Thanks for all fixes.

Trying to keep the discussion on a track where things might be possible...

There were several points made about the "designer's intent." I've read a lot of things the designer wrote and one that stands out concerns his view that one game of blue max is aimed at capturing the actions of a very few minutes of combat.

Having said that, the problems we are having with fuel just don't make sense. If it's only a 'very few minutes" of combat, then we should not see the oh-so-vulnerable Fokkers get into so much trouble because of their tiny fuel tanks. Yes, they carried less fuel than most other planes and the allied planes tended to carry more...but most fights tended to happen over German territory, and reaching that meant the allied planes were flying for SOME number of miles, even if they did nothing more than fly straight to the place where the dogfight happens.

The idea of an allied plane having twice the endurance IN A BLUE MAX DOGFIGHT just does not connect with anything in reality.

Long discussion-- but there is a simple answer--

Drop the fuel rules.

After we realized how this worked (back when we were playing with the original counters) we simply quit using fuel. But then, we all knew each other and knew we would play reasonably fairly, and maybe no fuel at all would be a bad idea here--

So an alternative is to drop the standard fuel rules and just put some sort of countdown timer on the game-- pick a number that seems appropriate-- 20-25 turns?-- and let the game last that long. Convert special damage hits that make "lost fuel" into a lost turn or two.

Is it too easy/gamey to have a set number of turns that everyone knows about? ("I'm up 3 points and the game is almost over, so I'll hide") Then make it variable-- the game lasts however many turns PLUS a random addition-- could be 1 more, 3 more, or 6 more turns. Then the game ends and points get counted.

I'm not claiming it's perfect, but it will address many of the problems mentioned here, one of the problems inherent with the design, and it's something that should not be too hard to program (I think.)