WARNING: Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is a fast paced, easy to learn and highly addictive game.
Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is a fast paced multi-player World War I (1914 - 1918) aerial combat game that is played on a hex game mat. Each game depicts a single dogfight in which each player controls a single aircraft, and attempts to shoot down as many enemy planes as possible without being shot down themselves. There is no limit to the number of players that can play in a single game.
Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is played on a hex grid game mat, with the players, using an aircrfat maneuver chart decide which maneuver their aircraft will perform on the following move. After all players have decided their moves, all the aircraft are moved simultaneously on the game mat. Players can shoot at another plane only if the enemy aircraft is within their fire arc at a maximum distance of 3 hexes. The game rules are very simple with most being contained within the game components used for game play. Referencing the rules manual is rarely necessary. After playing a few games, you can start using the campaign rules, which adds more fun to the game.
Eric Hotz & Phil Hall © 2008
Looks like a great site with free downloads for the entire ruleset.
Also from the yahoo discussion group today -
Re: 10 section antennas for sale
"I checked this group today to announce something and found you guys talking about it already. So I'll just reply to this post here. I am modifying my hex flight bases to include a telescoping rod as well. It's a 5 segment with magnet on the end. The flight stand has a built in direction indicator and elevation indicator. I also finished my new magnetic mounts that can be used to indicate yaw, pitch, and roll. We use these to indicate the last turns move for instance a left turn with a climb so you can keep track visually more whats going on and it looks great.
Telescoping rods by themselves will be $3 each. 4" hex flight stands are $9 (I can make 5" if someone is trying to do 72nd scale) Magnetic mounts are $2.50 each for the small 1/144th scale stuff and $4 each for the larger 1/72nd scale ones. So for 1/144th you can have a setup for under $15. I was going to announce the mag mounts but I'm also placing an order for telescoping rods soon so if anyone is interested email me and I can add some to my order."
Mag mounts can be seen here:
http://www.corseceng.com/blog/2010/9/20/universal-magnetic-mounts-are-ready.html
Flight stands here:
http://www.corseceng.com/blog/2010/4/18/canvas-eagles-flight-stands.html
"The mag mounts can be attached to the rods I've worked out easy and secure ways for both sizes."
Jonathan Bowen - CorSec Engineering
http://www.corseceng.com/ Also below is a comparison given by
Eric Hotz between
Blue Max/Canvas Eagles and another Air Game rules set CY6
CY6 is a good game, but I want to play a lot of turns and I want to play a fast game when I play an air combat game. I find CY6 a bit complex. It may be a more accurate simulation of flight, but it sacrifices game speed to achieve it.
I like CY6, and if I had more time, I would play it more. Canvas Eagles is just an easier game to grab and play, and judging by the number of people I saw playing Canvas Eagles vs those playing CY6 at my local club, I'd say a number of people agree with my feelings.
have played "Check Your 6" WWII and the world war one version has been played at my club. My local club used to field 20+ players for Canvas Eagles games in the past -- this was "usual" for single games. These were big events. I was away from the club for almost two years and expected, upon my return, to see everyone playing the WWI version of CY6. What did I see... I saw 15 people playing Canvas Eagles. I saw my friend Craig playing and I asked him, "Why is no one playing the CY6 WWI version?" He looked at me and said,
"We tried it... its way to complicated". I haven't seen the game played since. My local club has 100+ members with between 60 and 80 showing up for game nights. This is one the largest and oldest tabletop gaming clubs in North America
Is Blue Max/Canvas Eagles rubbish? Blue Max and Canvas Eagles do something that no other game I have ever played does. They capture the speed and fury of WWI air combat. They capture the flavour of the period better than any other game I have played. When I played at the club, we would get in between 35 and 55 turns.
The last time I went to my club was last month and there was a 10 player Canvas Eagles game going on. People play Check Your 6 WWII at the club, but its a smaller group. The game of CY6 I played got in about 8 turns in two hours. With Canvas Eagles, this would have been around 20 turns. CY6 is a good game, but very detailed while Canvas Eagles is a more fluid game because the game was designed to move quickly. You sacrifice something for that.
I could see little difference between it (CY6) and the old Avalon Hill Air Force game.
A friend of mine used to play WWII in Calgary, Canada. He played using wheeled stands. He came over to Vancouver, where I live, for a visit. When he heard I was playing a WWI game that used hexes he laughed and went on and on about what wheeled stands are the best and most accurate way to play WWII or WWI. After he played Canvas Eagles he wanted to know where to get the game. He said it was a great game.
Blue Max was never intended to be an accurate game. When you are playing on 5 inch hexes, and moving two or more hexes at a time, you lose something, but at the same time you gain speed and a very addictive, fun game for all ages.
It simply can't be beat for its feel and flavour of the period.
Canvas Eagles is also the best convention game I have ever seen,
especially when using these fluid rules.
So there you have it an unbiased opinion on Canvas Eagles the New Blue Max rules.
