Up Where The Air Is Clear

I believe that it is a common malady among wargamers that we are easily influenced with regards to which period we wish to play. A good movie or book can send us off on another project entirely. That has been my recent experience. Instead of focusing on one of my 6 x 6 challenge games (e.g. I have some colonial figures sitting around waiting to be painted!), my thoughts have turned upward into the skies.

The culprit this time is this:

It is the third book of the Otto Prohaska series, which follows the exploits of an Austro-Hungarian naval officer during and before World War I. The first book, which is excellent, sees Prohaska as a submarine commander. In the third, by a strange set of circumstances, he ends up taking to the skies.

World War I aviation has long been an interest of mine so this book easily tugged at me. I find myself wanting to play out some small scale ( a few planes per side) air battles. But what rules to use? This has long been my quandary, especially because I like to play solo and many air combat rules don't lend themselves to well to solo gaming. I have some rambling thoughts I'd like to share on the topic. They may be fairly long-winded so I'll split them across multiple posts over the next several days.