It’s the 40th anniversary of Top Gun, and I’ve decided to slow it down a touch and take a look at the 2020 board game, creatively titled the ‘Top Gun Strategy Game’.
Will it be a Maverick, or will it fly too close to the Danger Zone?
Let’s find out.
Do You Feel The Need?
How would you represent the high-octane action and manly bonding of Top Gun in a board game? If you said ‘splitting the action into a complex dogfighting phase of spatial awareness, and a volleyball phase to get more weaponry for said dogfighting’ then I’ll be happy to declare you top gun. And a liar.
Top Gun Strategy Game is a mostly action-packed board game with a terrible name. You can play it with 2, 3 or 4 people, split into two teams. One side takes control of Maverick and Goose, while the other is Iceman and Slider. With four players, two people play as the Pilots, while the others are Weapon Systems Operators (WSOs), otherwise one person will take control of both.
The setup is pretty quick, though I’d recommend a large playing area as you’ll need space for both phases unless you want to be constantly pausing to set up the next one. The volleyball phase involves 9 cards each, a ‘Bump Save Card’, a volleyball token, and a cute little net – I’d say taking up about 2 A4 pages. The dogfighting phase involves 2 Cockpit Shields, 3 kinds of Pilot Tiles and WSO cards, dice, Waypoint Tokens, and absolutely adorable jet fighter figures – probably another 2 A4 pages of space.
Each part is good quality and can be easily taken apart to fit back into the box. The only fiddly bit is slotting the fighter jets into their elevation poles – I would say that a vice clip would’ve been better than the inserts they chose.
The game itself is fairly quick as well, at least in the 2-player form we tried – under an hour, and you quickly start jumping between phases at speed.
In fact, the only bit that was more Tom Treacle than Tom Cruise was the instructions. There are a lot of them! But, as with most games, have a quick read through, then crack on – you’ll pick it up.
Note: whoever decided to use the term ‘WSO’, I’d just like to have a word. Having to say this 3 syllable acronym about 29 times while reading the instructions was irritating enough for me to count the times and bring it up here. ‘Weapons’ would’ve been more than enough!
Just a Casual Game of Volleyball
The first phase is centred around the activity everyone remembers the film for – no, not the dogfights, the motorbikes, or even the need for speed – I’m talking about the volleyball.
Each player has 2 ‘Bump’ cards, 2 ‘Set’ cards and 2 ‘Spike’ cards, as well as 3 ‘Whiff’ cards. You set up your 9 cards in rows of 3, face down and in any order, on your side of the net, and the person who last played volleyball goes first. In my case, I don’t think I’ve ever played volleyball, so my fiancé got to start by default.
The first player gets the ball token, and the second gets a ‘Bump Save Card’.
Player 1 serves by choosing a card to place the ball token on. Or, if you want to have a bit more fun with it, I’d recommend putting the token on the back of your hand and launching it over the net – some form of launcher would be fun, but I appreciate that it would also be easy to break!
Player 2 flips over the card to reveal 1 of the following:
1) A Bump – which lets you move the ball 1-2 spaces in a vertical or horizontal line (not diagonally), including over the net
2) A Set – the same as a bump, but only 1 space
3) A Spike – you can select the card you want the ball to land on, on your opponents’ side of the net – obviously, this is the most powerful
4) A Whiff – you miss the ball, and the rally restarts with you serving
If you hit the ball onto another of your cards, you reveal it and repeat. You can also hit revealed Bump, Set, and Spike cards again, though you can only take 3 actions before you drop the ball, and your opponent gets to serve (though you don’t reveal a Whiff). The aim is to reveal all of your opponents’ Whiffs before they reveal yours.
The Bump Save Card allows you to instantly defend a space and bump it – something that, to be honest, seemed to be pretty useless. The problem is that as soon as you defend a card, the other player can be about 95% certain that you’ve defended a Whiff, so they just play that spot again. I think it’s meant to balance out the benefit of going first – but this benefit is so small that it’s not really necessary!
All in all, it can get remarkably active, with you hitting the ball from card to card, trying to work out where your opponents’ whiffs are, while avoiding the Spikes. It becomes a bit like Battleships or poker, where knowing your opponent can give you the edge, even if most of it comes down to luck.
The cool thing about this phase is that when you reveal a Whiff, you also reveal what bonus you or your opponent receives. These take the form of Pilot Tokens and WSO Cards, and can really turn the tide of the following phase.
Danger Zone
To start the dogfight (or ‘Hop’) phase, you need to randomly select one of the 6 Hop Scenarios (using both sides of the 3 Hop Cards) and set up the Hop Board accordingly. This involves placing the Waypoint Tokens and planes in the corresponding locations. Having numbers/coordinates on the Hex Board would’ve helped with this setup, as it’s a bit of a pain to visualise.
Note: remember that the pink and blue sides to the Hop Cards equate to the pink and blue sides of the board – this will help you orient the map and is something that I constantly forgot!
The winner of the Volleyball Phase gets to decide which side is the Attacker (scores points by achieving a Target Lock) and which is the Defender (scores points by achieving a Target Lock or collecting 3 Waypoints). In theory, the Attacker starts in a more advantageous position, hence why the Defender can score in 2 ways, but I’m not convinced!
Each team sets up their Cockpit Shields so that they can play behind them without their opponents seeing (like Battleship) – the only problem being that they’re not very big!
Both teams take their WSO cards and Pilot Tokens, which include the ones they won during the previous phase.
The Pilot Tokens are hexagons used to determine your movement. Each one involves 2 movements, most of which also include turning 90+ degrees.
First, align your token with your plane’s alignment, then visualise where it will end up. Each movement phase involves 2 Pilot Tokens, and remember to keep elevation in mind as well! And did I make it clear that you have to do this without letting your opponent see what you’re doing?
Oh, you also need to try to guess where your opponent is heading (generally, the Defender will try to get to a Waypoint or avoid the Attacker – the Attacker tends to go for the Defender) so that you can align their position with a ‘hit’ on your WSO card. But also try and guess which position won’t get you hit, and doesn’t put you in one of the minus hexes on your opponent’s WSO cards, as that decreases your chance of scoring a target lock (by reducing the number of dice you can role). As does having a lower elevation than them.
Make sense? No? Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it doesn’t take that long to get to grips with it (I think it took us 2 turns), and then you’ll be flying with style. That being said, it would help to have a second Hex Board each so that you could actually visualise how everything works while staying behind your Cockpit Shield. And I would definitely have liked a degree marker on the Pilot Tokens to help me with orienting my plane – I got the hang of it eventually, but it’s not always easy to tell.
But, you know what? When one of us did manage to pull off a manoeuvre that resulted in a Target Lock or a dodge, it was incredibly satisfying and made me feel like a fighter pilot.
Anyway, there is also the ability to leave the game board (losing you the phase, immediately) and ‘flipping the bird’ (not that bird). This involves landing on the same place as your opponent, travelling in the same direction, and only being exactly 1 elevation above them. You are then allowed to flip your plane upside down and immediately score all the unclaimed Waypoint tokens. If anyone has pulled this off, please let me know, and you can be my wingman anytime.
Once you score a Target Lock or all 3 Waypoints, the phase ends, and you return to the Volleyball phase to start again.
Once you hit 12 points during the Hop phase and complete the Hop, the game ends, and the team with the highest points is the winner.
A Target Lock gives you 5 points, so if you’re the Attacker (and don’t manage to flip the bird), you’ll need to win 3 phases (scoring 15 points). Whereas, the Waypoints score you 6 points so you’ll only need to win this way twice if you’re the Defender (or flip the bird).
In our game, I won the first phase, and my fiancé won the next 3, scoring something like 15 (2 sets of 3 Waypoints, another 2 Waypoints and a Target Lock I believe). She’s now insisting that we only listen to 80s music; it’s a whole thing.
Thankfully, it’s definitely replayable, and it seemed to be getting better the more we played it, so there’ll be another chance to win. Hopefully, I won’t take 36 years to have a go as the movie did.
Aviator Sunglasses and Bomber Jackets
The art style, all neon pinks, blues and greens, is quintessentially 80s, and you can definitely tell that it’s Top Gun, even if none of the actors’ likenesses makes an appearance.
The action, while having required a fair bit of mental gymnastics, is pretty frenetic and active. However, I would recommend adding your own atmosphere by chucking on a bit of “Danger Zone” or the main theme, and really getting into it with sound effects and launching the ball. I know, I know, nothing screams ‘cool’ like making your own sound effects, but throw on a pair of aviator sunglasses and you’ll be as cool as ice… man.
7/10
And that’s all! Have you played the game? What are you doing to celebrate Top Gun‘s 40th anniversary? Let me know in the comments, and find the other adventures on DownUpJourney here. And be sure to check out my other writing here!
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