Welcome to a new blog!
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 the included scenario book), but you will rapidly outgrow it and will get much more value out of a 4'x4' or 6'x4' mat/board in the long run.
Current factions are:
British Commonwealth
Nazi Germany
Soviet Union
USA
Imperial Japan
In the beta, Italians had been tested and numerous stats are available in the "Blood Red Skies: Ready room" group on facebook. However, there are no Warlord models or official game stats/cards at the time of writing.
Many of the above factions have bomber or transport options available to them. Currently they are used for mission 6 in the scenario book only, but also make for excellent attack/defend pieces once you've outgrown the initial missions in the scenario book. Strictly speaking, if you're playing the core set, you don't need them as suitable tokens are available in the box though the models do look much nicer!
There is also the ability to utilise some of the lend-lease agreement that was in place in ww2, with the commonwealth, USA and Soviet Union having access to a larger pool of aircraft.
This means that the p51's can be used in American or RAF colours and the spitfires in American or Soviet colours too if you want to swell your collections beyond the initial offerings from Warlord.
Its also worth noting that colour schemes varied wildly across the different theatres of war and operators, so if the Battle of Britain schemes aren't your thing, slap on a North African desert theme for example or one of the schemes of an allied operator!
I've had tens of hours out of reading up on the various planes and operators on Wikipedia and it is a really useful resource for digging through who was using what models and where with how much success. It is invaluable if you're looking into lend-lease/Axis planes and in helping figure out what shemes and what year to go with if you're sticking to a relatively historically accurate theatre/period. It is also worth noting that the Axis also had agreements on aircraft and the 109e's were used by both Switzerland and Yugoslavia and later models were widely used by the other Axis powers, especially on the eastern front.
Google image search is awash with lovely schemes if you don't like the "default" and can often be found in reference books, scale model kit supplier's painting guides and special interest magazines too.
This was the 2nd hit on a lightning quick search and provides several schemes from 1940 to paint the 109's with. Pinterest is also another cracking resource if you need one. The decals that Warlord sells are for specific squadrons and are very limited in range, so if you're into your historical accuracy you'll want to look to miscmini.com and mehusla (eBay) as alternative suppliers as they have a much more comprehensive range.
They do have the disadvantage of not being pre-cut so can be a touch fiddly to apply though and the resolution on some of them out there can be a little bit poorer than the Warlord ones too, though they often look fine on the model.
If you're not into the history so much but really enjoy dogfighting, the game totally caters to that as well. All the boxes come with stickers to indicate faction and the plastics are pre-coloured by faction so you can plop em down, put the stickers on and have at it straight out of the box.
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 the included scenario book), but you will rapidly outgrow it and will get much more value out of a 4'x4' or 6'x4' mat/board in the long run.
Current factions are:
British Commonwealth
Nazi Germany
Soviet Union
USA
Imperial Japan
In the beta, Italians had been tested and numerous stats are available in the "Blood Red Skies: Ready room" group on facebook. However, there are no Warlord models or official game stats/cards at the time of writing.
Many of the above factions have bomber or transport options available to them. Currently they are used for mission 6 in the scenario book only, but also make for excellent attack/defend pieces once you've outgrown the initial missions in the scenario book. Strictly speaking, if you're playing the core set, you don't need them as suitable tokens are available in the box though the models do look much nicer!
There is also the ability to utilise some of the lend-lease agreement that was in place in ww2, with the commonwealth, USA and Soviet Union having access to a larger pool of aircraft.
This means that the p51's can be used in American or RAF colours and the spitfires in American or Soviet colours too if you want to swell your collections beyond the initial offerings from Warlord.
Its also worth noting that colour schemes varied wildly across the different theatres of war and operators, so if the Battle of Britain schemes aren't your thing, slap on a North African desert theme for example or one of the schemes of an allied operator!
I've had tens of hours out of reading up on the various planes and operators on Wikipedia and it is a really useful resource for digging through who was using what models and where with how much success. It is invaluable if you're looking into lend-lease/Axis planes and in helping figure out what shemes and what year to go with if you're sticking to a relatively historically accurate theatre/period. It is also worth noting that the Axis also had agreements on aircraft and the 109e's were used by both Switzerland and Yugoslavia and later models were widely used by the other Axis powers, especially on the eastern front.
Google image search is awash with lovely schemes if you don't like the "default" and can often be found in reference books, scale model kit supplier's painting guides and special interest magazines too.
They do have the disadvantage of not being pre-cut so can be a touch fiddly to apply though and the resolution on some of them out there can be a little bit poorer than the Warlord ones too, though they often look fine on the model.
If you're not into the history so much but really enjoy dogfighting, the game totally caters to that as well. All the boxes come with stickers to indicate faction and the plastics are pre-coloured by faction so you can plop em down, put the stickers on and have at it straight out of the box.
Going forwards; I'll be putting out batreps, build guides, new player guides, tips/tricks and hopefully event reports and such as the game continues to grow and I'll maybe dig into the history side of things if there's interest in that too!
Thanks for reading and comment in the section if there's anything you'd particularly like to see in the blog!
Exactly what I need as a new player. I will follow with interest!
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