Canvas Falcons

[kirkh]

Anybody ever try a game in development some years back called Canvas Falcons? It was a highly detailed simulation that took absolutely everything into account. Unfortunately, as a result it had relatively few aircraft because the designer of the game practically needed to have the original design drawings of each airplane to create the game data. Just to gain a sense of how complicated it was, it used the Pythagorean Theorem in order to compute movement. In other words, if you performed a steep dive your horizontal movement was less, but if you performed a shallow dive you moved more horizontally.
The game was so detailed there were even modifiers to combat based on whether your plane had an interruptor or a synchronization system.
I remember playing via e-mail for a couple months and in that time we had replicated something like ten seconds of real time and I had executed a 180 degree turn.
I gave up because the playability aspect was faaaar exceeded by the desire for detail.
Just wondering if anybody else has ever heard of it.

[kevan]

Are you thinking of Canvas Eagles? The game is available to download online for free, but you have to make your own pieces. This could be done fairly easily on VASSAL.

The resources on the website are quite impressive - complete rules, player aids, and maneuvre and record sheets for about 140 planes, including separate sheets for variations of the same craft.

Website: www.eaglesmax.com/
More info and resources available at: www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10501

[kirkh]

No, I've seen Canvas Eagles but I'm talking about something different. Canvas Falcons had very few aircraft because of what was required to generate the aircraft data cards. If I remember rightly, when we playtested it there were only something like eight aircraft. Learning to play was like taking third year calculus. It wasn't fun and mostly just left me scratching my head. I played via e-mail for a few months but eventually gave up. This was probably six or seven years ago and the game was supposed to come out sometime soon after that, but I've never seen it.

[kirkh]

The one really cool thing about it was when you played you didn't perform maneuvers per-se, what you did was adjust your speed, bank angle, yaw, and pitch such that after a few turns you'd execute a maneuver. In other words, it took quite a few turns to complete a loop or wingover or Immelmann, but it was the physics of the game that allowed you to do the maneuvers and you could really "see" (if you used a little imagination) what was happening on the board. As an example, if you wanted to do a loop you had to be in level flight at which time you'd need to add throttle and dive somewhat to build up the momentum necessary to execute the loop. Then you'd pull the stick back and watch the effect on your plane as forward speed scrubbed off, altitude increased, and your pitch angle would roll past vertical. Then as the nose started heading toward the ground your speed would increase while your altitude rapidly decreased and then you'd eventually pull out, some amount of altitude lower than you started at. With Canvas Falcons just flying the plane was a challenge, much less worrying about enemy planes, shooting, damage, etc. That part of it was actually fun. The rough part was that each turn was only a few seconds so that doing a loop took a few turns.

[kirkh]

Well here it is: warbirds101.110mb.com/pages/igr.html This is the game I playtested some number of years ago. Just take a look at the example data card for the SPAD VII to see how detailed it is.

[kevan]

Well, now we have somewhere to direct anyone who complains that a few house rules start making DP too difficult.

[kirkh]

Compared to Canvas Falcons, DP is about as difficult as tic-tac-toe. I gotta admit though, CF is sorta like flying a real WWI airplane because it takes a long time to solo and by just flying around a few turns you feel like you've accomplished something. I've never played a game before where having an intimate knowledge of the Pythagorean Theorem was a prerequisite.