American Heritage Dog-Fight....

15 June 2002, 01:56 PM

Did anyone ever play THIS game...Again I found it on EBAY (and I'm NOT the Seller of this either), but this looks like it would be a lot of fun to play with a foursome (most likely found in this forum!).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1741279022

I actually went to *Google and typed it in to get further input on what it was...seems simple but still pretty cool.

Shooter · 16 June 2002, 03:51 AM

Question:

Wasn't this the Milton Bradley board game?

Shooter sends

Kirk · 17 June 2002, 08:59 AM

I used to play that game a lot as a kid. It's not like it's at all realistic or anything, but it's a fun introduction to WWI aviation for younger gamers. When my son gets a few years older (he's 6 now)I'm going to try to introduce him to WWI gaming using Dogfight. It's colorful, fast, and a lot of fun.
By the way, if you look at some other message strings you'll see where people have developed additional rules, etc. for the game to make it more enjoyable.

19 June 2002, 02:08 PM

My girlfriend gave me a copy of Dogfight that she found on Ebay for my birthday last year. I had it as a kid and loved it. I've recently played the game with my daughter and we had a lot of fun with it. It is pretty basic, but it can be a lot of fun and doesn't require an understanding of a lot of complicated rules so it has a quick learning curve.

I think it is an excellent way to get someone interested in WW1 aviation and it is just a nice vintage game to own, too. Plus...after you play it a few times, you can always make/add your own rules to liven it up a bit more when it gets too easy.

BobE · 23 June 2002, 11:01 AM

Americaine,
Played this game with my sons when they were little and recently with my grandsons. Not the least bit "realistic" but then neither are the most sophisticated of the WWI board games. Has a lot of pluses going for it. Colorful board and nice three dimensional aircraft with nice "kill" markers to indicate planes shot down by a particular pilot. VERY simple rules, lightning fast action, suspense element built into aerial combat and anti aircraft fire. A lot of luck involved but also a surprising amount of strategy for such a simple game. Plays in under thirty minutes! Don't find that too often!
As others have pointed out, the game lends itself easily to modification. I recently worked a variation up myself. Made additional stands so I can fly all twelve planes. Of course not enough cards for all so I have a completely different combt system.

Bob E

23 June 2002, 11:50 AM

In this game, one of the biggest things to remember is to get your plane back to base after you have used-up some of your cards. Nothing like scoring one or two kills on a mission and then getting shotdown, yourself, on the way back to your home base before you can add additional cards to your pilot making him a stronger opponent. :-[

It really is a fun game to play if you don't mind a game that isn't very complex. I actually prefer this one because people who have never played it can learn how very quickly and you don't need to find an opponent who is into the more complex games to play with you.

There are lots of these games for sale on E-Bay, too. That is where mine came from. The one I had as a kid had long-since gone off to a Church rummage sale with all my other toys that I see selling on E-Bay for astronomical sums!

Kirk · 23 June 2002, 06:04 PM

Whew! I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one that is in the process of rebuying all those great games I played during my youth. If it weren't for Ebay all I'd have are the memories of playing them all those years ago. Now I get a chance to play games like Dogfight again with my son and create some new memories..

BobE · 25 June 2002, 01:01 PM

Kirk,
Lucky you. The games are even more fun the second time around. I was lucky enough to end up with twin grandsons that we see on a regular basis so I am getting a THIRD go round!

We never threw any of our games out so I have a closet full including some I made from scratch. Unfortunately, there are a number of clunkers up there just taking up space. For my money, there are an awful lot of games out there that require way too much time to learn and/or play. You really need a live in opponent to get any use out of them and when it comes to the multi-player campaign versions... :

While I'm on the subject I would be really interested to hear the experiences of any one who has actually played in some of these monsters. Any one ever participated in one of these game conventions ? I remember my son and I had a game called "Magic Realm". One of A/H's monsters. The components and concepts were wonderful and the rules were designed to be learned in easy steps starting with the simplest scenarios. Great, except we always got lost about the second scenario. We used to laugh because we could never figure out where in the rule book we were getting lost. ??? *Just kind of sank in a quagmire of complications. Yet one day we saw "Magic Realm" as one of the games you could participate in at one of the game conventions so SOME people presumably mastered it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Bob E *

Kirk · 25 June 2002, 02:31 PM

I've never participated in any conventions, but I'm in the middle of a "big" game right now playing 10 on 10 (actually 9 on 5 right now as for some reason all our opposition has decided to run home with their tails between their legs) in a Dawn Patrol webgame. I'd consider Dawn Patrol as sort of a "middle of the road" game as far as a balance between realism and playability. On one end of the spectrum is Dogfight, which is very fun, and on the other end is Canvas Falcons which has a steep learning curve but is as close as you can get to flying an airplane using cardboard counters and dice.
The "monster" game I most wanted to try was called War in Europe. It was put out by SPI (now defunct) about 30 years ago and covered all of WWII. The mapboard supposedly was the size of a ping pong table, and it took something like 5 or 6 people to play it. I remember the box it came in as being roughly 8 1/2 by 11 but something like 7 inches deep! I never had the chance to play it, but I would like to have tried - once.

BobE · 26 June 2002, 08:00 AM

Kirk,
You make my point. If it were not for the WEB you wouldn't be playing that game. You can play because you have a whole world as a possible source of opponents and nine other people don't have to find their way to your house prepared to spend a couple of weeks. What I still don't get is how, in pre WEB days, that many people could find the time to meet face to face and hope to complete one of these monsters in a single sitting!
Anybody out there ever do that?
Bob E ???