''Wings of War'', by Andrea Angiolino and Pier Giorgio Paglia, is a modular

boardgame Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

collection published by Nexus Editrice and dedicated to air combat. A new edition is published by Ares Games as ''Wings of Glory''. The games mix

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ga ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

, and

miniature wargaming Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use ...

mechanics to simulate air combat in the 20th century. The first collection is dedicated to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, while a second collection is about the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The air images and cover scenes are by Vincenzo Auletta, and the landscapes on the cards are by Dario Calì. The graphic design is by Fabio Maiorana. The illustrations are based on extensive historical research. First released in Italian in 2004, the game had an official English edition by

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a subsidiary of Asmodée Éditions. History Fantasy Flight Publish ...

. Other official editions have appeared in German, Greek, French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish and Japanese, besides translations into other languages. In 2011 the distribution of Wings of War in English was dropped by Fantasy Flight Games. Shortly thereafter Nexus announced that it was closing down. The licence to produce Wings of War (rebadged as Wings of Glory) then passed to a new Italian company, Ares Games, who now directly distributes the product in English.

Game mechanics

Each plane is depicted on a card and has a set of maneuver cards specifically designed for it, with large arrows on them. The player controlling the plane plans his turn choosing three of the maneuver cards in sequence and putting them face down on the gaming mat. All players then reveal their first maneuver card at the same time, put it in front of the plane card and move the latter so that the little arrowhead on the rear of the plane card matches the one in front of the maneuver card. In this way, planes can then "fly" on the table or the floor. A ruler is used to see if a plane has enemy planes (cards) in his field of fire. If so, the player chooses one target that must take a damage card with a random number of points (optional rules cover special damages too). Short range fire (up to half ruler of distance) mean two damage cards rather than one. The different planes available determine the firepower, maneuver cards available, and number of damage points able to be sustained before being eliminated and are based on that planes historic performance.

First World War Series

The First World War series consists of three standalone sets and a number of expansions. The first two sets are ''Wings of War - Famous Aces'' (Nexus Editrice 2004) and ''Wings of War - Watch your back!'' (Nexus Editrice 2005). ''Famous Aces'' includes a selection of single seater fighters with personal colors of the most renowned aces of World War I. ''Watch your back!'' adds other fighters and some two-seaters allowing bombings, reconnaissance missions and other special scenarios. The third set, ''Burning Drachens'' (Nexus Editrice 2005) adds observation balloons,

AA gun Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

s, air-to-air

Le Prieur rocket ''Le Prieur'' rockets (French ''Fusées Le Prieur'') were a type of incendiary air-to-air rocket used in World War I against observation balloons and airships. They were invented by the French lieutenant Yves Le Prieur and were first used in the ...

s, trench systems, and optional altitude rules. ''Burning Drachens'' includes rules for solo play as well as multi-player dogfights, bombing runs, and strafing or reconnaissance missions. Each set allows 2/4 people to play. The sets can be combined to make larger and more varied scenarios, the number of players being effectively limited by the number of maneuver decks. An expansion was released in 2010, ''Wings of War - Flight of the Giants'' adds heavy bombers into the game and serves as an extension to any of the standalone sets. A number of booster packs add new plane types to the game. Each booster pack contains 2 or 3 manoeuvre decks and several aircraft cards. The booster packs can only be used by owners of at least one standalone set.

Second World War Series

''Wings of War - Dawn of War'' (Nexus Editrice 2007) allows 2/6 players to engage in dogfights with the most famous fighters and ground-attack planes of 1939-1943. The game system is quite different from the one of the World War I collection, so it can not be mixed with other sets. "Squadron" booster packs for the World War II series are ''Wings of War- Eagles of the Reich'' and ''Wings of War- Flying Legend''.

''Wings of War Miniatures''

''Wings of War Miniatures'' adds war game miniatures to ''Wings of War'' by introducing model airplanes on 1/144 scale that are used in place of the airplane cards. The miniatures are made of pre-painted pewter and plastic and come with a gaming base and a set of maneuver cards. A number of different miniatures have been created, and serve as an extension to ''Wings of War - Famous Aces'', ''Wings of War - Watch your back!'', and ''Wings of War - Burning Drachens''.of War Miniatures'' on the Fantasy Flight Games official site
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References

External links

Official site''Wings of War'' fan discussion group''Wings of War Aerodrome'' Missions, Campaigns and Custom Cards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wings Of War Card games introduced in 2004 Dedicated deck card games World War I games World War II games Fantasy Flight Games games