thumb|right|Original On Target edition, 1981
B-17, Queen of the Skies is a solitaire board wargame published by On Target Games in 1981 that simulates flight missions in a Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress bomber during World War II. The game was acquired by Avalon Hill and republished in 1983.
Background
In late 1942 and early 1943, before the advent of long-range fighter escorts such as the P-51 Mustang, B-17 bombers of the Eighth Air Force had to defend themselves from fierce German fighter attacks as they undertook long missions over northern Europe. Even flying in close formation for mutual protection and more concentrated bombing patterns, the threats of flak, bad weather and determined Luftwaffe attacks resulted in a low percentage of the bombs hitting the target, and a loss of many bombers.
Description
B-17 is a solitaire board wargame in which the player controls a B-17 bomber on missions over Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands between November 1942 and May 1943. Mission targets, opposition fighters and flak are all determined randomly, as is damage done to the B-17. The player's role in the game is to allocate defensive fire from the multiple weapons positions on the bomber.
Components
The game features several boards: the game board, the strategic map of northern Europe, and the crew placement board. Other components include various tables and charts, 88 counters, 16 German fighter cards and a pad of mission charts.
In Issue 30 of Fire & Movement, Ron Jongeling called the On Target edition "the solitaire player's dream come true. The price is steep, considering the small amount of components, but what the game lacks in physical content, it more than makes up for in enjoyment." He concluded, "In the 100+ missions I have flown so far, not one error and not one little glitch has surfaced from the rules."
In Issue 72 of Fire & Movement, Chris Perleberg reviewed the Avalon Hill edition and noted, "There's a lot of dice rolling, and there aren't a lot of decisions to be made by the player. Still, the game is habit forming, probably because you can make specific statements about it: 'Yeah, I took a flak hit over Antwerp that wounded my starboard waist gunner and knocked out my port inboard engine, so I had to ditch in France.' It feels real."
In a retrospective article in Issue 5 of Simulacrum, Joe Scoleri noted that differences in the rules between the On Target edition and the Avalon Hill edition were minimal, but conceded that "On Target's component quality is considerably lower." However, he liked On Target's counters better, which featured small illustrations, rather than the text-only counters in the Avalon Hill edition. He also noted that although Avalon Hill made improvements to the Attack Board and strategic map, "The biggest surprise is that [On Target's] superb artwork for the German aircraft cards was not an AH contribution. The illustrations descended virtually unchanged from the On Target edition!"
More reviews and commentary
- The Grenadier #20 (January–February 1984)
- Battleplan #7 (August–September 1988)
- The Boardgamer, Special Issue dedicated to this game
- B-17 Queen of the Skies (base game and variant) Product Summary, Review on RPG.NET by a review maker Wes Johnson.