My Collection: Air War SPI (1979) Part 1

I decided to start up my blog again as I'd missed my regular posts and had previously found it a nice way of spending the odd half hour chatting about my little interests and passions. A lot of things have happened since my last post in ...2021! So plenty to keep me occupied with in getting on-line and discussed. It might also act as a gentle catalyst into getting me to play some games and find more time for the hobby.

First up is my recent purchase on e-Bay of an old school classic of the 1980s board game fraternity Air War by SPI. This is most definitely the most complicated board game I've ever played. I remember it took me a whole morning and with help from my friend for me to take off and make a turn and then I crashed! His big brother was actually a fighter pilot in the RAF at the time and he jokingly said it was harder to understand this game than his flight training. 

The game makes a merit of being ultra complex and I suppose before flight simulators this was a close as you could get for a reasonable outlay to the real experience of fighter combat. Anyway it was a thrilling exercise to get some mastery of the game and it also helped with understanding the tactics and subtleties of modern air combat.  

I will go into the game components and rules in more detail in my Part 2 and leave you with a view of the cat in its favourite position, this time in another one of my grail purchases, the Avalon Hill version of the old classic Kingmaker which I will review soon.