I will say that some of the planes were rather difficult to put together, and I ended up bending and mangling a few. Planes move simultaneously using a maneuver template that shows all safe maneuvers possible, depending on a plane's specs. A bit of realism that Crimson Skies sacrifices for ease of play is altitude. Altitude is simply ignored, which may disappoint hardcore aerial combatants. Pilots can fire as many of their weapons as they want as often as they want, with hits determined by distance, angle to the target, and the pilot's Dead Eye skill.
Every plane has a record sheet with a stylized diagram of the plane, divided into boxes.
When hit, damage is marked off on the sheet using a plastic template. Part of the game's strategy is choosing an effective loadout with which to quickly dig through enemy planes' armor, then do maximum damage to their control systems. As they accumulate damage, planes lose speed and maneuverability until eventually they fall. A downed plane is rarely the end for the pilot, though, as he or she can almost always try to bail out, with extra points awarded if they take time to grab a personal memento, such as their sweetheart's photo. Once you get the rules down, Crimson Skies moves fairly quickly from turn to turn, but even so a basic combat can take many hours.