Eighth Air Force (game)

Eighth Air Force, subtitled "Air War Over Europe, 1942–45", is a card-based wargame published by GMT Games in 1995 that simulates the air combat between Allied and German aircraft during the final three years of World War II. This was the second game in the series Down in Flames, and required the previous game in the series, Rise of the Luftwaffe, in order to play.

Description
Eighth Air Force is a card game for 2–8 players in which one side controls bombers and their fighter escorts, while the other side controls fighters and antiaircraft defenses.

The game components include 128 die-cut counters representing pilots, altitude, drop tanks and hit markers, and 132-card deck used for aircraft.

Various scenarios can be played, including the British Dambusters Raid of 1943; the German 1942-43 Stalingrad Airlift; the Eighth Air Force Schweinfurt Raids of 1943; and the Allied raids on V1 and V-2 rocket bases..

Publication history
In 1993, GMT Games published Rise of the Luftwaffe, a card-based wargame designed by Gene Billingsley, Rodger B. MacGowan, and Dan Verssen that was billed as the first in the Down in Flames series of games. Two years later, GMT released Eighth Air Force, the second in the series, also created by Billingsley, MacGowan and Versen. MacGowan supplied the artwork. The second game was not a standalone game but an expansion of Rise of the Luftwaff — the first game was needed in order to play the second game.

Between 2001 and 2017, GMT would publish another ten games in the Down in Flames series.

Reception
In Issue 22 of Paper Wars Dav Townsend noted, "The system uses cards, like Avalon Hill's Up Front or Naval War. Avoiding both the former's rule excesses and the latter's trivialization of history, the Down in Flames series provides a clever, fast-paced flavoring of World War II dogfighting." Townsend concluded, "Eighth Air Force needs a shade more work to make it excellent, but as is, it s easily worth the money."

In Issue 8 of Simulacrum, Joseph Scoleri noted "As one might expect from such a system, the emphasis is on flavor rather than simulation. Nonetheless, the attention to historical detail and entertaining gameplay make the games attractive to nearly anyone interested in the era covered."