Wings of War: Famous Aces. Card game with miniatures feel. $34.95.

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Wings of War: Watch Your Back. Card game with miniatures feel. $34.95.

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Designed by Andrea Angiolino and Pier Giorgio Paglia. Published by Fantasy Flight Games.

Passed Inspection: Easy to learn and play; pre-planned movements create intense play throughout the game

Failed Basic: Some important rules are buried inside paragraphs

Wings of War is a series of games about World War I aerial combat that is played with cards, uses board game-like mechanics, and feels like a miniatures game. The first set, Famous Aces, was printed in 2004. Since then, Fantasy Flight Games has published two more in the World War I series and one for World War II. (The latter was previously reviewed on ArmchairGeneral.com.) Each of the games is complete by itself. Booster card packs and prepainted miniatures are sold separately. This review looks at the system and what each title offers.

Famous Aces features the iconic symbols of World War I air combat, such as the Spad XIII, Albatros D Va, Sopwith Camel and Fokker Dr 1. It includes a set of cards depicting aircraft, plus damage cards, four maneuver decks, rulers, counters and game mats. The rules are short and easy to learn, but some essential information is buried in the middle of paragraphs. Several variants of each plane are available, depicted with different paint schemes based on the planes of pilots such as Georges Guynemer, Manfred von Richtofen, Eddie Rickenbacker, Rene Paul Fonck, etc. Different planes do different types of damage, absorb varying amounts of punishment and perform different maneuvers.

There is no game board. Players each select an Airplane card and its set of Maneuver cards and lay a game mat in front of them for bookkeeping. The airplane card is placed face up somewhere in the playing area, its location determined by the scenario.

At the start of every turn, pilots each select three Maneuver cards from their respective decks and place them face down on their mats in the sequence the cards will be played. Possible movements vary according to the plane’s Maneuver category, which in Famous Aces ranges from the basic category A (Look, Ma, I’m flying.) to the very maneuverable D. (How’d he do that?) Other games in the series introduce new maneuver categories.

At the start of each round (three rounds per turn), all pilots flip over their first Maneuver card, which has a blue line that begins at the bottom of the card and ends in a black arrow somewhere on the card; this line shows the plane’s movement for that round. Players place the bottom edge of their Maneuver card against the front edge of their plane’s card. They then pick up the plane’s card and move it to align a black arrow at the bottom of that card over the arrow at the end of the blue line on the Maneuver card. Then, they look around for something to shoot at.

If an enemy plane ended its move within the firing arc shown on an Airplane card, the players use the ruler provided to see if the target is in range and, if so, whether the range is long or short. An unlucky player whose plane has taken fire draws cards from the Damage deck, one for short range or two for long.

The results are kept secret unless they involve fire, smoke or explosions. Most Damage cards have a number, showing how much structural damage has occurred; sometimes the attack scores no damage. Damage is cumulative, tracked by placing the Damage card face down on the player’s mat. When the total equals or exceeds the green number printed on the bottom of the plane’s card, the player reveals the damage cards and removes the plane from play, an event often accompanied by sound effects of a plane crashing to earth.

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