The Battle of Leiria - The largest WoW game ever

At LeiriaCon 2008, 47 players fought a fierce Wings of War battle flying a miniature each on the same huge table: the largest WoW game ever held

by Andrea Angiolino (06-02-2008)

In May 2005, I received the report of a nice gaming event in Piedmont, northern Italy: the "Weekend Enogastroludico" ("WineFood&Games Weekend") held in Bossolasco the 7th and 8th of that month. In the report there was a picture of a table that probably had just hosted the great food and wines from the Langhe region. In the picture Paoletta, a famed game expert from Turin, was smiling to the camera while playing Wings of War with other 12 players. I forwarded the new of the 13 player’s game around but, just before clicking to send the email, I decided to call it - with some ironical rhetoric - "the largest Wings of War game ever in the world". And most probably it was.
This has been considered fun enough and started a game-in-the-game competition among different shows, clubs and gatherings that organizes big Wings of War games to beat the precedent records. The most recent was hold on January 26 at the LeiriaCon 2008, in Portugal, and gathered 47 players - the previous record was 34 players at PisaCon 2007 (February 21, 2007, Pisa, Italy).

LeiriaCon
I got an invitation by Manuel "Firepigeon" Pombeiro to join LeiriaCon 2008. He was organizing the largest WoW game ever... and with miniatures too! Even if LeiriaCon is the largest portuguese gamers meeting, with already a couple of successful editions in 2007, putting together 35 players for Wings of War just recently released in Portuguese by Runadrake was not an easy effort. Even if it was a pretty busy moment for me, with books, games, magazines and WoW new products to be worked at, I decided to attend the event.
LeiriaCon is a very warm and friendly convention, with players coming from all over the nation and even from abroad. Both fans of Eurogames and of detailed war games come with their preferred titles, to play beloved games and to try different ones. The other international guest was Mac Gerdts, from Germany. He had a great idea: he brought a one-copy-only game, Lisboa, dedicated to the players at LeiriaCon. It is actually a version of his "Hamburgum" (published by Rio Grande) re-designed on the map of Lisbon, with changes to the rules answering to issues made by Portuguese players on BoardGameGeek.com. Pure genius! Besides trying published games, some new prototypes could be tested: I saw a couple of interesting projects by JohnnyBeGood from Porto and I really hope they will find a publisher when they will be finished.
Manuel Pombeiro and his friends Susana, Ricardo, Pedro ad Abel from Estoril and whereabouts had organized everything to make the Wings of War game a success. There were game sheets with a summary of the rules and spaces to take note of game events, to be distributed in advance to players so that beginners could study the game mechanics and everybody could have reminders at hand. A stock of rulers with the LeiriaCon logo were given too to the pilots. On the Abreojogo.com site, a forum thread was launched to count would-be players and to organize the supply of miniatures: the most expert players would bring up to 12 minis each, to allow beginners to take part to the battle. Nexus Editrice did its part supplying 3 prototypes of the still unreleased Fokker D.VII and 3 Sopwith Snipe, to have a more varied range of airplanes and to spicy up the game for experts. It also printed a souvenir postcard dedicated to "A maior partida do mundo!" in case the record would be beaten.
After a morning of chatting and playing at several board games and card games, we went to lunch suspending all the game sessions. Even the buffet, a weak point of several gamers' gatherings, was perfectly organized! When we were back, I honestly had some doubt that we could get over 34 people for the game. Everybody was already busy with so many other things... Anyway Pedro started registering pilots and distributing miniatures, summaries and rulers. I was there, close to Susana counting loudly: 31... 32... 33... 34... 35! And more people came, and more again. When I accepted the invitation to join and took Baracca's SPAD XIII to reach the 6 meters long table, we were 47 ready to take off! 8 ladies and 39 gentlemen from 9 years to over 50, each one with his little miniature in front of her/him. Many beginners, but also several Wings of War veterans that already knew the game very well.
After a short explanation of the rules, the two big team started flying against each other and the Battle of Leiria began.

The Battle
I can not say too much about the event in general, since from the cockpit of my SPAD I had a very partial view of the huge dogfight. I just went on at full throttle with my 230 km/h fighter - hard to maneuvre, but at least pretty quick and sturdy. So I approached head on the nearest enemy... An Albatross! A long burst was exchanged at point blank (two damage cards) and splinters of wood started to fly away from my machine (a 5 and a 4, damn!). At the same time, on the far right I could glimpse a ball of fire: it was the first victim of the day, another SPAD XIII exploding after being hit by Guilherme, the youngest pilot in the sky at the moment.
The two lines of fighters clashed into each other and mixed in a great mass of coloured aircraft turning around each other. In my sector I was together with a few Camel, against several Albatros and a very agile Fokker Dr.I piloted by a deadly woman. While we fought, Allied planes kept on being shot down at a regular pace all over the sky: when eight of them were already destroyed only a Dr.I was counted among the Central Empires victims. After a while the Fokkers out of the game were two, but the Allied machines 11... I had just zoomed around in patrol with a Belgian Camel, getting a couple of inaccurate bursts against me (three damage cards between 0 and 3 points), but at the opposite side of the front all Allied planes were shot down and a mass of triumphant Germans, probably half a dozen of them, were coming toward the centre to help their comrades. Then the German ace Paulo Inácio was ruthlessly on me and with a short range shot sent my plane to pieces (a 5 and a 4)! I could not see so much more of the battle, while I went crashing to the ground in my yellow SPAD: I could only helplessly watch the Belgian Camel of my companion spiralling down in a cloud of smoke, his fate too decided by German bullets.
After 90 minutes from the start the last Allied plane, the Sopwith Camel of Pedro Silva, went down to the ground. The battle was ended with a triumph of the German side.

These are the pilots taking part to the game:
Abel Nascimento - Fokker Dr.I; André - Spad XIII; Andrea Angiolino - Spad XIII; António Cartaxo - Fokker Dr.I; António Vale - Fokker Dr.I; Beatriz Costa - Fokker D.VII; Carlos Abrunhosa - Spad XIII; Carlos Ferreira - Fokker Dr.I; Cristina Amorim - Spad XIII; Cristovão Neto - Albatros D.Va; Eduardo Soeiro - Sopwith Camel; Filipe Nunes - Spad XIII; Francisco Pereira - Spad XIII; Gonçalo - Spad XIII; Guilherme Pombeiro - Sopwith Snipe; Hélio Andrade - Sopwith Camel; Isabel - Spad XIII; João Cartaxo - Albatros D.Va; João Ribeiro - Fokker Dr.I; João Teixeira (Sgrovi) - Fokker Dr.I; João Tereso - Sopwith Camel; Joel Ribeiro - Fokker Dr.I; Jorge Sá - Sopwith Snipe; Jorge Teixeira - Spad XIII; Luis Alves - Albatros D.Va; Luis Costa - Sopwith Camel; Luis Miguel - Spad XIII; Manuel Pombeiro - Fokker D.VII; Maria João - Sopwith Camel; Nuno - Sopwith Camel; Patricia - Albatros D.Va; Paula Pombeiro - Albatros D.Va; Paulo Inácio - Albatros D.Va; Pedro - Fokker Dr.I; Pedro Almeida - Albatros D.Va; Pedro Barradas - Fokker Dr.I; Pedro Gonçalves - Sopwith Camel; Pedro Silva - Sopwith Camel; Pedro Torradinhas - Fokker D.VII; Phillip Moringer - Albatros D.Va; Raquel Correia - Fokker Dr.I; Ricardo Madeira - Albatros D.Va; Sérgio Lobato - Sopwith Camel; Sofia Raquel - Sopwith Camel; Susana Torres - Albatros D.Va; Vasco Chita - Fokker Dr.I e Vital Lacerda - Sopwith Camel

And so The Battle of Leiria qualifies as the largest ever Wings of War game for the highest number of pilots, the highest number of planes and the highest number of miniatures. As all LeiriaCon as a whole, the WoW event has been a great fun and perfectly organized. Congratulations to all the team, thanks to all the players taking part and... See you in the skies for the next edition!
See below the storyline of the biggest WoW games happened until now:

“The largest Wings of War game ever in the world” challenge

May 7-8, 2005
13 players played a WoW game in the "Weekend Enogastroludico" ("WineFood&Games Weekend") convention in Piedmont, Northern Italy, starting, while unware, a competition for the largest WoW game;

May 22, 2005
At Mucca Games, a player’s gathering at Tarquinia, central Italy, 22 players fought with a plane each on a table maybe 4/4, 50 meters large and about 80 cm deep. The "scenario" chosen to play has been "War is a big mess", designed for the occasion: all the A firing fighters and B/B firing two seaters are thrown on the same table in a huge dogfight.

October 9, 2005
The Reindeer Corporation - 3M Roma club did organize a game convention within the Italian Air Force Museum of Vigna di Valle, just north of Rome. After visiting the museum with an aviation officer explaining the history of the many machines here preserved, a game of WoW has been held in a hangar among the real historic planes and a new record of 25 players with one plane each was reached.

January 21, 2007
At the Scout Hut of Saltdean, near Brighton, on the southern England shores, 21 players gathered at the same table: a few less than in Vigna di Valle, but some of the experts took two planes each and a 33 planes battle ensued, so the "largest game ever" record was their.

February 21, 2007
The organizers of PisaCon, in Tuscany, Italy, decided to beat both the number of pilots and the quantity of airplanes. They managed to feature a 34 people battle, one plane each, that for nearly a year stayed as the absolute record.

November 2007
The largest miniature game ever was organized by Richard "Cuzzle" Johnson at the BBG-CON, Westin Dallas Fort Worth Airport: 27 miniatures, beating a presumed previous record of 19. But with airplane cards, Pisa ruled until...

January 26, 2008
47 players fought a battle with a miniature each, in a 6 meters long table, at the LeiriaCon, in Portugal. This was the largest ever Wings of War game for the highest number of pilots, the highest number of planes and the highest number of miniatures

The largest WoW game ever in the world - until now - was held at LeiriaCon, Portugal (photos by Manuel Pombeiro)

47 players with a miniature each took part in the game

Some of the 47 planes in the huge dogfight