Blue Max by GDW
This month we will look at a classic game from 1983: Blue Max Dogfights over France, as well as its next iteration Blue Max Miniatures Rules (1995 Allan Wright). The games are out of print, and will run you about $30.00 on ebay of you can even find a copy (good luck even locating a copy of the 1st edition rules).
Blue Max has got to be one of the BEST aircraft games of all time. When it came out, it had a couple of really neat innovations that are still talked about and used in games today, notably: the draw-a-chit damage allocation system, the maneuver schedule with its hallmark maneuver images, and a great little campaign system. This game remains popular enough today that
there is even a play online version of it that someone took the time to flesh out (
YouPlay.It).
The good news about this game is that Phil Hall (the original Designer of Blue Max) and Eric Hotz (Designer of Canvas Eagles) are collaborating on a new version that can only be the next evolution in World War I air to air miniature wargaming. I can't wait.
Blue Max : Dogfights over France (Phil Hall) $OOP
Blue Max : Dogfights over France (Designed by Phil Hall) was relased in 1983 and although not published as a set of miniature rules initially, it made it there eventually.
Originally, this game was a hex and counter game that came with a very basic blue colored hex board with each side's setup area marked out. The game came with several aircraft counters
and game counters (such as: smoke, fire, spin, and the most important: the damages chits). Of course there were charts, record sheets, rules and maneuver schedules for each of the aircraft in the game.
It didn't take a whole lot of knowledge of how an airplane really worked. All you have to do is look at the maneuver schedule, figure out where you want to go, and pick that maneuver
for your turn. The only thing you needed to keep an eye on was the fuel usage for the particular maneuver you were doing (after a while I just stopped using the fuel usage rules to speed things up).
Combat resolution was relatively straight forward: see what your firepower was, roll a die, consult the chart and your opponent had to draw that many chits from the
damage cup. My Pappy called it the 'cup of doom' and would make ominous music as anyone drew from it. There were a variety of chits telling you how much
damage to apply to your aircraft, if your pilot had been killed, or if you were smoking, on fire, etc. The tension and suspense were part of the whole experience
for me.
There are rules for jams, campaigns, and later on, a second edition that came out which added altitude rules, and a host of other goodies (as well as glitches). There was also a third edition rulebook
that came out at some time. The rules in the non-miniatures version cover 1917-1918.
Blue Max Miniatures Rules (Phil Hall & Allan Wright) $OOP
Blue Max WAS in fact adapted into a miniatures game that covers the entire war. The site for the information is maintained by Allan Wright
Blue Max Miniatures Rules
Once the miniatures version of these rules came out in 1995 there was a bit of a scramble to make flight stands that saw telescoping attenas, clip and stick
and a variety of other flight stand methods to display the aircraft at their various altitudes (there are a limited number of bands in the game - 5 of them: VL - Ground, L - Low, M - Medium, H - High, VH - Very High).
The game saw a wider range of aircraft than was available in the boardgame, although the set got shipped without the availabilty chart included.
(Allan Wright has that available on his website.) There were a lot of stylistic changes in the miniatures version: new maneuver schedules for the aircraft, actual differences in most of the aircraft
(in the firs edition, almost all the aircraft had the same speed), of course the addition of real altitude bands, reworked sequence of play, etc.
The core of the game remains the same, and I feel strongly that this is why people are still playing it today. It is easy to learn, fun to play, and with the addition of the
minis on the table, quite an experience. The Miniatures Rules upgrade to this game was a great additon to the miniature airplane gamer's collection.
Blue Max Overall Rating
One of the great things about this game is that the complexity was so low, that anyone in my family, from little sister to grandfather could (and would) play it
on the kitchen table with me.
The first edition did not use altitude and that was the one I played the most. Some say it wasn't realistic because it didn't have altitude, but as the game was not meant for 3D play, and it is notoriously difficult to
play 3D on a flat surface I have to say 'so what'. It was perfect. I started using miniatures (which were a handfull of plastic toys I got from a toy store) with the first edition and the game became a lot more realistic.
The flight stands I used initially were made from PAAS Easter Egg coloring kits, and barely fit on the hexes that came with the game. I just glued the airplanes on the metal dippers that come in the coloring kit. They worked okay, but for a 13 year old, they were perfect.
Once we started playing the miniatures version with flight stands that depicted altitude (in college, although where we got the money for games and figs, I will never know)), the game became almost 'new' again.
I have to give this game a 4.5, very simple, great realism, but not designed as a miniatures game. The damage chit system, while a neat tension-adder, had its flaws: mainly that
if you had to draw three chits, it was not possible to get the same chit twice, and if you were drawing for multiple aircraft (to speed up the game) it could be a little
off in the damage distribution. Other than the items mentioned, this is a great game, worthy of the snatch from Ebay, or elsewhere.
Johann