Age of Dogfights WW I

From the Publisher:

In this game, planes from the First World War meet in a battle. Simple rules of movement and firing include all the most important features of the aircraft of the time: speed, agility and firepower. Battles are lead at five different altitudes, so there are differences between the planes in terms of climbing and descending speeds. Some specific characteristics were also taken into account, such as gyroscopic effect, which gives some aircraft exceptional maneuverability. Wind influences movement and the position of the sun affects firing accuracy, so these factors are also taken into account. A plane under attack can escape into the clouds and thus hide from the enemy. Most of the pilots are average, but there are also rookies and aces.

The game contains as many as 54 plane pieces belonging to three countries: France, Germany, and Great Britain. Each country has 6 types of aircraft (3 pieces each) from different war periods.

In the initial period of WW1, most planes were single-engine two-seaters whose primary purpose was to observe and photograph enemy positions and background, but they also dropped bombs and fired at enemy aircraft when meeting in the air. As early as 1915, specific aircraft with special tasks appeared: fighting, reconnaissance, and bombing. Accordingly, there are three basic types of warplanes in this game, and their characteristics can be described as follows:

FIGHTERS are small, fast, and agile single-seaters. They can accelerate rapidly and they are armed with fixed machine guns that shoot straight forward in the axis of the aircraft. There are exceptions, however - two-seaters with additional dorsal machine guns (Bristol F.2 Fighter and Hanriot HD.3).

SCOUTS are single-engine two-seaters, their primary task is to photograph enemy positions, which is why they have cameras. They also have fixed and dorsal machine guns, so they can fight as well, but they can't accelerate abruptly. They can also carry one bomb.

BOMBERS have two engines and carry two or three bomb markers. They also have flexible nose and dorsal machine guns, which can only be used defensively.

WORTH OF CERTAIN AIRCRAFT TYPES

On all control panels, in the upper right corner, there is a number that indicates the worth of that type of aircraft. In the basic game, all fighters have similar values (from 6,5 to 7,5), with the exception of two extremes, Airco DH-2 (6) and Fokker D.VII (8). In the expansion, there are some older types from 1914-5 which are worth much less.

To calculate the value, we made a formula that takes into account all the characteristics of the aircraft (in this game). Speed is an important factor, but agility is twice as important. Other characteristics of the aircraft (armament, gyroscopic effect, climbing speed, ...) were taken into account in an appropriate way. The results are quite realistic: the highest value is Fokker D.VII (8), followed by SPAD S.XIII, Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr.I (7.5), while the worst are the slow Russian Mosca-Bystritsky Mbbis and sluggish Turkish Fokker D.I (4,5). For scouts and bombers, there is a worth for the empty aircraft and for the total value when carrying bombs (numbers in brackets).

These values do not affect the basic game, and they are used if you have the expansion. In some scenarios, you can choose a smaller number of planes with a high value or a larger number of those that have bad features (lower value). We believe that gamers will be interested in playing a game in which, for example, 8 Russian fighters try to protect the bombers from the attacks of 6 Austro-Hungarian fighters.

An Excel spreadsheet which contains the mathematical formulas we used can be found as a link on this side.