Niek van Diepen - Mar 11, 2011 12:07 pm (#240 Total: 241)  

Wings over Arras

Dug up this game to see if it can be used as a campaign game for Wings
of War. It seems to be rather enjoyable, even solo, but I am wondering
about two design mechanics, and a rules question. 

1) The game is played in turns, in which each player performs 7 tasks.
The rules say: "Once all seven tasks have been carried out, the tokens
are removed, and the process starts over again." I assume that only the
tokens on the Task Displays are removed, not leftover tokens on the
Orders Displays or the offensive hits boxes? 

2) Air missions requiring air combat (British Artillery Spotting and Air
Superiority) allow the players to secretly assign squadrons to missions
by putting the cards face down in one of three positions: straight,
across, or diagonal. The British player is always first. Now the German
Jasta's have their three missions nicely distributed, e.g. for "patrol"
two cards each straight, across, and diagonal out of six cards total.
However, the British cards seem to be a give-away. All seven bomber
squardrons have "recon" across, and "feint" diagonal, all five fighter
squadrons have "short patrol" across, and "deep patrol" diagonal; two of
them have "recon" straight in addition, a dead give-away of both type
(FE-2) and mission. Is this intended? 

3) Escorts are only added when the British chose "recon" and the Germans
gamble it is "short patrol" instead. Should not escorts be assigned
before a mission, not as an accidental afterthought? 

My single try-out game so far really looked like "Bloody April". Well
done!


Niek van Diepen - Mar 18, 2011 11:57 am (#241 Total: 241)
Wings over Arras

Received the following answer by e-mail from designer Steve Wamboldt:

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Referring to question #1, you are correct. Only the tokens on the Task
Display are removed. 

Referring to questions #2, it seems that there are some misprints on the
cards. If you examine the cards closely, the colours of the card
placement refers to whether it is a “recon” or “feint”. You will have to
“ink amend” the bomber cards. 

Referring to question #3, the British player can only add Escorts if the
mission is “recon” and the German mission was “patrol”. I realize that
this rule may seem unrealistic and “gamey”, but it was put there to
prevent every mission from having escorts and limiting the scouts to
just escort duties. 

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I found one more clarification (by Elias Nordling on the Memory Lane
Command and Strategy board): the lack of orders for the British (thus
guaranteeing a shortage which pushes the Allied offensive back) is
intended.

Back to the game!