Blood Red Skies: Sink the Carrier!

 It was Ken's turn to host this past week and he'd been wanting to put on a bigger game of Warlord's "Blood Red Skies" aerial combat game as our games have mostly consisted of smaller air to air "skirmishes" with a handful of planes.

Our game took place in the Pacific around the time of the Battle of Midway and saw an attack consisting of Japanese torpedo and dive bomber planes coming after a stricken American carrier to try and sink her.  Naturally they had plenty of speedy Zero fighters for cover!  My force consisted of 6 F4F Wildcats with only 2 on combat air patrol and the rest coming in as reinforcements from "high cover".  The Japanese team got to pick their entry point...

the matt is from cigar box battle - all of the models are Ken's

 Take a look at the wave of bandits coming at me!

Upper right are the "Val" D3 Dive Bombers, Center are the "Kate" B5N Torpedo Planes, and on the left, a whole gaggle of A6Nspeedy zeros!  

When playing Blood Red Skies I always try to be aggressive to the point of being foolhardy for a number of reasons.  First - the enemy isn't expecting that...  Second - I'm not as comfortable with the nuances of the rules yet so I'm bad at pushing the rules and planes to the limit of what they can do ("outmaneuvering" as a pilot action is an example of this, then shooting with a wingman).

My plan now is for the left F4 to charge straight at the Kates, while the right F4 goes after the Vals.  I'll zoom by them, turn tight, and get on their tails, hoping that the wave of friendlies will block their zero escorts from shooting at me.  In other words, I want to use their tight formation to my advantage.  As you'll see, it doesn't quite work out that way.

Ken's nicely painted aircraft.  I have a squadron of Messerschmitt's and Spitfires waiting for their paint scheme!

I'm also hoping the zeros cant make that turn and still stay "neutral" or "advantaged" - I was wrong and this is probably an underestimation of the rules...

Not only can the Zeros turn in on me, Dave gets one right on my "disadvantaged" tail and ...you guessed it.  He shoots my F4 down!

But not before 1/2 of my cunning plan occurred.  I charged the Kate head-on and disadvantaged it.  Then I got on its tail.  I couldnt shoot it down, though.  This will have telling consequences later in the battle!

Really love Ken's paint schemes and decals on these 1/200 planes.

Turn 2 Butch O'Hare (skill 4 pilot) and 3 other F4s show up from another carrier.  They are starting at least 4 turns away and will arrive right as the Kates and Vals bear down on the US Carrier!

My lone F4 is shot down and the Vals head straight for the US carrier - which I later found out already had 2 hull damage points!

Reinforcements get stuck in (left) but it's too late!  The Kates and Vals secure enough hits that one more will destroy the carrier.  That lone Kate I wasn't able to shoot down might make the difference!

Despite the flak and shooting down a Kate, we weren't able to get any more.

This was a tough battle but the points helped out alot.  Since the Japanese didn't destroy the carrier completely, the battle turned out to be a tie score!  But since the Japanese downed 2 x F4s, and scored some hits on my carrier, I have to say they were certainly more successful.  Next time!

All in all, a perfect Sunday afternoon game and one which I'm keen to play again (as well as get my own planes painted up.)  Blood Red Skies delivers a tense, and challenging game that keeps you engaged and abstracts the action while still keeping the major dogfighting decisions at the controls.  While not calculating speed or individually micro-managing every aspect of what a plane is doing, you're definitely managing the battle and managing "advantage" which is crucial.  The game forces you to think like a dogfighter, trying to stay one step ahead of the enemy and line up a perfect shot.  Success goes to the pilots who are willing to take calculated risks and think about 2 to 3 turns ahead of your opponent.  I also love how the authors have woven some of the more fun technical aspects of the plane's strengths into the game (max speed is the tie breaker when 2 skill ratings are the same) and there is a fun use of cards that add flavor to the game but don't over power it (I played numerous "robust" cards due to the F4's armor that reduced the Japanese dice.)  Anyways, all of this to say I had a blast and can't wait to play again.  I've always had a soft spot for the Flying Tigers and I plan on ordering a squadron of venerable P40 Warhawks next!

Okay - back to work on the Hubbardton Map and Scenario - coming up soon.  Stay tuned!