Ace of Aces

Choose Your Rules

Basic: select a maneuver to fly immediately. Damage is recorded on arrival. Intermediate and Advanced: select a maneuver, choose its legal altitude change, then press Commit Plan. Diving announcements allow a pursuit response while the maneuver stays locked. Resolve shots from the current cockpit before movement.

Advanced shooting: choose your burst, roll for damage, select an initial square on the Damage Allocation Chart, then lock aim to reveal the defender’s maneuver. The final square determines damage areas and any Critical/Choice decision. The aircraft details beside the damage bars show critical hits and their restrictions.

Pilots: Quick Skirmish uses temporary pilots. Campaign keeps a persistent Squadron roster with names, victories, Rookie/Regular/Ace status and Famous Aces. Five victory points earns Ace status. Surviving a mission with an effective shot graduates a Rookie. Records save in this browser; export/import is available in the roster. Flight Setup selects aircraft for Intermediate and Advanced.

Campaign and online PvP remain separate, unimplemented play modes. Optional campaign systems such as fuel, ground location, Archie fire, sneaking up and multiplayer battles are not enabled in Quick Skirmish.

Choose a symbol. Both planes move.

Flight Training: select it from Play mode to learn the original moves. An outlined arrow starts at the center, facing forward. Each symbol places a second, solid arrow on the ending hex at its final heading. The grid and move endpoints are decoded from the book tables. The dashed connection shows net displacement, not a reconstructed flight path. Returning to your previous play mode resumes the flight.

Both books start on page 170. Click a scanned maneuver symbol beneath your cockpit. Once both pilots have chosen, the program performs the two book lookups and opens the resulting encounter.

Quick Skirmish: choose either the Allied Sopwith Camel or German Fokker Dr.I using Your pilot (changing sides starts a new flight); the computer flies the other aircraft and evaluates average damage dealt minus damage received, using your possible moves equally unless a tailing direction hint narrows them. It also considers facing, contact, and firing opportunities one turn farther ahead. It samples a weighted pool of strong moves: normally up to five, with additional near-equal alternatives admitted. Poor moves are excluded; the strongest moves are favored without making the choice certain. Better shots matter more than retaining a tailing position. At lost contact, the computer always searches. Pass the screen: the tailed pilot chooses first, then passes the hidden screen to the tailing pilot. Without tailing, Allied chooses first. Two cockpits: an open testing view showing both pilots.

The program resolves both maneuvers, then applies both shots immediately when the resulting encounter appears. Each encounter arrival scores once; repeating the same page on a later move scores again, while resizing or reopening a view never scores twice. The Explore page control previews a page without dealing damage. This arrival timing is the digital presentation requested for this version; the printed sequence waits until the next turn.

Classic basic damage: short range 2, medium 1, long ½. Six damage downs a plane. Both aircraft’s damage is always visible above the cockpit. Lethal fire ends the flight on the resulting encounter; simultaneous destruction is a draw. This implements the classic six-damage system, rather than doubled totals in newer deluxe editions. Tailing is now enforced: a printed T means that pilot is tailing. The tailed pilot must choose first. The tailing pilot sees a bold Enemy Movement: Left, Straight, or Right banner above the cockpit before selecting a response. The computer uses only that direction hint when it is tailing. Altitude, ammunition, jams and aircraft-specific restrictions apply when Intermediate or Advanced rules are selected.

Campaign & Squadrons

Choose Campaign to create or open Squadron 1–5. Each slot contains an independent campaign, with copying, deletion, export and import. Missions save automatically in this browser, including dice already rolled. Export a Squadron for a portable save.

Pilot careers, Famous Aces, Rookie replacements, promotions and the 40-mission campaign are standard. Aircraft inventory, duty rolls, random starting conditions, ground position, fuel, Archie, landing, surprise and unobserved victory credit are optional. Choose your side, rules and optional systems when creating a Squadron; those settings remain locked for that campaign. Seasonal aircraft availability follows the printed campaign schedule.

Original artwork. English controls.

The cockpit art and maneuver symbols come directly from your two PDFs. The program displays the original scans, including their faint reverse-page ghosting. Use the contrast switch if it helps readability. Aggressive image cleanup has not been applied.

In computer mode, Opponent’s view opens a floating cockpit image of the opposing aircraft for the same encounter. Enlarge it with ＋ or close it with ×; it never reveals the computer’s next choice. It is unavailable in two-player modes.

Click Full scanned page to check the original printed maneuver strip. Symbols are arranged in Left, Straight, and Right subsections under each speed, matching the printed table headings. Some moves named Left/Right (including slips and barrel rolls) belong to the book’s Straight hint group. Button labels translate the maneuver names; the printed Portuguese words inside the scan remain unchanged.

Page 223: if only one intermediate lookup reaches it, the other book supplies the result. If the final encounter is 223, both pilots secretly choose Search or Escape. Both Search restarts at 170 with recorded damage retained; one Escape gives the other pilot the win; both Escape ends in a draw.

Rule verification: the Portuguese basic rules agree with the classic English basic rules reproduced in the Original Rules section of the English Powerhouse reprint rulebook, printed pages 20–22. The comparison covers the printed rules for damage, defeat, tailing clues, and lost-contact handling; it does not establish that every edition’s advanced rules are identical.

Personal local prototype. Original game and artwork: Alfred Leonardi / Nova Game Designs; Brazilian edition: Grow. No original PDF has been changed. The earlier generated-art prototype is separate.