Blood Red Skies

Open day tournament and Bombing rules test Today started with a bit of a drama with getting to warlord on time (damn bendy credit cards and their flimsy chips!) but we soon got underway with a small tournament which settled me down a touch. My first round was against a lovely chap called james who had horrible dice right throughout! The board was lovely, looked like a deepcut mat and some home made cliffs. I'd taken my British mustang mkiv's, 5 of them. ratings 4,3,3,3,3 for pilots which worked nicely to 495 points. James had taken mkii spitfires, pilot skills 5,5,2,2,2,2 and immediately I was wary of the outmaneuvres to come from the enemy aces, but looking forward to being able to bully the plentiful rookies for boom chits. I split my wings 3/2 with the R4 pilot taking the right flank and the 3 3's taking the left. Radar support, superior armament and low altitude were the cards I'd chosen. The traits I used were x3 deep pockets and x2 great dive. Pass 1 bega...

Warlord Open day BRS talk with Andy Chambers 22/9/18 The warlord open day was great, Ken Natt (of "Ready Room" fame) was organising the tournament today and we managed to get two rounds in between the BRS talk and the "breaking the box" heavy bomber rules-test. We dashed over to catch the talk and stumbled in after it had started, Andy Chambers and some other bloke from warlord I didn't recognise and wasn't introduced to was there (pleasant chap!). First up was a discussion on a "ground attack" supplement which we would end up testing an iteration of later that afternoon which will be going for public beta via the ready room soon-ish. The idea is that this will come out next year as a PDF. There was a lot of talk about how warlord had originally pitched the game as a fighter game and wanted to keep it "core" to the experience and were resisting temptation to "mission creep" and build into a much more bomber-focussed game. T...

So after the last naval game ( linky linky.. ) i'd proposed a few changes to make it a little less one-sided and improve the experience. In summary for this game we changed; fleet deployed laterally across a line 20" from my board edge enemy bombers deployed 6" off their own board edge, fighters within 6". Advantage as per "escort duty" mission Fleet had their own pass at the end of the initiative pass. Ships move 1" and can turn through 45 degrees at the end of their move Ships can fire with 9" range as a defensive turret at end of activation "Heavy flak presence" card x2 in the defender's deck as extras British forces (defending) Fleet: Destroyer (Firepower 4) 3 cripple/5 sink Minelayer (Firepower 1) 2 cripple/4 sink Auxiliary ship (Firepower 1) 1 cripple/2 sink CAP: x6 spitfires, pilot ratings 5,4,3,3,2,2 x2 defiants, crew ratings 4,3 Axis Forces: x6 bf109e, pilot ratings 5,4,3,3,2,2 x3 ju88, crew ratings 4...

After all the prep and cooldown of the big naval game in my last post ( convoy attack mission ), Its been back to the workbench to make a dint in some of the rapidly accumulating projects i've set myself. The paint and decal queue has been getting a bit hefty and made worse with a distraction from my other major game system (Infinity) having a spate of new releases too. To that end, I thought I'd showcase some of the stuff thats out there that folk might not have been aware of. Merit 1:200 range Supplied in packs of four, the planes come prepainted with some basic detailing on wings and fuselage Whilst I was researching the fleet stuff for the big convoy game, I happened across a small pre-painted range of 1:200 planes from the pacific theatre. They're made by merit and they're really designed as accessories for a 1:200 scale aircraft carrier. Being a bit brave, I ordered some SBD dive bombers and F4Fs on the off-chance they'd be usable. Thankfully, they ...

All hands to battle stations!!!! The claxons went off throughout the fleet, everyone dashing for the AA pintles and to man their respective posts ready to seal bulkheads and man the pumps. The captain cursed as he saw the incoming attack wave both on radar and through his binoculars out the starboard portholes. How the hell had they known about the deployment? Had they broken the codes? Was there a spy in port? Way above deck, the CAP swung round to face the oncoming bomber wave as the RAF fighters scrambled from blighty roared ever nearer to help intercept the bombers......  So for a while I've been wanting to do some ground attack missions with BRS to see how it handles. I'd seen the "heroes of the pacific" document up on the Facebook group (Ready Room) and was immediately inspired! several hours of searching, posting on the ready room and sourcing suitable shipping culminated with me working my way through a decent haul of 1:700 shipping.  I bought a mix...

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...