by soccergolf

Had never written a review on here. My first attempt was deemed too short. Out of fairness to the game taking the time to write another. To the moderators ... maybe dial it back on short yet glaringly positive reviews being declined? Seriously ... life is just too short.

Game
Solo wargame specific to U.S. Military air operations during Vietnam. The missions or campaigns, which are time period specific, allow a choice between USAF or USN aircraft

Starting Up
Strongly advise having an organizer of some type handy, as you get all the pieces punched out. Takes a few minutes to unwrap and punch out everything included. Rules are not complex. Game is intuitive and easy to follow.

Game Play
First glance the game can be taken lightly, given the overall low complexity. Conversely, there is a fair amount of depth, which is the draw. You select a squadron of pilots based on the campaign. Various levels of experience and plus/minus ratings on air to air or air to ground attacks. Then, each individual mission puts you into a position to elect the flight (anywhere from 2-6 pilots) AND their munitions. This game mechanic can be as complex and detailed, as you want to make it. Your ability to choose the flight is conducted after you understand the specific mission, goals and defense. Small rules regarding distance of flight applied to aircraft payload weight. Light rule on impact of payload weight on AtA combat. Option to jettison payload. Option to evade attacks. Easy to apply pilot rule around their stress level. Easy to understand pilot XP gain(s). Super unique modifier politics modifier used around each mission target site and some munitions. You want to drop Napalm? Sure, you can do that at a cost. Continue to pick high valued yet highly political targets? You can that too, as they have much higher victory point values. Likewise, much higher political value. Wrong choices? You can "lose"

Overall
Very cool game. You could take the structure given and make this as detailed as you want. Plenty of space to allow for creation of house rules. Ability to do some research and REALLY determine which aircraft would have been far more prominent and likely for availability. Next, what aircraft REALLY performed specific roles. Same applies to skill level of pilots too. You could dial that WAY back especially on F-105 / F-4 during specific years.

Replay Ability
Just intimated at this in the last section. Plenty of replay opportunities. Plenty of room to customize your experience. Example, there is no bonus for downing a MIG. I added a small XP achievement for a pilot downing a MIG. If I wanted, I would tinker with that and adjust it up/down based on time/year and the US/Soviet aircraft in question. Cool game.

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