Masters of the Air tells the story of the Eighth Air Pressure’s a centesimal Bomb Group, also called the Bloody Hundredth, which used its fleet of B-17 heavy bombers to chop a swathe of destruction from the English Channel to Berlin throughout World Conflict II. The nine-part Apple TV Plus miniseries, which airs its remaining episode Friday, is principally all the things that child Charlie — his nostril pressed towards the pages of obscure historical past books all all through center faculty — might’ve ever hoped for. However, now that it’s over, I feel I’ve discovered a approach to prolong the expertise just a bit additional because of B-17 Flying Fortress Leader, a wonderful solitaire board recreation from Dan Verssen Games.
Scoff in the event you like, however solitaire board video games are sizzling proper now with a vocal minority making solo modes a extremely desired bullet level on almost each new crowdfunding marketing campaign, no matter platform. Dan Verssen Video games has been within the solo enterprise for years now, with video games like Phantom Leader – Deluxe, which recreates among the most fascinating air-to-air and air-to-ground engagements of the Vietnam Conflict. And what’s so fascinating about every of its titles is how the corporate makes use of the identical set of easy, easy-to-manufacture elements — particularly taking part in playing cards and small, sq. cardboard chits — to create extremely completely different experiences.
A recreation of B-17 Flying Fortress Chief begins with its large, 33-inch-wide recreation board that’s constructed to resemble the structure of the pre-flight briefings proven in Masters of the Air. That’s the place you’ll place playing cards that signify the goal for the day, any secondary targets that is perhaps an possibility to your crews, and the present disposition of enemy airbases that you just’ll should be conscious of alongside the best way. From there, it’s a reasonably easy course of to launch your bombers, tackle enemy fighters, punch by the flak wall, and put your payload on the goal — all with nothing various cups full of random counters and a single 10-sided die. The motion is swift and decisive, making it really feel equal elements roguelike and alternate historical past. It’s a wonderful companion, in reality, to the eponymous history book by Donald L. Miller that the Steven Spielberg-produced sequence was primarily based on.
You may run a mission of B-17 Flying Fortress Chief in about half-hour flat, nevertheless it’s the setup that actually rewards your time on the desk. Gamers should select from one in every of 11 completely different campaigns, every with completely different aims, limitations, and units of targets. You then construct your bomber formation out of the sport’s many historic bomber teams, personified by playing cards depicting the Bloody Hundredth, the Memphis Belle, and others. Extra expert variations of these crews price extra factors, however they’ll reward you with improved effectiveness and particular guidelines that may solely be used as soon as per mission. Choose a goal, load the planes with an assortment of various munitions (together with incendiaries and bunker-busting “Disney” bombs), and also you’re off to the races.
Gamers additionally get to plan out the route their bombers take to the goal, which means that with sufficient vary in your tanks, you possibly can even attempt to outsmart Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe by taking oddball routes, launching diversionary raids, or just scouting forward with a recon airplane. The sport is expansive sufficient to even embody the identical type of long-range “shuttle” missions proven early on within the miniseries, together with sorties to Northern Africa and past. The planning facet gives a strong sandbox facet to the sport, and offers gamers a style of the tough choices that the sequence’ narrator, Harry Crosby, will need to have needed to contemplate in his time as group navigator.
Dan Verssen Video games presents various completely different solitaire experiences for followers of various theaters, together with Corsair Leader that ought to enchantment to anybody who loved 2022’s Devotion starring Glen Powell. You’ll find all of them on the Dan Verssen Games web site, on-line at locations like Amazon, or your friendly local game store.
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