by angiolillo
Yes, happy that you enjoyed the game - but try the proper way too! Then choose the one you like more. ;)Slotracer wrote:
I never understood the reason to plot three cards ahead with these old and slow planes.
I will try to explain you it, then.
Seeing it from a developement point of view, a three card turn allow a plane to do the same kind of maneuvring as it does in olther boardgame siumulations of ww1/ww2 dogfights: Air Force, Wings, Blue Max, Richthofen's War, Dawn Patrol, Aces High, all great games that I played and enjoyed a lot... The complex maneuvring that you do in a turn of these games are the equivalent of three simple WoW maneuvres in a row. Nothing different. So planning three cards in advance you do the same kind of planning that you do planning in advance a turn in these games.
Splitting WoW's turn in three parts, anyway, allow you to fire during the turn. And this gives a far more realisting and rewarding game IMHO.
In every game where you plan all your turn, then execute all of it, and only then fire, two planes could be in the field of fire of each other "during" the movenent, so to say, but if they are not so at the end of the turn they can not fire each other at all: let's take the example of a Snipe and a D.VII that are flying parallel in the same direction at two hexes of distance and turn 180° toward each other (plotting a series of 3 hexes of movement turning 60° toward each ontehr in Air Force/Wings/Aces High, for example, or planning 24L3 and 24R3 in Blue Max). At the end of the turn they are again flying parallel in the same direction at two hexes of distance. They actualy flew on the same path, one against the other, and in the middle of the turn they were in front of each other, but they did not exchange a single bullet since firing is only at the end of the movement. Now put a Wings of War Snipe and a D.VII parallel to each other at 18 cm of distance or so (the same situation). Plan for each of them three standard 60° turns toward each other. You will see them going one against each other, exchange a fast and furious short range shot of two damage cards after the first curve, pass one over the other at the second card and then be parallel again after the third one. A bit more realistic IMHO.
Firing after each card in WoW allows also to do without a deflection rule without too much regret, IMHO. The deflection rules, in games where you plan and execute all the turn and then fire, give bonuses/penalties to fire if planes are going in the same/different direction(s) because this means a different time in which the target is in the field of fire: if you go in the same direction you are in the aim of the firer for more time, if the paths are at an angle you are in the field of fire for far less. But this is just a way to put a remedy for the fact that you don't take trace of all the movement during the turn, so you try to make "a guess of what happened" studying the final positions of the planes instead than the path. In WoW you actually take notice of what happens during the turn: if a plane is in the field of fire of the plane along all its path it get fired three times (3 damage cards at long range, 6 at short range), while if it gets into the field of fire just at the end of the turn it get fired only once (1 or 2 cards). So there is less need to see the relative angle between the firer and the target. It also better simulates if they are going in the same direction (probably in WoW the target get fired 3 times, and if the speeds are similar at the same range and if not at changing range) or in opposite ones (probably the two planes exchange a couple of bursts at decreasing range before they cross each other), giving advantage for the first one, while usually deflection rules treat the two cases in the same way.
Other similar effects are on tailing, applying ace skilss and other things that you can do somehow with mnore accuracy, in-bethween the turn and not just at the end.
So that's my point of view: comparing WoW to other games, you do not plan three turns in advance instead than one - you plan the same but you split the turn in three steps for better realism, even if with a pretty simple system.
In WW2, WoW's system evolves. Instead than planning three cards each time, you plan one card at a time but for the following turn - not for the same. On average, the effects are the same: you plan one card in advance (planning three cards at a time in WW1, one to be used immediately, one to be used after one card and one planned after two, on the average you plan one maneuvre in advance all the same: (0 + 1 + 2) : 3 = 1 card of delay). The effect is anyway a more nervous game, that fits with WW2 planes IMHO.
Of course you can plan one card and use it on the same turn. This is now the introductory level for WW2 and Sails of Glory, and it has been an introductory rule used by several people to explain the game to kids/beginners for years. This is the simpliest form of the game. It gives you a very strong control of your plane. You are not forced to plan a 180° and stick to it (as you are plotting a series of 3 hexes of movement turning 60° toward each other in Air Force/Wings/Aces High, or planning 24L3 and 24R3 in Blue Max, or planning three 60° cards in WW1 Wings of War) but you can change your mind after every bit of move (as if you could change your mind and planning after each hex in Air Force/Wings/Aces High or even Blue Max). So ok for beginners. I would suggest not to use it for normal playing, once you learn, because it actually makes things too easy. Take Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game for example. I never played it yet so I will stick to the comments I read online. It uses exactly this variuant of the WoW system. You choose elementary moves as in WoW (straights, 45° and 90° turns, even an Immelmann turn that would better fit a WW1/WW2 themed game than a Star Wars one, of different lenghts) with the same turn sequence as WW2 WoW (planning, moving, firing, doing some other stuff), but you do not have a maneuvred planned in advance so you actually use each maneuvre just after it has been planned. I will just quote one BGG user comparing both systems (but there are other similar comments around):
JustTee wrote:
Movement in X-Wing is incredibly predictable. So far, not one movement phase has had anyone exclaiming "HOLY S**T WHAT A MOVE!" or anything similar, whereas we usually get that once per skirmish in WoW.
So this is why WoW uses the kind of planning it uses in its two versions.
I hope I have been clear enough and not too technical.
Have fun!