For the last few weeks, my gaming friends and I have been playing Eric Holtz’s and Phil Hall’s WWI Air-to-Air combat game Canvas Eagles. Canvas Eagles is an update to the older Blue Max WWI air combat game published by GDW. The principle feature of the game is that the rules and playing aids are free. Players only need to supply their own hex mat and aircraft figures. Canvas Eagles is designed to be a miniatures game but could be played on a hex map with counters.
Anyone interested in the game can download the files from http://www.eaglesmax.com/
Canvas Eagles is simple and fun game to play. The rules are well written and easy to understand. The game mechanics are simple: players pick a maneuver that is dependent upon the current speed of their aircraft. Once all players have picked their maneuver, each aircraft is moved to it’s final position 1 to 3 hexes away from the starting position in the proper facing and altitude. Combat takes place if a player has managed to maneuver their aircraft into a firing position. Movement and combat is simultaneous and combat is only resolved after all aircraft have moved. The game mechanics includes rules to allow aircraft tailing one another try and continue to stay behind their opponent.
Combat is resolved after movement. The player selects the burst type to fire and a die is rolled to determine if hits are made. Inflicted hits are determined by pulling chits secretly from a pool of counters. Hits are categorized as either blue or red hits with red hits representing significant damage. An aircraft is shot down if the pilot is killed or a portion of the aircraft is completely destroyed.
Eric Holtz and Phil Hall provide a comprehensive set of playing aids and aircraft options. Unlike most WWI air combat games, aircraft from throughout the war are modeled. Aircraft are divided by power (allied or axis) and designated either early or late war. Aircraft that spanned the dividing point for the early/late war periods appear in both lists but with different statistics. Both single engine and multi-engine aircraft are provided in the aircraft charts. Playing aids include instructions for making aircraft stands and an alternative damage system using dice.
For my games we use the Wings of War 1/144 WWI miniatures using the flight stands described in a previous post. For the widest selection of aircraft, one will need to resort to using 1/72 scale aircraft models.
My gaming group has found that we can complete a two-on-two engagement in about an hour and a half. We had originally been using the Dawn Patrol rules from TSR but the combat results from that game were not very lethal. This is not the case for Canvas Eagles. The red damage chits provide a 1 in 16 chance of achieving an immediate kill and most aircraft are vulnerable to tail hits. This feature makes all combat dangerous and exciting.
If your gaming group has been looking for a WWI air combat game, Canvas Eagles is worth a look not only because it is free but it is also a fun game.
August 8, 2010 at 3:11 am |
If you are interested in playing Blue Max online you can do so at hexcellgames.com. Blue Max misses some of the complexity of Canvas Eagles – there is no altitude tracking and the range of planes is smaller – but is still a very compelling game.
Come on over and we can have a game.