Here's one occasion when I went for all planes in one Pre-Approach Area, but beware as you don't know the exact Bandit [i.e. enemy plane] composition in the Approach Areas yet. So, the next step is to draw them and you may get lucky and find that some of your draws may be No Bandits - great! On the other hand, there may be some nastier opposition than you expected - not so great!
Finally, you draw another Event card and consult and execute the instructions in the middle box and then place the Turn marker in the 1 position. You now have 5 turns in the next Phase in which to complete your Mission.
Mission Pilots weaponed up! OVER-TARGET RESOLUTION
At this stage you have 5 turns in which to complete your Mission. Each turn follows the same sequence:
[1] Dive Bombers or Kamikazes dive to low altitude.
[2] Fast Pilots may make one attack on a Site, a Bandit or the Target - the choice will depend on the plane's location, altitude, appropriate range and weapon.
[3] Sites and Bandits attack
[4] Slow Pilots may attack
[5] All Pilots may move
[6] Bandits move
What happens will depend on whether you are in a Pre-Approach Area, an Approach Area or the Target Area. If in a Pre-Approach Area, not much more than moving your planes into an adjacent Approach Area or adjacent Pre-Approach Area is likely to happen. But once into an Approach Area or the Target Area things are guaranteed to heat up!
It is also here that the main complexity of play also increases and is the major difference between all the modern era Leader games and Corsair Leader and Zero Leader. That's because we're in WWII and DOGFIGHTING comes into play!
As can be seen it even has its own special mounted chart. Unengaged, Engaged and Positioning all play their part with a matrix of manoeuvres bringing a series of potential modifiers and choices into play. Some of these will also depend on qualities inherent on the Pilot card or Skills purchased with SO points. The element of Dogfighting was the one I was most looking forward to in this and its companion game. It adds greatly to the level of detail, but I must admit it does add significantly to the many small rules that you need to master to play the game well.
Herein lies the major complexity of playing Zero Leader. The basic stages and rules of the game are clear and fairly easy to grasp and retain without too much return to the rule book. However, the many skills, qualities and attributes when combined with the modifiers on the Dogfight chart and how they affect them, allowing usage of some and not of others can lead to a much greater level of checking and rechecking that I've got things correct.
Regular play of the game obviously smooths the path, but this is not a game that you can easily lift down from the shelf for the occasional and infrequent session. Play is engrossing and as always, a system which has named Pilots invests the action with an element of personal involvement as Stress levels mount, planes suffer damage and for some go down in flames.
Battling through the Bandits and the defensive sites in both the Approach Areas and the central Target Area, eventually you get a crack at the target itself which may range from a simple shore battery all the way up to a carrier.
And here are my heroes taking on those shore batteries This will have taken at least two or three of your five turns and so you'll find yourself with at the most three turns to destroy the target to gain your main victory points. Whatever degree of success you've had, however, the game's not over yet - there's still one last stage to work through.
HOME-BOUND FLIGHT
One last Event card is to be drawn and instructions on the bottom row of the card carried out.
In what's called a debriefing section, the success of your mission and the number of VPs gained is entered on your Pilot Log. The quality of your Recon and Intelligence abilities on the game board may be improved to give your future benefits in new missions. Stress gained by all your participating pilots is recorded. Experience points may be gained, leading to possible pilot promotion; stress may be recovered from and finally your Maintenance Crews come into play. Yes, you even have a chance to put in some repair work, mend damage that might have been taken and by rolling on a special table, you can even push your crews to additional work at the risk of them gaining fatigue and at the very worst making a mistake in their efforts.
The game may be played out on a very stylised and abstract mounted board, but a great amount of realistic detail of this brutal war is packed into Zero Leader. Consulting your Campaign success at the end of a gruelling 6 day Long Campaign from the VPs you've accrued may sound anti-climactic, but I can tell you it's not. There is a profound sense of satisfaction even if you've only achieved Adequate and just don't ask about what went wrong if the result is deemed Dismal!
Once again it's many thanks to Dan Verssen Games for providing my review copy and ... as a foretaste of my future reviews. Next up will be a further venture into the Pacific war - this time in its entirety with Phalanx's new edition of Fire In The Sky and then it's back to DVG to review their production of David Thompson's most recent design, Soldiers In Postmen's Uniforms.
Publisher: Dan Verssen Games
Players: 1
Playing time: 90 minutes +
RRP: £87.95
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