Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Airfix Fighter Command Game

After one of our nostalgic discussions at the Sheffield club I dug out this venerable delight from the attic and took it along last Wednesday.  I have owned this game sine new (1976!) and it is still a pretty good simulation.  I officiated while John and Martin offered their impersonations of Goering and Dowding respectively.  Sadly the rules disappeared years ago (does anyone have a copy?) but I remembered enough to get us through it - after all, we are definitely in the "ages 8 and up" bracket....
Like most air war games, Fighter Command sacrifices one of the ideal three dimensions but the result is rather striking.  The subtitle on the box reads "Knock your enemy from the skies" and this actually happens!  For example, if the Bf109 in the photo rolls a '1' and moves forward, then the middle Spitfire will plunge to it's fiery doom.  What fun!
John and Martin in action.  They were very keen, but perhaps not as photogenic as the family pictured on the box lid...
... I wonder where they are now?
at

10 comments:

  1. Pete Jones24 April 2012 at 18:58

    Tim,

    This may help with the rules:

    http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/67173/user-review

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  2. Battlescale24 April 2012 at 19:00

    Aaaaaah the memories. I had this back in the day, along with Tank Battle, Campaign...... My first introduction to wargaming.

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  3. Tim Gow24 April 2012 at 19:12

    Pete Jones
    Thanks - I already looked at this site hoping there'd be a scan of the rules.

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  4. Tim Gow24 April 2012 at 19:14

    Steve's Wargame Stuff
    I think this game came a couple of years before 'proper' wargaming for me - and was sidelined as it was just a kids game....

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  5. SoA Shows North24 April 2012 at 20:29

    That looks great - John and Martin look safer players to me ... the little girl looks like she bites!

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  6. Tim Gow24 April 2012 at 21:18

    SoA Shows North
    Little girls tend do do quite well in the multi-player participation games we've run at shows. Never play against them!

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  7. Paul24 April 2012 at 23:34

    Lovely nostalgia at work.

    I think I remember this from a catalog back in the day.

    Its always gutting when the artwork drawn on the box does not measure up to the game.

    Tally Ho!

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  8. Tim Gow25 April 2012 at 15:24

    Paul
    It really is a surprisingly good game - but the box art on the games never equalled that on the kits.

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  9. Red_Cardinal4 May 2012 at 16:29

    Isn't that Esther Rantzen playing?

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  10. Tim Gow4 May 2012 at 16:53

    Red Cardinal
    I don't think so - but I can see your reasoning!

    ReplyDelete