Overflight!: A Solitaire Cold War Game (Historic Wings Air War Games) Paperback – April 11, 2024

Overflight! is a book-based wargame where you play the part of the CIA's U-2 Program Director as your pilots fly missions over the Soviet Union and East Bloc. The events in the wargame take place between 1956 and 1960. Your greatest assets are the U-2s you have (called the "Angel" or "Dragon Lady") and your pilots, all of whom have been "sheep-dipped" -- on paper at least, they are civilians; in reality, they are all highly-trained military professionals.The future of the Free World is at stake and President Dwight D. Eisenhower stands by as your pilots prepare to fly each mission. Flying "above 65,000 feet", they fly deep into the Soviet Union, to places like Tyuratam, where the Soviet Union's ballistic missiles were tested, to Aralsk-7 and City-40, key Soviet biological weapons centers, and elsewhere. As in history, you may even fly over Moscow and return with photographs of the Kremlin.As with all wargame books from Historic Wings, Overflight! is a deep dive into history. It combines the best features of a wargame with the learning content of a history book -- distilled into easy-to-digest segments. You'll learn a lot as you fly one of America's most successful and dangerous covert operations of the Cold War era. All of the decisions are yours to make, not merely dry reading for a rainy day.To win, you must fly the full range of historic missions as assigned to the CIA to the bitter end -- without losing a single U-2 or its pilot to the Soviet Union. With the passage of each year, from 1956 to 1960, the missions become ever more dangerous. In 1960, you will fly in Operation KNIFE, Operation TIME STEP, and Operation GRAND SLAM, the very flight where the Soviets shot down Francis Gary Powers on 1 May 1960. Perhaps when you fly it, he'll make a safe landing in Bodø, Norway -- the outcome is in your hands.As you fly your missions, you will be attacked by MiG jet fighters. You will endure volleys of SA-2 Guideline Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs). The Soviets will hunt you and attempt to down your U-2, even if they have to ram it with their stripped-down Sukhoi Su-9 interceptors with their cannons removed so the Soviet pilots could fly higher. However, you have many tricks up your sleeve and your pilots are highly skilled. Altitude is the key -- the higher you can fly, the safer you will be.Deeply researched, Overflight! is based on declassified CIA documents and mission records from the U-2 program. All phases of the game reflect the real performance of the U-2, the threats that the pilots faced, and the challenges of each mission -- the game is true to history.Overflight! is a solitaire Cold War book-based wargame in the narrative style. It features easy-to-learn rules and a mid-sized tabletop footprint. Gameplay involves dice, but nothing is "on rails" -- your decisions spell the difference between success and failure. Everything you need to play is in the book, though you must print out the maps and game counters. A boxed set of game components and maps is also available from Blue Panther online for those who wish to purchase everything in ready-to-play format.BOXED SET OF GAME ASSETS (Optional, if you don't want to make your game pieces):https://www.bluepantherllc.com/products/overflight(If you buy the Blue Panther set, you still need to get this book from Amazon to play!) Read more