Fighting Eagles has a low amount of counters to move about and it does include AA, balloons, bombers, and of course the rickety aircraft made of wood, bailing wire and cloth. 1917 to 1918 was the time when the aircraft finally began to be built strong, fast, and deadlier.
About the only thing missing is the smell and breathing of castor oil, yes, that same old castor oil Mom may have given you to get you regular, that was used for lubricating the engines of these aircraft (aka "acft"). Now, imagine what effect on your body would be by breathing that in while flying for the 2 or 3 hours on a typical mission? Yeah... it happen.
First Impressions - The game comes with 78 *unmounted front and back counters for a total of 39 actual double sided counters, a game map, all on an 11"x17" card stock sheet (The actual game play map is 8.5"x11") and separate rules plus a 1/3 of a page errata addenda sheet. (I emphasize that one should make the corrections from the addenda sheet to the rules before starting the game.)
Also, one of the pieces of errata is for the Fighting Eagles Card Deck and it is just an explanation of that particular deck.
Game Map - That this is one good looking game map that I have seen in a very long time is an understatement. Since the air combat was mostly was over "no man's land", it was a pretty ugly and dismal looking, area. The game map is 64 squares (8 x 8 square grid) and is used to regulate movement. The line pattern you see are trenches (one side or the other, not both as the trenches are all joined).
Counters- The counters are about an inch big and are very nice. Showing a top down view of the aircraft. When flipped over for damage, there is a flame along the plane and a reduction of the Action Factor and Defense. The observation balloons are side views. There are eight fighters, one bomber, and one balloon for each side. Plus eighteen other informational counters, used by both players. This includes the turn counter, a sun counter and a wind direction indicator (both important). The game map has a turn track on it and a combat die roll modifier table (remember to use ALL that applies) in addition to showing how to read an aircraft counter.
You might want to purchase an extra counter sheet to have on hand to replace that any counters you might lose. I am glad I did, as I did lose the British bomber. Probably shot down while I wasn't looking. Usual cost is $1 to $2 or maybe more.
*note - don't forget Paul does offer a mounting service for all his games that have unmounted counters. it is low cost and per counter sheet for the mounting of counters. The counter sheet is glue to a nice cardboard backing, but you still have to cut them out.
By now, you should have notice that the turn track only has 4 spaces. Oh, don't believe it. This game, like most of Paul's designs, uses a deck of cards and once the entire deck is exhausted or a joker shows up, then the turn is over, not before.
In addition to the game, one will need a standard deck of cards or the enhance
"Fighting Eagles Action Deck" (or as I like to call it the "FEAD" for this game.) Cost is $*. Why the deck?
I am pushing it because if you buy these, a lot of "specialized" math rules go out the window... which is good.
For example, though the math is simple, one has to figure it out first. With the FEAD, one doesn't have to figure all that out, what you see is what you get - if a Black 5 is drawn, as the German, you would have 5 APs to move your planes.
Also, if in combat, when the same card color is drawn for your nationality, the number shown is doubled (example - as the German if you are in combat and draw a black 5, then it is doubled to 10 and then all the modifiers are applied. Pretty Slick.). Since there are no face cards, then any type of special activity is printed on some of the cards, such as "check for Guns Jamming". At that point you follow the cards. Makes life (and playing this game) so much easier. Plus in addition to the card deck, one will need to supply a standard 6 sided die (1D6)
Action Points "just a fancy name for doing stuff" - Action Points (AP) are equal to half of the card value, rounding up (example: a Red three (3) card is drawn, halved is 1.5, rounded up gives the Allied player two (2) APs to use for movement.) I believe (though not asked) this rule stops a player from moving everything at once. And puts the game into more manageable time elements, I believe. I am not sure what the size of a square is on the ground or the how many seconds/minutes an AP is - it just ain't important.
Once the AP's for movement and attack setup have been used, then the card is discarded. If one player is attacking the other, then the attacker draws a card for combat. These cards can be any color, doesn't matter for combat, with a regular card deck.
Movement - Each aircraft can move, but not all can move like the next. Does that make sense? Found on page 1 of the rules, is a movement diagram showing the cost and how these planes can move. The diagram also shows one how both the inline engine acft makes its moves and turns and how a rotary engine acft makes it's moves and turns. It is large and well placed. But I bet after using it 5 or 7 times, you will remember it.
Altitude with an attitude - The game does have different altitudes. These range from - very low, low, medium, high and very high. You use markers behind the acft to should where you are in the scheme of things (no markers for medium). And of course when it comes to bombing or strafing or being shot at by AA, altitude makes the difference.
More than one acft can be in a square, but you can't fire at anyone in your square. Heck you will find this all in the rules. There is also acft fragility (look's Italian, a major award!), Power Dive, High Climber, Observer Fire, Observer being incapacitated. And of course winning the game.
Fighting Eagles comes with just the right mix of items to keep the game going.
"Combat Part I or "WTF, why are they shooting at me?" - There are a couple of rules that one can use for face cards in combat as they aren't counted. Both players can (and should) agree that a face card is a miss or if one is drawn then it is discarded and another card drawn. Whatever you want. Some of the good-stuff rules forces the use of the rule "Face Cards being a miss". Such as guns jamming (any face card) and that happened a lot of the time due to faulty ammunition, dirt on ammo, MG's not clean correctly if at all, etc), or if you have a bomber with a rear observer/gunner, then he may be wounded/ killed by turning over a Queen or King face card. Face cards are required for bomb drops in addition to regular suit cards.
Don't worry, while you can't shoot, you can try to unjam your guns each time your card color comes up and spend 1 Ap.
To unjam those deliverers of death, you spend 1 Ap, and roll a 1D6. If you were attacking a balloon, add +1 to the die roll. If the Pilot is an Ace, then -1 to the die roll (and yes, you could be an Ace pilot attacking a balloon, then they would cancel each other out.). If you roll less than or equal to your acft AF (you should know what that is, by now) then the guns are cleared (unjammed, able to fire).
I am not sure if this can only be done once a game or if it can be done every card draw. Me, I believe that the reason pilots carried wooden mallets was just for this - to whack at the MG to get that miss-fed cartridge out of the breech. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. And I would support in my games, rolling when one's card is drawn and spending that 1 AP. But if you want to know the the correct version, I believe you should sent HFDG, LLC an email asking to clarify - then let me know. 🙀
