Back to the Bridges - Blood Red Skies Mig Alley

We (Paul my usual oppo) and me had sort of wandered into doing some F9F Panthers for Blood Red Skies \ Mig Alley to support our usual Migs and Sabres. He has a 3d printer which makes getting hold of less mainstream models easier. Once we had the models we went looking for scenarios and if you have F9F Panthers, well you can't avoid "The Bridges of Toko Ri". If you haven't seen the 1954 film, search for it on whatever streaming service you use. The film is based loosely around the US Carrier strike operations trying to cut North Korean communications by hitting bridges. There's the usual Hollywood romance plot but the film has several good points, including some excellent real life footage of Panthers both in the air and being readied and spotted on deck - well worth a look and almost contemporary with the "real" thing.

Anyway a couple of weeks ago Paul had a go at hitting a bridge with a squadron of six F80s escorting a strike of F9F Panthers - this was a 750 point game. I had four Mig 15s, and we milled about, had fun and achieved not a lot as far as the bridge demolition went. Paul was not a happy bunny as his first gen Jets were struggling against the 2nd gen Migs, but his numerical advantage told in the end and he managed to drive the Migs away but failed to damage the bridge.

So tonight we decided that MacArthur insisted the Navy had another go, and stepped up to 1200 points to make it really interesting. We are lucky to have access to the beta versions of the scenarios from the soon to be released Air Strike supplement, so we decided to use the "Priority Target" mission from that. Paul had obviously been thinking about how his F80s struggled last time, so this time he brought the "A-Team" - a full six plane squadron of F86 Sabres and a pair of F80s to make the numbers up. As he had more than three fighter elements he got two six plane squadrons of F9Fs as the Strike part of the mission - so the US had a total of 20 jets (gulp). Meanwhile the Commies (me) had a section of 4 MiGs with ahem Soviet pilots, and 4 much less experienced Chinese pilots, all deploying in two plane elements. There was also quite a bit of Flak - four points of both heavy and light at the bridge. The scenario allows the defender (me) to exchange some flak for some barrage balloons - this is not as daft as it seems as historically there are examples of the North Koreans stringing cables across valleys to bring down enemy planes, so I thought we would give it a try. The other new idea we were using from Airstrike was terrain. Airstrike can allow players to set terrain by area or usually quarters of the table for simplicity designating the area as flat, undulating, urban etc etc each of which has different effects on the scenario. As the area is very hilly and has some steep valleys, so we classed the terrain as "Elevated", which gives some cover from light flak but also reduced the number of dodge dice a disadvantaged plane has due to the abundance of hills that can interfere with his manoeuvres. Oh Boy was this going to get interesting later.

The game starts with the attacker having one or two of his escort elements on table and the rest in High Cover, plus his strike aircraft, all start Advantaged. The defender has one element near the target and the rest in High Cover.  In our game this was a pair of Rookie Chinese Migs. They took one look at the wall of US Jets heading their way and started to scream for help.

The heavy flak put up a barrage. In Air Strike a barrage effects anything that flies through at Neutral or better by forcing a Pilot Test - if you pass you held your nerve, if you fail, you must immediately turn 45 degrees and drop an advantage level, and pick up a Boom Chit. It's only really dangerous if you actually end touching a flak barrage - that can be bad (!). Mostly what this does is makes small planes avoid flak barrages and big ones just grit their teeth and take the chances. The lead element of Panthers decided to risk it and blow through the flak - and both failed their tests. This was a bit of a problem as the squadron starts the mission on one chit anyway, so was now on 3, with six planes in the air. Not a disaster but not great.

The pair of Rookie MiGs climbed for altitude and pulled their "man pants" up higher as all four Sabres forming the escort headed their way, backed up by a blue wall of US Navy strike aircraft. High Cover on both sides declined to appear.

Next turn the lonely Migs did their best, but got engaged by the escorts and could do nothing to stop the wave of Panthers lining up for their strike.

On the other side of the table however four silver arrows appeared to drop from the skies as the Soviet North Korean High Cover arrived. One pair went for the leading element of Panthers, the others headed for the rest.

Bounced from above and behind and still loaded with rockets the lead pair of Panthers had little chance and both were shot down by the Soviets (cough) North Koreans.

That caused one squadron of Panthers to abort due to excess Boom Chits. Both Chinese Rookies tried to get away from the swarm of attackers, but first one then the other went down under US guns, one to a P80 who was clearly punching above his weight.

Their more experienced flight leader and his wingman in High Cover disengaged due to their squadron having 4 Boom Chits and only 2 planes, which was somewhat irking to the Soviets North Koreans who were now seriously outnumbered.

The remaining Panthers swung in to attack. The lead pair were armed with rockets and their job was to suppress the flak around the target. The first dropped low, but before he could shoot he was hit by flak and unable to dodge due to all the hills, he crashed.

The second plane unleashed what should have been a devastating strike, with FP 2, Pilot 3, +1 (Heavy Hitter), +2 Strafing Ordnance - and missed with all 8 dice. The main strike of four then followed the lead pair in, but no-one managed a solid hit. (note - this isn't a surprise. The Panthers had 4 attack dice using their bombs - they had the "Bomb Shackles" card that allows them to use the bombing pilot action rather than strafing - something you need to actually bring the bridge down, but the Bridge is a "Hardened" target so ignores the first two successes of any attack - basically you need 3 hits on 4 dice. That's hard bit not impossible - in fact a one F80 did score 3 hits with 4 dice later in the game on a Mig, so it can be done).

Back with the Migs and Sabres, one of the Migs burned advantage and dropped in behind a Sabre. The Mig has the "Rough Ride" trait, so needed to pass a test to shoot, but this steely eyed Comrade didn't blink, and a Sabre went down in flames.

The odd were still stacked against the Migs, particularly now the US High Cover had arrived, and seeing the Panthers were disengaging and heading for the coast and their Carrier, the Migs also broke off.

All in all a really good game. What really surprised me was how fast turns ran, even with 20+ Jets on table at any one time. The terrain also made a big difference, making getting tailed and driven down low VERY dangerous. Flak was well balanced, being mostly an annoyance but on occasion being rather deadly. We played the scenario with a total of 28 jets (not everyone was on at the same time) and got our result in just over an hour or so, which is amazing if you compare it to other air to air games where you can spend half an hour trying to plot the exact move of each plane.

The game ended in a win to the defenders - just. Points were even but as the Bridge was not damaged the Commies were the happier of the two sides, and also claimed 3 air to air (2 F9Fs and a Sabre) plus one F9F to flak for the loss of two Migs.

I rather suspect we will be going back to those bridges again :-)

If you fancy trying out a bit of BRS MigAlley you need the rules and counters from the starter set and the Mig Alley supplement. If you don't have access to a 3d printer then Armaments in Miniature have a very nice selection of Korean War jets available. The rather beautiful game mat we were using was from Deepcut Studios, and the acrylic markers etc in the pics are from Just Lasered. All highly recommended.

A break from WW2 - Mig Alley

As a bit of a diversion we thought we would give Mig Alley a run out. In case you missed it Mig Alley is a supplement for Blood Red Skies taking the game into the Korean War and introducing jet vs jet combat. You need the main rules to play - Mig Alley is sold as an expansion which assumes you have BRS. But you really should have them already as they're so damned good ...........

Anyway the thing about Mig Alley is it really hammers home just how different jet combat was to WW2 - or rather, just how much faster things happen. The main change in the game mechanic is the Jet Trait, which can really catch you unawares. Jet allows a plane with this Trait to gain an advantage level on activation as long as there are no nearby enemies, and other aircraft of a lesser power can't climb for advantage within range of the jet. This, combined with the very high speeds everyone is travelling makes for Mig Alley games to be very different to WW2 BRS.

So off to the action. Somewhere over the Yalu River a flight of MiG15s of the North Korean Air Force sight a flight of USAF F86 Sabres. The lead Mig - piloted by a particularly tall, blond haired North Korean with a Russian accent decided to engage - even though he was one plane down (the Yanks had cunningly played the "Restricted Airfields" Theatre card during set up, costing him a MiG), but superior Soviet radar direction (Radar Direction Theatre Card) meant all the MiGs were starting at Advantage, where most of the Sabres were not.

The Sabres split into two pairs, Ivan and his wingman were separated from the lone MiG. All of the MiGs jettisoned their Droptanks (Equipment Card) and pushed the throttle up.

Turn 1 and the Russians (err North Koreans) had an edge, using their "Opening Shot" Doctrine card, to take long range head-on shot, they inflicted a Boom Chit on the closing Sabres and then closed to within 9", preventing the Sabres using their "free" Jet climb for advantage. The Sabres tried to manoeuvre but were at a lower advantage level so could do nothing even when one of them did get behind a MiG.

This didn't last long however as the single MiG was forced into a disadvantaged situation by the pair of Sabres facing him which also inflicted two Boom chits. Ivan decided his best chance was to burn his Advantage to dive onto the tail of the Sabres attacking his lone comrade, ignoring the Sabres he was tangling with. He took another long range shot (Opening Shot again) and caused a second Boom chit on the USAF, then managed to get into a shooting position on the Sabre - if he could get a hit and shoot it down the Yankees would break. However his MiG had the Rough Ride Trait meaning he needed to pass a pilot test to take the shot - and he failed, as did his wingman (doh!), even though both had the Sabre at their mercy the high G force they were inflicting on themselves was just too much (the USAF have G Suits to avoid this).

Burning advantage had left them vulnerable, and the original pair of Sabres followed them. Both Sabres got hits which the Russians (err North Koreans) dodged, but they were now past their Boom limit and they headed for home. Both sides claimed kills - after all, all that shooting MUST have hit something, and several planes were seen diving away trailing smoke.

All in all this was a great game - and really showed just how different the jets are from their propeller cousins. The Migs made a mistake burning advantage to try and get the Sabre, or rather they gambled and failed. Once they were no longer in an Advantaged state they were vulnerable to being harried, and forced out of the fight. BRS moves at a pace normally, but with Jets involved this really steps up.

All of which means I need more MiGs.

A quick word on the models. These are all 3d prints. We have the Warlord ones in metal and they are more detailed than these 3d printed versions, but being metal they need a special stand. Neither of us are keen on that. When Warlord get the jets into resin, as they are suggesting, I suspect that will change. 

Mig Alley for Blood Red Skies - Coming Soon!

OK Gents and Ladies. Warlord have confirmed the release date for their Blood Red Skies (BRS) Korean War expansion. I'll apologise in advance here as this is going to be a bit in depth and will use terms from BRS that non BRS players may not understand - then again why are you not playing BRS?? I should also add I pinched the pics from Warlord - hopefully they wont mind or this could be a short lived blog post.

Here's a little more info on MiG Alley that I have been able to extract from a Warlord employee whose battered body may one day be found, or maybe not...... 

Doing Korean War Jets is actually quite a challenge because these two planes in particular represent a real step change in capability over their prop driven predecessors. Swept wings, high speeds and superior high altitude capability means these planes are almost untouchable by others. It is true that prop planes did on occasion catch a Jet and get a kill, but almost always as a result of the Jet pilot making an error. 

So what do you get? The box is not a new starter set, rather it is designed to introduce BRS into the Korean War. It contains two of each MiG15 and F86, and the usual bases, trait cards and counters, plus decals covering both planes . You would still need the basic BRS rules to play and these are not in the box.

The rules are fully compatible with WW2 BRS in both directions - you can use the current planes like F4Us and P51s in Korea, and crucially for us WW2 fans, the Jet trait is designed to be compatible with WW2 era planes too, so you can start planning those 262 vs Meteor games - but more on that later. 

Also included are some new Traits - The obvious one is "Jet", but we also get "Buzzsaw" and "Rough Ride". 

Jet is probably the most powerful Trait in the game. Firstly, it is "always on", you don't play it as a card.  How it works is quite clever. When you activate a Jet you immediately gain a free advantage level.  Additionally non Jets cannot use the "Climb for Advantage" Pilot Action within 9" of a Jet - so if you want to catch a Jet you have to set yourself up quite a distance away or catch him at a lower advantage level or he will simply use his superior speed to leave you in the dust. If you miss him you probably wont get another chance as he will be gone! 

The really interesting part is that the Jet Trait is split into two generations. First Generation Jets like the 262 and Meteor can use this against prop driven planes, but Secord Generation Jets such as the MiG15 and F86 can also use it against First Generation Jets - like MiGs vs Meteors over Korea. 

Buzzsaw is a toned down Heavy Hitter, and Rough Ride is a negative trait (so always on) and represents those planes that could become harder to handle at high speeds and high G and also the lack of G suits in Korean era MiGs. Interesting aside, British and US pilots did get rudimentary G suits late in WW2, and there is a possibility they may make an appearance as an Equipment card later. One of reasons they're not already on the list is Andy Chambers is wary of making equipment restricted by Nationality. So far all the Equipment Cards in BRS have been generic, even if the names have not - so "Malcolm Hood" is technically a UK\US thing, but all the other nations had similar bubble style canopies so it can be used. Will be interesting to see what is decided there.  

Compression Issues is another new Doctrine card designed for Jets but backward compatible with WW2. This card can be played on an opponent attempting to burn advantage to dive, forcing an opponent to pass a Manoeuvre Test or lose their Pilot Action. This is a really interesting card because it can be used to represent the problems pilots found as their planes started to dive fast and approach what we would call the Sound Barrier.

The models themselves are very nice too, and I can see them being easy to paint (silver anyone?). Warlord are persisting with metal which has some problems associated with how they balance on the Advantage bases. They really need to be plastic or resin. One can hope.

With only a pair of planes each side small games will be over very fast and accumulation of boom chits will probably be the deciding factor, which is reasonably correct from a historical point of view as these are very thirsty planes with limited endurance, particularly when the throttle is open. I'd confidently expect the "Drop Tanks" equipment card being a must have. If you are playing points games then expect your jets to be badly outnumbered. Better yet buy more jets :-)

Lastly I mentioned Jets in WW2, and of course other Jets that fought or could have fought in Korea. As I explained, the Jet Trait is usable in WW2.  Later this year Warlord have plans to release the Me262 as a squadron set. I understand the "Air Strike" supplement will have stats for Meteors, Airacomets and Shooting Stars and hopefully some more, again due out later this year.  

It is fair to say I fancy this. I'm going to the Warlord Open Day on 20th July where I hope to get a game or two in. 

Mig Alley RRP is £20