Two books. Two pilots. The skies over WWI France. Whoever reads their opponent wrong gets shot down.

Ace of Aces: Powerhouse Series Deluxe Edition is a two-player dogfighting game that’s been messing with people’s heads (in the best way) since 1980. Each player holds one of the two game books and simultaneously picks a maneuver. You flip to the matching page. What you see is exactly what your opponent’s plane looks like from your cockpit, right now, in this moment. The basic game runs on pure reads and bluffs no randomizers, no luck buffers. When you’re ready to go deeper, the advanced rules layer in variable damage, maneuver restrictions, and altitude, and that’s where the dice in the slipcase drawer start earning their keep.

This Deluxe Edition pits the Fokker DVII (flown by German ace Georg von Hantelmann) against the SPAD XIII (flown by America’s Eddie Rickenbacker), and includes stats for several other WWI fighters if you want to swap planes. It’s also fully compatible with the Handy Rotary series, so you can run cross-set Allied vs. German matchups. The Powerhouse planes fly differently than the Rotary ones returning players will have to relearn the sky.

The Kickstarter Deluxe Edition includes both dogfighting books, a rulebook, a beautiful slipcase with a built-in storage drawer for tokens and dice, bookmark ribbons, damage tokens, ammo tokens, ace tokens, and all unlocked stretch goals. All-new full-color artwork throughout. The original series was inducted into the Origins Awards Product Hall of Fame in 1993 this edition makes it worth finding again.

No setup. Plays in 3045 minutes. Fits in a bag. Takes considerably longer to master than that.