Air wargaming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Air wargaming, like naval wargaming, is a niche specialism within the wider miniatures wargaming hobby. Due to the relatively short time over which aerial combat has developed air wargaming periods tend to break down into three broad periods:
- World War I - from the earliest air combat to the 1920s
- World War II- 1930s to the early 1950s
- "Modern" - the missile age
To this can be added science fiction and "alternative history" such as the various incarnations of Crimson Skies or Victorian Science Fiction such as Aeronefs.
Air wargaming is served by a specialist wargames society, AirWarSoc[1], which was formed by Steve Blease (founder of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers); AirWarSoc currently exists as an online entity. The development of military flight occurred during the period covered by the Society of Twentieth-Century Wargamers[2] and air wargaming articles appear frequently in its quarterly Journal.
Contents |
[edit] Board Games
- Achtung Spitfire
- Blue Max
- The Speed of Heat (Clash of Arms)
- Air Superiority (GDW)
- Air War (Simulations Publications Inc.)
- Flight Leader (Avalon Hill)
- Richthofen's War (Avalon Hill)
- Knights of the Air (Avalon Hill)
- Wings of War: Famous Aces (Fantasy Flight Games)
- Wings of War: Dawn of War (Fantasy Flight Games)
- Air Force and the Dauntless expansion pack (Avalon Hill)
- Down in Flames (GMT)
- Downtown (GMT)
[edit] Miniatures Rules
[edit] WW1
- Air War 1918 (Wessex Games)
- Stringbags (A&A Game Engineering)
- Algernon Pulls It Off (TooFatLardies)
- Wings of War Miniatures (Fantasy Flight Games)
[edit] WW2
- Scramble! and the Angels 15 supplement (A&A Game Engineering)
- Instant Bandits! (Nigel Lancaster)
- Bag the Hun (TooFatLardies)
- Duel of Eagles (QRF)
- Blue Sky series (Blue Sky Enterprises) - currently four modules, Red Sun (Early Far East), Red Star (Eastern Front), White Star (US Daylight Raids), Blue Sea (Mediterranean), and a fifth, Black Cross (Early Western Europe), is in production.
- Check Your 6! (Scott Fisher)
[edit] Modern
- Air War C21 (Wessex Games)
- Fox Two (A&A Game Engineering)
- Instant Thunder! (Nigel Lancaster)
- Clash of Sabres (QRF)
- Fox Two Reheat (A & A Game Engineering)
- Bandits! (Sunray42 - Private Rule set contact - dredpath at shaw.ca)
- Birds of prey (Ad Astra Games)
[edit] Science fiction and fantasy
- Aeronef (Wessex Games) Victorian Science Fiction
- Hard Vacuum (Fat Messiah) WWII rocket combat
- Star Wars: Silent Death (Online rules) "Silent Death" rules for the Star Wars universe.
- Crimson Skies (Fasa) alternate history air combat in a fragment America
- Levithian (Fasa) Far Future fighter level combat in the Renegade legion setting
- Aeronautica Imperialis (Forge World) Warhammer 40k themed aerial combat
[edit] Online Rules
As with most wargaming genres and periods there are a large number of free air wargaming rules available on the internet. Some of these can be found on the Air Wargames Online website.[3]