Instead of picking the maps/aircraft sheets at the setup of the vsav, could I load say a 12x12 space holder as the sheets and import the aircraft sheets as cards and place them on the map instead. That way it would be totally flexible as to what aircraft are selected?
This way I’m not locked down to fixed aircraft selected for a scenario. Thoughts?
Charles
Start with a generic aircraft description “map”.
Create pieces which just have the label for every type of aircraft make and model. Also ID numbers as needed. These can be made as a single piece which can cycle through MANY different “faces” using whatever keys are desired ( up-arrow/down-arrow, PageUp/PageDown, “<” and “>”, left-arrow/right-arrow, etc.)
Create other Pieces, “MAX” and “MIN” to be placed on the generic aircraft description
So you have Speed with a line of numbers, with [ MIN-> ] and [ ← MAX] placed on them (Min placed on 0, points at speed 1. Max placed on 8, points at speed 7).
Damage track(s), Climb, Dive, and Turn capabilities need only max. If using a movement points / arc turned in one hex (akin to Aces High), then make appropriate designator pieces.
These Pieces should have the “do not stack” attribute" as well as things like “current speed” “current climb/dive rate” etc. ALSO being non-stacking, so that moving a status marker doesn’t accidentally move a capability/limitation marker.
Expand on these ideas as necessary.
I don’t recommend this approach. If you implement an aircraft sheet as a piece and make it non-stacking, then also make the status markers intended (presumably) to always be above the aircraft sheet non-stacking, you lose all control/predictability of drawing order–i.e., what goes on top of what.
You can prevent markers stacking with sheets and regulate top-to-bottom drawing order by using Game Piece Layers, which is a map level feature. Your pieces will need properties to classify them as belonging to different GPLs to support this functionality.
You could make the aircraft tracker cards Mats, and the tracker markers Mat Cargo. If you then also use Attachments to tie the markers to the tracker and tie the tracker to the airplane counter, then you can send commands back and forth between the counter, the tracker, and the markers.
I do something similar in Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific version 2.0.0-beta.
There, I have a hand from which I can pick specific trackers. When I put a tracker in a player hand, it automatically gets its status markers, and the unit piece is placed on the tracker. The tracker and the piece are Attachments to each other, and the status markers are Mat Cargo on the tracker, as well as mutual Attachments. That means, if I move, for example, the long-range-strike resource status marker, then the tracker will know that, and the piece will be able to ask if it can do a long-range-strike.
Yours,
Christian
The very first line of my reply specified that the aircraft sheet should be a map.
Therefore not a piece.
Your suggestion has the problem of making the limit markers the same entity as current value marker, rather than as seperate objects. Cholmcc’s solution (using mats rather than maps) is probably superior.
Made the Aircraft sheets work as a deck card but because it is placed at the location of a blank sheet that has zones to hold markers it blocks those zones from working. So not satisfied at this point.
In what way are the zones not working?
If you are making pilots as pieces, how do you allow for unnamed pilots, who can be of varying quality, from zero-experience greenhorn to any of the many fairly experienced squadron leaders?
There were many skilled WW1 pilots who never got the sort of press coverage as Rickenbacker, Richtofen, Guynemer, and others whose names are recorded in biographies and books written about the Western Front. And those who served on the Eastern Front are even less known. On the eastern front, there was no media circus around any squadron they way there was around Richtofen’s “Flying Circus.” And of course, the guys who flew bombers and photo-recon missions were never glamorized, no matter how well they performed in the air, since they were the prey, not the hunters.
Other than Roland Garros (bullet deflector wedges), and Manfred von Richtofen + his younger brother & his cousin due to the same last name, most of the WW1 pilots who we know by name got the fame because they were more talkative with the press than the overwhelming majority of their often equally skilled and accomplished peers. Richtofen was very much an introvert (possibly even somewhat autistic), but the German government publicized his status as the most deadly fighter pilot in the whole war around the time that he shot down his 40th enemy aircraft.
Length of survival if they died the same week they joined they are -2 flying -2 luck. If they lived through the war but crashed multiple times they would be +2 luck maybe -1 flying skills.
Are there any other pilot characteristics other than name and “luckiness”?
examples:
perceptiveness / anticipation of enemy movement
tailing ability (similar concept, but only when in a tailing position)
aerobatic ability (i.e. ease/proficiency at doing such things as:
Greenhorns might be able to conduct slow turns and “gentle” climbs and dives, but not able (or specifically commanded) not to attempt to climb or dive close to the edge of the performance envelope… in which case, a pilot attempting to do so might have to pass a die roll test first…and depending on scenario special rules, attempting to go to the limits of the aircraft’s performance envelope either fails (pilot fear prevents him from even attempting to performe the maneuver) or pilot attempts to push the edge of the envelope, and loses control of the aircraft (climb might result in aerodynamic stall + loss of altitude + downward pointing attitude, dive might result in entering a spin)
Gunnery ability (proficiency rating for fine-tuning alignment of the aircraft for forward firing machine guns to hit the target).
Maybe “landing finesse” … Manfred von Richtofen’s landings were often regarded as “hamfisted” by other German pilots – could effect probability of outcome of landing a structurally damaged aircraft (no additional damage… aircraft takes additional damage and/or pilot suffers additional injury/hit points … pilot dies (with or without additional damage to aircraft. I saw reports of one case where a pilot, during landing, flipped the nose into the ground… killed the pilot, but the only real damage sustained by the a/c was a busted propeller). I believe ths was early in the war, before strapping the pilot into the seat was SOP.
Maybe these don’t apply, i haven’t read your rules yet, but these are things to consider.
Luck impacts spin recovery, and landings, also recovery from passing out. Richthofen I have wrestled with bouncing between Flying bonus of +0 to +1 and always a gun rating of +2. Voss on the other hand gets a +2 for flying as he was just a natural flyer!
For some reason my reply to this thread did not show up so here is a copy of the email.
Skill level impacts what maneuver cards you have access to, also ace movement, initiative modifier, and aircraft maneuverability. Flying skills also impact maneuverability, gun skills adds or subtracts from attacks on enemy. Jam clearing, repairs (more his maintenance crew), visibility modify search rolls.
