Wings of Glory

My first take on Wings of Glory was genuine surprise that a board game port this small could feel this deliberate. Dire Wolf has taken Ares Games' WWI tabletop system and put it on PC without gutting what makes it tick, and for a certain kind of player that matters more than any production budget. The core loop is turn-based but the tension is real: each round you secretly commit three maneuver cards from your plane-specific deck, then both sides reveal and execute them in sequence. Your Sopwith Camel handles differently from a Fokker Dr.1 because the decks are genuinely asymmetric, heavy on tight turns for some aircraft and loaded with straight-line speed for others. Special damage states like rudder jams or engine fire then lock or remove specific cards, which creates genuine pressure and not just a stat drain. It is a slow-burn system that rewards reading your opponent's habits, not twitch reflexes. The roster on offer covers Entente stalwarts (Sopwith Camel, SPAD XIII, Sopwith Snipe, Airco DH.4) against Central Powers aircraft (Fokker Dr.1, Albatros D.Va, Fokker D.VII, Roland C.II), each with historically-referenced ace skins. You can build a custom pilot with skills like Bullet Checker to reduce gun jam frequency, or pick historical aces with pre-set loadouts. The Hangar is functional and gets the job done, though the lack of early and mid-war planes is a gap that tabletop fans will notice immediately. Twelve tactical challenges cover dogfights, bombing runs, trench-strafing, and reconnaissance, with three AI difficulty levels. The solo content is lean but honest about what it is: structured practice before you take the fight online. Cross-platform multiplayer is the real reason to consider this seriously. A PC player on Steam can match against someone on iOS or Android, the session creation is clean, and Dire Wolf does require a free account for online play. That is a minor friction point, but not a dealbreaker. Where it does sting is the map. The battle area is compact, and faster aircraft with aggressive straight-line decks can burn through it in a few card plays, turning positioning into a boundary-avoidance puzzle as much as a tactics problem. The developers reportedly expanded map size post-launch in response to feedback, which is the right call, but the underlying issue still comes up in community discussion. There is also no campaign, no persistent pilot progression between sessions beyond a global scoreboard, and no async turn option for online games, all of which the player base has asked for repeatedly. If you have never touched the tabletop game, the three-tutorial on-ramp is genuinely well-built and the UI handles all the arithmetic so you can focus on the spatial puzzle of cutting off an opponent's angles. If you have played the physical version, this is a solid way to get games in when your group is not available. The honest ceiling here is that Wings of Glory is a tight, accurate conversion of a good system, delivered with modest content. It will not replace a full evening of miniatures on a proper mat, but as a cross-platform pickup game that respects the source mechanics and does not pad itself with filler modes, it earns its place on the drive.

Fred · Scout Team

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