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?

10 comments:

Pete Jones said...

Tim,

This may help with the rules:

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

Battlescale said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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....

SoA Shows North said...

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

Tim Gow said...

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!

Paul said...

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!

Tim Gow said...

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

Red_Cardinal said...

Isn't that Esther Rantzen playing?

Tim Gow said...

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