Blood Red Skies is going Digital!

https://www.diecastdigital.com/news/brsdeannoucement

I've had to bite my tongue on this as it is probably the biggest thing to happen on the BRS front since Andy Chambers decided he wanted to try and write some WW2 dogfight rules.

A few months ago I was asked to playtest a very early "pre Alpha" version. It was missing a lot of whistles and bells, but it was instantly recognisable as Blood Red Skies. The developers have religiously ported over everything from the table top game (with only one change, which I will come to in a moment) so after about 30 seconds anyone who plays BRS will be able to play BRSD. 

The initial version I've played was limited to Wildcats vs Zeroes, and you can only play the Wildcats. Also the AI was a bit ropey to start with, as the Zeroes didn't really use their traits very well, however he latest version has ironed this out I'm told - I hope to get a go with the updated version in a week or so and will report back. I suspect this was as much a case of the coding guys not really grasping how card play works as they're more familiar with Pokemon style games. We've had a long discussion and now I think they get it.

The one change is a visual one. Instead of using the tilting base mechanism the Advantage state is now represented by the base telescoping up and down. Other than that EVERYTHING from Air Strike game mechanics is going to be in there.

This is clearly BRS. The game will include a single player campaign mode, but that is not really that important to me, because just like BRS this is going to be head to head except online rather than over a table top. Squadron building is going to be there, so you can try your "cunning plan" Squadrons out against the AI or pit your wits against any other BRSD player worldwide, then port it over to your table top. We will get leagues, historical campaigns, tournaments and all the cool stuff.

How does it play - err just like BRS on a table top. You can move your viewpoint around as you would expect - like getting out of your chair and moving around the table like in real life. Movement is either mouse or keyboard, with some nice touches such as a visual confirmation you have that tailing move lined up. Shooting and dodging are what you would expect, with virtual die rolling, and some nice if vanilla sound effects. Where you have choices such as burn advantage this is indicated on the aircraft and it all works just like BRS. I think this really is the key. The Devs have stuck to the table top game, even where they don't understand the "why" it does things the way it does.

It will launch on Kickstarter in the next few weeks. Initial release is planned to mirror The Midway starter, with new planes, Aces, Maps and scenarios added as stretch goals and DLCs later. 

This can only be great for BRS, bringing the game to a wider audience and allowing distanced head to head play. The straight transfer from BRS to BRSD will mean digital players will also be able to move to the table top version with no problems.

At last something to cheer about in 2021!