Traits in Blood Red Skies 2 - Climbing and Diving

OK let's get this out of the way first. One of the criticisms I often hear is that there is no altitude in Blood Red Skies, so how can you climb and dive??

The answer of course is that BRS represents some of the effects of altitude using the Advantage system, which not only does away with all the telescoping stands and paperwork, it actually works in the game. So moving on..
 
There are two climbing and diving Traits in Blood Red Skies, Great Climb (GC), and er, Great Dive (GD).

Unlike the previous post on turning Traits which had fixed effects, these two have varied effects based on other factors. Let's look at Great Dive first.

Great Dive allows a plane to add it's normal move when it burns advantage to dive, not the normal 6". It follows that faster planes get a bigger benefit from the trait. This is not that "great" if your normal max speed is 7", but quite significant if 8" or 9" as they will usually be able to either put some distance between a tailing opponent and yourself, or catch him if he is trying to get away, even oif he is technically faster than you. A P51D will dive 18" compared to a Fw190A diving 14" - even if that is not enough to get you out of range, it will be far enough to stop him claiming his Heavy Hitter bonus.

So what Doctrines work as a bonus with Great Dive? Firstly Low Altitude Performance (LAP). LAP has been mentioned in the last post in relation to Rapid Roll. Most of that still applies here, so you can burn a GD card to automatically move from Disadvantage to Neutral at the start of your activation, and all that implies. Next is Dive Away (DA). DA allows you to burn advantage to dive even if disadvantaged - allowing you to put some space between you and the fight - useful but mainly defensive. The next Great Dive bonus is anything but defensive. This is Slashing Attack (SA). SA turns a normal hit after a dive into a Critical Hit. This is in some ways better than Heavy Hitter - it does not have a range restriction like HH, but it does not add any attack dice. In the new "deflection shooting" meta this is going to be VERY powerful - particularly with beasts like the P47 now in the game. You have been warned! Then there is Sustained Dive (SD). SD allows you to make a Manoeuvre test and if you pass you regain the advantage you burned to make the dive. Just in case you missed the implication there, you can dive from Neutral and if you make the test, you can still tail and shoot your victim. Of course here having some Agility and a good pilot helps, so Agility not really the P47s forte will make it slightly less useful to Jug drivers, but still worth thinking about, and Corsairs, Hellcats and Tempests will greatly benefit. Lastly,  Compression Issues (CI). This is useful in a number of ways, particularly if your opponent is trying to escape or using a dive to set up a shot. It forces any opponent who burns advantage to dive to pass a manoeuvre test or lose their pilot action that turn. That could be a shot, an outmanoeuvre, or even just a climb back up. In this case it is more effective against poor quality pilots or planes with low agility.
 
Now for Great Climb (GC). GC is one of the most powerful traits in BRS, and usually the most overlooked by new players. The card itself is a royal PITA to any opponent trying to climb for advantage anywhere within 12" of a GC plane as they have to pass a Manoeuvre test to succeed. This makes GC more useful against low quality pilots or low agility aircraft, but still worth a try even against an Ace. Importantly it does not require any skill on behalf of the friendly pilot, other than remembering to use it! Failure to understand and use Great Climb is the reason a lot of new players flying Me109Es think the Spitfire is overpowered. The Bonus Doctrines that work with Great Climb however even worse from an opponent's point of view. High Altitude Performance makes any Advantaged pilot trying to outmanoeuvre an opponent 2 skill levels better than his actual skill - so a Skill 4 pilot can auto outmanoeuvre an Ace, and even a Rookie can challenge a Vet.  Gulp. The other Bonus Doctrine is Seasoned Pilots, which allows you to re-roll a failed Manoeuvre test. I know this causes some people to scratch their heads trying to work out the connection between rate of climb and pilot skill, but I rationalise it by pointing out having all that power available means a good pilot can get more out of his plane, and do things easier.

So that's the ups and downs of going up and down. Next one will look at firepower, robustness and the like.