Cleared for Take Off - Blood Red Skies

Sorry for the delay posting, it has been a busy couple of weeks on the gaming front. I've been to Salute, the Lardies released What a Tanker, Warlord started shipping Blood Red Skies, and I went to "WorLard" - I'll start with Blood Red Skies.

It has certainly been a while coming, and technically the retail release date is May, but the "pre order" stock has been shipped and as some of that is with distributors it is now pretty much generally available. That raises an interesting thought - if Warlord are holding their game for a later retail date than the distributors are they not missing out on possible sales themselves? Answers and thoughts in the comments below please.

Anyway the two player starter set has arrived Chez Renko, along with a Squadron of Yaks and an Ace for the Brits, Germans and Russians. There are plenty of "unboxing" articles and videos in places like Beasts of War so I wont bother with that, but I will give my general thoughts.

Firstly the box is very nice - well designed with all the bits in a clear plastic tray. - It looks more commercial than the usual stuff we associate with wargames and is I think designed to be played straight from the box with minimal assembly if you want. The quality of the supporting material is also good, nice heavy duty punch board counters and clouds etc and....

er what's that? Stop padding and get to the main point - the toys and how it plays? OK

So the toys. You get six Spitfires MkIIs and six Me109 Es. They're plastic, with Spitfires coloured brown and Me109s grey - and some of them are going to be clearly warped. This isn't a problem as they respond immediately to a nice hot water bath. The plastic is a bit flexible - certainly not the hard injection moulded stuff we expect from Warlord in the past, but I suspect that is deliberate (more later). The Spitfire is the nicer of the two models imho with little or no real faults. The 109 is less easy to love, with a strange bend to the bottom of the fuselage, rather clunky wings and the wrong panel lines for an E version. Having said all that they paint up nicely and are actually fun to paint too.

I've not painted the Spitfires yet but will do so "soon". I have painted up the Yak 1 Squadron box. This contains six Yaks and all the required bits to play, this time in a proletarian green plastic. These also painted up fast and easy, as shown below.

I was watching "The Attackers" on Amazon and all the Yaks are streaked with soot and dirt so I thought - "why not?"

The model again is not too bad at all - a bit thick through the fuselage - "Phat Yak" syndrome, but nice enough.

Ok back to why they're not the usual hard plastic. I think this is deliberate. BRS models are going to take a lot of handling as their Advantage status changes, so they need to be robust. They are also not targeting the rivet counting market, aiming for gaming piece quality rather than model quality. The choice of a slightly more flexible plastic and omission of details that would easily snap off will avoid sad piles of broken gun barrels and radio aerials (I'm looking at you Wings of Glory) - it's a trade off. Similarly the models come with basic self adhesive stickers NOT decals - another nod towards the "open the box and play" idea. Warlord are planning to sell more detailed waterslide decals and there are other suppliers (the ones in my pics are from 1:144 Direct on ebay - confusingly they're 1:200)

Now the important bit. The game plays VERY well. My initial thoughts \ concerns that I would struggle controlling more than 4 planes has gone - I played 8 Yaks and it worked fine - possibly helped by getting bounced on turn 1 and being reduced to 7 before any of my planes moved, but...

I think Warlord may have got this right, and although I can (and have) picked fault with just about every model, they do the job they're designed for well. The game is quick to learn and play in basic mode but surprisingly nuanced once you include the cards and advanced rules included in the starter set. There are some detail problems they should have caught earlier - the measuring stick thingy is a PITA to use and I have a sneaking suspicion it may be a bit "wrong" but as long as everyone uses the same it doesn't matter. Similarly there are a couple of typos that probably should have been fixed but were not. None of that detracts from the game as a whole.

Happy to recommend this one

btw - if you like this sort of thing why not click the "Follow" button over to the top right, then you wont miss anything.

Cheers

When the web was young one man stood for all that was good and proper and British!

And his name was .......................

Major General Tremorden Redderring.

I discovered The Major General's site about an hour after first logging on the the internet - probably from the local library - something like that, it was a long time ago. I fell under the spell of that eclectic eccentric at once, and remain there to this day. What makes the Redderring so good is that it is clear from the outset that he and his mates are also having loads of fun. Their games take place in a fictional late 19th Century colonial setting - Ouragistan, and vary from game to game from "straight" Colonial gaming to some rather more VSF (Victorian Science Fiction) - Steam Punk before we knew what that was.

In many ways he reminds me forcibly of Richard Clarke of Two Fat Lardies fame - he likes to tell a story with his games. Actually it was listening to the Lord of Lard on a recent podcast that made me look up old Rederring again, as Rich was musing as he does about the difference between the beautiful staged photos in our War Games magazines, compared to the stuff on our table. Clarkie is no mean brushman himself, but as he said, we shouldn't be put off because our toys are pedestrian compared to the stuff in the magazines.  And he has a point. The Major General was firmly in the "good enough for the table" category too (some stuff was beautiful) but also him and his group of friends who he played with also shared a lot with TFL  they have vision and style. They also liked to "go large", something we seem to be in danger of losing in a world of a dozen figures a side on a 3x3 table.

Sadly the Major General's site is no more, but thanks to the amazing scientific advances and the Mackintosh Patent Galvanic Analytical Engine you can still find a facsimile preserved here HERE , frozen in time from 2006.

Have a look - you wont regret it, but you will need your stiff upper lip and pith helmet :-)

What is even more surprising is the Major General is in fact an American named David Helber. Who would have thought it? I'd like to take the opportunity to thank him for the inspirational stuff he produced (and also curse him because as a direct result of his damned games I still have a box of bits that will one day become an HM Landship but til then is taking up storage space in my loft). Fine chap.

and I hope he doesnt mind me pinching the portrait ............




  

Spring is here! April excitement, Salute, plans and plots

April in the UK is great. Spring is here, beautiful crisp sunny mornings (between about 9.02 and 9:30 am), flowers appear, lots of daffodils, and for the wargaming community, we all come out of hibernation to sniff the fresh air, soak up the sunshine, and for Salute, this year held on April 14th at the ExCel.

Salute remains wargamings big UK event. VERY big. I've a love\hate relationship with Salute. In the past I've had a mixed day at Salute - sometimes it can be overwhelming and for me it is a long haul - 260 miles each way and no change out of 4 and a half hours drive, plus another hour in the queue. I've been a couple of times by train and last year the luxury of a car share where I got to be the passenger all the way both ways. This year I'm "designated driver" but we've wangled some accommodation so the cunning plan is to cruise down Friday then Tube \ DLR to the ExCel. It can be a pain getting in but once you get in however, well, you get to feel the love :-).

This year I'm helping demo Dropfleet Commander at the TT Combat DZC pitch, alongside Emily K who is demoing Dropzone Commander. I'm looking forward to this as it will be the first chance to meet the new TT Combat DZC\DFC team and chat about "the future" after they took over Hawk Wargames. Additionally there will be the "show specials" available, plus hopefully the new Dropfleet Destroyers on sale for the first time. That could be expensive :-(

But there's more! Rather a lot of companies use Salute as a showcase and launch games to coincide. This year there are two games I am really looking forward to playing -  "What a Tanker" from Two Fat Lardies, and (no surprise) Blood Red Skies from Warlord Games. WAT has a release date of 9th April but Rich (the Lard Meister) is running a "rolling" demo game where you can just turn up, drive a tank around to get a feel for the game mechanics, have fun, then probably blow up!

Blood Red Skies isn't due for release until mid May but customers who pre ordered (err me !) will get theirs a month before or can arrange to pick up at Salute - there's a link here if you want to do that - and if you have not pre ordered if you are quick you may still get one. Warlord are planning to have a limited supply available at Salute, and they're running a stunning demo with a 1:200 scale attack on the USS Hornet which should be spectacular.

And then there's the other stuff that you just run across when you are wandering (assuming I can escape the stand for a while).

So it is looking like a rather busy April, and I'm really looking forward to these new games landing.

On the subject of Sporing and Spring Cleaning I've done a bit of tidying up here on the Blog, a couple of layout changes, and importantly a nice, shiny new "follow" button which for some reason (probably my incomprehension) should have been there all along but wasn't. It's over here somewhere near the top ================================>>>>>>>>>
Please click it - not only will you get notifications on any updates here but you will also (probably) get a nice warm feeling from knowing you are making a curmudgeonly old gamer a bit happier. Thanks :-)

Blood Red Skies - Ace Box

Following on from the previous post, the other booty I grabbed at Warlord Games when I visited them was a couple of Ace Pilots.

These are single model planes with special pilot abilities. Currently there are one for each nationality represented in the game and the model is the "standard" plane for their nationality.

In the box you get a plane - in this case a Spitfire, advantage base, aircraft card, and the associated Trait card and stickers. These are all identical to those in the Squadron box set (and I assume the Starter set). You also get a pair of two sided Ace Pilot Skill Disks, one with the named pilot (Sailor Malan for the Brits), the other a generic one. The "named" one is in a rather striking black colour scheme that will really make these stand out on the table. You get the the Ace card itself which lists his or her abilities and skills, and the associated Ace skill cards. The skill disks and Zoom counter (the little winged symbol that you place down to indicate your pilot has moved) are different colours from those in the Starter set - a nice touch if you like that sort of thing.

 Malan has one ability boost - +1 firepower, plus two skills, "Set Them Up" which assists friendlies when shooting and "Killer Instincts" which is one of the more scary ace skills as it converts hits from 3" or less to Critical Hits - harder to dodge. Given Malan is rolling 7 firepower dice in his Spitfire II  this looks really deadly. Malan costs 130 points (significantly more than a standard generic Ace which is 100 points) and the others are similarly 125-130 points.

Ok as I'm already talking "points" I should mention in addition to a historic or straight match up mode BRS has a point system to allow tournament or pick up style play, and the suggested limit is 500 points a player.  I'm sure this will be a popular option as it will allow a certain amount of list building and all that if you want to go down that route, but the "build your own Ace" will surely five new options you dont usually see in this sort of game. Once wave one gets released there will be plenty of discussion about build options but I'll save that for another time.

I've no clear idea what the RRP of Ace expansions will be. If Warlord price them carefully I can see there being plenty of scope for new named Aces to follow, and of course there is still the option to "build your own" Ace - although these will be restricted to only one skill.

So hurry up HM Customs and pass that lorry load of Blood Red Skies so I can get my pre ordered starter set!

Blood Red Skies - Squadron Box Lands

Yesterday I had the change to visit Warlord Games HQ in Nottingham and have a chat with Richard C who is handling the project.

Had a visit, played a game and managed to get some more details AND get hold of a production copy of one of the Squadron packs and Ace packs. This was the first time I have seen anything other than pre production stuff.  So without further ado....

The Squadron box is probably where people will start expanding after they get the starter set. The box contains everything you need to add a new Squadron to your game - in fact just about possible to play a starter game by just having a Squadron box each and downloading the basic rules from Warlord if you wanted, but I think you would miss out on some of the options.

The Spitfire Squadron box contains :

6 Spitfire MkII models
6 Advantage bases
A sheet of card skill disks, activation tokens, range ruler etc
Spitfire Data card,
6 "Tight Turn" trait cards (The Spitfire's special trait card)
1 "Wall of Lead" doctrine card
1 "Radar Support" theatre card
1 "Slippery" Ace skill card
1 sheet of self adhesive stickers

That's enough to play the Squadron "out of the box" if you wanted to just stick the roundels on, and clearly the game has been designed to allow you to do just that, or put the extra time and effort into painting etc.

Quality wise the cards and counters are exactly what you would expect - the cards are printed on thin but quality card and are sized to standard game sleeves if you wanted to go down that route. The inclusion of an Ace skill card is interesting. In theory as well as the named "Ace" pilots that are being released you can create your own Aces using the Ace skill cards included in the Squadron packs, Ace packs (and presumably the Starter Set) combined with the an Ace Skill Disk. The Squadron box contains an Ace skill card but no Ace Skill Disk, which seems a bit of a miss, but there is a spare Ace Skill Disk in the named Ace expansion sets and Starter box set however.  I'm sure this is an oversight rather than an evil plan to make you buy the Ace expansion.

The counters are printed in full colour on a good quality thick card and look like they will take a lot of handling, and you get six "Boom" chits, Zoom tokens and 3 High Cover Markers and a range ruler. Again that's enough to play all six models.

The Spitfires are pretty good too. I'm going to do a more in depth review comparing them to other models out there in due course, but in short they are good enough - although you may need to give them a hot water bath to straighten some which have bent a little in transport.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised and will be looking forward to my set when it arrives, and as  "The Big Container of Stuff" full of Blood Red Skies toys is now waiting in customs in the UK, it should be "Soon" :-)

RRP is £20

Next post will be a look at the Ace expansion box...

Austrian Hungarian Legation Peking Blues

Our "little" side project continues to grow. This week we tried a different scenario. We are still suffering a lack of buildings but this is gradually being addressed but we are still using some of our rather dodgy mdf types. The objective being to polish the rules and generate a scenario to the point we can run through a game with half a dozen players. The Men Who Would Be Kings (TMWWBK)  rules already cover most situations, but we wanted to make some tweaks to suit our circumstances.

This time we are testing out our machine guns. In this case an Austrian Skoda (there was at least one at Peking, possibly two) and a Royal Navy Nordenfeldt (but due to a technical fail this was a Gattling model). The Scenario revolves around a relief attempt by the British to reach and rescue the Austrians in their Legation - which for this game is a walled compound. The Austro Hungarians have one unit plus the Skoda, the Brits two units of Marines and a Nordenfeldt.

Initial table - Austrians in the Compound, Brits enter at other end of the table

Initially everything was quiet, however this changed as the British advanced. As they approached the choke point of the canal bridges the Boxers started to appear, mostly massing at the other side of the bridges, but also to the flank. The flanking troops were ruthlessly cleared by the nearest Marines, and the Boxers, driven by the "Mr Babbage" system from TMWWBK seemed happy to just mill around cautiously around the bridges.

This gave the Austro- Hungarian mg a target - even if at long range, and they "had a go". The Skoda M93 is a typical A-H piece of technology - fine in principle but practically hamstrung by a minor and wholly predictable problem - in this case the gun ammunition is fed by a manually loaded chute on top, so the practical rate of fire is quite limited - about a quarter of what a (then) modern Maxim (or US Colt) could achieve.

The other problem with the Skoda was the junior officer was rated as a Brutal leader, which caused a -2 discipline modifier for the gun. As firing requires the unit to pass a discipline test this was not great, increasing the target number from 6 plus to 8 plus on 2d6. Even so, they managed to hit one Boxer unit hard and pin it down. Meanwhile the sailors who made up the main part of the garrison manned the barricade at the gate and fired down the street at the Boxers. The range was long, but a couple of hits from an unexpected direction pinned the Boxers.

At this point it was looking ok for the Legation. The Boxers were pinned between the admittedly desultory fire from the Legation and the volleys of the Marines and Sailors.

and then...

A unit of Boxers appeared at the corner of the wall, close to the Skoda gun. The gun commander ordered the gun to turn to engage, but the crew, possibly scared into helplessness by the brutish officer,  failed to respond. Happily the Boxers also seemed to be struck down by indecisiveness and they hesitated. All over the Legation a sigh of relief was heard - both sides had bungled. The Austro Hungarian Sailors redeployed towards the threatened wall.

Which is what "Mr Babbage" - the game's simplified system for managing the Boxers actions - was waiting for apparently. You test each time you move a unit to see if this generates more enemy, and almost as though scripted a unit of Boxers appeared directly at the barricaded gate.

The sailors turned and fired into the advancing Boxers as they crossed the barricades, pinning them. Meanwhile the Boxers outside the wall took this as their signal and rushed to the wall. The Skoda had them at point blank range, and passed it's firing test - and rolled 5 "1s" - a jam and no casualties caused!

The Boxers swarmed the wall and killed the crew as they tried to un-jam the gun.

The sailors turned to try and stop them, but it was too late and the garrison troops were caught, fighting bravely but being overwhelmed and destroyed.

As the Boxers set fire to the Legation it became clear the rescue attempt had failed. The Marines and Sailors fell back, the game clearly over.

Well, almost. The Nordenfeld gun had played little part in the battle so far, which suited its commander very well as he was a coward - he had to attempt to keep his unit out of charge range of the enemy. Unfortunately the Boxers were not going to cooperate forever, and a rather aggressive group burst from around the buildings and attacked and killed the gunners as they tried to retreat with their gun.

That was the last act of our game. Boxer casualties had been quite heavy - at least two units were wiped out by the European's fire, but the loss of the Legation building was a terrible blow. A great game was had, and thanks to Sam, Paul and Charlie for taking part.

That should be our last Boxer game for a while - looking forward in anticipation to both Blood Red Skies from Warlord, and What a Tanker from Two Fat Lardies, and I expect these will be taking up my time for the next few weeks.

Aim low part 2

Quick update - yup I got the other 3 buildings done - here is Luigi Berlesconi and his brave shipmates moving down the street

and I was thinking about the walls for my Legation.