Ju 87 Stuka Ace allows you to simulate Junker 87 (Stuka) operations throughout the course of World War II, from the beginning of the Blitzkrieg in Poland to the anti-tank operations in the Russian campaign.
What makes Stuka Pilot special is the brand-new game engine, built around what made the Stuka unique, the dive-bombing. This method of attack is very different from the standard bombing operated by other aircraft, and Ju 87 Stuka Pilot fully reflects this uniqueness. This is the attack sequence in JU 87 Stuka Ace: select the bomb release height, proceed with the dive, consider the current formation height and visibility, release the bombs at the set height and then execute the delicate pull phase. Each of these phases will be managed by making optimal use of the action cards in the player's hand, but you must carefully plan your play since you don’t immediately draw a new card after playing it.
Ju 87 Stuka Ace will allow you to fly your Ju 87 in almost all the theatres where the Stuka were used: Poland, France, England, Norway, the Mediterranean, North Africa, Italy, and Russia. The missions in the different theatres will have very different objectives: infantry units, artillery positions, tanks, transport ships, battleships are just some of the examples. Terrain and weather conditions will also play an important role in the missions; poor visibility, the scorching heat and the sand of the desert, and the frost and snow in the Russian winters: are elements the player will have to consider to succeed. Ju 87 Stuka Ace includes even night operations: special rules will allow simulating Ju 87 D-5N attacks in Italy as members of "Night Battle Group" NSG9.
Nine Stuka models will be available to the player depending on the mission or on the progression of the campaign, including Ju 87 A, Ju 87B-1, Ju 87 R-1, Ju 87 D-3, Ju 87 D-5, and Ju 87 G-1. Depending on the capabilities of the aircraft, it will be necessary to select the most appropriate bomb load for the mission objective, evaluating both the number and the type of bombs to be used. And when flying the Ju 87 G-1, your pilot will use the Bordkanone 37 against the Soviet tanks: to better represent the Ju 87G-1 tank-buster role, a specific attack procedure has been introduced, always leveraging the player Action Cards.
If you have just a limited amount of time you can play single missions, choosing your preferred theatre of operations. If you are instead looking for a campaign game, Stuka Pilot has been designed to represent the entire career of the pilot, starting from his role as "rookie", then moving on to the roles of Kette Leader, Staffel Leader, and finally Gruppe Leader. As squadron or group commander, the player will have to coordinate the operations of his formation, defining the best approach to the attack, while still remaining in command of his aircraft; the outcome of the mission is always based on the result of your individual attack, do not expect to remain an observer while your formation is executing its dive attacks. As the campaign progresses, you will not only be able to climb the ranks of the Luftwaffe, but also improve your skills (customize your deck of Action cards) and get the coveted medals. The Golden Leaves are waiting for you aboard your Ju 87.
—description from the publisher
- Great variety of missions
- Fabulous career arc, managing more aircraft and wings in later stages
- Focus remains on the single mission
- Flying a Stuka dive bomber through campaigns
- World War II, various regions
- Solitaire game
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Campaign play — Flying through a number of campaigns in a lot of different regions around the world.
- Solitaire — A solitaire game where you take charge of a single Stuka aircraft in World War II.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this G I will say this is a this is a type of game that immediately captures my attention
- it's got everything in here and if we look at the uh rule book here and let's just move this up a little bit to get a better look at it here if we dig into the rule book um it's 22 pages long which is not very long I mean the text is kind of small I was expecting it to be bigger but looking through it we can again see a lot of the elements of gameplay that are the things that I would be looking for to see so it's checking off all the buttons right
- this looks really cool I I'm very curious I will also it's again it's not to me it's a genre that I think has really struggled to capture the essence so while there has been often games that have had this Vision I think there's been very few games that have come close to pulling it off to capture that magic especially in a soliter format of letting you live the pirates life I hope golden age of piracy is that game
- this I now I don't know the original 2014 game that this was based on but basically it seems like they've taken every taken everything from Imperial stars that this two and built it into the game thrown all the uh the expansions in as well and and in essence what you've got here is a two-player head to-head game of space combat in the year of 4096 or something like that it's an epic 4X game
- these uh these Maps here look fantastic the counters look really sharp as well we've got updated cards it looks like there is event driven elements that are going to kind of change the nature of this head-to-head combat that you're facing
- I really like the potential and I think there's still a lot of untapped potential for space hex to heex hex encounters Space games and board games that take the combination of space and war game basically let's put it simply in there I think there's a ton of potential here to kind of expand off of this so when I see these colorful maps and see all these spaceships flying around I think oh this looks really this looks pretty juicy
- I'm working on a video called the 10 tabletop war games with the best Art and Design basically the 10 most beautiful tabletop war games and I've if you're familiar with the channel you know that I was gone from tabletop War gaming for over 20 years I've been back for 3 years so I'm catching up on a lot of stuff right I'm trying to catch up on 30 years worth of War games and the time that I've got left and so uh I I there's gaps and those gaps are things that I don't know and so I'm curious what you as a viewer would consider your most beautiful war games
References (from this video)
- strong personal agency and narrative focus
- excellent example of solitaire, story-driven wargaming
- campaign arc not fully tested in public play yet
- solitaire, narrative-driven career across campaigns
- World War II, focused on an individual Stuka pilot
- story-centric, pilot-centric progression
- Stuka Leader
- Storm of Steel
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- decision-driven mission flow — player decisions influence mission outcomes and career trajectory
- progression of aircraft and crew — adding planes and crew as the career expands
- solo-driven campaign — experience a pilot's career across multiple campaigns
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's an amazingly massive system
- Stuka leader is much more than just a leader of stukas
- the heart of this is the story of you as the individual pilot
- space-based operational level war game