I have always enjoyed WW1 aerial games but for the most part these have been ‘plane vs plane’ tactical games. Richthofen's War, Wings, Aces High and Dawn Patrol have all featured (the latter I am still making the ‘flying bases’ for) but aside from tackling the occasional campaign style game I have never gamed WW1 in the air from the operational perspective.
…. And the components in the box
Bloody April by GMT Games will address this as it is firmly in the mission planning and execution school of wargame. Counters represent anything from one to six aircraft, individual counters for named and famous pilots as well as for things like observation balloons and ‘Archie’. Wind and weather feature and missions are plotted on a map with the counters deployed once identified. There are numerous mission types - artillery cooperation, balloon busting, patrol and others - and these are driven by the scenario.
The Eagle of Lille expansion.
This is quite a ‘rule heavy’ game which will take some careful reading before getting to the table but it is something I am hugely excited to crack on with. Also included with the game is an unpunched copy of the Eagle of Lille expansion which covers the infamous ‘Fokker Scourge’ earlier in the war. This is not a period of WW1 air combat I am particularly familiar with as most of the games I have played have tended to be late 1917 to 1918.
I did take a look at the Tumbling Dice 1:600th aircraft range but am undecided about going down that particular rabbit hole although they do look very nice with some work. The all round good chap and project meister extraordinaire - Jim Jackaman - has produced some lovely examples of WW1 aircraft which can be seen on his blog using the Tumbling Dice range and are well worth a look.
Two excellent books - Marked for Death I have in hardback and it is a cracking read
I have a few books on WW1 in the air and the two above are great reads. I have a copy of Marked for Death in hardback but the chap I got Bloody April from included the paperback version in with the game - a much appreciated gesture!
4 comments:
That looks REALLY interesting!
Right up my alley and interest also
G’Day Paul,
There is a lot of material in the game and it will certainly repay careful reading of the rules. The Eagle of Lille looks like great fun - Eindekers everywhere!
All the best,
DC
I've been using the Tumbling Dice WW1 planes for years and they are very nice. But I don't know how they'd fit into this game to be honest.
Hello there Kaptain K,
The TD models are absolutely lovely and my resolve is weakening in terms of acquiring a few! You are quite right about how they would note really fit in with Bloody April - my thoughts we’re leaning more towards using the board game as a kind of scenario generator with the models being used in a conventional wargame setting. This is very much a ‘long distance’ idea at present though.
All the best,
DC
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