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Crimson Skies is a board game of aerial combat set in an alternative 1930's North America where the USA has splintered into several nations. The main transportation systems of these nations is via the air, in aeroplanes and huge zeppelins. The trick of the game background is that these are not conventional 1930's aircraft designs, but unorthodox ones sporting pusher arrangements, flying wings and the like. They remind me of the experimental planes that Nazi Germany prototyped in the latter years of the second world war. Very 'Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe' (Lucasarts PC game) and 'Talespin' (Disney cartoon of 1930's animal pilots in similar "odd" aircraft). Pilots who survive missions score experience points which can be used to increase their statistics for later missions, so there is the element of pseudo-roleplaying found in games such as Necromunda.

Components are very nice, although not without fault. There are three double-sided hex maps. One one side is a 'ground' illustration, there being a dock-side scene, desert canyons and a general 'green environment'. The reverse sides have two skies with a zeppelin in the centre and a plain sky. Two of the ground maps have 'high' hexes marked as blocking line of sight and needing flying around - these can be ignored to get more flexibility out of the maps. The maps are good although there aren't many hexes on them which could make large games a little crowded.

The aircraft counters are not flat counters as might be expected. Printed and die-cut on heavy cardstock, the basis of each is a nicely painted plan view. This plan view has a slot in it for an upright base to go through and stick into a plastic base. When I was a _very_ little gamer I used to have some of those two piece polystyrene gliders that came in flat packets - anyone familiar with these will know what I mean. Some aircraft (such as twin engined ones) have several pieces to them. Unfortunately there is no included instructions for them, so guesswork has to be used and some of them are very fiddly to construct. I found that enlargening the slots with a craft knife helped. One omission is that there is no model for the Peoples Collective Defender which makes a couple of the scenarios unplayable unless you substitute another model.

The rules are quite fast and easy and play like a cross between GDW's Blue Max and Battletech (if you can imagine such a thing). Movement is simultaneous and pre-plotted. In Blue Max fashion, players consult a hex diagram and choose the hex they wish to fly to. Each hex is rated for speed (1 to 5), so a plane cannot make a maneouvre of more than its maximum speed. Unlike Blue Max though, once placed in the destination hex there are several available facings (Blue Max makes you face in the direction you moved). These are all rated for G-forces - a plane cannot exceed the G rating for its design and current damage state without having to roll to avoid further damage or loss of control.

Firing is a simple d10 roll, modified by about five variables. Apart from one-shot rockets, there are three differing types of ammunition - Dum Dum, Armour Piercing and Magnesium. The location of a hit is determined (Leading or Trailing edge of wing, Nose or Rear), a d10 thrown and the aircraft's sheet determined.

The aircraft's sheet looks very similar to a Battletech sheet, with armour boxes and areas designated as the aircraft components (fuel tanks, guns, pilot etc.). Unlike Battletech though, where damage boxes are marked off in a linear fashion, the d10 indicates a position over which a transparent template is placed. This template varies according the calibre of machine gun and type of ammo - Dum Dums have wide, shallow profiles whereas AP's have thin profiles that reach deep into the plane. Templated armour is crossed off and components are destroyed. What is really clever about this system is that further hits on a crossed off area of armour moves the template deeper into the plane and evantually chews through the armour to expose the internals. It also provides a nice visual picture of where the craft is being damaged (think of that scene in every WW1 or WW2 aerial film where there is a close up of machine gun bullets cutting a line across a wing).

An extra subtlety are the Magnesium rounds. Although they have a small damage profile, each continues to burn for d5 rounds, creeping a extra square inwards each time. A magensium round only has to touch one square on a fuel tank to vaporise the plane.

And that basically is the gist of the game. There are also extra complications in the form of rockets (flare, sonic or flak) and zeppelin battles. These use the zeppelin hex map. The zep stays in the centre of the map and the fighters fly around it, trying to destroy it and its escorts or take out every engine and force it to land.

Play is fast and entertaining. It takes several round of sustained damage before an aircraft starts to suffer and the hit ratio is quite high so players aren't out of the game too quickly yet can still have the satisfaction of scoring some hits (all in the grand tradition of skirmish wargaming). In our first playtest, one Nation of Hollywood plane had a lucky escape where a magnesium round stopped one box short of entering a wing tank, at the same time as another magnesium landed inside the canopy, carried on burning and 'shocked' the pilot into flying straight for two turns. He was extremely lucky to escape.

The rules come in three books - a main rulebook, aircraft statistics and a background book detailing the aces of Crimson Skies and some scenarios involving them. The rules are well written and laid out, but with a couple of ambiguities and omisions such as :-

- Although the text states that a wing hit cannot extend over into the fuselage (if the template is big enough) the accompanying diagram clearly shows this happening. I play it according to the diagram which allows the canopy to be struck quite early on.
Only in the aircraft construction section (i.e. in the optional rules) is it stated that an individual gun can only be loaded with one of the three types of MG ammo. The main rules section implies that a player can announce which type of ammo is being fired each round.
Available rocket payloads are not made clear (each plane can actually take 8 rockets)
If a hit contains multiple calibre guns, which damage is resolved first?

Another small criticism I have is that the scenarios are all quite big so there is no obvious 'begin here' scenario to explain the basic rules. A points value system would have been nice to help create scenarios, unless the differing abilities of each craft are intended to balance out so that any plane can be pitted reasonably fairly against any other - in which case this should have been stated in the rules.

Overall though, and despite a full difficulties, I really like this game. It was affordable (£18.99 in England, which is very cheap for an imported American game), the counters are nice enough to use without worrying about lead minis and as a bonus I can use the hex maps for Blue Max in 1:300 scale. I know that Ral Partha are now producing the miniatures for this, but I'd like to see a couple more sheets of die-cut aircraft, perhaps in different colour schemes. I know I'd pay money for such an expansion.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Crimson Skies
Author: FASA Category: Board Game Company/Publisher: FASA Line: - Cost: £18.99 (UK) Page count: n/a ISBN: - SKU: - Playtest Review by Owen Cooper on 10/04/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Historical	Crimson Skies is a board game of aerial combat set in an alternative 1930's North America where the USA has splintered into several nations. The main transportation systems of these nations is via the air, in aeroplanes and huge zeppelins. The trick of the game background is that these are not conventional 1930's aircraft designs, but unorthodox ones sporting pusher arrangements, flying wings and the like. They remind me of the experimental planes that Nazi Germany prototyped in the latter years of the second world war. Very 'Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe' (Lucasarts PC game) and 'Talespin' (Disney cartoon of 1930's animal pilots in similar "odd" aircraft). Pilots who survive missions score experience points which can be used to increase their statistics for later missions, so there is the element of pseudo-roleplaying found in games such as Necromunda. Components are very nice, although not without fault. There are three double-sided hex maps. One one side is a 'ground' illustration, there being a dock-side scene, desert canyons and a general 'green environment'. The reverse sides have two skies with a zeppelin in the centre and a plain sky. Two of the ground maps have 'high' hexes marked as blocking line of sight and needing flying around - these can be ignored to get more flexibility out of the maps. The maps are good although there aren't many hexes on them which could make large games a little crowded. The aircraft counters are not flat counters as might be expected. Printed and die-cut on heavy cardstock, the basis of each is a nicely painted plan view. This plan view has a slot in it for an upright base to go through and stick into a plastic base. When I was a _very_ little gamer I used to have some of those two piece polystyrene gliders that came in flat packets - anyone familiar with these will know what I mean. Some aircraft (such as twin engined ones) have several pieces to them. Unfortunately there is no included instructions for them, so guesswork has to be used and some of them are very fiddly to construct. I found that enlargening the slots with a craft knife helped. One omission is that there is no model for the Peoples Collective Defender which makes a couple of the scenarios unplayable unless you substitute another model. The rules are quite fast and easy and play like a cross between GDW's Blue Max and Battletech (if you can imagine such a thing). Movement is simultaneous and pre-plotted. In Blue Max fashion, players consult a hex diagram and choose the hex they wish to fly to. Each hex is rated for speed (1 to 5), so a plane cannot make a maneouvre of more than its maximum speed. Unlike Blue Max though, once placed in the destination hex there are several available facings (Blue Max makes you face in the direction you moved). These are all rated for G-forces - a plane cannot exceed the G rating for its design and current damage state without having to roll to avoid further damage or loss of control. Firing is a simple d10 roll, modified by about five variables. Apart from one-shot rockets, there are three differing types of ammunition - Dum Dum, Armour Piercing and Magnesium. The location of a hit is determined (Leading or Trailing edge of wing, Nose or Rear), a d10 thrown and the aircraft's sheet determined. The aircraft's sheet looks very similar to a Battletech sheet, with armour boxes and areas designated as the aircraft components (fuel tanks, guns, pilot etc.). Unlike Battletech though, where damage boxes are marked off in a linear fashion, the d10 indicates a position over which a transparent template is placed. This template varies according the calibre of machine gun and type of ammo - Dum Dums have wide, shallow profiles whereas AP's have thin profiles that reach deep into the plane. Templated armour is crossed off and components are destroyed. What is really clever about this system is that further hits on a crossed off area of armour moves the template deeper into the plane and evantually chews through the armour to expose the internals. It also provides a nice visual picture of where the craft is being damaged (think of that scene in every WW1 or WW2 aerial film where there is a close up of machine gun bullets cutting a line across a wing). An extra subtlety are the Magnesium rounds. Although they have a small damage profile, each continues to burn for d5 rounds, creeping a extra square inwards each time. A magensium round only has to touch one square on a fuel tank to vaporise the plane. And that basically is the gist of the game. There are also extra complications in the form of rockets (flare, sonic or flak) and zeppelin battles. These use the zeppelin hex map. The zep stays in the centre of the map and the fighters fly around it, trying to destroy it and its escorts or take out every engine and force it to land. Play is fast and entertaining. It takes several round of sustained damage before an aircraft starts to suffer and the hit ratio is quite high so players aren't out of the game too quickly yet can still have the satisfaction of scoring some hits (all in the grand tradition of skirmish wargaming). In our first playtest, one Nation of Hollywood plane had a lucky escape where a magnesium round stopped one box short of entering a wing tank, at the same time as another magnesium landed inside the canopy, carried on burning and 'shocked' the pilot into flying straight for two turns. He was extremely lucky to escape. The rules come in three books - a main rulebook, aircraft statistics and a background book detailing the aces of Crimson Skies and some scenarios involving them. The rules are well written and laid out, but with a couple of ambiguities and omisions such as :- - Although the text states that a wing hit cannot extend over into the fuselage (if the template is big enough) the accompanying diagram clearly shows this happening. I play it according to the diagram which allows the canopy to be struck quite early on. Only in the aircraft construction section (i.e. in the optional rules) is it stated that an individual gun can only be loaded with one of the three types of MG ammo. The main rules section implies that a player can announce which type of ammo is being fired each round. Available rocket payloads are not made clear (each plane can actually take 8 rockets) If a hit contains multiple calibre guns, which damage is resolved first? Another small criticism I have is that the scenarios are all quite big so there is no obvious 'begin here' scenario to explain the basic rules. A points value system would have been nice to help create scenarios, unless the differing abilities of each craft are intended to balance out so that any plane can be pitted reasonably fairly against any other - in which case this should have been stated in the rules. Overall though, and despite a full difficulties, I really like this game. It was affordable (£18.99 in England, which is very cheap for an imported American game), the counters are nice enough to use without worrying about lead minis and as a bonus I can use the hex maps for Blue Max in 1:300 scale. I know that Ral Partha are now producing the miniatures for this, but I'd like to see a couple more sheets of die-cut aircraft, perhaps in different colour schemes. I know I'd pay money for such an expansion. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)