Blood Red Skies

Project day! So after loving the basic game since launch, my local meta have been hungering for some new missions and specifically ones that make use of the beautiful bombers we've all been painting and assembling. To that end, I got to looking about for some and found a mission pack on the facebook group: Blood Red Skies: Ready Room (which is an excellent community and great resource for inspiration and general game-related chatter). Heroes of the pacific It is built around the idea of starting off with a squadron of fairly rookie pilots and allows them time to rank up as they complete missions but the bit that interested me most was the rules for torpedo runs, dive bombing and general ground attack. It instantly got me jazzed up and the guys on the facebook group pointed me in the general direction of some model ships and I ended up ordering a decent haul! As you may/may not know, the planes in BRS are 1:200 scale which at the model ship level is fricking huuuuuge! When...

Bounced! My good friend Ian came over for a larger multi-squadron game the other night and we'd already chosen in advance that we'd play the Bounced! mission from the scenario booklet included in the core set. Our forces were essentially mirror matches of each other; I had: British Squadron in mkii Spitfires with 6 men. Rating 5,4,3,3,2,2 pilots French Volunteers in mkii Spitfires with 6 men. Rating 5,4,3,3,2,2 pilots Sailor Malan in mkii Spitfire Ian went with the same loadout of pilots across his two bf109e squadrons and took Galland as his named ace in a bf109e. I rolled to receive the bounce (groan...) and elect for the french squadron to be the recipients with my british squadron and Malan as my reinforcements in high cover. Radar support is useless as the mission rules override deployment rolls so i switch it for bad weather, knowing the odds are against me and needing the extra cover. It is immediately countered with clear skies and the normal clouds are placed s...

So, you've got your Battle of Britain box and now you're starting to play a few games? Maybe you've not taken off the cellophane wrap yet and are going to have a go this weekend? Either way, I've got a few pointers that might help get the most bang for buck out of the first few games. General tips: Board size. 3x3 works fine for learning games but you'll rapidly run out of room once full 6-strong flights get deployed. I'd recommend a 4x4 table for squadron games and 6x4 for multi-squadron games. Beyond that lies demonstration games and I want to see pictures of what you're getting up to!! Clouds. Clouds seem like a major problem and new players try to stay away from them like the plague. Don't! They're amazing and give you stacks of tactical flexibility and maneouvering potential. Both players should have 2 cloud markers on a 4x4 board and that can be scaled up or down by one for a 3x3 or 6x4 board as needed. An overabundance of cloud markers...

Evening all and welcome to the inaugural post for my new blog! Given that blood red skies (BRS) is a relatively new game, it seemed a good idea to add to the small pool of resources whilst the game is young and needs it! I got into the game early on and was gnashing my teeth whilst waiting for the delayed shipments and have since been thoroughly enjoying every minute of the games I've played. If you're reading this as a totally new player, the game is a two-player, two faction starter box and a set or two of fighters and some bombers/transports for the other factions. It is set in the Battle of Britain era of WW2 and features 6 RAF mk2 spitfires vs 6 Luftwaffe BF109e and has everything but a play surface required for the game. Warlord stock several suitable mats and 3rd party equivalents are available in different sizes from a multitude of providers and eBay sellers. In my experience, 3'x3' is a nice starter size game (especially for the first few missions out of th...