Eye in the Sky by Carl de Visser

Theme

Early in World War One airplanes were used predominantly for intelligence. In Eye in the Sky the players represent pilots on the same side competing to photograph as much useful information and return it as soon as possible back to HQ.

Material

A board - this represents the battlefield to be photographed by the pilots. It is a hex grid with 26 rows, the first row is made up of 20 hexagons, the second with 22 hexagons, then 20, then 22 etc. The top row will be called North. Each hex has directions facing East, North-East, North-West, West, South-West, South-East. It contains the following features:

• A 3 hexagon runway at starting at the far South West corner, travelling East.

• A large entrenched area starting from the 9th row down from the Northern edge. It goes down 12 rows, and to the East and West it  stops 3 hexes from the edge. This is the field the battle will be fought on, and is the area that is most important to high command to photograph. It will be referred to as the Battlefield, or the AOI (Area-Of-Interest)

• 4 Artillery emplacements, each 1 hex in size. These are on fourth row from the Northern edge, on squares 5, 10, 15 and 20 from the Eastern edge. These are additional areas valuable to photograph.

• Around the edge of the board (not part of the hexes) is a score track.

A plane marker for each player. It is one hex in size and has a clear facing.

Several coloured markers for each player. These represent the locations they have taken photographs.

Many, many black markers. These represent the area of the map that has been photographed and had photographs returned to home base.

General Play

The players (2-4 of them) take turns flying their planes. With each movement they take a photograph. When they choose to they can return back to the run way to return their photographs. Players earn points for areas they have photographed and have returned first with the information. They then head out again. The game continues until the AOI (Area of Interest) has been fully photographed.

The main decisions surround the trade off between returning soon to be the first back with information, and travelling for to gather more, and more valuable information.

The game in detail

Set up.

Each player places their plane on the South Eastern hex at the beginning of the runway.

They keep a collection of their markers handy. The black markers are kept close to the board.

A start player is chosen, turns will be taken is clockwise order.

The turn

A player may move their plane in one of two ways.  

A. They may spiral down: The plane stays in the same hex, and the player may face the plane in any direction.

B. The player may fly directly forwards either 2, 3, or 4 hexes. At the end of the movement the planes facing may be changed one hex face in either direction. The player may place a coloured photography marker on their start hex, or on any of the hexes they passed over. There is no restriction on planes and/or photography markers sharing a hex. There is also no issue with planes or photography markers being placed on hexes containing black markers. There is no point in placing a photography marker on a hex that has a black marker and has black markers in every hex within two hexes, as the area it photographs has already been photographed and returned to base.

A plane should not fly off the board. If this is unavoidable, the player who flies off the edge loses five points, and is placed on the same hex they left, in the opposite direction.

If a player finishes a turn on the runway facing South East, they are considered to have landed, and can score as described below. On their next turn they start on the runways most South Easter hex ready to take off as per the beginning of the game.

Scoring

When a player lands back at the runway their photographs are incorporated into the plan. Remove their coloured photography markers one by one. As they are removed, place a black marker on the hex they are on and any hex within a distance of two. A player also scores for each hex. Any hexes that already have a black marker have already been reported on, and are not scored for. The player scores as follows:

• For each empty hex outside of the AOI - 1 point.

• For each hex that is part of the a AOI - 3 points.

• For the last hex photographed that completes the picture of the AOI - 20 points (regardless of who photographed the rest of it)

• Each Artillery hex - 20 points

Game end

Once the AOI is fully covered in black markers the operation draws to close. The player who brought in the last photographs of it does not have another turn. Players still flying have a special final round. In turn going clockwise, they can choose to either return immediately home and score (they do not need to fly there, it is immediate), or fly one more move and take a photograph. After each player has done that continue clockwise amongst those that flew one more move, and those players score.

The player with the most points wins.

Other options for play

Other maps could be created. Planes with additional statistics could be created, that are limited in turning direction, or are faster or slower. Rules for anti aircraft and other opposition could be added. Weather rules could be added.