<PERSON> latest Adventures in the Air changes the way we may look at air combat in board games forever
There are 48 pages in the Rules book which may be a mite daunting when you first open them. If you thought the days of Avalon Hill style rules lawyer style booklets filled with appendages and bullet points was over, then you would be right. This is a long, tough read, but very thorough whilst also being logical and practical. Author, <PERSON> - I actually met him once and tenacious, persistent, relentless, dogged, determined and unforgiving are words I would use to describe him from that meeting - employs all of those qualities and more to his research and devotion to detail, making this one of the most accurate tabletop simulations you could hope for.
The author is also responsible, along with <PERSON>, for the artwork throughout, including that of the airplanes, which are mini works of art. The game board, a folded paper design, is itself unique, being all blue (overlaid with squares - identified by Alphabetical and Numerical side markings) with just a thin greenish line along its southern end to represent the ground-line; as all the action takes place in the air and not from the usual top-down camera view.
One of the first things I liked immediately about this game is the way the rules book is laid out, or prepared if you wish. Turn the front page and you are faced with the glossary, what a refreshing change from having to read through pages of rules and keep referring to the back of the booklet. You have the chance to take the terms in from the start so that as you read through the booklet you already have many of these terms fixed firmly in your mind.
Apart from the rules booklet there is another booklet of historical scenarios. The author has also noted that there will be more scenarios in the future plus I understand that on his own website Mr <PERSON> has more important information and assistance for players of his games; he is nothing if not a true professional (maybe mixed in with an iota of gaming ocd ).
WING LEADER is played at single aircraft level; type and model being considered different. 92
Each plane type also has its own ratings, statistics and classification, the information required being on the comparable Aircraft Data card, including its loss value in the form of VPs. There are two and a half pages of Environment rules and explanations - specifying types of cloud, the ground, the sun and line of sight, weather modifiers applied to the die roll can affect cloud, haze, rain, in fact all weather conditions - everything has been taken into account. The author has put every modicum of detail into this game to ensure the players can garner useful limited but fine detail and historical knowledge whilst reading the rules and playing the battles. You need to read through the rules as you do with any game but unlike many wargames where the information is given piecemeal the data found here makes the game virtually (well almost) playable direct from the box with minimal preparation (other than the setting up of the chosen scenario).
Speaking of the scenarios, as I was, it is not a problem, though it is somewhat illogical (at least to my way of thinking) how organised the rules are and yet the scenarios are not in chorological order. The game is called Wing Leader Victories 1940-1942 but the first scenario is set in 1941, the second in 1942, and we don't hit 1940 until the fourth scenario. Yes they are prepared so that you get to play an ease-in battle to begin with, China 1941 designed by <PERSON>, where the forces are two American P-40Bs from 3rd Squadron on an intercept mission against two Japanese Ki-21-IIa on a Bombing mission. Wing Leader is played with the Air Forces (and occasional Ground Forces) of America, Britain, Germany and Japan as you would expect. There are no "good guys" or "bad guys" and it is not all America trying to intercept Japanese raids and British intercepting German raids, the missions are well balanced so that all Forces aren't exactly equal but are matched to ensure there is a game and not a linear path to follow.
The author has looked long and hard at air combat and created a game that epitomises more than just the basics, taking care to ensure that certain aspects, such as Diving and Dive Bombing, are specifically covered without turning them into cartoon style animations. For example, it would have been so easy to have fighters and bombers diving into the ground or swooping up like <PERSON> skimming the ground and then flashing upwards due to a random factor, so instead of writing a myriad possibilities for such an action Lee B-W has instead just said "No! You cannot do it, that's the ruling". 993