Historical Accuracy and Summary of Richthofen’s War
by
Daniel
Richthofen’s War is a hex-based, tactical-level, board wargame made to simulate aerial combat during WWI. It was designed by Randall C. Reed and published by Avalon Hill in 1972.[1] Richthofen’s War puts players in control of individual aircraft, and comes with different scenario cards containing premade scenarios, including one single-player scenario.[2] The game is designed to be played with anywhere from 1-6 players, with 2-4 players being ideal. Richthofen’s War provides players with the ability to choose from over 32 different aircraft, and there are optional modifiers in the rules to simulate different models of some types of aircraft.[3]
Goal of the Game
The goal of Richthofen’s War can vary depending on the scenario to encompass of some or all of the following missions: air-to-air, trench strafing, tactical bombing, and balloon busting.[4] Richthofen’s War uses a simple turn-based system to control the flow of the game, where players alternate turns. A turn consists of two phases, the maneuver phase and the combat phase.[5] At the start of a player’s maneuver phase, that player sets their current speed stat, which is the number of maneuver points they have. Players can only change their speed by up to two points each turn, and they may not violate their aircraft’s minimum and maximum speed.[6] Each aircraft has a maneuver chart which dictates how many maneuver points are required to turn to each hex side, and these values are added up in a series in a turn.[7]
Rules
In the basic rules, you must declare at the beginning of your turn if you are going to climb or dive.[8] In the tournament rules, you may not climb and dive in the same turn, and you must remain at or below the maximum dive speed when diving, unless you risk an overdive, where you can dive farther than normal maximum dive, and also start at a higher speed.[9] For every 100 meters you dive or climb, you gain or lose a movement point respectively.[10]
Following the maneuver phase, there is the attack phase, in which combat occurs. The restrictions for attacking in basic game are you just need to end you movement phase with the enemy in your line of fire, and be no more than 200 meters above or below them.[11] In tournament, you must have them in your line of fire for your final two movement points, and you can be up to 250 meters different in altitude, except for every 100 meters will add one to how far away you are firing from, with 50 rounding up to 100 when counting the distance penalty. So if you are 250 meters higher and three hexes away, you score your hits as if you were six hexes away.[12] In both gamemodes, you roll the dice and use the damage table to find the effect of your shot based on the outcome of the roll, your effective distance, and your aircraft’s range table.[13] In tournament games, however, if your calculated damage has an asterisk next to it on the table, that means you scored a critical hit, and you roll two dice to see what kind of critical you got. Once the attacker’s firing phase concludes, the process is repeated if the defender is in a firing position. However, the attacker does not need to actually have fired for the defender to return fire, and in tournament, the attacker can fire in both their firing phase, and the return-fire phase, if they are willing to risk a jam. If the attacker risks a jam, they roll a die and if they roll a one or a two, the gun they were firing jams, meaning they cannot fire it for the remainder of the game. An enemy aircraft is destroyed when the amount of damage they have taken reaches or exceeds their accumulated damage score, if the outcome of a critical hit states that it is destroyed, or if an overdive fails.
Historical Accuracy
Overall, Richthofen’s War is historically accurate, enjoyable, and easy to play, and it does an excellent job at modelling the relative performances of aircraft, it accurately manages altitude, and it imposes ammunition limits on the aircraft for greater realism. The performance of different aircraft was captured well by giving aircraft different speed ranges, climb, and dive rates; making turns in different aircraft cost more or less movement points based on the aircraft’s turning ability; giving aircraft different levels of resilience; giving aircraft different abilities to deal damage; and giving aircraft different amounts of ammunition.[14] The method of altitude control used in Richthofen’s War allows for a high degree of accuracy when climbing and diving, as it controls altitude in increments that directly mirror the scale of real aerial combat, which allows aircraft do dive away from engagements, but only if they are faster and more importantly, superior at diving. While Richthofen’s War may possess excellent accuracy in some areas, it has poor accuracy in modelling the flow of aerial combat due to lack of an initiative roll, and it lacks any element of situational awareness. The former occasionally becomes pronounced during games that become a long turnfight, where the movement mechanic can allow both players to consistently turn behind the other aircraft and fire, without any method of disengagement.[15] Richthofen’s War attempts to solve part of the latter with the requirement of sighting, but lack of a good situational awareness mechanic is an issue as aircraft are unable to sneak behind other aircraft that are engaged in pursuing a target of their own in multiple aircraft battles.
Another area of inaccuracy is that Richthofen’s War does not model special maneuvers like a Stall-Turn, a maneuver in which the aircraft pitches up to vertical and uses its rudder to turn about one wingtip;[16] Split-S’s, in which the aircraft does a half-roll, followed by a half inverted-loop, leaving the aircraft moving in the opposite direction as it was initially going at a lower altitude; and the spin, in which an aircraft stops in midair and rotates around while rapidly losing altitude. The lack of these maneuvers makes gameplay simpler than reality.
Richthofen’s War is fast and easy to learn and play, does not require any prior wargaming experience, and is also generally sound in regard to flight-physics historical accuracy. While there are some mechanics of Richthofen’s War that are outdated, the most prominent of the, the lack of an initiative mechanic[17] can be solved by adding an initiative rolling mechanic to decide which player moves first or last depending on the number of players and aircraft. In a scenario with multiple aircraft on each side, the loser of the initiative roll would move their first aircraft first, then the other player would move their first aircraft, and this would repeat until all aircraft had moved, before then resolving fire. This modification to the rules of the game would also fix part of the situational-awareness issue, as if the aircraft seeking to surprise their opponent has the initiative, they will be able to move into the dominant position.
Conclusion
While Richthofen’s War is a mostly accurate and easy to play wargame that models aerial combat, aerial combat games continued to develop. Future games solved some of the issues Richthofen’s War had, but suffered from poor historical accuracy in many areas where Richthofen’s War was highly accurate. This can be seen in games like Wings of War and Axis and Allies: Angels 20 emerged, with the former being a popular aerial combat game that is both simple to play while possessing some element of historical accuracy.[18] Computer simulations have recently begun becoming popular among those who are seeking a simulation that captures all aspects as well as possible without flying in an actual aircraft. War Thunder and Rise of Flight are aerial combat computer simulations that have become popular, with War Thunder being a popular online game in addition to being a simulator. Richthofen’s War is overall a highly accurate game that is comparable to computer simulations in some aspects, and is better than many newer board wargames regarding aerial combat.
Sources
Footnotes
[1] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., Introduction to Scenario.
[5] Ibid., Basic Game Rules, Sequence of Turns.
[6] Ibid., Movement.
[7] Ibid., Maneuver.
[8] Ibid., Movement.
[9] Ibid., Tournament Game Rules, Diving.
[10] Ibid., Climbing.
[11] Ibid., Basic Game Rules, Combat.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill, Target Damage Table.).
[14] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill, Instruction Folder, AIRCRAFT CAPABILITIES CHART.).
[15] Ibid., Instruction Folder
[16] “Fly the Hammerhead aka The Stall Turn” Model Airplane News, January 7, 2005, http://www.modelairplanenews.com/hammerhead-mastering-the-stall-turn (accessed February 19, 2018).
[17] “Richthofen’s War -- past its prime” BoardGameGeek, January 7, 2005, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 18, 2018).
[18] “WoW: A “Lite” Wargaming Anomaly” BoardGameGeek, July 7, 2007, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 19, 2018).
Goal of the Game
The goal of Richthofen’s War can vary depending on the scenario to encompass of some or all of the following missions: air-to-air, trench strafing, tactical bombing, and balloon busting.[4] Richthofen’s War uses a simple turn-based system to control the flow of the game, where players alternate turns. A turn consists of two phases, the maneuver phase and the combat phase.[5] At the start of a player’s maneuver phase, that player sets their current speed stat, which is the number of maneuver points they have. Players can only change their speed by up to two points each turn, and they may not violate their aircraft’s minimum and maximum speed.[6] Each aircraft has a maneuver chart which dictates how many maneuver points are required to turn to each hex side, and these values are added up in a series in a turn.[7]
Rules
In the basic rules, you must declare at the beginning of your turn if you are going to climb or dive.[8] In the tournament rules, you may not climb and dive in the same turn, and you must remain at or below the maximum dive speed when diving, unless you risk an overdive, where you can dive farther than normal maximum dive, and also start at a higher speed.[9] For every 100 meters you dive or climb, you gain or lose a movement point respectively.[10]
Following the maneuver phase, there is the attack phase, in which combat occurs. The restrictions for attacking in basic game are you just need to end you movement phase with the enemy in your line of fire, and be no more than 200 meters above or below them.[11] In tournament, you must have them in your line of fire for your final two movement points, and you can be up to 250 meters different in altitude, except for every 100 meters will add one to how far away you are firing from, with 50 rounding up to 100 when counting the distance penalty. So if you are 250 meters higher and three hexes away, you score your hits as if you were six hexes away.[12] In both gamemodes, you roll the dice and use the damage table to find the effect of your shot based on the outcome of the roll, your effective distance, and your aircraft’s range table.[13] In tournament games, however, if your calculated damage has an asterisk next to it on the table, that means you scored a critical hit, and you roll two dice to see what kind of critical you got. Once the attacker’s firing phase concludes, the process is repeated if the defender is in a firing position. However, the attacker does not need to actually have fired for the defender to return fire, and in tournament, the attacker can fire in both their firing phase, and the return-fire phase, if they are willing to risk a jam. If the attacker risks a jam, they roll a die and if they roll a one or a two, the gun they were firing jams, meaning they cannot fire it for the remainder of the game. An enemy aircraft is destroyed when the amount of damage they have taken reaches or exceeds their accumulated damage score, if the outcome of a critical hit states that it is destroyed, or if an overdive fails.
Historical Accuracy
Overall, Richthofen’s War is historically accurate, enjoyable, and easy to play, and it does an excellent job at modelling the relative performances of aircraft, it accurately manages altitude, and it imposes ammunition limits on the aircraft for greater realism. The performance of different aircraft was captured well by giving aircraft different speed ranges, climb, and dive rates; making turns in different aircraft cost more or less movement points based on the aircraft’s turning ability; giving aircraft different levels of resilience; giving aircraft different abilities to deal damage; and giving aircraft different amounts of ammunition.[14] The method of altitude control used in Richthofen’s War allows for a high degree of accuracy when climbing and diving, as it controls altitude in increments that directly mirror the scale of real aerial combat, which allows aircraft do dive away from engagements, but only if they are faster and more importantly, superior at diving. While Richthofen’s War may possess excellent accuracy in some areas, it has poor accuracy in modelling the flow of aerial combat due to lack of an initiative roll, and it lacks any element of situational awareness. The former occasionally becomes pronounced during games that become a long turnfight, where the movement mechanic can allow both players to consistently turn behind the other aircraft and fire, without any method of disengagement.[15] Richthofen’s War attempts to solve part of the latter with the requirement of sighting, but lack of a good situational awareness mechanic is an issue as aircraft are unable to sneak behind other aircraft that are engaged in pursuing a target of their own in multiple aircraft battles.
Another area of inaccuracy is that Richthofen’s War does not model special maneuvers like a Stall-Turn, a maneuver in which the aircraft pitches up to vertical and uses its rudder to turn about one wingtip;[16] Split-S’s, in which the aircraft does a half-roll, followed by a half inverted-loop, leaving the aircraft moving in the opposite direction as it was initially going at a lower altitude; and the spin, in which an aircraft stops in midair and rotates around while rapidly losing altitude. The lack of these maneuvers makes gameplay simpler than reality.
Richthofen’s War is fast and easy to learn and play, does not require any prior wargaming experience, and is also generally sound in regard to flight-physics historical accuracy. While there are some mechanics of Richthofen’s War that are outdated, the most prominent of the, the lack of an initiative mechanic[17] can be solved by adding an initiative rolling mechanic to decide which player moves first or last depending on the number of players and aircraft. In a scenario with multiple aircraft on each side, the loser of the initiative roll would move their first aircraft first, then the other player would move their first aircraft, and this would repeat until all aircraft had moved, before then resolving fire. This modification to the rules of the game would also fix part of the situational-awareness issue, as if the aircraft seeking to surprise their opponent has the initiative, they will be able to move into the dominant position.
Conclusion
While Richthofen’s War is a mostly accurate and easy to play wargame that models aerial combat, aerial combat games continued to develop. Future games solved some of the issues Richthofen’s War had, but suffered from poor historical accuracy in many areas where Richthofen’s War was highly accurate. This can be seen in games like Wings of War and Axis and Allies: Angels 20 emerged, with the former being a popular aerial combat game that is both simple to play while possessing some element of historical accuracy.[18] Computer simulations have recently begun becoming popular among those who are seeking a simulation that captures all aspects as well as possible without flying in an actual aircraft. War Thunder and Rise of Flight are aerial combat computer simulations that have become popular, with War Thunder being a popular online game in addition to being a simulator. Richthofen’s War is overall a highly accurate game that is comparable to computer simulations in some aspects, and is better than many newer board wargames regarding aerial combat.
Sources
- Reed, Randall C. Richthofen’s War. Avalon Hill, 1972.
- “Richthofen’s War -- past its prime” BoardGameGeek, January 7, 2005, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 18, 2018).
- “WoW: A “Lite” Wargaming Anomaly” BoardGameGeek, July 7, 2007, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 19, 2018).
Footnotes
[1] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., Introduction to Scenario.
[5] Ibid., Basic Game Rules, Sequence of Turns.
[6] Ibid., Movement.
[7] Ibid., Maneuver.
[8] Ibid., Movement.
[9] Ibid., Tournament Game Rules, Diving.
[10] Ibid., Climbing.
[11] Ibid., Basic Game Rules, Combat.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill, Target Damage Table.).
[14] Randall C. Reed, “Richthofen’s War”, (Avalon Hill, Instruction Folder, AIRCRAFT CAPABILITIES CHART.).
[15] Ibid., Instruction Folder
[16] “Fly the Hammerhead aka The Stall Turn” Model Airplane News, January 7, 2005, http://www.modelairplanenews.com/hammerhead-mastering-the-stall-turn (accessed February 19, 2018).
[17] “Richthofen’s War -- past its prime” BoardGameGeek, January 7, 2005, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 18, 2018).
[18] “WoW: A “Lite” Wargaming Anomaly” BoardGameGeek, July 7, 2007, https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/270615/richthofens-war-past-its-prime (accessed February 19, 2018).