Imperial Eagles Interview: Chris Janiec

 

Imperial Eagles returns GMT’s Down in Flames World War II air combat card game system to the Pacific. Volume VI in the series is a stand-alone game in which you can recreate many of the air battles of the first two years of the war between the Japanese and the Western Allies. 65 different aircraft models (19 never before represented in DiF) are depicted with full-color cards, all rated according to the latest research.

-Who are you? What are your favorite wargames?

I’m a retired Naval Flight Officer who served in the US Navy for over 25 years. I grew up playing board games of all types as far back as I can remember. My first “real” wargame was Avalon Hill’s original Bismarck back in 1962 – we wore out the counters! I’ve continued playing ever since, the frequency varying with the demands of my work and the availability of opponents. I also used to play a lot of miniatures, though not much since I moved to Colorado in 2008. I playtested various games starting in the 1990s, developed two games for GMT after I left the military, and published my first design (PQ-17) in 2009.

My favorite wargames have changed over the years as my tastes and the hobby have evolved (plus my ability to retain complex, lengthy rules has diminished as I’ve grown older!). I used to play a lot of Hannibal Rome vs. Carthage, the Columbia East Front games, and the Gamers’ Civil War Brigade series, but my best memories are of playing Up Front – nothing like going all the way through three decks with the game not decided until literally the last card. These days my favorites are Combat Commander, Triumph & Tragedy, and Falling Sky, while GMT’s Down in Flames is pretty much the only tournament I enter at conventions any more.

-For those of us who are new, can you give us a brief explanation of the game and its themes?

Imperial Eagles is the sixth boxed volume in GMT’s Down in Flames series of WWII air combat card games. Dan Verssen and Gene Billingsley’s Rise of the Luftwaffe was published back in 1993, when I took a copy to Iceland with me and have loved the system ever since.

In its basic form, you control a pair of WWII fighter aircraft (a leader and a wingman) with a hand of action cards essentially representing your leader’s energy. Based on rigorous research, fighters are rated for their Performance (starting and maximum hand size), Horsepower (maximum number of cards to draw at the end of the turn), Bursts (firepower), Ceiling (maximum altitude), and Damage (how many hits they can absorb before having their ratings reduced or they are destroyed).

In your turn, you play cards to change altitude, improve your position with respect to an enemy leader, and fire your guns attempting to damage or destroy the enemy. The enemy can play cards from his or her own hand in response to those you play to try and thwart your efforts, you may respond to their response, and so on. At the start of your turn, your wingman gets to draw cards (and your enemy can respond) to try and accomplish the same goals, but wingmen must discard any cards not played. Then your pair may change altitude up or down, after which your leader plays cards as described. At the end of your turn, you draw cards into your leader’s hand depending on your altitude and the power of your aircraft’s engine. After every player takes their turn, the sequence starts again for a total of six rounds in a fighter-vs.-fighter dogfight. Though most often played with one player on each side controlling one or two pairs each, up to eight players can participate in a large dogfight.

Campaigns add context to these engagements by having one side defend a target with its fighters while the fighters of the other side protect their bombers trying to attack the target and return safely to base. Campaigns consist of multiple historically-based missions, each randomly determined with different targets and strike aircraft plus escorting and intercepting fighters chosen by the players from a list of those available at the time.

-What would be the main differences with other games in the series?

Each of the first four games in the series covered a different theater and period of the war, with the first two focusing on Europe and the next two on the Pacific. The basic mechanics remained unchanged, but did evolve over time to eliminate bugs and add new rules to address different facets of the air war such as jets, carrier battles, and kamikazes. All are long out of print.

Wild Blue Yonder took the series back to Europe with updated rules, aircraft, and campaigns spanning the period from the Battle of Britain in mid-1940 through the Battle of Berlin in early 1944. Though many of the campaigns had been previously covered, in almost every case they received new treatment based on extensive research. The action card deck expanded from 80 to 110 cards including four new types, and 300 aircraft cards gave a good but by no means comprehensive sample of the fighters and bombers of that time span. The biggest change was to the structure of campaign missions, making them play a little faster.

Imperial Eagles returns the series to the Pacific from the Japanese attacks on the British and Americans there in December 1941 to the end of 1943. It is a stand-alone game that will bring the Pacific theater up to the standards of Wild Blue Yonder. The rules change little from WBY, but there is one major innovation: a completely redone system for carrier battles will give players a much better understanding of the challenges facing carrier task force and air wing commanders in 1942 while giving the individual carriers their due.

Both WBY and IE are designed to be completely compatible with the volumes that came before. You can play dogfights mixing earlier and newer aircraft, though I like to think the newer aircraft better reflect reality than the same planes in their earlier versions. And you can play the earlier volumes’ campaigns with the new rules and aircraft if you desire.

-How many campaigns does it have?

Imperial Eagles will include eleven campaigns. The Marshall Islands Raid published in C3i magazine has been slightly modified and serves as a good introduction to campaign missions. Three land campaigns and one progressive campaign previously published have been completely revised and brought up to WBY standards: Invasion of the Philippines 1941-42, Netherlands East Indies, Guadalcanal, and Solomon Islands. The land campaigns have two or three Stages of 3 to 6 missions each, providing a high degree of replayability. All four 1942 carrier battles (Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons, and Santa Cruz) are included, along with a shorter campaign depicting the exchange of air strikes on 8 May at the Battle of the Coral Sea (First Carrier Battle) in which players can more quickly learn the new carrier operation mechanics. And Jerry White has contributed a solitaire campaign on the Doolittle Raid in which you can play a quick mission with a single B-25 or the entire operation with all sixteen bombers.

-Why should we buy your game?

If you’re looking for a fast-playing game of World War II air-to-air combat with many aircraft faithfully represented, Imperial Eagles is a stand-alone game that offers a good introduction to GMT’s Down in Flames system. 28 different fighter types are included, many with two and even three pairs for multi-player games.

If you’d like to experience more of how WWII air actions were fought, the campaigns in this system provide unsurpassed variety of air missions. IE showcases 37 different models of bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, each having a role in one or more campaigns.

If you have played Wild Blue Yonder, you get to extend your familiarity with the system to the Pacific and its classic aircraft. You needn’t learn much in the way of new rules until you tackle the new carrier operation system. Some rules have been clarified, there are a handful of optional tactics to try such as the Thach Weave and the Lufbery Circle, and the few changes are clearly marked. What changes exist are backwards-compatible to WBY. And of the 65 aircraft models in Imperial Eagles, only six are also in Volume V.

If you played the earlier volumes in the series but not Wild Blue Yonder, I hope you would find the changes in the system enhance play without diminishing the fast action you’ve come to enjoy. And if you have all five previous volumes, besides upgraded campaigns and refinements to some of the earlier versions of the aircraft, 19 aircraft models have never before been represented in GMT’s Down in Flames.

This is probably the last stand-alone game in the series for quite some time, so don’t miss out!