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Welcome to France! Aces of Valor is a solitaire game where you command a fighter squadron on the Western Front during World War I through a campaign of multiple missions to score as many victory points as possible to assist the war effort. You can play as the Germans, or one the Entente powers (British, French, or Americans). Each aircraft counter represents the pilot and the aircraft combined, and your squadron will have up to eight at any given time.
The player chooses the campaign’s duration (8, 12 or 16 missions), and draws a card to determine the objective of each mission, which includes patrols, trench strafing, photo recon, artillery spotting, balloon busting, and bomber escort. The player’s flight moves across a gridded map that is a semi-historical representation of the Western front. Anti-aircraft fire is heaviest near the trenches but can happen anywhere over enemy territory. When combat occurs, aircraft are moved to an “Initiative Track” for up to three rounds of combat, where pilot skill, aircraft performance, and luck all come into play to determine the outcome.
The player earns mission points by destroying enemy aircraft and ground targets, and also by escorting bomber and 2-seater aircraft on successful bombing, photo reconnaissance and artillery support missions. When the flight lands, mission points are converted to victory points or used to repair and replace aircraft as well as upgrade aircraft to newer, better models. The goal is to earn enough victory points to achieve a minor, major or strategic victory.
—description from the publisher
Aircraft drawings by Vincent Bourguignon
Counter and Map Design by Mark Mahaffey
Cover Painting and Layout by Ivan Berryman and Randy Lein
- Very accessible game
- Fantastic narrative spinner
- Has that one more turn, one more mission feel
- Absolutely fantastic game if you want to explore that type of subgenre of wargaming
- A little bit high on the complexity side for an introductory category game
- Little bit light on decisionmaking
- Aerial combat, leading squadrons on linked missions in a campaign
- World War I
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- campaign game — Lead squadrons on a series of 'linked missions in a campaign game'.
- Solitaire — A 'solitire game'.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Access and Allies. So, uh, this is this game doesn't really need any introduction, but I've heard so many good things about it. I think it does meet a lot of the qualifications and criteria that we established as a war game and as an introductory war game for this list. Just haven't had time and made time to play it yet. I think it could have a very high spot on the list.
- David Thompson has been on the list a lot. He makes fantastically accessible war games. So, anything that he creates, I think is a candidate for this list.
- John Butterfield is a fantastic designer and this is a area control.
- John Butterfield designed some just amazing stuff.
- This is a game that might not fit into the classic war game category, but I've heard a number of war gamers say that it's definitely a war game with a lot of war game aspects and it fits probably in that subgenre of games, get the pun, where you are playing the role of a plane or a tank or a submarine or a ship and going over a campaign.
- War at Sea, if you're not familiar with it, it's an area based naval game that dates back to the 1970s, maybe 1980s.
- This is a game set in World War II where you take charge of female Russian pilots. This is based in actual history that run various aircraft missions over the German lines during World War II.
- Worthington does a great job with their production values with games.
- What games did I miss? What games on the list do you like and agree with?
References (from this video)
- Easy to get into
- Really enjoyed it quite a bit
- World War I aerial combat missions.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Dice combat — When you actually get into combat here, you kind of have this this um grid numbered grid and you see where you are on the grid and where your enemy is on the grid. And if you're higher up on the grid than your enemy, you have the initiative or vice versa. And you're going to be able then to get into combat and you're rolling to see if you score hits. You're rolling for damage.
- Event rolls — As you're doing it as you're flying, you're also kind of rolling for events and every round you're trying to see what the events are.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Manila: The Savage Streets 1945. This is kind of a sister game to Stalingrad.
- I thought the Manila game was just a little smoother, a little sweeter. Um and it just worked a lot better.
- Pavlov's House is such a great solitaire war game.
- It was part of a well orchestrated plan to keep them there. And they were well supported by AA guns and communications and supplies.
- Castle Itter is kind of one of the weirdest battles of the war.
- And the game is super intense.
- When I think of a good solitaire war game that I could just pick up and and play with with with minimal difficulty and really invest in it, this is it.
- Vae Victis Emperor by Blue Panther. This is, of course, the Battle of Waterloo.
- he just did such a great great job of abstracting the the basics of the battle, but making them come alive in such a fun way.
- This one is so much fun. It is a great great solitaire war game.