Passed inspection: An immersive solitaire experience that captures the feel of the air war over Britain in 1940. The well-crafted rulebook and charts make finding rules references a snap. In the earlier games, the interception board was a tool for displaying the volume of space occupied by an American bomber box. As time passed, you shifted to other maps that reflects changes in doctrine and equipment. The Battle of Britain was ‘only’ three months and didn’t have those kinds of changes in tactics and equipment. Instead the emphasis here is on tangling with the escorts and getting into the bomber formation (which is where you need to be if you want to win the game.) Let’s contrast that with Skies Above Britain. Yes, the player controls a squadron of fighters and yes, they are tasked with the mission of intercepting and shooting down enemy bombers. But within those broad mission parameters, the player is making a lot of decisions. Prior to interception, you’ll be debating what is more important – where you are, or do you have enough altitude. These decisions are important as they impact exactly how you intercept the German bomber formation. In the Raid Vector Sequence, we’ll start by revealing (i.e., flipping over) inbound raid tokens. These tokens will show actions that are either affecting the inbound raid or the patrolling fighter squadron. Events include All Bridges Burning Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Apocalypse Road Banish the Snakes Bayonets & Tomahawks BoAR Series COIN Series Commands & Colors: Ancients Commands & Colors: Medieval Congress of Vienna Death Valley Falling Sky Fields of Fire Series Fire in the Lake Gandhi Historic Characters Series Hitler's Reich Infernal Machine Inferno Levy & Campaign Series Manoeuvre MBT Meet the Civilizations ACME Series Mr President Next War: India-Pakistan Next War: Korea Next War Series Normandy '44 Pendragon People Power Red Storm Seas of Thunder Silver Bayonet Swords and Chit New Wargamer Strategy Talon Talon Tuesday Tank Duel The Last Hundred Yards The Last Hundred Yards 2: Airborne Over Europe The Last Hundred Yards 3: The Solomon Islands The Pendragon Chronicles Twilight Struggle Wing Leader Wing Leader Series Categories

In the familiar prayer of all gamers, ‘please don’t roll a one.’ Whew! Collison avoided and the 109’s vanish. Looking at the notes for Chapter 1 we have the instructions for setting up the inbound raid markers, determining the weather and where our intrepid fly boys are starting from in a broad geographic sense. Bad news! Due to a poor die roll, our planes are away from the coast and will need to hustle if we are to meet the enemy before they bomb their target. Kevin on First Draft of History: Designing a Military Simulation of the Russo-Ukraine War 2022-2023Skies Above Britain is a solitaire game covering the air war that was the Battle of Britain in the summer and fall of 1940. Building on the foundation of the prior games Skies Above the Reich and Storm Above the Reich, Gina and Jeremy have ‘flipped the script’ crafting a game that captures the unique experience of the Battle of Britain through a tailored game design that is both familiar to players of the earlier games, while at the same time is a fresh take on the nature of air combat during the 1940 campaign. The interception game board is the heart of the game. It’s the evolution of the bomber box game boards from Skies Above the Reich. The interception board is where players are making decisions related to how and when to engage the bomber formation, as well as dealing with the German fighter escorts. It’s a nice representation of the spatial decisions the player must make and depicts relative position of the player’s fighters to the bombers, the escorts and the impact of the sun on game play. The patrol is an immersive, engaging playing activity. You get a good feels for the experience of scrambling your squadron and attempting to intercept the incoming raid before they can hit their target. But the activities of the patrol really resonate with the player when placed in the context of the campaign game. Now every decision matters, ranging from how efficiently are you intercepting the bombers, how much damage are you doing and – most critically – how are your pilots holding up?

A common critique of solitaire narrative games is that the player is just ‘along for the ride’ and is subject to events without a real say in how they player got in that situation. This makes sense in classic games like B-17 Queen of the Skies as the player controls one plane, but that plane is on a mission and part of a larger formation. While you may end up leaving the squadron, a lot of the decision making is out of your hands. The position of the sun shifts on the interception board. The sun is nose high. More importantl, the raid is detected! The weather is clear, so we determine which escorting fighters are on station and the type of bombers in the formation. Consulting the bomber type table in for Chapter 1, we get a result of Ju-87 Stuka. An excellent result, as they are not as well defended or robust as the bogger medium bombers.The enemy raid either appearing for interception, or if it’s already put in an appearance, bombing it’s target and heading for home Skies Above Britain is a solitaire game depicting a Royal Air Force squadron of Hurricanes or Spitfires waging a desperate effort to disrupt and destroy German daylight bombing raids over southeast England in the summer of 1940. I won’t dive into a detailed breakdown of all the components, but I want to focus on three items: the interception board, the rule book and the situation manual. If you want a more details overview of the components, take a look at the unboxing video from 6 Actual.