The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Crimson Skies is a character based boardgame of aerial combat in an alternate history 1937. The people at FASA Interactive and FASA Corporation have done a wonderful job of creating an exciting and dynamic backdrop to what is probably the most enjoyable boardgame I have played in many years. Crimson Skies comes in a box, and contains 3 digest sized books, 3 colourful maps, 2 sheets of cardboard counters, a plastic damage template and a D10.

Generating characters

The "characters" are one of the most important parts of Crimson Skies. Instead of simply giving every flyer the same sorts of skills (like games such as the venerable Dawn Patrol), each flyer has a distinct set of six attributes that dictate how they fly in combat.

Each player has at least two aircraft under their control, a pilot and his or her wingman. Before the game starts, each player needs to work out the attributes of their aircrew. Under the base rules, each pilot has 450 points to spend on their six attributes, and each wingman has 350. How you spend these points is determined by what sort of flyer you want to have: do you want a hotshot pilot who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a dish of wheat, an unimaginative flyer who only needs to point his weapons in the same general direction as the target to hit it, or somewhere in between.

The six attributes are:

Natural Touch (NT)

Natural touch is how well a flyer can throw his or her plane around the sky. You get to subtract the value of this attribute from the target number when you are trying to make the plane do something it just wasn't meant to do (or was meant to do, but now can't because of damage that it has taken).

Dead Eye (DE)

This is how well the flyer can put a round on a target. You get to subtract your dead eye attribute from the target number when you're shooting at someone else.

Steady Hand (SH)

This is how good you are at grouping your shots. For higher values of SH, you can shift the spot where your bullets hit the target closer together. This becomes very important when you understand the damage system that Crimson Skies uses (more on that later).

Sixth Sense (SS)

Sixth Sense represents how alert the flyer is with respect to the fight. The higher your Sixth Sense attribute, the more you get to learn when you are tailing another plane. It also helps when your flyer has to bail out of a plane that is about to crash.

Constitution (CON)

Your Constitution is used when your flyer's plane takes hit and you need to determine if the damage is enough to shock the pilot. This happens when the canopy of the plane takes a hit. CON is also a measure of how many hits the flyer can take personally before they die.

Quickdraw (QD)

Quickdraw is essentially your flyer's initiative score. Unlike a lot of games, Crimson Skies only uses this value to determine who gets to shoot first in combat. All movement is simultaneous (but more on that later). In combat, the person with the highest QD attribute gets to shoot first, which means it is possible to shoot down your opponent before they even have a chance to pull the trigger.

Generating the attributes is as simple as picking the level you want and paying the appropriate number of points for that level. The real trick comes when you have to juggle the points to try and maximise the things you can get your flyer to do. Fortunately, Scott Janssen at FASA Interactive wrote a program called CADET, which makes the juggling of attribute values really easy (and that's not CADET's best point either! More on that later).

Preparing to play

Once you have you created your pilots and wingmen, you're just about ready to play. The only thing left to do is choose the aircraft and prepare a record sheet for each one. Each plane has a separate record sheet, detailing the weapons, armour and performance of that aircraft. The Crimson Skies box comes with a booklet of prepared record sheets for each of the planes detailed in the "Aircraft of North America" book, as well as a number of blank sheets that can be used with custom designs.

The CADET program's primary function is as an aircraft design tool, which includes the ability to print out a record sheet. This is where the program really excels. It removes the need to have to colour in lots of armour boxes for each plane (as I used to do when I played Battletech many years ago). By incorporating a pilot and weapon loadout editor as well, the record sheet is printed with all of the information you need to play. Once you have things set up properly in CADET, it's as simple as selecting "Print..." from the File menu.

All that's left to do now is pick the aircraft counters you want to use and to put them on the hex map ready to start.

Playing the game

Gameplay in Crimson Skies tends to be pretty quick. Each turn is comprised of the fairly typical movement and combat phases. What makes Crimson Skies different is the way the turns are conducted.

The game comes with a movement template that details of the available moves a plane can make, including the speed and g-force ratings of each manuever. To make a move, you simply write down the name of the hex you want to finish in and the hexside the nose of the plane will be facing. Because each plane has a certain top speed, maximum acceleration rate and g-force rating, it may be necessary for a player to "push the envelope" in order to get their plane into the desired position. Players of the old GDW game Blue Max will recognise the movement system. The difference with Crimson Skies is that all aircraft use the same template, rather than having a separate one for each aircraft type.

All movement is simultaneous. At the beginning of each turn, each player simply writes down the movement orders for each of the aircraft under their control. Once everyone has written down their orders, the planes are moved before combat is resolved. If a pilot is pushing the envelope by trying to make his or her plane do more than it is currently capable of, then the appropriate rolls are made at this point to see if the move was successful. This is the time when having a high Natural Touch skill is really useful. If the roll is successful, then the plane finishes its move in the desired location. If the roll fails, then the plane will move out of control depending on the type of push (failing a G-push is potentially much worse than a failed engine redline). In some cases, this out of control movement can result in a plane hitting part of the landscape, much to the detriment of the pilot's health.

Because of the movement in the game is simultaneous, it makes the movement phase far more tactical than it is in games such as Battletech or Dawn Patrol (where movement is done in order of turn initiative). Moving your plane becomes an exercise in trying to outthink your opponent as you try to get yourself into a position where you think you will be able to shoot at them, but they will not be able to return fire (or at least making it as hard as possible for them to be able to hit you). Failing a push roll can also end up with you finishing your move directly in front of someone else's guns. Needless to say that this is quite often terminal for your aircraft.

One criticism of the game is that it is only two dimensional; altitude plays no part in the game. While this keeps things simple, it does take away a small amount of enjoyment. If a simple set of altitude rules could be developed (possibly similar to Blue Max), it could well add a whole new dimension to the excitement (if you'll pardon the pun).

Once all the movement has been determined, combat begins. Combat is resolved in order of highest to lowest Quickdraw skill. This means that even if you have set up the perfect shot, if an enemy pilot has a higher quickdraw than you do, it's possible that you might not still be airborne when it's your turn to open fire.

Success in combat is determined using a single D10 roll. Each plane has a base target number between 1 and 10 (the higher the number, the smaller and therefore harder to hit the plane is). This is modified upwards for range, the attack's angle, if the pilot is in shock and if the weapons used for the attack are rockets. The pilot's Dead Eye skill is subtratced to provide the final target number for the attack. All the player has to do is roll greater than or equal to the final target number to hit the target (although a 1 is always a miss, and a 10 is always a hit).

Damage is done to a target based on the weapon and ammunition type used in the attack. Crimson Skies uses a variation of the template damage system that FASA used in it's Renegade Legion series a few years ago (I saw it in Centurion, the grav tank combat game). When a plane is hit, the damage location is determined and then a damage template is applied to the appropriate spot. Any box that is exposed by the template is crossed off. Once the damage gets through the armour on the plane, then internal components start getting damaged and the plane's performance tends to suffer accordingly (unless a magnesium round happens to hit a full fuel tank, in which case the plane simply explodes).

Once all the combat is resolved, the next turn's movement is plotted and the cycle begins again.

Pilot Experience

Each pilot gains experience points based on their performance in the mission. These points can be used to increase the six attribute scores, which in turn make the pilot better for the next battle. Like most good systems, it doesn't take much to improve a low score, but it becomes progressively harder to get better.

Game Background

I think the thing that drew me to Crimson Skies in the first place was the game universe. FASA Interactive originally started CS as a computer game, which was eventually cancelled. Fortunately, some of the artwork was kept. The Crimson Skies Website has some stunning photo-realistic pictures of the aircraft in the game. Most of them are designed such that there is no way they could fly in real life without the aid of some serious computer assistance, but they still look wonderful.

The rest of the game universe is as rich in colour as the Battletech universe. FASA has enlisted the help of writers like Mike Stackpole to help create some of the fictional background. The website contains several ongoing serial stories set in the game universe, telling the stories of some of the more colourful characters in the game's background.

Even if you don't play the game, a trip to the website for the stories and artwork alone is worth the effort.

Conclusion

Crimson Skies is one of the best games I have found in a long time. Game play tends to be fast and furious once everyone is familiar with the rules. A four plane dogfight can be done in a little over an hour. We've found that it has a high replay value as well. Each game is different from the last and the ability to improve a pilot's abilities over time really does start to make a difference as well.

All in all, Crimson Skies is a LOT of fun.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Crimson Skies
Author: Jordan Weisman, Dave McCoy, Michael A. Stackpole, Loren Coleman, Chris Hartford, et al. Category: Character based boardgame Company/Publisher: FASA Corporation (under license from FASA Interactive) Line: Crimson Skies Cost: US$35.00 ISBN: 1-55560-374-2 Capsule Review by Geoff Skellams on 06/28/99. Genre tags: none	*Crimson Skies* is a character based boardgame of aerial combat in an alternate history 1937. The people at FASA Interactive and FASA Corporation have done a wonderful job of creating an exciting and dynamic backdrop to what is probably the most enjoyable boardgame I have played in many years. Crimson Skies comes in a box, and contains 3 digest sized books, 3 colourful maps, 2 sheets of cardboard counters, a plastic damage template and a D10. Generating characters The "characters" are one of the most important parts of Crimson Skies. Instead of simply giving every flyer the same sorts of skills (like games such as the venerable Dawn Patrol), each flyer has a distinct set of six attributes that dictate how they fly in combat. Each player has at least two aircraft under their control, a pilot and his or her wingman. Before the game starts, each player needs to work out the attributes of their aircrew. Under the base rules, each pilot has 450 points to spend on their six attributes, and each wingman has 350. How you spend these points is determined by what sort of flyer you want to have: do you want a hotshot pilot who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a dish of wheat, an unimaginative flyer who only needs to point his weapons in the same general direction as the target to hit it, or somewhere in between. The six attributes are: Natural Touch (NT) Natural touch is how well a flyer can throw his or her plane around the sky. You get to subtract the value of this attribute from the target number when you are trying to make the plane do something it just wasn't meant to do (or was meant to do, but now can't because of damage that it has taken). Dead Eye (DE) This is how well the flyer can put a round on a target. You get to subtract your dead eye attribute from the target number when you're shooting at someone else. Steady Hand (SH) This is how good you are at grouping your shots. For higher values of SH, you can shift the spot where your bullets hit the target closer together. This becomes very important when you understand the damage system that Crimson Skies uses (more on that later). Sixth Sense (SS) Sixth Sense represents how alert the flyer is with respect to the fight. The higher your Sixth Sense attribute, the more you get to learn when you are tailing another plane. It also helps when your flyer has to bail out of a plane that is about to crash. Constitution (CON) Your Constitution is used when your flyer's plane takes hit and you need to determine if the damage is enough to shock the pilot. This happens when the canopy of the plane takes a hit. CON is also a measure of how many hits the flyer can take personally before they die. Quickdraw (QD) Quickdraw is essentially your flyer's initiative score. Unlike a lot of games, Crimson Skies only uses this value to determine who gets to shoot first in combat. All movement is simultaneous (but more on that later). In combat, the person with the highest QD attribute gets to shoot first, which means it is possible to shoot down your opponent before they even have a chance to pull the trigger. Generating the attributes is as simple as picking the level you want and paying the appropriate number of points for that level. The real trick comes when you have to juggle the points to try and maximise the things you can get your flyer to do. Fortunately, Scott Janssen at FASA Interactive wrote a program called CADET, which makes the juggling of attribute values really easy (and that's not CADET's best point either! More on that later). Preparing to play Once you have you created your pilots and wingmen, you're just about ready to play. The only thing left to do is choose the aircraft and prepare a record sheet for each one. Each plane has a separate record sheet, detailing the weapons, armour and performance of that aircraft. The Crimson Skies box comes with a booklet of prepared record sheets for each of the planes detailed in the "Aircraft of North America" book, as well as a number of blank sheets that can be used with custom designs. The CADET program's primary function is as an aircraft design tool, which includes the ability to print out a record sheet. This is where the program really excels. It removes the need to have to colour in lots of armour boxes for each plane (as I used to do when I played Battletech many years ago). By incorporating a pilot and weapon loadout editor as well, the record sheet is printed with all of the information you need to play. Once you have things set up properly in CADET, it's as simple as selecting "Print..." from the File menu. All that's left to do now is pick the aircraft counters you want to use and to put them on the hex map ready to start. Playing the game Gameplay in Crimson Skies tends to be pretty quick. Each turn is comprised of the fairly typical movement and combat phases. What makes Crimson Skies different is the way the turns are conducted. The game comes with a movement template that details of the available moves a plane can make, including the speed and g-force ratings of each manuever. To make a move, you simply write down the name of the hex you want to finish in and the hexside the nose of the plane will be facing. Because each plane has a certain top speed, maximum acceleration rate and g-force rating, it may be necessary for a player to "push the envelope" in order to get their plane into the desired position. Players of the old GDW game Blue Max will recognise the movement system. The difference with Crimson Skies is that all aircraft use the same template, rather than having a separate one for each aircraft type. All movement is simultaneous. At the beginning of each turn, each player simply writes down the movement orders for each of the aircraft under their control. Once everyone has written down their orders, the planes are moved before combat is resolved. If a pilot is pushing the envelope by trying to make his or her plane do more than it is currently capable of, then the appropriate rolls are made at this point to see if the move was successful. This is the time when having a high Natural Touch skill is really useful. If the roll is successful, then the plane finishes its move in the desired location. If the roll fails, then the plane will move out of control depending on the type of push (failing a G-push is potentially much worse than a failed engine redline). In some cases, this out of control movement can result in a plane hitting part of the landscape, much to the detriment of the pilot's health. Because of the movement in the game is simultaneous, it makes the movement phase far more tactical than it is in games such as Battletech or Dawn Patrol (where movement is done in order of turn initiative). Moving your plane becomes an exercise in trying to outthink your opponent as you try to get yourself into a position where you think you will be able to shoot at them, but they will not be able to return fire (or at least making it as hard as possible for them to be able to hit you). Failing a push roll can also end up with you finishing your move directly in front of someone else's guns. Needless to say that this is quite often terminal for your aircraft. One criticism of the game is that it is only two dimensional; altitude plays no part in the game. While this keeps things simple, it does take away a small amount of enjoyment. If a simple set of altitude rules could be developed (possibly similar to Blue Max), it could well add a whole new dimension to the excitement (if you'll pardon the pun). Once all the movement has been determined, combat begins. Combat is resolved in order of highest to lowest Quickdraw skill. This means that even if you have set up the perfect shot, if an enemy pilot has a higher quickdraw than you do, it's possible that you might not still be airborne when it's your turn to open fire. Success in combat is determined using a single D10 roll. Each plane has a base target number between 1 and 10 (the higher the number, the smaller and therefore harder to hit the plane is). This is modified upwards for range, the attack's angle, if the pilot is in shock and if the weapons used for the attack are rockets. The pilot's Dead Eye skill is subtratced to provide the final target number for the attack. All the player has to do is roll greater than or equal to the final target number to hit the target (although a 1 is always a miss, and a 10 is always a hit). Damage is done to a target based on the weapon and ammunition type used in the attack. Crimson Skies uses a variation of the template damage system that FASA used in it's Renegade Legion series a few years ago (I saw it in Centurion, the grav tank combat game). When a plane is hit, the damage location is determined and then a damage template is applied to the appropriate spot. Any box that is exposed by the template is crossed off. Once the damage gets through the armour on the plane, then internal components start getting damaged and the plane's performance tends to suffer accordingly (unless a magnesium round happens to hit a full fuel tank, in which case the plane simply explodes). Once all the combat is resolved, the next turn's movement is plotted and the cycle begins again. Pilot Experience Each pilot gains experience points based on their performance in the mission. These points can be used to increase the six attribute scores, which in turn make the pilot better for the next battle. Like most good systems, it doesn't take much to improve a low score, but it becomes progressively harder to get better. Game Background I think the thing that drew me to Crimson Skies in the first place was the game universe. FASA Interactive originally started CS as a computer game, which was eventually cancelled. Fortunately, some of the artwork was kept. The Crimson Skies Website has some stunning photo-realistic pictures of the aircraft in the game. Most of them are designed such that there is no way they could fly in real life without the aid of some serious computer assistance, but they still look wonderful. The rest of the game universe is as rich in colour as the Battletech universe. FASA has enlisted the help of writers like Mike Stackpole to help create some of the fictional background. The website contains several ongoing serial stories set in the game universe, telling the stories of some of the more colourful characters in the game's background. Even if you don't play the game, a trip to the website for the stories and artwork alone is worth the effort. Conclusion Crimson Skies is one of the best games I have found in a long time. Game play tends to be fast and furious once everyone is familiar with the rules. A four plane dogfight can be done in a little over an hour. We've found that it has a high replay value as well. Each game is different from the last and the ability to improve a pilot's abilities over time really does start to make a difference as well. All in all, Crimson Skies is a LOT of fun. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)