Richthoen's War and the Baron's Flying Lessons

I played this Avalon Hill classic with my cousin Jeff like one bajillion times one summer, but always we each only had one plane and all we had was the RAW. Now I don't know why we played it so much. He was playing a ton of Panzer Leader with his friends back in Vermont and it must have seemed much cooler. Cause even at the tender age of 11 I could tell something was missing. Where was the Barrel Roll? The Immelmann, the Falling Leaf?  Why does this promising game suck so much? And so, after the summer of '79 faded from memory I dove back into DnD and Gamma World and RW was never thought of again...

Getting my hands on PanzerBlitz recently and fooling around with it made me think of this game again. Knowing the fanatics on Board Game Geek come up with all sorts of variants I went in pursuit of a reason to buy this game again. Not only were there multiple variants, they all came through the pages of the General. I felt this meant they were solid variants because Avalon Hill wouldn't let any shoddy, balance-breaking rule changes be considered "official" content. These variants came out soon after the original game was released so seasoned grognards felt the same as I did when I played it. Even if I stumbled across these variants then I'm sure I wouldn't have known what to do with them. But I'm all grown up now and I want at these exciting looking upgrades. 

Same as the PanzerBlitz solo play I completed, I am going to play the game RAW, but use a variant and experience the change! Flying Lessons from the Baron I must try first. Written by Michael Anchors, this variant adds two counters onto your AFP (Aircraft Status Pad) which represent your flight controls. Yes, now I am going to be pulling on the stick, kicking hard rudder and pushing ailerons! The mechanical effect to game play is, at the start of the game turn, all pilots must set their controls to execute changes in direction and altitude and these controls will be “set” for the duration of the turn. The writer has also changed “Speed” to “Throttle”. This is descriptive only but is thematically enhancing.

After the plane has finished moving its controls can be reset. Now, what is the point of all this besides giving you something more that you have to diddle with. ADVANTAGE! A player can see the ASP of an enemy aircraft at other times if they have any of their planes with an advantage. This is when the enemy aircraft is within your forward 120^o arc, seven-hex range and within 250mm in altitude. A player must set his controls and move before they can see any of the enemy’s ASPs. This puts a premium on keeping the enemy in front of you. Knowing what they are going to do before you set your controls is, well, and advantage. This is all when and good, but I am playing solo so the wow factor of surprising your opponent is going to be erased.

Fortunately, Michael has gone far enough to incorporate another popular variant, Unexpected Maneuvers. Unexpected Maneuvers are an additional schedule of 9 turns and elevation changes which simulate all those awesome moves which this game has always lacked. Here we have the Side-Slip, Tight Circle, Loop, all the hits. Not to get far off the track here with another variant, Unexpected Maneuvers, but it is based, mechanically, on a card draw. And you can play the game with this variant and make no changes to the Unexpected Maneuvers procedure. But do not do that. Mike has given you a schedule of “positions” to put your flight controls for each listed maneuver. Set the controls for the heart of the sun! Would you rather make a Vertical Spin by drawing a card or pulling the throttle way back and jam your peddles way forward in a desperate attempt to shake your attacker? This is done by the defender, if attacked (shot at) may change their controls to one of the unexpected maneuvers during a special “Maneuver Phase” that would follow the Defensive Fire Phase. We are going to get into the weeds of this in my next post where I take us through a vicious dogfight between a flight of Sopwith Camels and Fokker DR1s!