New player tips
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 will lead to cloud-jumping and make it very hard to get shots in on each other and too-few will lead to a much more maneouvre-heavy/pre-planning type game which is more punishing once the disadvantaged state becomes prevalent after a few turns.
Pre-measure. Seriously, get the widgets out and plan it. This is a game where tight planning, measuring and turning wins the day. Whilst you're learning the game, train your eye for the angles by measuring as you go.
Tailing. Only works if your front arrow is pointed at the pin in the enemies rear arc. The most reliable move is a burn-to-turn from advantaged down to neutral which gives you 180 degrees of pivot to use at any point in your movement. This really helps give flexibility of placement and works nicely out of clouds as they effectively give you a free burn-to-turn whilst keeping you at neutral. Set up your ambushes!
Advantage. It is always a good choice to be advantaged relative to your opponent. If in doubt and you've got a low-probability shot on an opponent, its usually better to either climb up or outmanoeuver an enemy down as a pilot action than risk whiffing on a deflection shot.
Pilot skill. Higher pilot skill enables you to do stuff more reliably but the odds of hitting with 5 dice aren't hugely better than on 4 dice. What the difference in a rating 4 brings over a rating 3 pilot is that outmaneouvre actions on a 4vs a 3 automatically succeed and the higher rating pilots activate first. A rating 3 vs a 3 would mean the enemy rolls to resist the attempt on 5/6 dice depending on the plane in question. Use your experienced pilots to set up your lower skill pilots for the shot and prevent the enemy from shooting at you (you can only shoot at planes on a lower advantage level remember!)
Twin engine rules. Read them, understand them. Understand that the bomber rules in scenario 6 override some of them before you start playing the mission. The bomber-specific rules can also be copied across for homebrew missions when you outgrow the initial missions.
Mission specific tips:
Mission 0: Intruder flight
Treat this purely as a rules learning exercise, don't worry about trying to "win" the scenario.
If this is the first time you've picked up the system, don't be tempted to drop in the twin engine rules as presented as the alternative text, it overly complicates matters as the twin engine rules aren't the easiest to deal with when you don't really know the core mechanics yet.
Pro tip: the intruder plane should always start advantaged, otherwise you're likely in for a short and unsatisfactory one and that can be very off-putting to new players.
Mission 1: Dogfight
With the RAF vs Luftwaffe, this mission is a great little blast but the recommended pilot skills are all the same which leads to a very predictable turn order as the spitfires always activate before the bf109s due to having higher speed. Knock one rating 3 pilot down per faction and boost one up, so you have ratings of 4,3,3,2 on each side. This really changes it up and teaches you a lot about utilising higher skill pilots and protecting vulnerable rookies.
Mission 2: Fighter sweep
Again, the pilot skills tend to be extremely heavy on rating 3 pilots and the mission benefits from having a greater spread of skills. at the least, up one pilot each to a rating 4 to help break up the turn orders somewhat.
Mission 3: Bounced!
This mission is very difficult as the recipient of the bounce unless you can keep your guys from being tailed on the first pass. Either deploy cleverly with wingman effect in mind, or use shelter of clouds. ("Bad weather" card is excellent here) Bear in mind your opponent is likely to have clear skies and will remove troublesome ones, but "bad weather" can mean you still have your two clouds in/around your deployment zone to provide cover. You'll want to make an immediate dash with the bounced element into the clouds and stay in there with liberal use of the free "burn to turn" to stay in cloud and pop out for opportune shots until your reinforcements arrive. As the attacking player, just dive straight in and pulp the neutral element. mustangs and bf109s will want to make use of ace skills like "accurate" and great dive to get a tail and kill straight up. Clear skies helps deal with pesky clouds and place the high cover element as awkwardly as you can, bearing in mind they'll arrive en-masse and advantaged.
Mission 4: Escort Duty
Always start your bombers in advantage otherwise you're in for a very short game. Utilise the 18" exclusion zone that your escorts create, use that to stop the enemy from diving in at your bombers on turn one.
This mission scales superbly. It really benefits from at least a 4x4 table, two squadrons of bombers (6 deployed) and 12 fighters per side (6 being held off as the high cover element) and plays brilliantly as a demo/participation game.
The bomber and victory rules override the generic rules here though so make sure everyone is on the same page before you start and read up on the defensive fire rules for turrets and general rules for multi-engine planes as the basics are a bit different for those types of plane.
Good luck guys, hope there was something useful in there for you!!
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 will lead to cloud-jumping and make it very hard to get shots in on each other and too-few will lead to a much more maneouvre-heavy/pre-planning type game which is more punishing once the disadvantaged state becomes prevalent after a few turns.
Pre-measure. Seriously, get the widgets out and plan it. This is a game where tight planning, measuring and turning wins the day. Whilst you're learning the game, train your eye for the angles by measuring as you go.
Tailing. Only works if your front arrow is pointed at the pin in the enemies rear arc. The most reliable move is a burn-to-turn from advantaged down to neutral which gives you 180 degrees of pivot to use at any point in your movement. This really helps give flexibility of placement and works nicely out of clouds as they effectively give you a free burn-to-turn whilst keeping you at neutral. Set up your ambushes!
Advantage. It is always a good choice to be advantaged relative to your opponent. If in doubt and you've got a low-probability shot on an opponent, its usually better to either climb up or outmanoeuver an enemy down as a pilot action than risk whiffing on a deflection shot.
Pilot skill. Higher pilot skill enables you to do stuff more reliably but the odds of hitting with 5 dice aren't hugely better than on 4 dice. What the difference in a rating 4 brings over a rating 3 pilot is that outmaneouvre actions on a 4vs a 3 automatically succeed and the higher rating pilots activate first. A rating 3 vs a 3 would mean the enemy rolls to resist the attempt on 5/6 dice depending on the plane in question. Use your experienced pilots to set up your lower skill pilots for the shot and prevent the enemy from shooting at you (you can only shoot at planes on a lower advantage level remember!)
Twin engine rules. Read them, understand them. Understand that the bomber rules in scenario 6 override some of them before you start playing the mission. The bomber-specific rules can also be copied across for homebrew missions when you outgrow the initial missions.
Mission specific tips:
Mission 0: Intruder flight
Treat this purely as a rules learning exercise, don't worry about trying to "win" the scenario.
If this is the first time you've picked up the system, don't be tempted to drop in the twin engine rules as presented as the alternative text, it overly complicates matters as the twin engine rules aren't the easiest to deal with when you don't really know the core mechanics yet.
Pro tip: the intruder plane should always start advantaged, otherwise you're likely in for a short and unsatisfactory one and that can be very off-putting to new players.
Mission 1: Dogfight
With the RAF vs Luftwaffe, this mission is a great little blast but the recommended pilot skills are all the same which leads to a very predictable turn order as the spitfires always activate before the bf109s due to having higher speed. Knock one rating 3 pilot down per faction and boost one up, so you have ratings of 4,3,3,2 on each side. This really changes it up and teaches you a lot about utilising higher skill pilots and protecting vulnerable rookies.
Mission 2: Fighter sweep
Again, the pilot skills tend to be extremely heavy on rating 3 pilots and the mission benefits from having a greater spread of skills. at the least, up one pilot each to a rating 4 to help break up the turn orders somewhat.
Mission 3: Bounced!
This mission is very difficult as the recipient of the bounce unless you can keep your guys from being tailed on the first pass. Either deploy cleverly with wingman effect in mind, or use shelter of clouds. ("Bad weather" card is excellent here) Bear in mind your opponent is likely to have clear skies and will remove troublesome ones, but "bad weather" can mean you still have your two clouds in/around your deployment zone to provide cover. You'll want to make an immediate dash with the bounced element into the clouds and stay in there with liberal use of the free "burn to turn" to stay in cloud and pop out for opportune shots until your reinforcements arrive. As the attacking player, just dive straight in and pulp the neutral element. mustangs and bf109s will want to make use of ace skills like "accurate" and great dive to get a tail and kill straight up. Clear skies helps deal with pesky clouds and place the high cover element as awkwardly as you can, bearing in mind they'll arrive en-masse and advantaged.
Mission 4: Escort Duty
Always start your bombers in advantage otherwise you're in for a very short game. Utilise the 18" exclusion zone that your escorts create, use that to stop the enemy from diving in at your bombers on turn one.
This mission scales superbly. It really benefits from at least a 4x4 table, two squadrons of bombers (6 deployed) and 12 fighters per side (6 being held off as the high cover element) and plays brilliantly as a demo/participation game.
The bomber and victory rules override the generic rules here though so make sure everyone is on the same page before you start and read up on the defensive fire rules for turrets and general rules for multi-engine planes as the basics are a bit different for those types of plane.
Good luck guys, hope there was something useful in there for you!!
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