In Clouds of Glory

In Clouds of Glory (ICOG)is a tabletop air wargame that recreates aerial combat during the World War One. The game was developed in Denmark the 90's by 3 friends with a common passion for the WWI "Knights of the Air".

The game features true 3-D action with accurate models of all the greatest planes of this era: SPADs, Sopwiths, Fokkers, Pfalz´es, Nieuports, Hannovers, Rumplers, Albatrosses, Bristols, Gothas, Zeppelins, S.Es...

The game represents individual plane movement and individual pilots. Each plane is represented by a 1/350 scale model with at 360 deg. nose mount that allows the model to be positioned in all directions. The nose mount is then itself mounted on a four foot long pole made of carbon fibre. The plan can then be moved up and down the pole, thus denoting actual height - No altitude markers here. The pole is sharpened and set directly into the foam gameboards. See pictures.

Each plane also has a "Cockpit" sheet to which the Pilot sheet is attached and where the data (and possible special rules)on each plane type is represented. On the cockpit sheet also contains a speed indicator telling the current speed of the plane, and indicating the amount of energy the plane currently posses. This energy level tells how tigth the plane can turn and its ability to climb or dive. Going fast equals the ability to zoom high up, but turns are wide. Going slow allows for tighter turning but severely limits your ability to get out of trouble by zoom climbing and thus limits the tactical options. In this game speed is life.

Piloting skill can make planes turn tigther than their speed normally allows for, but this drains speed and at higher speeds also stresses the airframe, thus creating a risk of breaking of important bits such as the wings.

The "Cockpit" sheet is also where you record damage to the plane: Structural damage, damage to maneuverability, armament, engine and so on.

Each pilot has a set of 3 basic skills: Awareness (situational awareness), Piloting (ability to make tight turns, avoid or recover from spins and stalls) and Gunnery (hitting your target). A pilots skills are decided by rolling 2d6+6. Pilots also has 2 attributes: Fortitude (hit points and ability to figth when wounded) and Luck (Denotes number of dice re-rolls and Used to check for collisions) found by rolling 3d6. With experience pilots gain better skills as well as possible "Ace abilities" such as Divine luck, Deflection shooting, Aerobatics and so on.

Skill and attribute checks are done with a d20 against a basic target number (for example Skill or Attribute level) modified by conditions (for example deflection angle or target speed). The difference between the target number needed and a the number rolled on a successful check denotes the success level which is then carried on as a modifier to the damage roll.

The full rules including, missions and Cockpit panels and more can be downloaded for free here:http://icog.dk/ICOG/Download.html

1/350 scale planes can be acquired as 3D prints(or hand build in styrene as you see on many of the pictures). A large selection of planes is available for the game. Links to these can be found on the ICOG homepage: http://icog.dk/ICOG/Links.html