Anyone play Maximillian 1934?

[Tommy20]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but the time period fits...

Does anyone around here play Maximillian 1934?  I see that the supplement adds rules for aircraft, and I'm wondering how robust they are.  Not looking for another set of dogfighting rules as there are plenty out there, but wondering if these rules could be used with aircraft?  As in, could you do Thompson Trophy style air racing, but with guns?

[Cat]

Yuppers, this is definitely a Pulpy game.
 
I do have some aircraft kits to add to my games (Vulture Squadron to go with Wacky Max 1968); but when I do, they will be used as special events card mayhem that swoops in briefly.

I don't think the aircraft rules make a lot of sense to combine as is with a road race (1930s planes are much much faster than 1930s cars); but should work just fine for an air racing game.

Alas, haven't had a chance to play this in 14 months now — can't wait to get it back to a convention again!

[Tommy20]

Thanks!

When I first saw that there was a supplement that added aircraft, my assumption was that they were racing alongside the cars (and that the "pulpy" aspects of the game would level the playing field).  I then found a description that mentioned bombing & strafing runs, and implied a more limited role.  My interest would be replacing all of the cars with aircraft, but still primarily a race, with competitors shooting at each other as needed.

I haven't been able to find much online about the game.  Do you know of any other forums with active discussion of it?

[Cat]

The Facebook 'Maximillian 1934 - Player Community' group is the active place:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/367937393666028

It's been a little quieter during the pandemic, but still motoring along.
: 3

[Tommy20]

Ooh, thanks again!  I had looked on Facebook, but didn't find it!

[Freelancer]

Maximillian 1934 is designed for custom mid-war cars maneuvering and battling on land. The Aircraft rules in the supplement use the same system, so could be used for air combat games. They are intended for planes to be a hazard to the cars (think Mad Max gyrocopter pilot). But if you had a big enough table, or scaled the minis down,  they could equally be used for dogfights.
I fielded a plane in the game once at PAX. It was fun trying to line it up to drop bombs on the racing cars, but I got cocky and pushed its limits.... and ran into a cliff

[Tommy20]

...but I got cocky and pushed its limits.... and ran into a cliff

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for!

My table is 5'x8', and I want to use 1:48 aircraft so they can do double duty for Pulp Alley.  Obviously the ground scale would have to be hand-waved.

[fastolfrus]

Or use the old mechanic of leaving the planes immobile but move the terrain?
If all planes are travelling at the same speed they effectively stay still, if anyone goes faster (or slower) they move by the difference in speeds. Only big terrain features (tall trees, pylons, cliffs) are of any importance, so they appear on one table end and then each turn move along the table at whatever speed you are flying.

We have used this for a few games in the past, Mad Max (with the tanker) - all speeds are relative to the tanker for that one - and hazards appear randomly (pot-holes, wrecks etc), also used it for Star Wars (attack on the Death Star) roll for initiative, high roll gets to be the relative speed, all others move forward or back compared to the high-roller speed, random greeblies or gun turrets appear to complicate the track

[Burgundavia]

I own it, played a single game. Didn't much like it, moved to Gaslands pretty quickly. You can pulp-ify Gaslands fairly easiliy

[Tommy20]

I played Gaslands when it came out, but didn't much care for it.  The draw for Maximillian was the possibility of doing it with aircraft.  Having picked up the rules & expansion, I'm pretty sure its going to give a cracking game, and am working on the aircraft now.

[Weird WWII]

Swing by our YouTube channel and watch a few battle reports of us playing it!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKOiHhJ-7FnhDOFiVsVAdNg

It's a great game!
Brian & Mel
Weird WWII