Tailing

It looks like the official tailing rules, anyhow they look fun on paper, sadly do not work as they should.

How about this:

Once per turn, before a maneuver is flipped, you can ask the enemy you are tailing about a general direction his aircraft is about to fly this phase. He will secretly show you "left, right, straight" following the general direction marks on maneuvers, and you can replan your maneuver before you flip it.

For showing the direction, you can use a token with an arrow on it, or the collision cards.

Similar rules are in Blue Max / Canvas Eagles, and they work fine.

Your proposal looks simple but why not just show the planned card instead of a special token?

The procedure should be done before any other plane has moved otherwise it gives to the tailing player the opportunity to abuse of the replanning to adjust for other targets.

I have never used the tailing rule in WGF.
I use it quite often against automatic bombers in WGS, though.

I don't use tailing very much, if at all. If you are tailing at the start of a turn, you have choices. After that, it isn't much of an advantage, if you have only the current three planned cards to choose from.

Perhaps I'm missing something.

Is it a reduced advantage whether the tailed player shows a maneuver card or token? It might make a difference, if following a plane that has very sharp turn options. To see only a generic turn in a broad direction rather than the actual maneuver, the tailing advantage would be reduced further. Again, dependent on the available planned cards, the tailing player may not have a viable choice to make.

I use it in games I run. It gives the pilot with the advantage one more shot at his target. Usually only one more shot unless the tailer guesses lucky and still has a tail after the turn start.

We tried tailing at Entoyment again recently & it was more bother than it's worth, slowing the game down for no benefit. If we have to wait for someone to re-plan his manoeuvres every phase, as Jan seemingly suggests, it would slow it down even further.
Still figuring why you have to show the card secretly when the other players' cards are already 'locked in' & only the person tailing can make any change.?
Does it work in Blue Max / Canvas Eagles because you only fire once per turn after the whole movement rather than part way through it like WoG ?
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...?35249-Tailing

Secretly because there could be more than one tailing situation happening. You should only be able to see the manoeuvres of the aircraft you are tailing.

That would rarely occur but would be the exception, I guess, no reason otherwise we could see when all the other moves have been planned.

i agree the rules as written dont really work well. in my experience rearranging the cards ive already planned would do more harm than good.
i like the general indication idea, but unless youve got some way to secretly communicate it it would be all to easy to tip off everyone at the table.

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Originally Posted by milcoll73

...i like the general indication idea, but unless youve got some way to secretly communicate it it would be all to easy to tip off everyone at the table.

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It's done after all the planning has been made so it should make no difference, they can't change their moves until the game next turn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flash

It's done after all the planning has been made so it should make no difference, they can't change their moves until the game next turn.

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good point.

I plan to try tailing somewhat differently: My solution will be to allow the tailing ac to select/plan any available movement card from its own deck in responce to the tailed ac planned move declaration. Tailed ac move card revealed to the tailing ac only. No need for secrecy as other ac moves already planned. Changed move must show intention in following the tailed ac movement .....spirt of the game here!
Will test this idea out over the next few weeks... [available experienced pilots only]. cheers

I ran a game at DayCon a couple of weeks ago with single-card plotting and used tailing.

It totally changed the game.

Players were much more intentional about trying to get on their opponent's tail, and using these rules definitely changed how payers played their moves.

Tailing rules with the official two-card or three-card plotting really don't work. They worked great with the one-card plotting. I think I still like the two-card plotting for the WWII game better, but I do have to say that using one-card plotting resulted in planes being flown more realistically.

Perhaps a solution for the official WW2 game would be to allow the tailing plane to change his planned cards to account for the moves of the plane he's tailing, but is not allowed to fire at any aircraft other than the one he is ailing. If the target is shot down or tailing is lost the tailing plane must immediately plot his two cards as normal. I don't know if that would work or not, but something needs to be done to make tailing a bigger part of the game since historically this was the main way you shot down an enemy aircraft.