The largest Wings of War game ever: 61 players!

The new record was reached in a big battle hold in Utah, United States, on March 10

(26-03-2009)

On January 2008, during the convention LeiriaCon, in Portugal, 47 players fought a big Wings of War battle with a miniature each, on a 6 meters long table, scoring the record of the largest Wings of War game ever. But a new record was registered on March, 10, after a technology convention in Utah: 61 people had played together on a very long table, each one with one miniature.

The Utah Battle was promoted by Richard Bliss, president and founder of BlissPoint marketing and research firm, a WoW player who organizes technology trainings and conferences. At the end of these events, he uses to present the game to the attendees, giving them airplane miniatures and inviting them to play after the dinner. On January, during the GwavaCon in Las Vegas, Bliss distributed 80 miniatures and 42 people stayed to play - at that time they almost beated the LeiriaCon's record.

On March 10, Bliss had purchased 100 planes in anticipation for the evening game after the dinner reception. During dinner he went from table to table showing the guests how to play with the simple rules of Wings of War, and he handed out planes to almost everyone. There were more than 100 people, and 61 accepted the invitation to play. The battle started with 31 Germans and 30 Allied planes. The pilots were a mix of Americans and Europeans, with the largest group of Europeans being Dutch. The Dutch were very reluctant to play at the beginning, since they were not familiar with the game, but once they started playing (they flew German Planes) they became quite animated, with a large amount of shouting, yelling, and cheering.

The battle lasted about 2 hours and was very even, with a German plane being downed at one end of a very long table at the same time an Allied plane was downed at the other end. In the middle, the Dutch destroyed all Allied planes and then spread out to attack more Allied planes on the wings. At the end, a draw with five Allied planes left on one extreme flank and the 6 German planes flown by Dutch pilots hold the middle: 25 victories were scored by each side.

Even though it was the very first time for all players, everyone enjoyed themselves tremendously. The guests were amazed at how quickly they became very involved with the game, sometimes smiles were replaced by worried expressions and sweat on the brow as new pilots fought and evaded the planes around them. Oftentimes, a single plane would be weaving away from 3, 4 or 5 enemy planes that surrounded it.

A new big battle is scheduled on October 2009: a group of Germans who took part at the Utah conference is planning with Richard Bliss to attempt a new record after the GwavaCon conference that will be held in Berlin. Let's see if they will get it! Or if someone else, elsewhere, will do it before …

"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, on 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.

March 10, 2009
After a technology conference in Utah, United States, 61 people play together in a 20 meters long table, scoring a new record.

The Utah Battle: 61 people played together in a very long table

A close view of one of the battle's fronts