Angels One Six WWII flying taking off soon
By Tom Gall
Like to fly the unfriendly skies? Love the challenge of flying an airplane in 3d across the tabletop trying to shoot down your opponent(s)? Love the history of WWII aircraft and fielding your own planes? Aspire to be an Ace?
There are some some of the many joys that come to life with Angels One Six a new WWII flying game that uses tabletop miniatures, dice and your skills to recreate WWII air combat.
Over the years there’s been a few WWII air combat games: Check Your Six, Bag the Hun, Wings of Fire, Wings of Glory, and the recently discontinued Blood Red Skies pop to mind as interesting examples.
Savage Mouse Games is just about to launch their kickstarter for Angels One Six, a new WWII flying game. We’ll have a couple of articles to look at what’s coming and get a sense of how it plays.
What sets Angels One Six apart?
Build quality. The very first thing people have noticed as they examine the game is how well engineered it is. The planes are prepainted. The planes are magnetized so they fit right onto their flight stands without any fiddling. The plexiglass bases and telescopic sticks for representing altitude, are very well done. The time from opening to the box to being ready for a quality game is measured in minutes. No gray plastic, no having to get out the glue and the primer, you’re ready to scramble from the get go.
When opening the box you’ll be presented with this. There are four planes in total in the initial box, two Spitfires and two ME-109s, the bases, flight stands, and cockpits, rules and dice. The whole package is a master class in quality workmanship for not only a game, but a game system.
Let’s look at an ME-109 close up, left and right views.
The only thing effectively missing are the squadron and individual aircraft markings which as it turns out as supplied as decals for you to personalize your aircraft. I’d estimate the scale as being 1/144 which frankly is a perfect size. It’s not too small and not too large.
In comparison, here is an Angels One Six Spitfire sitting next to a Wings of Glory 1/200 Spitfire. While the Wings of Glory models pushed new ground with a prepainted mini, it’s clear that Savage Mouse Games has taken it to a new level. Look at the cockpit glass for instance, while it’s plastic on the Wings of Glory model, the Angels One Six version is very nicely painted and frankly a much better representation.
Yes, the Wings of Glory model has a propeller, but on the other hand those always seem like the first thing to get bent or break off so I’m glad that Savage Mouse decided to not include it.
This is the base used for airplanes. It’s not clear if there will be different bases for different types of aircraft. So far, it’s all the same. First, you’ll notice the yellow lines which mark the target aspects for when you’re being shot at. When someone is shooting at you from the tail, (the bottom quarter in the picture) you’ll see they need a base 3+ to hit. From the sides for a deflection shot, you’ll need 5+ and head on a 4+. The red line down the middle of the airplane silhouette shows where your guns fire. It’s not an arc, it’s an exact line. The line is traced to the base of the plane you’re shooting at. If the line doesn’t intersect, it’s not a shot! Which aspect it intersects with determines your base to hit that you’ll need on a D6.
Let’s take a look at how a plane is mounted on its stick. With the box are four telescoping sticks. They screw into the base and then the airplane is attached via a magnet at the top of the stick. Extend the stick by a notch and the plane has climbed altitude.
Simple, elegant, and captures the 3d element of air combat. It’s a solid system and with the sticks being collapsible, it makes for easy transport. If you’re not making aircraft noises at this point, you should be.
Unique to Angels is a physical cockpit, with one per plane. This is for the ME-109. The cockpit tracks your speed, actions, and aircraft statistics with a themed looked and feel. You’ll notice at the top are a list of maneuvers, their cost in actions and airspeed. I’ve not installed the dials, which are included for the speed as well as for the actions. More about those when we get to game play.
You’ll notice the armament section and the airframe save both of which come into play when shooting. While the initial box only includes fighters, it seems based on various hints that bombers will be making an appearance soon.
We’ll explore all the information on the cockpit as part of the next game play article. The action and maneuvers as specific per plane. Thus, the big pigs will have a different set of choices as well as cost in action and speed. As the game matures this element will be tested to represent the variety of aircraft performance across the air forces in WWII.
The cockpit is a unique design element for Angels One Six as compared to other flying games. The approach also sets the expectation an individual player is perhaps not likely to be flying a huge number of planes at once. There are those over achievers, but I would imagine flying 1-3 planes per player is about right.
Setting
The initial game is set during 1940 and the Battle of Britain. Included with the initial box there are the expected Spitfires, and ME-109s, flown during the Blitz. I, for one, am hopeful that we’ll see more of the aircraft used during the time period. ME-110s, Ju-88s, HE-111s, Hurricanes all pop to mind but it’s also important we keep well “grounded” as getting a game off the ground is no small feat. As gamers we all want more, mOre, More, MORE.
If you take a look at the initial kickstarter page you’ll see the Hurricane, the M-110 for instance so it does stand to reason, you dear gamer are going to get that MORE you look for. In what quantity, and perhaps waves or however it might we, who knows! None-the-less there is plenty in this initial box to thoroughly enjoy WWII air combat.
The game positively nails the look and feel for a flying game.
Next Installment
This article has focused on the first impressions of the Angels One Six box. How does it play? That’s the next article. I’ve set my alarm early for the next dawn patrol. You should too.
Remember the kickstarter opens up soon, sign up and you’ll get notified the moment it opens.