Blue Max - World War I Air Combat

Blue Max is a multi-player board game of World War I aerial combat over the Western Front during 1917 and 1918. Each player is an Allied or German fighter pilot, and each game allows to relive a dogfight, in which players try to shoot down as many enemy planes as possible without being shot down themselves. The game is played on a hexagonal board, using a maneuver chart from which, every turn, the players decide which move their planes will do. After the planning phase, all the planes are moved simultaneously on the map and all fires are resolved. With intuitive and easy-to-learn rules, Blue Max allows to simulate with sufficient accuracy the WWI air combats, including everything needed to play.

It’s a classic boardgame and first published by Game Designers Workshop (GDW), in 1983 and is named after the prestigious German order Pour le Mérite, informally known as Blue Max. The first Italian edition was published in 1988 and it was the first game published by Stratelibri, followed by a second edition in 1993.

The new edition aims to maintain the spirit and the original setting, and making improvements in the mechanical components, but without upsetting those who are the strengths of Blue Max, starting from the format, which will retain the classic shape of the boardgame.