OT: Air games

I've been on the lookout for a good air-to-air miniatures game that
*does*not* use hexes and isn't horribly complex. For a long, long time.

I've yet to find one... The "choose your maneuver" variety games (Blue Max,
Crimson Skies etc.) are ok, but they all use hexes. I've been toying with the
idea of converting them to movement templates...

If you don't have a problem with hexes, you could just take a boardgame and
add miniatures. E.g. Avalon Hill's Mustangs (IIRC) is ok. AH also has a far
more compl... eh, realistic air game, but I forget the name. There are others,
but I've no love for cardboard or hexes so I haven't researched them too well.

Practically all of the air games suffer from one flaw: They're "move first,
then see if someone is in your sights". I.e. you can easily, and often do, fly
right past enemy planes without getting a chance to fire. I really don't like
this, but YMMV.

The BEST dogfighting game I've seen is... GMT's Rise of the Luftwaffe. Highly
recommended (it's a card game, though).

Ofcourse, you might be able to get away with a somewhat modified FT. Wait!
Bear me out on this: Cinematic movement invent a couple of special maneuvers
like Immelman add max speed and maybe max altitude
 Strictly straight ahead guns only (maybe 1-2" wide firing path)
Maybe restructure turn order to allow passing shots
 Add modifiers for firing aspect (very important in real a2a) -- you
could use shield rules for this... Tailing rules Throw away all the junk
that's not appropriate, e.g. FTL, fighter bays etc.

Hmmm... Hmmmm.... HMMMM.... sounds like an idea for a RoPeCon demo
game...

I'm eagerly awaiting Aeronef, but Wessex has distribution problems at least in
Europe (read: they don't do credit cards, nor do they have retailers who
do...)

Sky Galleons.... as a long time John Carter fan, I really like the idea.
Unfortunately, that just about sums up what's good in the game. Oh, the
research into period naval guns is useful too...

 Rules writing is unclear, the system is clunky and bug-ridden, and it
often leads to boring battles, as it is rather easy to strip vessels of combat
effectiveness compared to actually downing them.

Again, you could redo it in FT...