvers you can play. There are steep maneuvers, Immelmann maneuvers and normal maneuvers. For example, certain steep maneuvers can cause a stall, and Immelmann can only be performed after a straight maneuver. When placing these cards, you also place a speed token on top of the card face down. This is the speed your plane is flying while performing that maneuver. There are two speeds – high and low.
Movement is when a player executes their maneuver cards, one at a time. Simultaneously, each player reveals their first maneuver card. They then place the back end of the card on the play area adjacent to their place, lining up the lines and arrows. Most cards have two arrows on the card – one for high speed and one for low speed. One important thing to remember is that any plane that leaves the playing area is eliminated.
The Fire phase is when the guns open up. After all planes have moved, each checks to see if an enemy is within shooting range. Using the cardboard rulers provided, the players measure to see of any part of the enemy card is within his plane’s firing arch. If the target is hit, then damage is inflicted. Damage is represented by drawing a number of tokens from the damage token pile equal to the damage of the attacker. There usually is a different damage for a short range shot and a long range shot. There are three types of damage – A, B, and C – and they have either numbers or special damage symbols on the other side. The player takes a token and secretly keeps a tally of the total. If it exceeds the plane’s damage capacity, it is destroyed. Special damage can range from explodes (the plan detonates in midair and is eliminated from the game) and rudder jammed one way or another to crewman wounded to engine damage. For the basic game, only the ‘explodes’ token is used.
There are several special rules that can be used once the players are used to the basics of the game. There are rules for Aiming, Acceleration, Fuel, Tailing, and Altitude. There are also special rules for Aces and Scenarios. When playing a scenario, a player can choose to have an ace. Aces have special abilities, including maneuver, evasion, and combat abilities. There are tokens for all the abilities. Scenarios include bombing runs, photo recon, and strafing. It also provides advice on how to create your own scenarios.
Dawn of Warintroduces a couple of new concepts to the WoW series. First, in the planning stage, there are fewer maneuvers to plan than in the previous versions. In the WWI version, there are three maneuver spaces while in Dawn of War, there are two. Secondly, the speed token aspect is something new to the WoWseries.
In conclusion, I have been a big fan of the WoW series since I played it the first time. As a big World War 2 buff, especially in the aviation department, this was a very pleasant addition to my game collection. My only ‘complaint’ are the choices of planes they put in the box. There are several, but there are so many more that they do not have that I would love to see – Hellcat, Corsair, or the Dauntless. I am sure they are leaving room for expansions. It is a great game for a light-weight war gamer like me and very fun to play for any type gamer.
For more details on Fantasy Flight Games and their new Tile & Card Game “Wings of War: Dawn of War” check them out at their website http://www.fantasyflightgames.com, and at all of your local game stores.
Wings of War: Dawn of War
From: Fantasy Flight Games
Type of Game: Tile & Card Game
Game by: Andrea Angiolino and Pier Girogio Paglia
Game Design by: Andrea Angiolino and Pier Girogio Paglia
Cover Art by: Vincenzo Auletta, Fabio Maiorana
Number of Pages: 24
Game Components Included: 24 airplane cards, 6 decks of maneuver cards (108 cards), 2 bomb and 4 target cards, 194 damage tokens, 158 markers, 6 airplane consoles, 2 rules for range.
Retail Price: $ 29.95 (US)
Number of Players: 2-6
Player Ages: 10+
Play Time: 1hr+
Website: www.fantasyflightgames.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung