Description: Down In Flames: Rise of the Luftwaffe
 
Well, a guy in my group picked this game yesterday, and we tried it
out last night. We've only played once, but I figured I'd give a
"First Taste" review.
 
First off, I hope I've got the name right. It's the "Down In Flames"
series, and I think I'm right on "Rise of the Luftwaffe". Minimally,
I'm close. It comes in a "Gamette" size box, and it's Blue.
 
It's from GMT games, relatively new, and they have an expansion coming
for it.
 
In a simple nutshell, it's almost the "Naval War" equivalent of WWII
air combat over Europe. A card game that has airplane cards and action
cards.
 
Players are divided up into two sides (Axis and Allies), then given an
aircraft. There are fighters and bombers in the game, but we only
played a simple meeting engagement between 4 fighters. A player could
manage more than one plane, but the "hands" are managed on a plane by
plane basis.
 
When flying fighters, you've got a Leader and a Wingman. The Leader
aircraft has attibutes that rate how many bursts it can make, the
performance of the aircraft and it's horsepower. The Wingman is only
rated with a defensive value.
 
I like the abstraction that the bursts/performance/horsepower ratings
provide. Bursts rates what kind of Attack cards can be used,
Performance limits how many cards are allowed in your hand, and
Horsepower is how many cards you can draw at the end of the turn.
 
This makes sense, because speed can give a lot flexibility in several
kinds of combat, so the more cards you have the more flexiblity you
have to attack and react. Yet, Horsepower limits how fast you can gain
your speed back. This concept works out pretty well.
 
You engage your oppenents by using Maneuver Actions. The maneuver
cards have items like "Tight Turn" or "Half Loop". Some maneuvers will
allow you to gain an advantage on an opponent, attacking from the side
or from behind. Gaining an advantage lets increases your Burst value
(letting you use larger cards), and prevents the disadvantaged from
attacking back.
 
When you play a Maneuver card, the other player can respond with
another Maneuver card. So, if you pull a "Half Loop" to get on your
opponent, he may play a "Tight Turn", and get out of the way. This
give and take continues until someone prevails (typically by running
out of responses or maneuvers to play).
 
Attacking is similiar, you'll play an Attack card, and the other
player can then respond with a manuever to get out of the line of
fire. Yet more give and take continues until someone either hits or
misses. The cards tell all, there are no dice in the game.
 
The Wingman is an abstraction that can attack other players, or
maneuver other players into a disadvantaged position (chase them into
your Leaders sights so to speak). They are clearly important to the
game. Lose your Wingman, and your Leader starts getting into much more
trouble, much more quickly.
 
We found the game pretty fun. It was enjoyable to watch the various
maneuvers being played out and to imagine the planes twisting and
turning to get a decent position. The complexity of the game come form
the engagement rules and the differences between how a Leader acts and
a Wingman acts, but the mechanics are pretty simple.
 
I think that it models the environment pretty well. It is clear that
some planes are better than others, but it's not always true that the
better plane always wins. Getting a run of Attack cards and no
Maneuver cards gets you all set to just riddle someone with bullets if
you can just get him off your tail (where he is riddling you with
bullets).
 
We want to try some of the "Bomber" scenarios which give a few more
goals to the game. The GMT folks said that their new expansion will
contain a LOT more airplanes so that larger games can be played. They
mentioned that during playtest, they ran a mammoth 16 player "North
Afica" game. That wouldn't be as bad as it sounds, as it is diffuclt
to be "Ganged up on", and players tend to pair off (whereas in say,
Naval War or Nuke War you can be dead before it's even your turn if
the other players really want too). Also, once you get the rules down,
it moves fairly quickly.
 
I'd recommend the game to anyone who may like the concepts of WWII air
combat or anyone who likes card games like Naval War or Nuclear War.
 
 
-- 
Will Hartung - Hermosa Beach, Lower Left Coast.         vfr750@netcom.com
1990 VFR750 - VFR=Very Red    "Ho, HaHa, Dodge, Parry, Spin, HA! THRUST!"
1993 Explorer - Cage? Hell, it's a prison.                    -D. Duck