A Blast from the Past

Over New Years we entertained some old friends and their 8 year old son. At one point the boy was looking for a game to play and I rummaged around the game closet to see what might be fun. We played Munchkin once and he liked that and then we pulled out Wings of War. The dad and son sat down and played a few rounds and the game was a nice success.

I always felt like Wings of War deserved to be a bigger hit in our gaming club than it ended up being. The aircraft models are really nicely done, the rules are simple at the basic level but have some optional touches that add realism without sacrificing gameplay, and it all moves along very smoothly and gives a good quick game. I think Wings may have suffered because relatively few people are interested in the First World War, and because it straddled the line between board game and miniatures game. Many board gamers may have felt the planes were too expensive and many miniatures gamers may have been bothered by prepainted miniatures. In any case the game and its components are now being sold at huge discounts by multiple online shops.

That being said, I would Still highly recommend Wings of War as a fun air combat game. In fact, considering that you can get it for a song, I might recommend it even more highly.  As a bittersweet postscript my friend plans to buy the X-Wing game now, which uses the same mechanics but lies squarely in the rapidly expanding Star Wars universe of merchandise. My poor biplanes have been tossed aside for shiny TIE fighters and A-Wings!