Custom Range Sticks and Deflection

The beauty of the Wings of Glory rules is the ability to add on house rules, in most cases with relative ease. However, the range of the machine guns, when compared to the size of the plane model, is very off. But one also has to consider the amount of playing space. I have a custom three feet by five feet mat which really well on the tables at the local hobby shop - room to maneuver a bit, with room for the miscellaneous gaming paraphernalia that goes along with miniatures gaming. Also, in reading the many house rules on the Wings of Glory Aerodrome, one thought was to measure peg to peg. My solution was to have custom rulers made, with a nine inch range, and changing the ranges to short (two damage cards), medium (one damage card at a +1), and long (one damage card), and measure peg to peg. I've not tried this on the table yet, but am eager to give this a shot. As for altitude, only the short range band is used, and treated as a long range shot.

The custom range sticks you see in the pictures were made by Pro Painted Studios out of Dorset in the United Kingdom. I sent them a rough sketch of what I was looking for, and they produced a wonderful looking range stick. 

Deflection – Measure from the peg of the firing plane to the peg of the target plane. If the line does not both stay within the firing arc and cross the rear edge of the targeted plane, then the shot is a deflection shot. In this case the defender draws two damage cards and decides on which card to keep. If this is a short-range shot, then another card is also given as damage. Example: A Fokker D.VII is firing at a SPAD XIII at short range. The line from peg to peg does not cross the rear of the target plane but is within the firing arc of the Fokker. The defender will draw two cards, keeping the card of his choice and reshuffling the other back into the deck. As this is a short-range shot, a second damage card is also given.

Some pictures showing the sticks and examples of range and deflection.

If playing peg to peg, this shot would be out of arc as the peg of the target plane is out of the firing plane's arc. If playing standard, this would be a medium range deflection shot as the arc of the firing plane does not cross the rear of the target plane's base.

A medium range shot (one card at +1)

A long range shot (one damage card)

A long range deflection shot. Draw two cards and the target player chooses which one to keep, and discards the other.

Looks MUCH better in person