Wings of Glory Resources

As I move away from using Wings of Glory for my Great War in the Air gaming (and in its place using Check Your 6! Great War), I deleted the page in which I listed a slew of Wings of Glory resources. So as to not lose these resources, but also to free up some page space, I am listing the resources as a blog post.

Facebook - billed as the "Official Wings of Glory" group.

Flight Deck Decals - 1/300th scale decals and now 1/144 aircraft.

I-94 Enterprises - High quality 1/144th and 1/300th scale decals and excellent service.

Litko Aerosystems - Ammo, jammed, smoke, fire, and other types of tokens to enhance your game.

Mako Models International - carries the Mark I 1/144th scale decals (eBay).

Miscellaneous Miniatures - 1/144th and 1/300th scale decals with great service.

Pro Painted Studios - modified range sticks that I use with my adjusted firing rules.

Rival Sky Games - officially approved Ares bases and fine service.

Table Top Flights - 1/144th scale aircraft of fantastic quality.

Transparent Vinyl Tape - for marking pegs.

Wings of Glory Aerodrome - Become a member...this is the place that is keeping the game alive.

A Little Wings of Glory Recap

Yesterday was the monthly gaming session of the Wright Flight, and while I was planning on doing Polish-Soviet action using a slew of house rules, the lack of players meant we went with just one table, eventually getting up to eight attendees. 

We did two games of early war action (then why was there an Aviatik D.I on board?), seeing a mix of German aircraft against various early model Nieuports. I pulled out my Escadrille Americaine Lawrence Rumsey repaint for the first game, and in the second game I jumped over to the German side and used my Shapeways Siemens-Schuckert D.I, a copy of the Nieuport 17 but one that performs like the Nieuport 11. In both early war games I took a few hits, gave out a few hits, and jumped off the board before dying in either game.

A cluster of Nieuports, with a new player turning right towards my Rumsey!

Second game's plane of choice!

Nothing to see here (and I survived this passing attack)

Bill, that Halberstadt does make a nice photo.

Matt's nicely painted Shapeways British N.11

Passing planes over the Channel

We played another game with six participants, a later war affair. This time I had a chance to use my little Pfalz Dr.I, and the little beauty performed well. The O Deck is a dream, and I shredded a SE.5a that flew right into my arc. The Allies took a bit of beating...they did shoot down the Baron (well, somebody had to do it) and put some damage on the Fokker D.VII, but with the SE.5a unable to put out its fire and the Camels having taken a crap ton of damage, it would be considered a German victory. We also used my new range sticks from Pro Painted Studios, and they, along with my modified firing ranges, seemed to work well. Next time I'll add in deflection!

The Germans gather

Say hello to my little friend - the SE.5a takes a fire result. I would apologize for my actions, but I wouldn't mean it, and why waste a good apology?

Soon the end of the Baron...no one likes that Prussian anyway

We had a couple of new players, who had a tendency to ignore spatial awareness, or even friendly planes, and plotted turns that caused collisions. Luckily in the late war game my C Damage card was a goose egg for the goose-stepping Pfalz pilot, but Lord, gotta watch those new players!

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

Mat - GripMats