(Based on the Dogfight! boardgame).
Setup
From a standard deck of cards,
- Remove one red Ace and one black Ace, and put them aside, these will be each players ‘biplanes’.
- Put all Nines, Tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings into a serperate pile, these will be used as ‘placeholder cards’ and ‘damage tokens’.
- Make a pile of all remaining red cards. And a pile of all remaining black cards.
- Deal the remaining red cards evenly to each player, and remaining black cards evenly to each player.
- Each player shuffles their red and black cards together to form their own Draw Pile
Take the placeholder cards and make a circle track with two inner cards like the diagram below.
Place decide who will be the “Richthofen” (Red Ace), and who will be “Coppens” (Black Ace). Place each ace on their respective side the left bottom of the outer track. Place the remaining placeholder cards face-up in the middle to form the Damage Token Pile. Each places their Draw Piles face down to the side of the play area. Each player will make a face-up discard pile next to their draw pile. See full setup below.
How To Play
Each round players will draw up to their hand limit of six cards, and choose one card to place face down.
Once cards have been chosen, these are revealed (into each players own face-up discard Pile).
Each player then moves their “Ace” anti-clockwise along the outer track. (The two inner “Tight Turn” spaces are explained later).
When moving an Ace, only move your Ace, and not the placeholder card, or the other players Ace.
When both players have an empty discard pile. Shuffle each discard pile to form new draw piles, and swap these between players to draw from (piles can swap many times during a game).
Damage Phase
Any player who played a Red Card, will now shoot at the enemy Ace futher along the track. If the card is one space away (not including the space that the shooting Ace is on), it takes two damage tokens. If an enemy card is two spaces away it takes one damage.
Damage Tokens are placed face up in front of players.
To end the Damage Round players draw two new cards (shuffle your discard pile to make a new pile if empty).
When resetting draw piles in this way, card history does not count (you are deemed to have not played a 1, 2, 7, 8 or 9 etc.).
Player another round if no game win condition met.
Tight Turns
There are two placeholder cards inside the track. These can be used to perform a “tight turn”; Where you deviate from the outer track; and then continue on in the anti-clockwise direction on the outer track (See Tight Turn Diagram, where a player has moved from the position with the blue dot six spaces to the new position).
A player can only perform a Tight Turn, and must perform a Tight Turn when playing a Diamond or Club.
You cannot shoot, or be shot at, if your Ace is currently on a Tight Turn Space.
If the previous card you played was a 6, 7, or 8. You must ignore the Diamond or Club on the next card you play. (ie playing a 6, 7, or 8 locks you out of doing a tight turn on the next turn).
Winning Conditions
- If a player uses a 2 or 3 to move, they must play a higher value card next round. If they are unable to, they immediately lose the game (“stalled and crashed”)
- When a player receives a 7th damage token. They lose the game.