| About
Dogfight
Dogfight is one of
the American Heritage games in the “Command
Decision” series
of wargames published by Milton Bradley
in the early 1960’s:
- Civil War (1961, Dealing
with, predictably, the American Civil
War)
- Broadside (1962,
Age of the Sailing Ship Naval Battle)
- Dogfight (1963,
WW1 Aerial Combat)
- Hit the Beach (1965, WW2 American
Pacific Campaign)
The American Heritage
series games have been described
as being “war themed” games
since they are not really “wargames” in
the traditional sense of the term,
and simply place the usual basic gaming
mechanics into a war setting. The
games in the series adapted elements
of history into family-strategy style
rules. The primary emphasis was on “game,”
with the “history” coming principally
through the convenient, somewhat accurate,
historical booklets containing excerpts from
American Heritage books.
In 1975 Milton Bradley
released “Skirmish,”
which dealt with the American Revolution,
along with three of the original American
Heritage/Command Decision series games
from the early sixties (Civil War was
now released as “Battle-Cry”;
Hit the Beach was not re-issued because
it apparently sucked). From the American
flag motif on the new box covers, it would
seem that their re-release was motivated
by America’s bicentennial celebration,
and Skirmish made for a timely addition
to the series.
Definitely not for the
hardcore wargamer, but still a lot of fun,
Dogfight is a light version of WWI air combat.
The Germans and Americans each get 6 biplanes
divided into 2 squadrons of 3 planes each.
Each squadron gets a hand of combat maneuver
cards and players move one plane from each
squadron engaging and evading each other.
For each plane shot down, you receive an
ace token that entitles you to hold a larger
hand of cards. Anti-Aircraft guns guard each
home squadron and the lucky flyer has the
opportunity to strafe the enemy’s
planes on the ground. Dogfight is a great
introductory wargame with easy to learn rules.
For a more articulate overview of Dogfight,
go to http://www.gamepile.com/game47.html.
Why a Site for a 50 Year
Old Game?
You must be incredibly bored or have WAY
too much time on your hands.
Long story short, I
used to watch a Stearman biplane take
off and land at Cochise College when
I was 7 years old. That, combined with
living in the flight line of Davis Monthan
AFB and watching Corsairs and U2s fly
low over our house piqued my curiosity
about aviation.
I had the usual boyhood
fascination to catch things (like lizards
and the ever elusive birds) which entailed
my watching black tailed swallows for countless
hours, being fascinated by their agility
in moving in and out of their mud huts.
At age 9 I happened across
a book titled “Heroes
and Aeroplanes of the Great War 1914-1918” at
the library, and checked it out (or had
a friend check it out, because you were
only allowed to do that twice in a row)
every two weeks consecutively for the next
couple of years. I paid enough late fees
to have bought the book outright, but was
simply not the type of kid to consider “losing” it.
I was hooked. First on just
the planes and the guns, but then later
on the stories of combat and the concepts
of honor in armed conflict and aerial chivalry
captured my imagination. Paper airplanes
and the Guillows balsa “Sleek Streak” rubber
band powered monoplanes (I must have gone
through a hundred of them) were prominent
through my grade school years, and I gained
a fundamental understanding of lift, drag,
and the basics of aerodynamics by first
hand experiments.
At age 11 I discovered
a late 60’s paperback copy of Rickenbacker’s “Fighting
the Flying Circus” during summer
break, and a short time later I spent an
entire day bumming around a 7/8ths scale
flying replica of an SE5a at a local air
show (Vickers, Lewis and all), finally
being allowed to sit briefly in the cockpit
(there was simply no other way to get rid
of me). That same summer I discovered “Dogfight”,
which I played obsessively. I remember
paying my siblings to play it with me long
after they had lost interest.
Friends and
family suffered alike. When I couldn’t
convince anyone to game with me, I spent
my time building every model airplane manufactured
by Monogram and Revell. In seventh grade “The
Blue Max” aired on T.V. (in three
parts), and I don’t believe I have
had as strong an interest about anything
on the little screen since.
Eighth grade
brought “The Great Waldo Pepper” but,
alas, my hormones came on line suddenly,
along with high school, and my interest
turned to motorcycles, cars and the fairer
sex, along with seeking employment to support
these diversions. This phase took me through
many years of hot rodding, street racing,
retail sales, corporate management, college,
MT training, business, college (again),
med school, and residency.
Now into my
thirties, married and starting a family,
I happened across a copy of “Heroes
and Aeroplanes” in an Antique store
in Sedona, along with a small collection
of books dedicated to First World War aviation
— I emptied the shelf.
At first
a nostalgic and welcome break from scientific
medical literature, it soon became a rekindling
of my early passion. My brother found an
old “Dogfight” game at a swap
meet, and gave it to me for Christmas 2003.
It was missing a few parts, and I was totally
miffed that I couldn’t find a toy
dealer or Hobby shop online that carried
spares. Ebay was it, and no one was selling
pieces then. To wrap this up, that frustration
eventually led to the creation of this
site, in hopes that there might be at least
one other person out there with a childhood
memory of “Dogfight” as skewed
as my own.
Happy Gaming!
— Brian Becker M.D.
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