Above the Clouds!
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Above the Clouds! is a set of air-combat miniature wargame rules for fighting large air battles from the late 1930s through the 1950s. The rules are intended to produce a free-flowing and fast game to represent air combat. Although air warfare is a very technical form of combat¸ rules which focus too much on the technical details quickly lose the "feel" of air combat by turning the game into a slow¸ plodding simulation where seconds of combat time require hours of game time to resolve. To avoid this¸ a fairly minimalist approach was taken in the game design. Individual aircraft have unique capabilities¸ and pilot skill/experience determines advantages and disadvantages¸ but the emphasis in the game is rapid execution of turns so that they game moves quickly. To achive this¸ the following concepts guided the game development: - Each player will typically control 2-4 aircraft - Minimal plotting¸ make a quick decision for each aircraft and move on - Aircraft speeds should matter¸ but it should not take more than a couple seconds to determine speed changes - Combat should be decisive and quick to resolve - Aircraft damage should not be overly detailed -- aircraft will either be fully functional¸ crippled or destroyed - It should span the gambit of combat from teh wars of the late 1930s (Spanish Civil War¸ 2nd Sino-Japanese War) through the 1950s (Korean War¸ Arab-Israeli Wars) I hope you enjoy Above the Clouds!