Back to the Front

I have returned to the WW1 dogfight rules after a bit of a hiatus,  I often do this after researching things as it gives time for the facts to filter down to what ever part of my brain converts real world facts into wargame rules.

The two issues which had been giving me a bit of trouble were handling the gain and loss of energy during out of plane maneuvers (anything that doesn't involve level flight).  After a bit of thought and due to little hard information on some of the key statistics I have decided to simply divide aircraft up based upon airframe types and allocate a general rating for energy gain and loss in climbs and dives.  I'm going to ignore the impact of speed on turn arcs as the game is intended to be quick play.  I have decided that the relevant airframe classes are going to be

• V strutters (mainly Albatrii and Nieuports) - these have a lower maximum velocity as the wings tend to fall off in high speed dives

• Biplane single seat scouts

• Triplane single seat scouts

• Two seaters

• Pushers

• Multi-engined

I have arbitrarily assigned energy factors across each of these classes based upon an assumed drag factor of each design and rotary engines are penalised in dives because of the risk of overspeeding the engine and blowing out cylinders.

I have created special 'moves' for the commonest combat maneuvers such as Immelman turns (both wingover and hammerhead type), barrel rolls and yo-yos.  These cost a number of move points and cost energy and have a movement 'footprint' on the table.  I need to do some playtesting next to see if these give a decent feel without adding to much rule overhead.