I found the airplane discussions--especially involving the original designer-- very interesting. I had read elsewhere the "Camel at 15,000 feet" explanation-- and have to side with the opinion that asks, "what are we doing fighting ONLY at 15K.
Actually you aren't always fighting at 15k. The fight gets lower as the game goes on. If you read of any massed battles you will note that at some point someone is escaping at treetop level. Once you get your wings banked at the angles necessary to make the turns in the game, you start falling out of the sky.
As to why 15k was chosen. Two reasons. My grandfather flew in WWI and when I asked him about it he stated quite simply that, regardless of what altitude the patrol was supposed to be flown at, you got as high as you could. For Allied pilots operating behind German lines it meant a better chance of getting home if something went wrong with the engine and you were forced to glide. Secondly most of the test data on the aircraft is at three altitudes, 5k, 10k, 15k, with the most being at 15k. The one explanation I have read for the most data being at 15k is "that was our operational altitude". So 15k was chosen.
There is a third, more complex reason. It has to do with psychology and the number 3, and the design limitations imposed by GDW. I was extremely resistant to using more than 3 hexes of movement in the game. Psychologically people have trouble imagining more than three. Yes, I know you can see 4, 5, or more apples in your minds eye, but manipulating them is a bit harder than manipulating three. Once we put the SPAD XIII in and it had a movement of 5 we tried test games of everyone flying just the SPAD. No one got a planned shot. It was beyond people to predict where the aircraft would be 2-3 turns ahead. If it hadn't been such a significant player in WWI I might just have left it out. As far as no altitude in the game, that was a strong point. Originally I had intended a 5 level game with different maneuvers for each level. The lower you got the more maneuvers you could do. The problem was the number 3 and company limitations on how many charts I could have. (Larger charts (nearly three pages in the case of the Snipe/SSD.III or more aircraft.) Plus people playing on a flat surface just don't think in three dimensions. When I did incorporate the 5 levels in the game, without adding the additional maneuvers, no one changed altitude because of the shooting reduction for greater range. When I forced the change by requiring you to dive if you shot at a lower aircraft, we wound up with an historical result of everyone at the lowest altitude rather quickly. I thought of making turns require you to lose altitude with different a/c losing it at different rates but it seemed a losing proposition as people would maneuver against a/c that they weren't even close to vertically when I only had 5 levels, so the multitude of levels would have made the problem even worse. For a game to sell it has to be playable and altitude was certain to send the game to the graveyard.
The largest constraint in designing a game is what the company wants. The rules were limited by the number of pages allowed for rules, the maneuver charts by the number of pages allowed to them, the map by the size that could be folded in quarters and fit the standard box, and the number of counters by the box size and sheets. GDW was at that time using two standard box sizes. I got the smaller of the two. That meant that everything had to fit into the 1" flat box. The game was not to retail for more than 15USD. That meant an outlay of no more than 5USD for the production end. The most costly thing in the box were the aircraft counters. Rich Banner did them based on the style of profiles done in Aircraft in Profile. I am convinced that inside every graphics artist lies a Rembrandt screaming to get out. The problem was no one made a die to cut that size of counter, so GDW had one made. It cost a bundle of money to get it done, so corners were cut on other things, such as the number of rules pages and the graphics of the map, which was originally going to be an overhead view of the trenches (there was also a time constraint in doing the map since Rich was working on more "important" games and we had to be done by the convention in Detroit). Cost was based on a production run of 5000 games. In the end, GDW made a bit less on the game than anticipated due to keeping the retail at 15USD. However, it turned out to be a good selling game so the second edition made a bit more due to lower production costs. Now it may seem that these things shouldn't be taken into consideration when doing a game, but if you don't follow the rules, you don't publish.
Long winded, I know, but the point is size of the counters meant the map could only have so many hexes on it. That meant that movement had to be restricted. So 15k seemed to be a good choice since the hex represents speed less than distance. If you stand still in a hex you are still moving at 90mph. The aircraft really don't stall and stall wasn't even in the original playtests. It was added to force you to move instead of staying put in one hex and rotating. Most of the aircraft in the game stalled at a much slower speed (landing speed of the D.VII was 57mph. Yes it make some of the aircraft less effective than would seem, but it also meant more varied aircraft could be included. So a trade-off, which is normal in designing games.
As for what the game represents, it is very, very specific. It is a dogfight between two sides that meet at 15K. Period. It isn't a balloon busting/artillery spotting/reconnaisance/escort mission/trench strafing game. It is strictly about a high altitude dogfight. And most importantly, 23 years later, while its contemporay board games based on flying are nowhere to be found, it is still being played.
One disagreement-- that the Pfalz should share the Alb DV chart. Nope-- It was a slow puppy. Maneuverable, sturdy, and other nice things, but much slower than the DV.
I agree with this completely. The Pfalz in the game is actually better than it really was. Official German figures gave it a top speed of 103.5 mph and the one test I could find gave it a top speed of 102.5 on a captured machine. At 15K it was rated at 97mph.
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