Squadron Dispatch #10
- Phil Yates
- Feb 27
- 8 min read
Join the Wing Commanders Club
Dear Squadron Pilots,
I’m excited to offer you the amazing opportunity to become a founding member of the Angels One Six Wing Commanders Club.
As one of just twenty founding members, you'll be entitled to one of everything that Savage Mouse Games produces—absolutely free forever. Yep, that’s one of everything in this and every future Kickstarter for Angels One Six and all future games we produce. Whether it's WW2 skirmishes, Napoleonic wars, hard sci-fi, or something completely different, you will receive a copy of each game the instant it's available. Plus, as a founding member, your name will appear in the credits on the Angels One Six: Battle of Britain box—a permanent part of gaming history.
You’ll also get exclusive previews and conversations with Phil Yates and early access to playtesting opportunities (and occasional freebies!).
Why this Opportunity Exists
Angels One Six is almost production-ready. The prototypes are complete, production testing is underway, the rulebook is written, and playtesting confirms the physics-based system works beautifully.
What we need now is the marketing budget to reach the broader gaming community who'll love this game as much as you do. This is essential to making the Kickstarter a success and getting us the stretch goals and future expansions we all want.
I'm offering this founding membership to just twenty supporters who believe in our long-term vision. Your support directly funds the trailer and how-to videos, advertising, convention presence, and content creation we need to make the Kickstarter successful.
Your Contribution
NZ $5000 (approximately US $2900 / GB £2150 / EU €2450)
Your membership contributes $5000 New Zealand dollars (or the equivalent in your currency) to Angels One Six. This isn't just an investment in one game, though—it's an alliance to evolve Savage Mouse Games into the games studio it should be, bringing historically authentic, accessible games to tabletops worldwide.
The core game includes:
Two pre-painted Spitfire fighters with call sign decals to individualise them
Two Spitfire cockpit displays with call sign stickers to match their aircraft
Two telescopic flight stands with full-swivel magnetic aircraft mounts
Two pre-painted Me 109 fighters with their own call sign decals
Two Me 109 cockpit displays with their own call sign stickers
Two telescopic flight stands with full-swivel magnetic aircraft mounts
Movement and shooting ruler
Beautiful rulebook
Custom dice: action, shooting, and fright dice
Stretch goals will add more fighters:
Two more Spitfire fighters
Two pre-painted Hurricane fighters
Two more Me 109 fighters
Two pre-painted Me 110 twin-engined fighters
All with cockpits and flight stands
And a Campaign:
Battle of Britain campaign book
With a bomber pack containing:
One pre-painted He 111 bomber
Two pre-painted Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers
One pre-painted Hampden bomber
Two pre-painted Skua dive bombers (no samples yet)
Plus Custom Aces:
One Paddy Finucane ace with a custom Spitfire featuring his shamrock
One Adolf Galland ace with a custom Me 109 featuring the bright yellow nose and his 40 kill markings on the tail
And extra dice:
British dice, including two cannon dice for variant British fighters
German dice, including two extra machine-gun dice for the Me 110 fighters
Finally, as a founding member, your contribution to the future of the game will be recognised on the Angels One Six: Battle of Britain box.
Each subsequent Savage Mouse Games release will deliver similar or greater value as part of your membership.
Exclusive Wing Commander Benefits
As a Wing Commander, you'll join Phil Yates' inner circle. You'll be the first to know about new releases and expansions — before any public announcements. You'll gain access to playtesting opportunities for upcoming releases before anyone else sees them, and attend exclusive talks on game mechanics, historical research, and design philosophy.
With only twenty founding member positions available, this is an extraordinary opportunity to be part of something special.
More from Angels One Six
Your membership gives you every future release for Angels One Six.
Angels One Six: Battle of Midway is already in development, with many air battles in other WWII theaters and conflicts planned to follow. Here are some things I have in mind:
Battle of Midway—brings the United States and Japan into the game with naval fighters like the famous F4F-4 Wildcat and A6M2 Zero and their land-based equivalents the P-40E Warhawk and Ki-43 Hayabusa.
Masters of the Air—bringing the desperate battles of 1943 to the fore, with P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts battling it out against the latest model Me 109s and the new Fw 190s.
Battles of Stalingrad and Kuban—adding the Soviet Union with fighters like the ubiquitous Yaks and the magnificent Lavochkin La-5, and the German ‘Gustavs’ and ‘Antons’ that fought them.
Battle of the Philippines—F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs battling it out with the late-model A6M5 Zeroes, Ki-84 Hayate, and N1K-J Shiden.
Battle of Germany—adds jet fighters like the Me 262, Meteor, P-80 Shooting Star, and Yak-15, and piston-engined hotrods like the P-51D Mustang, Tempest, La-7, and the long-nose Fw 190 D.
Sabres vs MiGs over the Yalu—the game will work great over Korea too, and for Vampires, Hunters, Mystères, and F-104 Starfighters over Pakistan, and other post-war jet battles.
And, and, and… I could go on and on, but I hope you get the picture. Oh, and I forgot to mention things like adding the French and Italians to the Battle of Britain series! So many exciting ideas. Given a chance, Angels One Six will expand to cover the whole of WW2 and beyond!
Beyond Angels One Six
I’m also working on a variety of completely different games as well. Whether it's WW2 skirmishes, Napoleonic wars, hard sci-fi, or something completely different, you’ll get these too—you're covered for life.
Here’s some of what I have in mind for future games:
Taking Angels One Six to the First World War will be a blast. Switching from Spitfires and Messerschmitts to Sopwith Camels and Fokkers changes the game up completely.
Moving forward to the jets of the 1960s in places like Vietnam presents its own challenges, with missiles becoming practical weapons, but Phantoms against Mig 21s would be so much fun.
H-Hour will be a skirmish-level WW2 game like nothing you’ve ever seen. As fans of my games should expect, it will be fast, historically accurate, and a thrill to play.
Revolutionary Wars will be a Napoleonic (and related periods like the American War of Independence) game focusing on the lower levels of combat, forming columns and squares, and skirmish lines. It’s a totally new take on the period.
What are Your Risks?
There are risks to the Wing Commanders Club. The initial Angels One Six release is a Kickstarter. If that doesn’t fund, the project will die. If things go terribly wrong, you could end up with nothing for your money.
However, there are many factors reducing this risk. There are good reasons to believe that Angels One Six and Savage Mouse Games will be successful, and your investment returned many times over.
The first reason is my record as a game designer. I have designed some of the most successful tabletop wargames in existence. Flames of War is still the biggest historical game out there, especially if you add its spinoffs: WW3: Team Yankee, Checkpoint Charlie, and Great War. Beyond that, I’ve created or developed award-winning board games like Star Trek: Ascendancy, Star Trek: Away Missions, Aliens: Another Day in the Corps, Dr Who: Time of the Daleks, Dr Who: Nemesis, and Enola Holmes. Every one of my games brings simple but deep gameplay, intense stories, and historical (or in-world) accuracy. I believe that my future games will be as well-loved and successful as my past games.
The second risk-reducing factor is my experience in bringing games to market. For Angels One Six, this means that the Kickstarter will not go live until I know I can manufacture the game immediately the Kickstarter finishes. This will not be one of those crowdfunding games that takes your money and disappears for years before possibly delivering on its promises. As soon as the Kickstarter is over, I will be off to China to oversee production, to get Angels One Six into players' hands as fast as possible.
The third factor is longevity. I’m not a flash in the pan, and nor are my games. You can expect Angels One Six to grow and expand, to still be a crowd favourite with new products releasing regularly for many years to come. I’m investing in the future with sculptors already hard at work on the Midway release.
Finally, Angels One Six has had amazing feedback at shows, with a wide range of people loving the game and wanting to play it more. This project is going to be an amazing success.
Overall, it is a risk, but I believe that the return will far outweigh that.
I appreciate your belief in the future of Angels One Six and Savage Mouse Games.
How to Claim Your Membership
To secure your position as one of twenty founding Wing Commanders, go to:
If you have any questions about the Wing Commanders Club, or anything Angels One Six, email me at phil@angelsonesix.com.
Thank you, and I look forward to getting Angels One Six into your hands.
Red Leader, Out.
Phil Yates
Designer, Angels One Six
Savage Mouse Games
Wing Commanders Club Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions set out what you, as a member of the Wing Commanders Club (a Wing Commander), are entitled to from Philip Yates, trading as Savage Mouse Games. As Savage Mouse Games is an early-stage start-up, they also set out what happens if we are unable to deliver product.
On payment of the Membership Fee, a Wing Commander will be entitled to lifetime membership of the Wing Commanders Club. Wing Commanders must join the Wing Commanders Club under their own name and must be aged 18 or older.
Wing Commanders Club membership is non-transferable. It belongs to the original purchaser for their lifetime, terminating upon their death. Once purchased, membership in the Wing Commanders Club can be terminated, but you will not be entitled to a refund of the Membership Fee.
Membership will entitle a Wing Commander to one copy of each and every physical or digital reward Savage Mouse Games delivers through Kickstarter or any other crowdfunding platform, or physical or digital products sold through a Savage Mouse Games online store.
Savage Mouse Games does not guarantee the delivery of any proposed or planned products, and planned delivery dates communicated to you are only targets. Until a reward is actually delivered through a crowdfunding campaign or product sold through a Savage Mouse Games online store, it remains hypothetical, and Savage Mouse Games has no responsibility or liability to provide Wing Commanders with that reward or product.
Savage Mouse Games will cover shipping costs for physical products supplied to Wing Commanders and, where possible, import duties and taxes that can be paid by the shipper. Savage Mouse Games reserves the right to revise this clause should it prove too onerous.
Wing Commanders are responsible for communicating any change of delivery addresses to Savage Mouse Games, and any other information that Savage Mouse Games requires to supply product to the Wing Commander. If product is returned as undeliverable, the Wing Commander can claim the product by paying all costs incurred in redelivery.
Savage Mouse Games will do our best to maintain honest communication and make every effort to deliver new and innovative products. However, Wing Commanders acknowledge they're helping create something new, not ordering something that already exists. They accept there will likely be changes and delays, and there’s a chance something could prevent Savage Mouse Games from delivering any product at all. If this happens, Savage Mouse Games has no obligation to compensate Wing Commanders.
Wing Commanders have no rights to any intellectual property belonging to Savage Mouse Games. Membership in the Wing Commander Club does not grant any ownership or interest in Savage Mouse Games.
As consumers, Wing Commanders have certain rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986. Those rights apply alongside these Terms and Conditions and are not affected by anything stated above.
Any personal information collected by Savage Mouse Games in connection with your membership will only be used or disclosed for the purposes of operating the Wing Commanders Club. This may include disclosure within the Savage Mouse Games organisation and to other parties involved in its operations. Savage Mouse Games agree to comply with relevant privacy laws (including the Privacy Act 2020) in respect of any personal information collected.
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