Wings of War

About a year ago I discovered a fun, easy to learn World War I air combat game called Wings of War. The game combines cards and board game movement into a game of aerial combat. If you want to know how historically accurate is the game - I have no idea and really don't care. It's a fun game.


Airplanes are represented by a single card which is used as a playing piece on any open surface. Each turn the opposing players choose 3 movement cards and reveal their cards in order simultaneously to decide the actions of the airplane they control.


Movement is easy; line up the card with the card or model that represents your plane and just move it to the arrow. Each plane reveals a movement card at the same time and moves.


Different planes use different decks of movement cards to represent their different maneuver capabilities, and a deck of fire cards are used to take into account their fighting effectiveness and to keep track of damage.


Firing is simple - if your target is in range and within the zone of fire, your opponent draws a card from the fire deck.


The card may have 0 damage, any number of hits or other mechanical damage ranging from broken rudders to the plane catching on fire.


Damage cards are kept hidden from your opponent - unless your plane is smoking or on fire! Above I took 1 damage but my rudder was damaged. For the rest of the game I couldn't turn my Spad to the left.

Machineguns a' blazing!

The game has many expansion sets; the basic set comes with 23 different WW I planes. With the box set are also maneuver cards, 2 rulers and 5 gaming boards to organize the cards and keep track of damage.

Game in progress with the first 2 maneuver cards revealed.

There are also pre-painted miniatures designed for the game which are reasonably priced (thank you eBay!). Optional rules add more flavor and make the game more challenging with altitude and tailing.

Trying to get behind him!

Gott in Himmel! He's on my tail!

I mentioned that the game is easy to learn - but it is one of those games that is hard to master! Trying to maneuver so as not to expose yourself to fire while trying to shoot down the other plane or planes is challenging . . . okay, I've only won once! Games take about 30 minutes to play.

Fortunately for the Allies, this German Albatross turned the wrong way.