Blood Red Skies - Ace Box

Following on from the previous post, the other booty I grabbed at Warlord Games when I visited them was a couple of Ace Pilots.

These are single model planes with special pilot abilities. Currently there are one for each nationality represented in the game and the model is the "standard" plane for their nationality.

In the box you get a plane - in this case a Spitfire, advantage base, aircraft card, and the associated Trait card and stickers. These are all identical to those in the Squadron box set (and I assume the Starter set). You also get a pair of two sided Ace Pilot Skill Disks, one with the named pilot (Sailor Malan for the Brits), the other a generic one. The "named" one is in a rather striking black colour scheme that will really make these stand out on the table. You get the the Ace card itself which lists his or her abilities and skills, and the associated Ace skill cards. The skill disks and Zoom counter (the little winged symbol that you place down to indicate your pilot has moved) are different colours from those in the Starter set - a nice touch if you like that sort of thing.

 Malan has one ability boost - +1 firepower, plus two skills, "Set Them Up" which assists friendlies when shooting and "Killer Instincts" which is one of the more scary ace skills as it converts hits from 3" or less to Critical Hits - harder to dodge. Given Malan is rolling 7 firepower dice in his Spitfire II  this looks really deadly. Malan costs 130 points (significantly more than a standard generic Ace which is 100 points) and the others are similarly 125-130 points.

Ok as I'm already talking "points" I should mention in addition to a historic or straight match up mode BRS has a point system to allow tournament or pick up style play, and the suggested limit is 500 points a player.  I'm sure this will be a popular option as it will allow a certain amount of list building and all that if you want to go down that route, but the "build your own Ace" will surely five new options you dont usually see in this sort of game. Once wave one gets released there will be plenty of discussion about build options but I'll save that for another time.

I've no clear idea what the RRP of Ace expansions will be. If Warlord price them carefully I can see there being plenty of scope for new named Aces to follow, and of course there is still the option to "build your own" Ace - although these will be restricted to only one skill.

So hurry up HM Customs and pass that lorry load of Blood Red Skies so I can get my pre ordered starter set!