I read a very positive review of these rules for miniature air combat yesterday, so thought I’d take a closer look, especially as the rules are free to download on Wargame Vault. The system is common to all three iterations of the rules – WW2, Korean War and Cold War – which makes the learning curve a little less steep. They’re hex based and use a standard deck of playing cards for initiative, movement and firing, all of which ticks my boxes. There are the usual rules for manoeuvres, targeting, air to air firing, as well as multi-engine aircraft, bombing and ground attack. There’s even a simple campaign system to link games together as a narrative. 

The aircraft and missile sheets take up quite a lot of space, with the rules being only about 25 to 30 pages, depending upon which version you are using. It’s all presented very professionally and could easily be printed on demand to create a glossy rule book that wouldn’t look out of place on a commercial site. The only reservation that I have is will it work for solo play but that’s something that I’ve managed to do before with other, similar sets of air wargaming and naval rules, so the answer is probably a qualified Yes? It certainly fills a gap in my air wargaming rules requirements, having given up on Target Locked On! (too glitchy) and Wings at War (not well received at the club), leaving AirWar:C21 as the only real alternative for modern and Cold War era air combat.