Wings of War and Check Your 6!

Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of Wings of War: Burning Drachens from Beyond Books in DE as their FOW tournament prize support. I've heard nothing but great things about this game and couldn't wait to get home and try it out. So I waited until Jaime and Dallas came over for one of our monthly or so gaming nights (The last time we played Midevil). So we settled in with some pizza, beer, and Wings of War.

What is there to say about WoW? It's very light weight. After two games, I don't think I much care for it for any matter of remotely serious gaming, but I think it would really shine if played in large groups (where you WANT things to move quickly) or with younger children who can wrap their head around it.

The rules just weren't "crunchy" enough and we all decided to move on. We quickly rolled out Check Your 6! and showed Jaime the ropes. CY6! is far more engaging. It's still a relatively simple system to learn, but it feels so much more "real". The scenario we set up saw Dallas piloting 2 SBD Dauntless coming in on an isolated Japanese destroyer. I flew two Zeros on an intercept course, and Jaime piloted 2 F4F Wildcats providing cover for Dallas.

Compare these two very brief AARs:
In Wings of War two planes slowly flew around the board, dealing damage cards to each other until one of them accumulated enough damage to be shot down.

In our game of Check Your 6! Two zeros came screaming in, cannons blazing on the Dauntlesses. One zero swung around behind only to take engine damage from a lucky shot from a Dauntless' rear LMG! Shortly thereafter a low velocity cannon tore through the American steel of the Dauntless, exploding the bomber's payload while in close proximity to his wingman! The shrapnel from the explosion knocked out the American pilot's oxygen line, and the concussion saw the pilot black out at low altitude. The Zero also took shrapnel damage, with the plane barely holding together!

The American pilot woke up seconds before his plane slammed into the water, pulling out of his stall at the last possible second before being ripped to shreds by the flaming zero behind him. In retribution, the Wildcats (having split up) ripped the wounded zero apart with HMGs blazing. The remaining Zero, having no bombers left and not liking the odds of going up against 2 Wildcats, started high tailing it for home. Just as he drew into the range of the Destroyer who was putting up a wall of flak, the Wildcats caught up with him and sprayed his canvas plane with lead, plunging him into the ocean.

In all 2 Dauntlesses and 2 zeros went down. And the game was a blast.

So, back to Wings of War. I'm interested to hear you guys' opinions- I am not ready to write the game off just yet, and the minis look great, but I was really unimpressed with it out of the box.