Battle of Midway Starter Set in depth

So let's start with the box. Artwork is nice - better than the old Battle of Britain version in my opinion. The actual box itself is a bit flimsy - the old one was a fairly heavy duty affair that has continued to serve me well for over three years. This one is much more akin to the regular boxes Warlord use for their plastic kits and starter sets. I think this is a case of Warlord accepting the dream that BRS would appear on the shelves of game stores, rather than wargames stores, is unrealistic at this time. There has always been a suggestion that BRS was originally aimed at a more mainstream \ main street market, which may account for the higher quality of the old BoB box. This seems to be in the standard Warlord starter set material. My experience \ expectation is most players will bin it within a day anyway, so it's not much of a problem. I'm going to hang on to the old one as long as it holds together.

My veteran Battle of Britain box, with the new upstart Midway one

Taking the lid off and I have to say I'm impressed. They've avoided the "clipped in" model tray which many suspected caused some problems with the old BoB set and the notorious wing bending. This layout looks packed, clean and purposeful. 

Being a gamer I grabbed the models first. You get six Wildcats and six A6M2 Zeroes. The models are in a new version of "Warlord Resin". This material is a plastic \ resin but is a big step forward over that used on the earlier models, not so much "bendy" as a bit flexible. It reminds me quite a bit of the plastic used by Reaper on their "Bones" range. It's a pity these were not made in true hard plastic - in fact I suspect this is a decision Warlord may look back on with regret if the game continues to prove popular. I'll do a deeper delve into the models at another point, but for now I think they look good.

The Wildcats are already coloured blue, the Zeroes off white. This mirrors what they did with the old set, the idea being you could open the box and play straight away. More on that in a bit, but one side effect is that it's a bugger to get pics of the raw models that show the detail.  The models are overall good.  They don't have much flash at all and detail is excellent. The panel lining is clear and these should be easy and fun to paint. My Wildcats did have a problem getting to fit on the stands, but a very quick run with an exacto knife around the triangle mounting point fixed that, taking no time at all. The Zeros are the opposite, slightly loose. I don't think they will fall off in play, but they do wobble a bit.  I suspect that will change when you apply a coat of paint. I will let you know.

The set includes decals and self adhesive stickers. The decals are for the serious players but the stickers add to the ability to play out of the box with minimum prep, which is always  nice. As to be expected the decals are far more detailed and include markings for both plane types on the same sheet, including two named Aces. This is a good idea for the starter set but it does make me wonder how Warlord are going to deal with selling the models separate to the starter set - will they include the relevant decals from this sheet and if so, how??  Back to the self adhesive stickers. These are better thought out than the old BoB set, being scaled to the models and not "cartoony". They're just national cockades, and while I would not use them, I can see how they will work with the pre coloured models if you were in a rush to play or were new to the whole painting thing. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the rules pamphlet. I saw the contents as a pdf a while ago but this was the first time I have actually held a "real" copy. It feels much better and more substantial than the old three part one in the BoB. Content is different too, as in addition to the rules there are some nice sections on the historical background and orders of battle - mostly by Roger Gerrish, though I did make some contribution. 

The rules themselves are at heart the same as the BoB set and Airstrike, with some minor clarifications on wording here and there. The redoubtable Andy Chambers has done a good job with the game engine, and BRS plays fast and smooth. 

The question has already come up "are these a version 2?" and the answer is "No". This is a starter set themed around the Battle of Midway NOT a full set of rules, so the rules for multi engine planes and attacking ground targets is not included. You will need Air Strike for that, but I should stress the rules ARE complete as far as they go - there are scenarios and rules for attacking ships as well as the usual dogfights etc.

The new punch board for the targets, clouds and bomber markers are good quality heavy duty affairs in the same vein as the BoB set ones. Having the reverse side of the clouds as islands is a really nice touch. The inclusion of the bomber tokens (six Vals or SBD Dauntless) means you can get all the scenarios in the starter set on table without buying anything else, though of course models for the bombers are sold separately. There are also eighteen ship counters to use as target markers. I have to point out someone at Warlord dropped a bit of a clanger here as instead of a Japanese Battleship they put an Italian in there. Some things never change! The ship target markers are a bit of a missed opportunity as they're two sided, but the sides are the same. If they had IJN on one side and USN on the other it would have been so much better and we could have had either a larger fleet or more options. Scale wise these look to be about the same size as my old 1:3000 Davco models, but that is almost certainly pure coincidence. I think the images used are actually from Warlord's own Victory at Sea range, which raises the question, why not do them at 1:1800 so you could cross promote the VAS models as target markers for BRS?  OK you would have to have fewer ships on the card due to size, but I'm not sure that's really a problem. Also did I mention the Italian?......

Skill discs, Boom Chits and Zoom (activation) markers

The wandering Italian Battleship 

The plastic measuring tool and associated markers is a big advance on the old card one. I'm sticking with my third party ones but these are perfectly serviceable and look the part. It will be interesting to see if players paint them up or leave them as they are. The High Cover (arrows) and Laden (bombs) are particularly nice.

You also get a pair of quick play sheets. These are in a very similar format to the old BoB ones and this is good. The old sheets were brilliant, clear and easy to follow. I've used them to teach the rules to total novices and within five minutes. The fronts have the rules and the backs some diagrams showing the measuring tools etc in use. 

Also included are the game cards. Here you get a set of aircraft Data, Traits, Doctrines and Theatre Cards. It's not a full set of every card available, but it does cover all you will need for Midway and similar carrier battles. Hopefully a complete set will one day be released. There's a minor typo on the Kate but nothing earth shattering.

Lastly there are a dozen special dice. My experience is these are universally hated by BRS players - nothing to do with the design, just they never seem to roll sixes :-) 

So that's about it. There's a lot in there , and aside from a couple of minor typo issues this looks like a great starter for players who are looking to get started in BRS, or an existing player who wants to move into the Pacific theatre.

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