Good day! This is the best game for simulating air battles! I bought myself a box of the game, but I think an electronic version of the rules and tables is also needed. I want to express my enormous gratitude for creating, I dare say, a design masterpiece of flight simulators of that era. With deep respec.

I will start by saying, the system is wanderfull. But I found this product is incomplete, and I would really recommend you not to purchase it in case you do not have the physical boardgame "Wings of the Motherland". Here you get the rules third edition and the play aids. You may think that you do not need anything else to learn the rules. Well, you are wrong. The boardgame (WotM) comes with a "Rules Suplement Book", which has many important examples of play that are not portrayed in the Rulebook, so in those specific and important topics, you are left alone against a wall of text and without examples of play. I do not know about you, but in my case I definetely need examples of play to see if I correctly understood something I just read. Don't get me wrong, the rulebook has examples, but not some that are really important. This are extracts of references to the "Rules Supplement Book" of examples that are not present in the Rulebook:

Turn Rate Decel Example: See Rules Supplement One. Turning Flight Examples: See Rules Supplement One. Engine Power Example: See Rules Supplement One. Wing-over Example: See Rules Supplement One. Combat Resolution / Deflection Example: See Rules supplement One, for an example of combat resolution.

At this point (Combat Resolution) I just quit learning the rules. Like I said, the system is wanderfull, but the product for people that has not the physical boardgame WotM, without the rules supplement, is incomplete.

This is an exceptional game that should not be missing from the collection of every air wargame enthusiast! I didn't give it 5/5 because this manual lacks Aircraft Data Cards. Hopefully they will be released soon.

Although I bought the game, This is a great addition, as I do not have to have anything but the Data Cards and rules supplement books out to PBEM.

JD - thanks for having this option.

Barry "Tapper" Brown

Indispensible if you wish to learn the BAR rules, which are the best series of tactical boardgames around

This is a Primer for the BAR system and a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to play these games. I only wish it were still in print!

Caveat Emptor: This is not a complete product. It requires the 3rd Edition BAR rules (not included) as an integral component. From the Primer itself:

"The Primer should not be read as rules, but rather should be used in conjunction with the BAR Third Edition rules. ... You must first have read the pertinent sections of the BAR rules for the Primer to help you."

If you don't already own the 3rd Edition rules, Clash of Arms/Wargame Vault will charge you another $6 over and above the $18 cost of the Primer to download them. The rules omission and extra charge should be clearly stated before completion of the Primer download.

Great to be able to get the rules in advance of buying the game(s) - now you know what time you will need to commit to understanding and therefore getting the most from your investment. On the back of this, I have now ordered 'Prague'....!

The revision 3.0 rules of the "Battles of the Age or Reason" was in excellent formatting/condition, well worth the money spent on it. Thank you for providing the means to use the BAR 3.0 rules with my other BAR games.

I'm sure it's unnecessary to remark on how well organized and well phrased the COA rules are, nor how excellet the 2.0 rules were (some of the best laid out in wargaming), and thus how the 3.0 rules, with some minor changes improves even on the quality of the 2.0 rules, removing points of ambiguity and changing a few minor points to improve balance.

Mark Owens