Axis and Allies: Angels 20

Oh dear, oh dear.....

I had a really good evening at the club last night playing the latest addition to the Axis and Allies miniatures games - Angels 20 which, as the title implies, is devoted to aerial combat during WW2 - initially between single seat fighters (although a Me 110 appears in the starter set). The game is based on a hex and you get everything you need to start with in the basic game. The models are OK - they are not super detailed - but are fine for gaming pieces and are made from hard plastic and scaled at 1:100th - ideal for all those Flames of War players.

Mr Fox provided the toys and now owns the Essex equivalent of the 8th Air Force in terms of models! We played a couple of games - the first saw a pair of Finnish Moraine MS 406's versus a Polikarpov I-16 and a Yak 1. The Rata died heroically but managed to take down a 406 with its final burst of machine gun fire. Meanwhile the Yak had separated out of the action with the view to making a diving swoop on the remaining 406 which had already suffered some damage. The 406 sullenly refused to cooperate and dived away and out of the fight at the first opportunity.

The second game saw yours truly (enthused no doubt by the events of the preceding game - I was Comrade Crook for my sins) driving his preferred aerial conveyance for WW2 fighter combat - The FW190 D. This aircraft, with a Me109 G took on a pair of P51 B Mustangs. It was short and glorious as one of the P51's obligingly left its '6' exposed to the tender mercies of a one hex range burst from pretty much everything the FW190 could throw at it. The remnants of the P51 showered the countryside like a veritable blizzard of confetti....

FW190 taking off

The game system will be familiar to anyone that has played the naval game and so great fistfuls of dice are used. All the usual aerial manoeuvres are included and the game also take place in three dimensions with a simple but effective mechanism for representing altitude.

I really enjoyed this game and despite my original misgivings can see a whole lot of potential as a pick up and put down game. Certainly I shall look to acquire some models for it and so my blue Hexon will gain a further dimension, literally.

As ever many thanks to Mr Fox for the toys and his usual umpire thing and for letting me fly the Fw 190!