Rulebook complexity
6 days ago – Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 04:39:57 AM

While we are waiting for a few last components to arrive these days, when we will show the whole box contents in the next update (and shortly after, the first packages will start shipping), we are now showing one important element – the Player Aid sheet.

During the campaign, and especially during this long period while we were writing the rules, there were a lot of comments and questions related to the overall complexity of this game. A comparison with the game AoD:WW1, for which we received a lot of praise, also arises. Among other things, gamers especially liked the fact that in AoD1, besides high realism and the ability to use a lot of aircraft in a game at once, the game kept simplicity and easy gameplay without the need to analyze complex charts and formulas. AoD1 rulebook fits on 16 pages. The rulebook of the new game (AoD:WWII) has as many as 52 pages, so some backers fear that the game has lost the ease of playing.

The reasons for the longer rulebook are the following:

1) AoD2 has a lot more elements compared to AoD1. New content is added in the Movement section, such as Inertia (which is especially important because it gives additional realism to the game), Aerobatics has been expanded with new maneuvers, etc. The Air-to-Surface Actions are explained in much more detail, and a new section has been added: the Surface-to-Air Firing (which was in an expansion of AoD1 and it was much shorter). Air-to-Air Firing is also shown in more detail and some more factors are added.

2) The way of writing the rules itself has been improved, there are more examples and diagrams. We also included negative examples showing how something should not be done.

What should be pointed out is that many rules are optional and this is clearly highlighted. The rulebook also provides instructions on how to adjust the complexity of the game according to players' affinities. In practice, when most of the optional rules are removed and some simpler scenarios are played (without complex air-ground tasks) the game is very similar to AoD1, with the fact that the rules are written more clearly and with more examples.

We as the authors are very satisfied because we think that we have introduced significant improvements and additional realism to the game compared to AoD1, while retaining the dynamic and fluid gameplay.

Player Aid

Once all the rules have been read and a few games have been played, the Player Aid is sufficient as a reminder during play. Only when using more complex optional rules (such as Aerobatics) and playing more complex scenarios, players would need to occasionally look at some part of the Rulebook during the game.

Player Aid summarizes all important rules and all charts, on a double sided sheet. Two sheets are in the set so that each player has one at hand.

Significant portion of the front side of the sheet is used by optional rules, and the back side mostly covers charts for bombing, launching rockets, anti-aircraft firing etc. Therefore, when playing simpler scenarios, a little more than half a page is needed as a reminder during play.

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Our collaborator on writing the rules, Steve Clack, gave us his remarks and comments during the proofreading of the text, which helped us a lot to make the instructions clearer and more specific. His opinion about the rulebook is as follows:

“Although the AoD WWII rulebook is much longer than the AoD WWI equivalent, the core rules are still under 20 pages. More than a dozen pages are devoted to detailed diagrams and examples, half a dozen pages to (fascinating) historical background and technical explanations, and the remainder to optional rules that can be added in almost any combination, as desired.

For those seeking a more streamlined gaming experience, the rulebook provides the option to omit more than eight pages of the core rules (clearly marked). These sections primarily cover special mission types, such as air-to-surface attacks and surface-to-air firing. By choosing to exclude these sections, the basic game rules can be condensed to a length comparable to those of AoD WWI.”

Update #45
about 1 month ago – Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 09:15:59 AM

New project: Flying Saucers
2 months ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 08:32:24 AM

FLYING SAUCERS

We want to inform you that the campaign for our board game FLYING SAUCERS is live on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nicsteele/flying-saucers-0?ref=17y3sk

This time, the campaign was prepared and will be led by our friends and associates from the German publishing company Spieltrieb, and they will also handle the entire production and subsequent distribution of the rewards.

Flying Saucers is probably our best game, and certainly the most original one. The first version of the game was created and released back in 2007. Since then, the game has been improved several times, and all game mechanics in the Kickstarter edition are identical to the ones our author team submitted to the German publisher for testing. The last version of the rules was written just before the Essen Fair 2019, when our team had a guest appearance at the Spieltrieb stand.

We like to make games with short, clear and simple rules. The best example is the diceless game Tank Chess (4-page rulebook) in which several types of tanks (each one with only three characteristics: speed, firepower and armor) fight each other. The first edition of the game Flying Saucers had only four types of pieces and even simpler mechanics – only two piece characteristics are important: strength (which combines both firepower and armor) and speed. This is kept the same in the first level of the final version. Originally, it is also played without a die, which was added later as optional, to introduce luck into the game.

We also like to make games about aerial warfare, and our games Age of Dogfights: WWI, and Age of Dogfights: WWII are perfect examples. In the game Flying Saucers, starting from the second level, Bombers, Attackers, Carriers and many more piece types join Fighters, Intruders and Strikers, which make this game perfect for gamers who enjoy very dynamic "aerial" battles.

Various types of flying saucers are fighting somewhere in distant space to collect resources, process them in facilities, and use them to assemble a structure that will ensure their survival (and victory in the game). The following images show some examples from the rulebook.

In addition to the basic tasks that exist in each of the 4 levels, there are a variety of interesting scenarios that provide endless opportunities for creative fun and competition. Some of the scenarios are: Neutralizing Base Station; Breakthrough of Bombers; Return of Voyager; Collecting crystals; Rescue of Nuclear Foundry; Convoy, etc. The following images show diagrams of some scenarios.

Age of Dogfights

As we announced in the previous update, we finished the remaining diagrams and examples in the instructions, along with a few minor chapters. The entire text is now being proofread, and here we will showcase the pages that were not presented in the previous update. The printing of the rulebook will take some time, and at the same time, we'll finish the printing of some auxiliary sheets. All in all, the most important part of the work for the authors has been finished, although under a lot of stress and tension, but we are completely satisfied because we managed to incorporate everything we wanted into the final product.

The first few pages:

The remaining pages of Air-to-Air Firing chapter:

Other rules:

PDF with the whole rules can be found HERE. (note that we will print a few dozen rulebooks on digital printers before printing the whole batch on offset machine, when we will add a few auxiliary titles that are not included now, on pages 48 and 50).

Update #43
3 months ago – Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 09:50:28 AM

We are aware that we have delayed the announced finalization of the rulebook, and thus, the completion of production several times. Now that process is finally coming to an end. Unfortunately, we were by no means able to realistically estimate how much time we needed for the last part of the creative phase of a project of this magnitude. We don't want to make excuses, you have every right to be angry and impatient, but we hope you'll be satisfied when you finally get your games.

There have been some comments here and on BGG questioning whether we'll deliver the rewards at all; to reassure you, it will definitely happen very soon. As we have already produced 95% of the elements, we certainly won't be throwing them away. What remains to be printed are only the instructions, and a punched sheet with chits and auxiliary player aids.

Since the process of printing the entire edition of instructions on an offset machine will take some time, we decided to print a few dozen rulebooks on digital printers before that. It is an additional cost for us, but these rulebooks will serve for proofreading done by our community here, and, on top, we will also use these for the first batch of the games to be sent to the backers. That batch is intended for backers who pledged for some expansions, that are due in the second wave, so we could ship them the offset-printed rulebook along later (since there might be some need for corrections). Our main proofreader from England has already finished most of the text, but due to the changes in the meantime, everything will be checked once again.

At this point, we can present the rulebook almost in its entirety, except for a few pages that lack updated images, and a few shorter chapters that are currently being edited.

 

 

 

Update #42
5 months ago – Sun, Nov 26, 2023 at 10:22:06 AM

These days we are busy working on ironing out the rules for the game. Completion of work on them is near. We thought we would not publish updates until everything is finished, because preparing the update material takes our precious time (about two to three days). However, due to justifiedly impatient backers, we are now publishing an update. In it, we show the last game we played and in which we made sure that all the rules work well. Before describing the game played, we give some general information.

We admit that we are quite late with deliveries and there are various reasons for this. Several times we gave estimates when everything could be finished and it did not come true. We do not shy away from criticism or our own responsibility. Most innovative projects that are being done in various fields (construction, designing cars, airplanes, software, etc etc) are delayed for numerous reasons, but when finished, everyone benefits. Only the investor has more expenses than initially planned, but not in this case, where the financial loss is beared only by us (Forsage Games), not the backers.

We could have delivered games long ago that would have been quite good. However, when we started to create a game with such a demanding theme and when we saw that the initial idea (based on the game Age of Dogfights: WWI) could be much better, we did not want to miss that chance. Already while the campaign was going on, we received questions and suggestions from individual backers about what they would like this game to contain, that we had not foreseen. After a lot of dedicated work, I think we succeeded in this - to create a game that is very realistic, in which the real aircraft characteristics are perfectly transferred to the board game, and even the tactics used by real pilots. In doing so, we made sure (and I think we succeeded) to keep the simplicity and playability that graced the AoD1 game. We haven't skimped on adding hardware elements either, we have yet to count how much we've added. All those elements raised the cost of production, but that was our choice, because we simply want the game to contain everything we consider necessary right from the first release. We hope you'll have a little more patience, and don't fear, the start of shipping is near, you'll get a game that has much more content and is more advanced than what was announced during the campaign.

Game according to the scenario "Clear the Skies"

This update, like the previous one, is written by me, Predrag, with personal impressions and evaluations. I would like to emphasize right away that the gameplay was not staged in any way, and that we played to the end according to all the rules and every dice roll. Several times during the game, as luck would have it, we rolled such numbers that seem very improbable: for example, from the best firing position, when it is enough to roll at least 2 for a hit, a 1 was rolled several times in a row.

This scenario is the most demanding, as it has as many as 4 connected episodes. It encompasses fighter combat, reconnaissance, interception, tactical bombing (fighter-bombers), bomber breakthrough, and bombing of a specific target in the enemy background. When I wrote the first version of the scenario and sent it to Stefan for translation into English, his impression was that the Allies had a big advantage and that the third and fourth episodes would be just a formality. I then only partially changed the text, in the sense that in each episode at least a few German fighters have ace pilots.

In this game, Dragan had German planes, while I had Allied ones. The first episode in which two lone Mosquito scouts need to scout three locations behind enemy lines was problematic at the start, as the Germans have two Ta 152 fighters that can prevent them from doing so. It is true that both in reality and in this game the speed of the Moquito is its main asset, but in this case, the German interceptors are even faster, so it would be questionable whether it is even possible for Mosquitos to complete the task. We decided to play that first episode a few times, until we found the best starting setup. As we assumed, in the first run, the German fighters easily caught up and shot down both British scouts. In the second attempt, the Mosquitos had an escort of two Spiteful fighters. In this case, the Mosquitoes easily completed the task, and it turned out that even only two accompanying fighters were overpowering.

In the third run of the first episode, Mosquitoes were escorted by only one Spiteful. We made scouting a little easier, so instead of a fixed altitude (L9) for the scouts, we allowed a range from L7 to L9. In this run of the first episode, only one Mosquito partially completed the task by scouting only one location. The second scout also scouted one zone, but was shot down on its way to the next one. Only after my remaining Mosquito left the board heading west (carrying the films for development and analysis) was Dragan obliged to tell me if there were hidden planes in the recorded area; unfortunately for me, that area was empty. This means that in the next episode, I wouldn't know which of the two remaining zones I should bomb in order to destroy as many German fighters on the ground as possible. After playing three runs of the first episode, we concluded that in the final text for this scenario, there should be one Spiteful protecting the Mosquitos, and the initial position of Ta 152 fighters should be at a very low altitude, to make their task a bit harder.

Episode Two:

In this episode, the Allies have a significant numerical advantage, as many as 13 aircraft against only 4 German Bf 109 fighters. However, most of the Allied aircraft are tasked with attacking the German airfields. Since I didn't find out the exact zone in the first episode (I only know that the hidden fighters are not in the southernmost one), I decided to attack both zones with equal force. Because of this, there is no possibility of completely destroying both zones, so in the third episode, the Germans will certainly have at least a few surviving fighters. I decided to use rockets to destroy the opponent's AA guns in order to make the task easier for fighter-bombers armed with bombs. Dragan managed to shoot down two out of three Typhoons, which significantly reduced my attacking potential. By the end of the episode, I managed to shoot down all the German fighters and drop bombs in both zones (Power 100 in each), and also neutralize a few AA guns. At the end of the episode, Dragan had to show me which zone had the hidden fighters - it was the northernmost one. Since 100 worth of bombs was dropped on that zone, I only destroyed 2 fighters on the ground. It was determined by dice rolls that these were one Me 262 and one Fw 190. That means that, for the third episode, Dragan has at his disposal as many as 6 fighters (one Me 262 and three Fw 190, plus two Ta 152s that survived the first episode).

Episode Three:

In this episode, the player with German planes had as many as 6 excellent fighters to prevent 5 American bombers from breaking through to a distant target in the background. The bombers are accompanied by 6 fighters, but all of them have external fuel tanks. Those tanks can be dropped to allow fighters to actively protect the bombers, but at least a few should retain the tanks so that they can continue to escort the bombers to the distant target in the fourth episode. One unfavorable circumstance for the Germans is that the 4 surviving fighters have just taken off and are at LL altitude. If the game is played with the optional rules "Speed Difference When Firing" and "Inertia", the low altitude and low speed mean that these fighters have to spend a few rounds until they get a chance to fight.

At the very beginning of the episode, I decided to drop the tanks off 2 Mustangs, but it turned out that they were not strong enough to stand up to the German fighters, so that's why I dropped the tank off one Lightning later. By the end of the episode, with fluctuating luck, I managed to get through to the east with 4 out of 5 bombers, however, the problem was that three bombers were damaged. Regarding the fighters, I only had two Mustangs in escort, one of which had spent some ammunition and each had already used up one or two full throttles. One of them was piloted by a beginner, which turned out to be a significant handicap in all the games we had played until then (as it reduces the probability of hitting the target).

Episode Four:

Since I managed, with some luck, to save 4 bombers in the third episode, I hoped that I was close to the final victory. The task in the fourth episode is to bomb a zone, for which destruction is enough to drop bombs from two bombers. Since the task zone is protected by many AA guns, the bombing should be carried out from a higher altitude. On the German side, only two Me 410 heavy fighters participate in this episode, and since heavy fighters are a second class compared to single-engined fighters, I thought that my Mustangs would easily manage to protect their bombers.

However, the game flow was different from my expectations. It turned out that the attack with damaged and slowed down bombers, although flying zig-zag in order to avoid the enemy, was not the best tactic. Also, the Me 410 proved to be a respectable opponent. Their goal was not to fight the Mustangs, but to target the bombers; with their heavy armament, large amount of ammunition (so they can always use tracing bursts) and strong durability, they managed to shoot down two bombers before they had a chance to drop their bombs. One of my Mitchells managed to drop its bombs and hit the target, and the other (A-20) was within reach of the target. Then, however, after performing a sharp turn to compensate its damaged tail, a Me 410 barely managed to get in a firing position and it shot down the A-20! That was the end of the game, because the Allied forces didn't have any more bombers to be able to destroy the target.

The winner of the whole scenario was decided in the last round. We are satisfied with how all the rules work together.