What have I been up to?

This week saw another game of Blood Red Skies which ended in a win for the RAF... we'd each lost a plane (out of 4 a side) but BRS emphasises morale wins with planes likely to break off and head for home when the hits start to mount up.  The more I've played BRS, the more impressed I've been by the way they manage morale and the importance of manouvreability as much as shooting.

I've also been busy prepping my 10mm paper Roman/British armies for a forthcoming trial game of Strength and Honour.  So far I have a decent amount of legions and warbands (as well as some chariots, skirmishers and cavalry for thr Brits) but I need to add some Auxiliaries, skirmishers and cavalry for the Romans

The Romans

...and the Britons

Chariots

I also need to mark a grid on my game mat which I must admit I'm a bit nervous about!

I was out and about for work last week (a bit of a novelty these days) and popped into a branch of Game in Worthing.  I recently discovered that Game have diversified a bit from videogames (I guess these are generally downloaded these days) and stock quite a lot of boardgames and sundry geeky stuff.  I picked up a copy of Colt Express for the very reasonable price of £9.99.  It's a  very light Cowboy themed game where you have to rob passengers on a train  and, of course, other players and get away with the most loot.  Looks like good fun for family game nights.

Blood Red Skies

I finally managed a proper game of Blood Red Skies this week.  Checking back on the blog I discovered that I bought the starter set 4 years ago but they've never seen action!

I'd played one game of this at the Guildford club back in 2018... it was a large multiplayer version which didn't use all the rules if I remember correctly.  I was impressed though and promptly picked up a copy of the starter set.  I'd painted up the planes that come with this but never completed them.  The original starter box came with some rather naff stickers for roundels and crosses rather than proper decals and I never got round to acquiring the proper ones until recently.  

I spent the weekend swearing loudly at the set of Spitfire and Me109 decals that I'd bought but managed to get them mostly applied safely (as long as you don't look too close... there are 6 planes and 7 sets of decals so you only get 1 chance to mess up!).  I'm pleased when the results though...

Incidentally when I discovered that the Warlord Games decals are for 602 City of Glasgow Squadron I was sold... I hadn't realised that they still exist (now as a RAAF squadron) and are based about a mile or so from my old home in Glasgow.

The game avoids the complications that often come with air games... altitude bands, complicated manouvers etc... by using stands which can be angled backwards as though the plane is climbing (to show 'advantage') or angled downwards (to show 'disadvantage').  This neatly simplifies all the height issues and advantage can be used to increase speed or manouvreability. 

 

Hits from firing are quite hard to achieve and it's even harder to actually cause damage.  A successful hit forces a plane to a lower advantage status and a disadvantaged plane which is hit is then shot down.  More importantly a successful hit, even if it causes no damage, inflicts a 'boom chit' on the victim (terrible terminology!).  Once you have more 'boom chits' than planes the squadron turns tail and flees, which feels right... driving off enemy planes was a more accurate result than everyone being shot down.

Each side also has a selection of cards based on the type of plane, the period of the war and the theatre which add some extra depth.

Our game pitted 4 Spitfires against 4 Me109s in a straightforward encounter scenario.  The game rewards spending some time manoeuvring and positioning to get onto the tail of your opponent and the tight turn of the Spitfire proved really effective at this.  It also pays to have a wingman who can soften up an opponent and force them to a disadvantaged state before their partner moves in for the kill.

I was really pleased with how they played and will definitely use them again... it's fair to say my opponent was less impressed (despite winning) and found the mechanics harder to get to grips with but I guess that's the nature of wargames... we all have different tastes.

Screaming Eagles

 

After playing the Milton Bradley game ' Dogfight' a few weeks ago, it was time for another large scale retro-gaming night courtesy of Anthony.  This time we played Screaming Eagles, another 80s boardgame from Milton Bradley.  The BoardGameGeek page for the game can be found here

Pic from Boardgamegeek

 Players have 2 Jets each and take alternate turns shooting and moving (or vice versa).  Each player has 9 movement cards with the option to roll 1,2 or 4 movement dice and to break right or left or to move straight ahead.  Planes always face the same direction but when you exit the map edge you loop round reappear on the opposite rear edge of the unusual lozenge shaped board.  This can make predicting where your opponent is going to be quite tricky, especially if, like me, you easily confuse left and right and which plane is which!

We've moved on from Biplanes now to Jets... the game came out in 1987 so probably owes a lot to films like Top Gun or Iron Eagle

Each plane has a handy card with pegs to indicate damage and ammo.  

Planes can either launch missiles or use their cannons but ammo is limited so some careful choices are required about what to use when.  Each plane also has a couple of flares which reduce the chances of a missile hitting.

A lot depends on the dice throws, both for movement and damage but it is one of those games which appears very simple, but then a turn or so into the game you start to realise there is a bit of thinking required

As before we played on a large sized mat Anthony had had made for the game.  We were also playing with some nice die-cast planes rather than the plastic ones that came with the game.  There's definitely a charm in these family wargames...ideal for some light gaming but just enough thinking required.

Dogfight!

 

A different game last night... Dogfight.  This is a WW1 air game  originally published by Milton Bradley back in the 60's.  The Boardgamegeek details are HERE.

The game is designed for age 10+ which puts it just about at my level!  Each player has 3 planes which move on a gridded board with some really nice artwork.  Movement is by dice and you have to move the full amount so a bit of thought is required to get into position to attack your opponent.  

Combat is also very simple... each player has a hand of cards with a Burst rating (from 1-5)... highest one wins and shoots down the opposing plane.  If you manage to attack from the side or rear the only way the opposition can survive is by playing a barrel roll or loop card which negate the attack, and in the case of a loop allow the attacked plane to become the attacker.  In order to replenish your hand of cards you need to return back to your airfield

Planes on the ground can be attacked but you have to cross the line of defending AA guns and risk the 'Archie'.  Each player has 6 planes but you can only have 2 in the air at any one time

This game was played using a specially made extra-large printed mat from Deepcut Studios with the boardgame printed onto it and my friend Anthony's lovely collection of Corgi biplanes and triplanes.  It's fair to say I was soundly beaten (maybe age 10+ was a bit ambitious!).  I only managed to shoot down one British plane at the cost of all 6 of my aircraft!.  Great fun though and it shows that a game doesn't have to be complex to be really entertaining 

'Twas the night before Salute...

Blogger seems to be filling up with 'Salute Eve' posts with everyone finalising their travel arrangements and outlining their strategy for negotiating their way round Excel.... and I'm no different.

The camera battery is on charge and the memory card has been cleared ready for far too many photos, most of which I will struggle to identify.  My shopping list still needs to be sorted out but actually it's pretty small (no, really....stop laughing at the back..).  A few figures from Oathsworn Miniatures and that's about it.  Oh, and maybe some more planes for Blood Red Skies.  But really that's it....

The Bloggers meet up is scheduled for 12.00pm so I will aim to arrive at about 11ish which should avoid the queues and give me a little time before heading for the big red spot.

Speaking of Blood Red Skies I have now pretty much finished the starter set,  The Spitfires and Me109s still need decals which I will need to source but otherwise they are good to go.  Of course the temptation is now to start adding bigger planes and then branch out into other theatres.  I've always had a fancy for doing the Winter War... a little bit niche but it was a fascinating campaign and features a mix of obscure, and frankly not very good, aircraft and a real David and Goliath battle between the Finns and the Soviets.  But that really is a project for another day.

And now for something completely different.  I came across some 'medieval hounds'  made by Steel Fist Miniatures which looked remarkably like my 2 dogs so I decided to order some and paint them up for my wife ...luckily she doesn't look on here so hopefully these will remain a surprise until I have completed the base.

Friday round up

I've had a busy day off today... we're having some unseasonal sunshine so the day has been filled with dog walking and chores.  Now the windows are cleaned, pot of soup made and bags of clothes have been sorted for the charity shop I can hopefully find some time for a spot of painting.

Recently I've been very focused on painting boats for Cruel Seas and making more Paper Jacobites, so it was a slightly odd feeling when I finished all of these and realised I didn't have anything immediate to work on.  Of course I quickly remembered that I had a starter set of 1:200 scale planes for Warlord Games Blood Red Skies which have been languishing in their box for a few months so these have been dug out and I've started painting again.

The starter set comes with 6 Spitfires and 6 Me109s.  I already have quite a few planes in 1:300 and I had thought they would match up ok but having compared the models I don't think this will work and I can see myself investing in more of the larger planes.

Disappointingly the starter.set came with some rather naff stickers rather than decals.  I think this may have been changed in later sets but I'll have to order some better decals.

I've also been giving some thought to Salute purchases.  I'm on a spending limit and don't have any great plans but I do plan to pick up some minis for Burrows and Badgers.  I first came across this a couple of years ago at Salute 2017 where I had a chat with Michael Lovejoy at Oathsworn Miniatures.  They produce the game and a great range of figures.

It's clearly heavily inspired by things like Redwall and Mouseguard and may be a bit twee for some, but the range of fantasy mice, squirrels, badgers and other woodland animals is really well sculpted and the game has intrigues me.  I've resisted until recently when I decided, sod it, I fancy the game!    I've also just seen an ad for this  new range from Northumbrian Tin Soldier which looks excellent.  I've picked up a copy of the Burrows and Badgers rulebook which looks like a decent set of fantasy skirmish rules.... kind of like Frostgrave with bushy tails.The rules are published by Osprey and are very pretty to look at.

Beyond that I have no plans for Salute spending (yeah...we've heard that before!!!)


I played in an excellent game at Eric the Shed's on Monday...a refight of the Zulu Wars battle of Khambula, almost on the anniversary of the battle.    There's a great write up on Eric's blog here.  It was a great game...not least because we managed (just) to not get overrun by the hordes of angry Zulus.

Oh, and I managed to get myself temporarily banned from TMP for a few days for calling an idiot ' a bit of a dick'...ho hum.I   should know better than to get into arguments with right-wing idiots on the internet but I couldn't help biting. :)   The whole moderation/banning thing on TMP is really quite strange and arbitrary  The site itself seems to be a pale shadow of what it was a few years ago and certainly less useful that other sites such as Lead Adventure Forum.

2 sleeps to go....

I'm always on the hunt for a decent set of rules for a Star Wars setting and I have high hopes for my latest acquisition, Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes.  I've been a big fan of their Horse & Musket version so I'm hoping these will work well for a different setting.

I managed to pick up the last issue of Wargames Illustrated the other week with the free Cruel Seas sprues.  As this game is (hopefully) turning up on Xmas day so reinforcements will be handy.  I ended up buying 2 issues to make sure I got the S Boat and MTB series.  Apparently the next issue has some more freebies.

Online discussion about the game is a little worrying.  The models look great but the rules are apparently a little, erm, rushed.  Warlord have already produced an 11 page errata!  I'll reserve judge until I've actually seen and played them (unlike several online critics I've seen) but if they don't work they'res always the excellent rule set Action Stations.

Last month I posted about the game of Blood Red Skies I'd played at the local club.  I was impressed and went out and splurged some birthday cash on the starter set. 

The components are pretty nice with a set of Spitfires and Me109s and the adjustable flight stands to mark the status of your plane.  Size-wise these look as though they won't be too glaringly different to some of my existing planes, especially if I mix and match with bombers instead of other fighters.

Anyway, I hope.you all have a great Xmas and I'll see you on the other side!

Blood Red Skies

I've been wanting to try out Blood Red Skies for some time.  My rules of choice for air games have been Bag The Hun but I'd heard lots of good reports about BRS.  Luckily there was a multiplayer game arranged at the local club this week so I managed to blag a space in this and have a go.

The rules are deceptively simple.  They have dispensed with altitude levels and instead planes are either Advantaged, Neutral or Disadvantaged...depicted by using their moveable flight stands although a marker works just as well.  Planes have to be in a better Advantage state to shoot at an opponent but you can also use up this status and do other things (manoeuvre, increase movement etc).

Planes can also attempt to outmanoeuvre opponents, forcing their Advantage status to degrade and making them an eligible target for next turn or for your wing man.  It does encourage some tactical thinking and the use of formations which is always a good thing.   I think there are more complicated rules and tactic cards etc in the boxed set but we didn't use these as it was confusing enough with 8 players.

The game set up had targets on either side of the Channel (ships, radar bases etc) which our bombers were aiming for while both sides had flights of fighters whose mission was to protect the bombers and see off the enemies fighters.  I had a flight of 3 Spitfires who fended off some Me109s and kept a flight of Blenheim's intact.  At the other end of the table there were an assortment of planes including some rather nice Gloster Gladiators slugging it out.  As we all had different victory point criteria it was hard to tell who was winning but in the end it was a narrow victory for the Luftwaffe.

I was impressed enough to go off and order the starter set.  Annoyingly the models produced by Warlord Games are 1/200 while the models I already have are 1/300 but I'm hoping the difference in scale won't stand out too much.

The view from the English coast

Spitfires and Me109s fight it out

A dogfight over the Channel