Over Kentish Fields – Blood Red Skies

Back to Asgard Wargames for another game of Blood Red Skies BRS , the soon to be released WW2 Dogfight game from Warlord Games. Were still using our "Back Catalogue" of 1:144 models rather than the "official" scale of 1:200 - more on that later.

We think we have a grasp of the basic mechanics of 2v2 so decided to try a step up to 4v4. This caused a little technical hitch as we only had 3 Me109s ready but we “fixed” this by including a pair of 110s. An interesting bi-product would be we would get a chance to try out the multi engine rules the nice Mr C explained to me. A down side was we didn’t have the 110s on gimbal bases so we had to mark status with a dice – we’ve since remedied this.

Initial set up we assumed we had one level 3 pilot and the rest were level 2s per side. Dicing for initial advantage status left the British right hand element Advantaged but the lead element mixed normal and disadvantaged. On the other side the 109s had Advantage and the 110s were mixed as the lead Spitfires.

Paul "Herman" Davison in charge of the Luftwaffe!

Turn 1 saw both sides predictably close and “grab” to either gain or maintain advantage.

British side of the table - as clearly indicated by the cup of tea. Germanic order on the other side with the dice arranged in precise formation!

Turn 2 was “The Merge”. Assuming the scenario is even this is probably the first decision point in the Basic Rules game of BRS – and there are a lot of really rather interesting decision to be made. Critically, if you are already in advantage you can try to Outmanoeuvre your opponent – flicking a wing to try to lure him into a mistake and dropping his status – if that works he’s in a world of trouble, and that is pretty much what happened to the Spitfire Flight Leader (on the far left) who found himself only neutral to the opposing 109 who was advantaged. The 109 didn’t risk a head on shot (which would have allowed the Spit to shoot back) but bides his time. The 110s wanted to take a head on shot to take advantage of their heavy nose guns but couldn’t as their immediate opponents were at the same advantage level. (BRS only allows shots at less advantaged targets or if you are targeted by an attack from head on).

Turn 3 and the Spitfire Leader is in a world of trouble. The 109 has the advantage and moves first, passing through and looping around 180 degrees (Burning his Advantage) to put him directly behind the Spitfire, Neutral status in a tailing position. The Spitfire’s Wingman is out of position, so the Spitfire is automatically disadvantaged, and a stream of 20mm cannon fire whips past the Spits cockpit. The pilot manages to evade, but gains a Boom Counter for his side. The 110s bore in, and the second Spitfire pair come around to try and help the leader.

Turn 4 and it all gets a bit hectic. The tailing 109 “drops a bollock” and a combination of Outmanoeuvring, pilot error and better pilot skill the Spitfire Leader reverses the situation. Meanwhile the detached Spitfires are coming around on the 1100. One takes a speculative long range deflection shot and hits. The 110 has a lot of dodge dice (9 in all) but fails and picks up a Boom. Being twin engine this doesn’t immediately count (multi engine planes can accumulate booms up to their number of engines before they count – its more complicated than that but I’m sure that will be explained when the rules get published), but one effect is it loses some speed and its rear gunner is no longer effective as he is slumped over his gun bleeding.

Turn 5 The Spits and 109s are now totally involved trying to manoeuvre for position, and both sides score hits. The second Spitfire element is now all over the 110s like a rash.

Turn 6 and the Spitfires line up a damaged 110 and hit it hard. It goes down in flames. That takes the Boom scores to 4-3 in Brits favour, and the Germans disengage at the end of the turn. Another win for the Few!

 So overall we continue to be impressed by BRS. It is slick and has a good "feel" to it, with minimum record keeping, and some really interesting and thought provoking game mechanics.  The multi engine rules work well and integrate with the single seaters, and as we have stepped up the numbers involved were not yet seeing any strains on the system. Games remain quick  - we played three games in just over an hour, although more planes will make the games longer I don't foresee time as an issue. We are also giving a lot of thought on tactics, and so far, the general theme is, if it worked in real life, it will work in BRS, which is about as good a thing you can say about a set of rules.

As I mentioned, we are at the moment playing with 1:144 - here's why :-) however I will be shifting down to the "official" 1:200 scale when they become available as this may help to prevent some of the "crowding" we are seeing. 

Next step up will be to try out the cards, and try and get more planes on table - Mark (Geordie) is busy churning them out as we speak - have a look at his blog Geordies Big Battles

I'm certainly going to want to get the starter set when it is released (due some time around Christmas?). I'm not so sure about the current pre order bundles on offer from Warlord. I think individually the expected price point for the 2 player starter set and squadron boxes are very reasonable, particularly as they include the cards you want to play the advanced rules (assuming the models are ok) but I'm less sure about people going to jump straight in to full squadron level (ie 12+ planes a side). Hopefully Warlord will offer just the starter or individual squadron boxes as part of the pre order.