Down in Flames Overview

On January sixth I met one of the Luftwaffe old-timers, one of the toughest pilots I’ve ever fought. Near Coblenz the group raced in a dive after fifteen Focke-Wulfs. Gabreski locked onto a Kraut’s tail and the German’s wingman came hard after Gabby. I saw him swinging in, turned hard, and made a head-on pass. The Focke-Wulf jerked up steeply to the right, turning away. I threw the Jug into a roll and went after him. He put his fighter into a wicked turn, but I kept rolling and firing, sticking like glue to his tail. He steepened the climb, but with the new propeller the Thunderbolt never let go. I kept rolling, squeezing out bursts, scoring hits steadily. He turned, twisting violently to lose me.

I stayed with him, following every move, still firing, still scoring. Abruptly he flicked over and dove, jerking from side to side to avoid my fire. He was terrific, one of the very best. But the dive was his mistake. Again and again the Germans tried to break out of a tough position by diving. Never did they learn! The moment my nose went down the engine and propeller wound up in a scream and narrowed the gap. I went in close, less than fifty yards, and squeezed out a long burst. The bullets tore into his cockpit and left wing root, flaming a fuel tank. The Focke-Wulf tumbled crazily, end over end, and tore apart. Number Eleven.

- Excerpt from: Thunderbolt! The P-47 by Robert S. Johnson with Martin Caidin, published by www.ibooksinc.com, ISBN 1-59019-519-1, © 1958, 1958 and 2001 by Martin Caidin and Robert S. Johnson

Game Play in a nutshell...

DiF is a game that has the feel and flavor of dogfighting in a simple to learn but hard to master card game format. Gameplay is a fast, action-packed, and centers around the unique blow-by-blow Action/Reaction game system . Because of this, you get to maneuver on enemy aircraft, shoot them down, watch as they react to your actions, and get to respond with your own maneuvers and reactions, all in an intriguing easy to play and yet realistic game system.

However, DiF is not a flight simulator. While aircraft capabilities and movement are modeled, the focus of the game is on the immediate action and excitement of dogfighting, not the excessive number crunching and flight physics.

Each aircraft fighter has several ratings:

Performance: How many maneuvers its pilot can have at any one time.
Horsepower: How many new maneuvers the aircraft gains each turn.
Bursts: How much firepower the plane has.
Airframe: How much damage the plane can take before being shot down.

(Bombers for example have different ratings for turret attack and defense.)

You get to command both a Leader and a Wingman aircraft. Your Leader is in charge and your wingman is there to help cover the to Leader and allow him to get better fire angles and to keep the enemy planes off his tail.

Wingmen are rated for their offensive and defensive maneuvers.

DiF uses five Altitude levels: Very High, High, Medium, Low, and Very Low. Aircraft have their Horsepower adjusted according to altitude. Aircraft gain +1 Horsepower at Very Low and Low, get –1 Horsepower at High, and –2 Horsepower at Very High.

Each turn you are able to adjust your altitude by one level. You can also use Vertical Roll maneuvers to adjust altitude during your turn. Every time you dive you get one new maneuver, every time you climb you have to discard one of your maneuvers.

Leaders use maneuver cards to hold one of five positions relative to an enemy Leader.

Tailing: You are on their tail. You get 3 extra Bursts and they can’t shoot at you.
Advantaged: You are behind them. You get 1 extra burst and they can’t shoot at you.
Neutral: Neither planes holds a better position. You can shoot at each other.
Disadvantaged: He is behind you and gets 1 extra burst. You can’t shoot at him.
Tailed: He is on your tail and gets 3 extra bursts. You can’t shoot at him.

The heart of the DiF system is its Action/Reaction maneuver system. Some maneuvers will initiate an action such as improving your position or shooting at an enemy, other maneuvers will react, and still others can do both.

Attacks are measured in how many bursts are used to make the attack and how many points of damage the attack will inflict if successful. An “In My Sights 1:2” uses 1 burst and will inflict 2 points against the target’s Airframe rating if not countered. An “Out of the Sun 1:2” would do the same, but is much more difficult to counter by the targeted plane.

Aircraft have an undamaged set of stats and a damaged set of stats. A plane starts out undamaged and at its full capabilities. After it has suffered some damage it is reduced to using its damaged stats. If it suffers still more damage it is shot down.

Here is an example of how it all works…

Player A (P-47) plays a Maneuver card to get from a neutral to an advantaged position.
Player B (FW-190) chooses No Response. His plane is flipped sideways and is disadvantaged. Player A now gains an extra burst on the enemy.

I saw him swinging in, turned hard, and made a head-on pass. The Focke-Wulf jerked up steeply to the right, turning away. I threw the Jug into a roll and went after him.

Player A plays another Maneuver card.
Player B plays a Tight Turn card to counter the Maneuvering.
Player A plays a Scissors card to counter the Tight Turn.
Player B has no cards to counter the Scissors, and his Focke-Wulf is flipped to become “Tailed”. Player A now gains 3 extra bursts on the enemy.

The Focke-Wulf jerked up steeply to the right, turning away. I threw the Jug into a roll and went after him. He put his fighter into a wicked turn, but I kept rolling and firing, sticking like glue to his tail.

Player A plays an In My Sights 1:2 card. This costs 1 burst, and will cause 2 points of damage if uncountered.
Player B tries to counter by playing a Vertical Roll maneuver.
But Player A plays a Vertical Roll card himself, and negates Player B’s reaction.
Player B has another Vertical Roll to counter, but chooses to hold on to that card for now in case Player A fires at him again in that turn (Player A still has 2 more bursts), and his plane takes 2 hits worth of damage.

He steepened the climb, but with the new propeller the Thunderbolt never let go. I kept rolling, squeezing out bursts, scoring hits steadily. He turned, twisting violently to lose me.

Player A plays an In My Sights 2:Destroyed card, a rare card which results in an immediate kill of the enemy if uncountered.
Player B plays his last Vertical Roll card to counter, but Player A has another Vertical Roll in his hand!
Player B cannot counter that, and his Focke-Wulf goes down in flames!

I stayed with him, following every move, still firing, still scoring. Abruptly he flicked over and dove, jerking from side to side to avoid my fire. He was terrific, one of the very best. But the dive was his mistake. Again and again the Germans tried to break out of a tough position by diving. Never did they learn! The moment my nose went down the engine and propeller wound up in a scream and narrowed the gap. I went in close, less than fifty yards, and squeezed out a long burst. The bullets tore into his cockpit and left wing root, flaming a fuel tank. The Focke-Wulf tumbled crazily, end over end, and tore apart. Number Eleven.

Extra Features...

In addition to the dogfighting we have added various squadren management features. With time, pilots gain experience and can gain new skills and access to better planes. You get to command several pilots from each of the four different nations: United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Japan. Each of your pilots gains experience points for damaging and shooting down enemy fighters. They also get points for escorting friendly bombers and shooting down enemy bombers. You get to spend these points on skills for the pilot.

Skills will give your pilot advantages by giving him special abilities, extra cards, more bursts, or even reduce the capabilities of the enemy pilots he is facing.

Experience points also “unlock” the more advanced aircraft from that nation. Every pilot starts out by flying the lowliest planes and can earn enough points to fly the best that nation had during the war.

As your pilots rack up successful missions they will also go up in rank, which is a great means of determining how successful a pilot has been in his career.

By performing heroic deeds in a mission your pilots can also earn medals specific to their nation.

Game Features:

Innovative Action/Reaction gameplay system

Based on the award winning card combat game

Free Online Play

Online statistics tracking

Solo gameplay or up to 4 person multiplayer

40 Different Planes to fly and fight

4 different nationalities (USA, Germany, Japan, Great Britian)

6 Campaigns

Free Monthly Updates with new planes, campaigns and game features added

Game Requirements:

Windows PC (Win 98 SP2, ME, XP, 2000)

DirectX 9.0c or higher

DirectX 9.0c supported video card capable of displaying 1024x768 resolution or higher

Requires Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 SP1 to be installed (Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 SP1 installer included with game)

600 Megabytes required free on hard drive

Internet connection STRONGLY recommenced and REQUIRED to access game updates, new features and campaign play.