Defining Advantage in Blood Red Skies

One of the regular questions that comes up in Blood Red Skies is "what is Advantage?"

If you don't play this may seem a bit cryptic, so I'll do a quick explanation. At the core of Blood Red Skies is the Advantage system. Planes have one of three states, Advantaged, Neutral, or Disadvantaged. Your status changes due to your own and enemy actions. 

Advantage status is EVERYTHING in BRS. It decides initiative, and also who can shoot at what - you can only target a plane at a lower Advantage level, and can only be shot down if you are disadvantaged. 

Status is indicated by the tilting model stands - tilted back - climbing, for Advantaged, nose down - diving, for Disadvantaged. 

Advantage in some ways replaces the concept of altitude. OK in a game about air warfare not specifically representing altitude may seem a bit strange, but in BRS it works very well. Gone are the tall stands that are impossible to move and topple over at the slightest touch, or counters and dials and all that, instead replaced by a simple three status system. The problem is of course that when we use terms like "Advantage level" and "climbing for Advantage" (a Pilot choice in BRS) and we point the nose of the model up, we tend to reinforce the idea that Advantage = Altitude. And it doesn't. Not always anyway.

Actually the best way to explain Advantage is to use the other end of the Advantage curve - Disadvantage. Disadvantage is the thing that gets you shot down. It can be anything that allows that. Energy state, speed, lack of awareness, and yes, sometimes altitude. 

There is a famous incident during the Battle of Britain that helps illustrate "Advantage" in action. On 15th September 1940 Ginger Lacey in a Hurricane of of 501 Squadron ran into a group of 12 Me109s. Lacey is an Ace, flying below them on a reciprocal course, however he is unseen, so Advantaged. The 109s are Neutral. Lacey has the initiative and "burns Advantage" with a climbing half loop to attack them from behind. Both are now Neutral (and that would normally prevent Lacey shooting) however he is now tailing the target which drops it to Disadvantaged and he shoots it down. He proceeded to claim a second before disengaging into some nearby clouds.

James Harry "Ginger" Lacey, the Ace we should of got instead of Bader in BRS!

The other point to make is Advantage is situational and can change as the game turn flows. You can start Advantaged, fly into a cloud (becoming Neutral) then come out the other side and climb for Advantage - back to Advantaged. Later you can be subject to an enemy Outmanoeuvre and become Neutral, or worse get tailed and become Disadvantaged - and vulnerable, all in one turn. It is this constant changing status that helps make BRS such a fun and fluid game that feels like a dogfight not a battle between sailing ships in 2 dimensions.

Cheers