The Battle of KhalKhin Gol July - August 1939

by

Princeps Games

 For those of you who have never heard of the Khalkhin Gol, or Nomohan, campaign this is the most important battle that took place before the normal date given to the start of World War II (September 1939). In actuality, Japan and China had been fighting since 1931 and in full war mode since 1937. The Japanese had taken Manchuria away from China. They had installed their own puppet regime and called it Manchukuo. This comprised the entire Northeast of China. Abutting Manchukuo was the nominally free state of Mongolia. Japan wanted to force Mongolia into their sphere of influence. However, the big Soviet bear was watching. This showdown between the Japanese and Soviets is tremendously important. It may be one of the most important battles ever fought. The Soviets steamrolled through the Japanese forces and gave them a very bloody nose. The Soviets were partially commanded by one of the few generals in the Soviet Army who still had a pulse, Georgy Zhukov. The Japanese had up until that time been fighting a war between their own Navy and Army. The Army wanted to 'strike north' and attack the Soviet Union. The Japanese Navy wanted to 'strike south' toward the oil, rubber, and other commodities of the South Pacific Islands. The mauling that the Japanese Army received from the Soviet Army convinced the Japanese Generals to agree to the strike south proposition of the Navy. Imagine what would have happened in late 1941 if the Japanese had invaded the Soviet Union instead of going to war with the US and Great Britain etc. We know that in the final battle for Moscow in 1941, the Soviet Army units from Siberia turned the tide against the German invaders. If Japan had attacked the Soviet Union, it would have been faced with a war on two fronts and would have been unable to use their Asian forces to help stem the German tide. So, as you can see, a lot is riding on your shoulders, general, no matter which side you decide to play. Onto the game.

 This is what comes with the game:

1 Game Box - 14" x 11" x 4" 

1 Mounted Game Board - 34" x 36"

24 Calendar Cards - 2.8" x 4.8" 

18 Air Battle Cards 

16 Air Strike Cards 

The First Player Token 

1 Combat Result Table - 8.8" x 5.5" 

2 Player Cards - 8.8" x 5.5" 

2 Players'Aid Card - 8" x 4" 

1 Attack Modifier Chart - 8" x 4" 

5 Counters Sheets - Over 200 Counters

50 Sheets of Minimap - 6" x 4" 

1 Rulebook -6.8" x 9.6′′ 

45 Money Chits 2"x1" 

1 Die D8 

1 Die D10 

1 Die D12 

2 Dice D20 

 All of the Players Aid Cards are mounted like the map.

One side of the map

This is what Princeps Games has to say about Khalkhin Gol:

"The Battle of Khalkhin Gol is a beginner’s level wargame covering the WW2 border clash between Japan and the USSR at the very dawn of this global conflict.

It is a hex & counter game with unique battle mechanism, a lot of strategy and a number of features specific to the harsh conditions of the setting.

Khalkhin Gol is medium level complexity, with variable setup and random cards bringing effects to the game which offers great replayability.

Game duration is 2-4 hours and it can be played by 1 or 2 players age 14+.

The game uses unique battle resolving mechanisms from ‘March on the Drina’ and ‘Freezing Inferno’ but with many upgrades such as terrain and weather modifiers, usage of Combat Result Table and Technological-tactical improvements.

The Calendar with the most important events of the period as used in “March on the Drina” is also an important part of the game and here it comes upgraded – you have three cards for each round of the game so the effects the cards bring are different every time you play. This, combined with variable setup regarding to the units number, layout and strength and variable winning conditions make this game’s replayability value high.

The game has a beautiful twelve-folded mounted board with thick 20x20mm counters and a practical cardboard insert for storing your punched counters, markers and dice, which allow the players to store and move the game without having to worry that the components might get damaged."

Boxes inside the main box for storage

 This is a review of a preproduction copy of the game. Most of the parts are the finished product but some, like the rules, are not. It also does not have all of the great stretch goals add-ons.

 The map is interesting because it is two-sided. One side you might call the artistic wargame map side, and it is just that. It has a lot of color and is very well done. The other side, we will call the simple side, is a map that looks like an old Panzerblitz or even a Tactics II map. It is pretty much as plain Jane as you can get. However, both sides of the map work just fine. There is no ambiguity of the terrain in each hex. The only thing that each represents is the choice of the player/players at the moment of setup (Freezing Inferno also has the two-sided map choice). The Players' Aids are all mounted and easy to read. The fact that they are not just pieces of paper is a very nice touch. The counters are large and come pre-rounded. You can see below that the counters are easy to read. Three of the card decks are on the small side. However, they are very easy to read with large print. The Event Cards Deck are the size of playing card and have a good amount of historical information on each one. The card size allows the print on the Event Cards to also be nice and large. Then we come to another piece of the game that would be familiar to players of Freezing Inferno. This would be the small setup sheets for both sides. There are fifty for both sides and they come on a pad in which you tear off the sheets. This, along with the cards, makes for a ton of replayability. The components are definitely up to the high standards that Princeps Games have set for themselves.

 

Counter close-up

 If you have played their Freezing Inferno game most of the concepts will be known to you. That does not mean that you cannot start your gaming with Khalkhin Gol. While it may seem that there are many cogs and wheels working at the same time, the game is not hard to learn at all. It is a simple process that the rules work you through one by one. With all of the decks it may seem like a card driven game. However, it is not; it is just a card assisted game. Unlike most designers or game companies, (hint, hint), they have done excellent videos on YouTube to walk you through their games step by step. Perhaps the hardest part to understand are the Air rules. If the step-by-step version in the rules still gives you pause, once again I point to their video on YouTube about them. 

Soviet Cards

Japanese Cards

 These are the Victory Conditions:

"Victory Condition No.1: In order for the USSR to win, it must occupy 5 of the 9 checkpoints on the disputed territory (marked with white flag) and hold them until the beginning of the next round, while also controlling at least 4 of its 6 checkpoint on the Soviet territory. If this is not achieved by the end of the 8th round, the winner of the game is the player who controls Japan.

Victory Condition No.2: If the Soviet player takes control of the Nomonhan and holds it until the beginning of their next turn the Soviet player wins the game.

Victory Condition No.3: If the Japanese player takes control of the Tamsak-Bulak and holds it until the beginning of their next turn the Japanese player wins the game.

The game uses unique battle resolving mechanisms from 'Freezing Inferno', the previous game of Princeps Games studio, successfully funded on Kickstarter last year."

 This is a YouTube video about how the Air Battle System works:

https://youtu.be/_T9ajDV5hAo

 This is the Sequence of Play:

INITIAL OPERATIONS

1. The Players set markers on PPC

  2. Players take the appropriate number of units from the box

  3. Minimaps are filled and players place units on the board according to the minimaps

  4. A deck of calendar cards is formed

  5. Initial weather conditions are set

  6. Tactical progress boards are placed

ROUND I

1. A calendar card is revealed and effects that last a full round are applied

  2. Air Superiority Battle is Resolved

  3. USSR’s turn

  3.1. Actions with units (move, attack, regroup)

  3.2. The PPC marker is adjusted if a Check Point is captured

  3.3. The player takes as many PCs as indicated on the PPC

  4. Japan’s turn

  4.1. Move, attack, regroup units

  4.2. The PPC marker is adjusted if a Check Point is captured

  4.3. The player takes as many PCs as indicated on the PPC

  5. End of round

ROUNDS II - VIII

         1. A calendar card is revealed and effects that last a full round are applied

  2. The weather is adjusted

  3. Players replenish units on the board and buy new ones (only in round III, V, VII and VIII)

  4. Air Superiority Battle is Resolved 

  5. USSR’s turn

  5.1. Tactical progress is adjusted on the Player’s Card

  5.3. Actions with units (move, attack, regroup)

  5.4. The PPC marker is adjusted if a Check Point is captured

  5.5. A player takes as many PPs as indicated on the PPC

  5.6. Places newly formed units on the board (only in rounds III, V, VII and VIII)

  6. Japan’s turn

  6.1. Tactical progress is adjusted on the Player’s Card

  6.3. Actions with units (move, attack, regroup)

  6.4. The PPC marker is adjusted if a Check Point is captured

  6.5. A player takes as many PPs as indicated on the PPC

  6.6. Places newly formed units on the board (only in rounds III, V, VII and VIII)

  7. End of Round/Game

 Historically the Soviets' equipment and troops, mostly equipment, were far better than the Japanese material, except maybe in their air assets. You will be playing on the defense as the Japanese most of the time unless you get and play the right cards and some die rolls go your way, this could change. The Soviet Player may want to be more cautious than they were historically. As the Soviet player, you will more than likely start on the attack (this can also be completely up in the air if you are using the hidden setup maps). The Japanese are not equipped or have tactics to deal with armor battles in the Second World War. This is strange in that they were one of the few armies that embraced tanks and their mobility early on. When faced with the Chinese and the equipment that the Allied nations had in the beginning of the war it did not matter much. Against the Soviets, this was another matter altogether. The Soviets had not yet given up on the 'Deep Battle' strategy that they would hone to a sharp point in the end of WWII. 

 This is a very enjoyable game from both the game and history sides of the coin. I like Princeps Games because they do a lot of historical research, and it shows in their games. Then they are also able to make the situation into a good playable game.

 Thank you very much, Princeps Games, for allowing me to play this very good reproduction of the fighting in Mongolia in 1939. It achieves all Princeps Games was looking to produce with this game. It is somewhat quick playing, compared to many wargames, and gives the player a lot of choices in their tactics and strategy. Princeps Games has now produced March on the Drina, Freezing Inferno, and Khalkhin Gol wargames. The games are definitely some of the finest produced games out on the market.

 The KickStarter for KhalKhin Gol is here:

The Battle of Khalkhin Gol by Princeps Games — Kickstarter

It has already hit two stretch goals and is very close to the third.

You can purchase all three of Princeps Games wargames during this KS campaign (March on the Drina, Freezing Inferno, and Khalkhin Gol) for the unbelievable cost of only $160 in the US and Canada. The three games are a steal at that price.

Robert

Princeps Games:

Home - Princeps Games 

Khalkhin Gol:

The Battle of Khalkin Gol - Princeps Games

This is a review of Freezing Inferno that Polydor did for AWNT:

FREEZING INFERNO - A Wargamers Needful Things

 Stargard Solstice

by

Three Crowns Games

 It is 1945 and the Red Army is seeking vengeance for the horrors that were perpetrated in the Motherland. Conversely, the German Army is trying to hold back the red hordes from invading the Fatherland. The Germans are attempting to strike with Operation Solstice (Sonnenwende). Meanwhile, the Soviets are starting their East Pomeranian Campaign. The Germans are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as manpower and armaments. The Soviets are also low on manpower, but they have plenty of artillery, tanks, and planes to support their offensive.

 This is what Three Crown Games has to say about their game:

"Stargard Solstice starts with one of the last German offensives of 1945, ‘Operation Solstice’. At the beginning Guderian had planned a pincer move to relieve Küstrin, but Hitler wanted to save troops to retake Budapest. This resulted in changing objectives to the relief of Festung Arnswalde and trying to cut the Soviet supply route towards Küstrin. The historical objective for the Soviets was to drive the Germans out of Pomerania and thereby protect their right flank while preparing to take Küstrin and make the final thrust towards Berlin. Stargard Solstice is a game recreating this campaign in Pomerania from 15th February – 6th March, 1945."

 This is what comes with the game:

 A full color A1 map

 16 page rulebook

 286 high quality, 15mm die cut counters

 Front and Back cover with game aids, charts and tables

 Sturdy 100my ZIP-lock bag

Game Turn: 2 days

Hex: about 3 to about 4 km

Units: Battalion to Division

Solitaire Playability: High

Complexity Level: Medium

Players: 2 or more

Playing Time: 3-10 hours

Soviet counters

 The map is a standard size one. It has large hexes and is easy to read. The Turn Record Track and some German and Soviet holding boxes are on it. As far as wargames maps go this is pretty standard. On its plus side is that there is no ambiguity to the terrain in each hex. The counters are also large and easy to read. There is no difficulty in distinguishing between the counters for setup purpose. Their color is pretty standard also, black for SS, gray for Army (Heer), with the Soviet regular troops brown and the guards units being red. Watch out when dealing with the counters. They look like the older ones we are used to, but these want to detach from the sprues in a slight breeze. The Rulebook is in black and white on thick paper. It is printed in double columns and the type is large. The Rulebook is sixteen pages long. The actual rules are only twelve pages and then comes the setup, Optional Rules, Designer Notes, and finally Random Events. There are two cardstock full page Player Aids. These are in full color. Most of the writing is fine, but the Terrain Chart writing is small. What we have here is a fine group of components for a wargame.

German counters

 This is the Sequence of Play:

Air Unit Phase

 Refitted Unit Return Segment

 Grounded Unit Refitting Segment

Random Event Phase

 Random Event Table Roll Segment

Command Phase

 Command Segment

 Movement Segment

 Combat Segment

Supply Phase

Reinforcement Phase

 Reinforcement Segment

 Soviet Replacement Segment

 Volkstrum Deployment Segment

End of Turn Phase

 

German counter with a Hetzer on it

 This is the fourth game in Three Crowns Games WWII Battle Series. Some of the other games in the system are:

Iskra, Tolling of the Bell, Konigsberg 45, Across the Narva 

 The game series has all the rules about everything we grognards expect to see: Fog of War, Command Chits, Regular and Strategic Movement, Rail Movement, Stacking, Reinforcements, Barrage, Retreats, Supply etc.

 So, pretty much if it walks, and looks and plays like a grognards wargame, it is one. This game and all of Three Crown Games games are meat and potatoes for grognards. Nothing too overly fancy with great gameplay. I have always liked the Random Events that they come up with in all of their games I have played. One thing about the game in the Designer Notes is the fact that the OOBs for the game are probably not spot on for the actual battle. It has all of the major units listed but, especially on the German side, it is hard to say for certain. With the destruction of records and the German forces completely falling apart, to assemble a complete OOB without any errors would be practically impossible. 

 The game plays like any wargame about the Eastern front in 1945. As the Soviet player, you are supposed to charge forward and crush everything with your tank tracks. As the German player, you are really emulating Hans Brinker. The only problem is that you only have so many digits to plug the holes. The game adds some chrome with a counter for Rudel among other things.

The Victory Conditions are:

Soviet Sudden Death Victory: If the Soviets have any of the Victory Hexes in Stettin.

German Sudden Death Victory: If the German player can get three attack-capable units off the map through the Landsberg Supply Line.

The normal Victory Conditions are based on the Soviet possession of Victory Point Hexes.

 Thank you, Three Crown Games, for allowing me to review another of your great wargames.

Robert

Three Crowns Games:

War Game Design | Three Crowns Games Production (3cg)

Stargard Solstice:

Stargard Solstice | 3CG (threecrownsgames.com)

Please see my review of their East Prussian Carnage:

East Prussian Carnage: The Tannenberg Campaign 1914 by Three Crowns Games - A Wargamers Needful Things

Fortress Games Talks About Their Games and Themselves

 "Fortress Games was a product of two things: what I thought was a revolutionary board game combo, and…Covid, lol.

Sitting around the house or just walking around the block here in Florida during early 2020 while restaurants, stores, and just about everything else was closed, I decided to dedicate a bunch of time to developing a solitaire game about the 8^th Air Force’s bombing campaign against Germany in WW2. I’d always loved Avalon Hill’s “Luftwaffe” as a kid – preplanning your bombing missions and then executing them – but the game had several fatal (in my opinion) flaws: needing to chart out the missions with a pencil and pad each campaign turn, requiring all Luftwaffe planes of the same type to land at the same time (probably to save bookkeeping time on airborne German fighters), and other issues. There was for me a truly eureka moment on a walk around the block one day when I realized I had the solutions to all those issues and could build a great solitaire game. At the time, I assumed it would be another game for my and my friends’ entertainment.

A brief detour to disclose a little about me – I’ve designed games since I was a young kid. I definitely had a bit of a knack for it: when I was in college in the early 80s the war in El Salvador was in the news every day, so I designed a game about it and put it in the common area of my dorm. For the whole year you’d never walk in there without two kids playing it and others watching and commenting. Based on its success I designed a Vietnam game which was equally popular. With more titles in mind, we contemplated launching a game company to compete with Avalon Hill, SPI, etc. after we graduated but, upon doing a little research, realized that logistical work of starting a game company – lawyers for copyrights, trademarks; vetting artists; finding printers who could print all the game elements including printed and punched counters (good luck on that in 1983) – the whole thing was overwhelming for a bunch of 22 year olds, and we passed.

Fast forward to 2020 – all those things are easy (or easier) thanks to the internet! So, I had designed “8^th Air Force” for my own amusement. In the process, I designed “20^th Air Force” because it was a logical twin game. No one has done a game of the strategic bombing campaign against Japan that culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the “8^th Air Force” game system worked perfectly and the two campaigns were different enough that both games were unique. By the way, both games are seriously fun! I’ve designed dozens of games in my life, and I’ve enjoyed and developed them all to some extent or another, but I’d never designed a game as great as “8^th Air Force” (and “20^th Air Force”, but I give founders credit to “8^th Air Force” because it was the desire to recreate that campaign that created all the concepts). Talking to some friends about it one day I was told why don’t you publish them? After an evening of discussing it I realized that, in 2020, that might actually be doable!

We launched our Kickstarter campaign in September, 2020 and sold $8,700 worth of folio games. While dedicated to delivering quickly and with quality to our customers, I nevertheless considered this likely a hobby of sorts, not a business, but the games got GREAT play reviews. Next thing I knew we completely sold out our inventory, just weeks after the KS campaign was fulfilled! Our customers had to wait weeks for our second, much larger print, and it sold like crazy. I realized I had an actual business.

Our next offerings were “Save Afghanistan, Comrade!” and “Save South Vietnam!” – again twin solitaire folio games, in a Kickstarter campaign which started October, 2021. We learned a lot from our first publications and I would venture that the component quality (game board and counter art, game manual structure, etc.) of these games were leagues superior to our first two offerings. This time we sold $9,000 worth of games and, again, sold out our inventory after the KS – this time I was a little ahead of the game and had restocked my inventory with a handful of games left in stock. A little background on the games, because how could we develop and playtest, etc., two new games that fast? They were already completely done. I designed them, “Save Afghanistan, Comrade!” first, around 2001 and had been playing ever since. I chose these themes because in 2001 I wanted a game about the Soviet war in Afghanistan and there simply was none. Similar to 8^th AF & 20^th AF, when I had designed “Save Afghanistan, Comrade!” and was thoroughly enjoying it, I realized the system leant itself perfectly to the US adventure in Vietnam and designed that game probably in 2002. At that time, I never even considered publishing them for the same reasons my college friends and I never launched in 1983. But after the success of 8^th AF & 20^th AF, especially with what I learned publishing them, it was pretty easy to get a fully designed and play tested game system published. The work was in the art and writing the game manual, but it’s nice to start with a fully developed system.

Finally, the high quality of the artwork in the “Save” game series compared with the “Air Force” series made me a little embarrassed at our first publication. In our defense, we were new and inexperienced when we launched 8^th AF & 20^th AF, and the game play received GREAT reviews and required no errata, but the component quality of these two great games was no longer acceptable. So, our last Kickstarter (January, 2023) was a complete redo of those two games: in shrink-wrapped BOXES not folios, on MOUNTED game boards no cardstock, laser-cut super-high-quality counters, all new game board player aid and counter artwork, and completely redone rulebooks including countless illustrations and illustrated examples. While our first two KS campaigns did about $9k each, this one did $38k, and the sales have been pouring in ever since. By the way, I tried very hard to take care of the original KS backers of 8^th AF & 20^th AF – if you were an original backer you got both games for $59, or $29.50 each. We sell them post-KS from our website for $69 each, or $139 for both. I went over my philosophical approach to our original supporters in an interview I did with the “Lead Pursuit” podcast which I have a link to on our website (click “News”, scroll down to 3/1/2023).

We currently have two more twin solitaire games in the works, but while the first one is very well along (90%, including fully playtested), the second one has lots of work ahead, including lots of playtesting, so it’s hard for me to imagine publication before mid-late next year. Again, we’ll launch them on Kickstarter."

 Thank you very much for this look under the hood, so to speak.

Fortress Games: Fortress Games – The Art of Wargames (fortress-games.net)

1212 Las Navas de Tolosa

by

Draco Ideas

 The year is 1212 and El Cid has been dead for thirteen years. The deadly conflict between the Muslims and Christians for Spain is still going on. In fact, the Reconquista will continue for almost three hundred years. The tide had turned and the Muslims, commanded by their Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, were taking a good number of Spanish fortresses. It had gotten so bad that the pope, Innocent III, had called for a crusade in Spain. I am simplifying the historical tale. Both the Christians and Muslims were a loose group of smaller states that fought each other as often as they fought against their supposed enemies. The crusaders and a number of Christian states banded together to fight against a similarly made-up army under the Caliph. This is the backdrop behind the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.

 This is an excerpt from a written account of the time:

 "They attacked, fighting against one another, hand-to-hand, with lances, swords, and battle-axes; there was no room for archers. The Christians pressed on." – (The Latin Chronicle of The Kings of Castile)

 This is what comes with the game:

Board

54 Unit Markers

9 Combat Cards

6 help cards

12 special cards (6 from each side)

 

 This is what Draco Ideas has to say about the game:

 "1212: Las Navas de Tolosa is an asymmetric, two-player wargame in which Almohad and Christian troops face each other, reliving the emblematic battle of the Reconquista.

Fast games and a very contained deployment, in which the battle is decided in about 30 minutes, with a card engine to determine the initiative and the outcome of the combat.

Although small in size, 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa perfectly integrates the theme in a reduced number of components, placing special emphasis on the asymmetry of the sides to revive the different strategies that took place in the battle that would change the course of the Reconquista.

Among other features, Christian units receive bonuses if they are activated by cards with their King’s shield, adding a further decision to the player on when to play the cards in his hand.

For his part, the Almohad player can use a free ‘Tornafuye’ (karr wa-l-farr) action, which allows him to make a counterattack after a Christian cavalry charge, and also has special units such as the Black Guard protecting the Caliph an-Nasir, or the Jihad Volunteers, fanatical troops that will throw themselves into combat advancing if they manage to create a breach in the Christian defense."

A Muslim Counter

 I know it is a cliche, but sometimes good things do come in tiny boxes. Most of the parts of the game are small. The board is a mounted one. It measures around 11 3/4" x 8". It consists of eighteen rectangles (nine for each side). It is pretty much made up of open terrain with a few trees and the Caliph's stockade on the edge of one side. The counters are large at 18mm and come pre-rounded. Each counter comes with a very nicely done picture in the middle of it. The designer/artist (Pablo Sanz) has drawn them to look like period pieces of the battles' time. The Rulebook is small, about half the size of a normal Rulebook. It is however, done in full color. It is only twenty pages in length with the last page being a quick reference for the rules. The regular rules are fifteen pages in length. Then there is a two-page Advanced Variant for the rules. The game comes with two Rulebooks: one in English and one in Spanish. Next up are the Victory Conditions and a Historical Context. The Cards come with six cards for quick refence. On one side is English and the other is in Spanish. There are nine regular cards to be played with the normal game. A further 12 cards (six per side) are used with the Advanced Variant. That sums it up for the game's components. Draco Ideas does put a lot into the physical presentation of their games.

One of the Cards for the Regular Game

 The game was designed to take up a very small footprint and to be played in about thirty minutes. Draco Ideas has succeeded in both of these endeavors. This is a quick playing fun game that also has both strategy and tactics built into it. The addition of the Advanced Variant makes it so the game does not get stale or boring. The regular game is a good game, but it might get too repetitious for some people. The Advanced Variant Cards are either commanders in the game or units. These Cards give the player either Action Points or extra attack power when played. 

 This is the Sequence of Play:

Initiative Phase: 1 card from each player. The highest wins the initiative and ties go to the Christian player.

Action Phase: 2 cards for Action Points, playing alternative turns.

Exhaustion: Tilted units (exhausted units) can neither attack or rally. They recover at the end of the turn.

 These are a few of the rules:

Ties in the standard attacks = 1 damage per side.

If there are no cards left in the game deck, turn over the discard pile Without Shuffling.

 Action allowed per turn:

Maximum 3 units per board zone

Maximum 2 combat actions per turn

Maximum 1 archer attack per turn

Christian Counter

 The Victory Conditions are:

The Christian Player wins if Caliph al-Nasir's unit is eliminated.

The Muslim Player wins if the Christian Player is not occupying any of the nine Muslim zones and there are less than four Christian occupied zones.

Either side wins if they control twice as many zones as the other side.

 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa was designed to be a fun short game that can be setup and taken down with ease. The price point of the game is also easy on the player's wallet. This is not just a beer & pretzels game. It is certainly not as deep as some wargames but to win you have to put on your thinking cap. 

 Thank you Draco Ideas for allowing me to review this game. This game and their SCOPE series of games are built on the same premise. Please take a look at their War Storm series of games. They are tactical gems of games. Their two games on the Spanish Civil War (A las Barricadas! and Help Arrives) are two of the finest tactical games on the subject.

Robert

Draco Ideas:

Draco Ideas editorial | Boardgames publisher

1212 Las Navas de Tolosa:

1212: Las Navas de Tolosa (English) | Draco Ideas editorial

 Skies Above Britain

by

GMT Games

 It is 1940 and Britain stands alone in Europe against Germany and Italy. So many books have been written about Churchill's 'Few' that I would be surprised if any grognard hasn't read at least a few of them. To either soften Britain up before Operation Sea Lion or to win the war all on its own, both have been put forward as German plans. The Luftwaffe is ready to take on the Royal Air Force. From Norway to the French coast Heinkel 111's, Dornier 17's, and Messerschmitt 109's are starting their engines to start flying over Britain. It starts with Aldertag (Eagle's Day) which was August 13th, 1940. The Battle of Britain actually started in July. Aldertag was the start of a massive German attempt to bring the RAF to its knees. Luckily for the free world the British won the battle. In actuality the Germans lost so many aircraft that they had to switch to night bombing at the end of the blitz. By the end of October 1940, the Germans had pretty much given up on anything more than nuisance raids. The British Spitfires and Hurricanes had won the day.  

 This is what GMT Games has to say about the game:

 "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. The player’s individual aircraft—each represented by a stickered block—must locate the incoming raid, intercept it, and evade or defeat swarms of escorting German fighters that usually outnumber you and whose pilots have superior experience and tactics. The game simulates the dogfighting and fighter-vs.-bomber action at an individual aircraft level using a card-assisted system that simulates key tactical decision-making without losing the feel of fast-paced aerial combat. A player can fly scenarios representing an individual patrol or use the patrol generator to create an endless variety of realistic individual patrols, multi-patrol campaigns, or larger campaigns covering the entire Battle of Britain. Each patrol will take a half hour or more to play, while a campaign can last anywhere between 6 and 28 patrols."

 So, the game follows in the footsteps of 'Skies Above the Reich' and 'Storm Above the Reich'. It is a solitaire game where the player tries to stop the German bombers at all costs. 

  This is what comes with the game:

1 Interception Game Board

1 Squadron Display Game Board

1 Me-110 Circle Display

4 Counter Sheets

1 Rules Booklet

1 Situation Manual

1 Optionals Booklet

3 Player Aid Cards

200 Playing Cards

1 Pad of Roster Sheets

2 Historical Log Sheets

1 Sheet of Stickers

38 Wooden Blocks

10 Wooden Cubes

1 Wooden Cylinder

2 Dice

 So, compared to the last two games in the series you now get to fly for the good guys. You also get to tackle bombers that are much less dangerous to your fighter than B-17s and B-24s were to the German fighters. Of course, your weaponry in 1940 is nowhere near the strength of the weapons on a 1944 German fighter. Your planes are mostly armed with eight .303 caliber machine guns, essentially the size of a rifle round. 

  

 The games in the series have two things in common. One, you are flying fighters against enemy bombers. Two, the boxes are heavy enough to start a curling routine with. Once opened, a cornucopia of items seem to come spilling out of the box. Looking quickly at the six decks, pilot logs, and all the other components might lead you to think "what have I gotten myself into", or "this is too much of a game for me". Then you get a glimpse of the three different rules/manuals that come with the game, and you are certain you have bitten off more than you can chew. Just relax and sit back and take a few slow breaths. It is nowhere as bad as it seems at first. 

 The first thing that you will look at upon opening the box are the above stated three rules/manuals. The Rulebook is sixty pages in length (remember to breathe). Even though it is the same size as most rulebooks it just seems larger to me. It is made with glossy paper, and it comes with wonderful extremely large printing. Everything about the Rulebook is big. On every page is a beautiful full color example of play or illustration to help you learn the rules. Next up, we have the Situation Manual. This has the different scenarios and is also chock full of example of play. It is fifty-one pages in length and is also made of glossy paper and has large print. The Optionals manual is produced the same as the other two and is nineteen pages in length. It comes with the optional rules and a historical pilot roster which can be copied and used. I think this is a very nice touch. Then comes a page and a half of Designer Notes followed by a nice sized bibliography. 

 One difference from the other games is that the German bombers come on large tiles, as counters, instead of them being on the game board. There are two full counter sheets of these large tiles. These represent the Heinkel 111, Junkers JU-88, Dornier Do-17, and Stukas that you will be trying to shoot down. Then come two more counter sheets. These are mostly 5/8" in size with some being as large as one inch. These come with either nicely done pictures of different fighter pilots, or the different control markers needed for the game. They are very artistic in their style and are some of the most pleasing to the eye counters I have seen. Next comes a small sticker sheet which are used on the wooden blocks that come with the game. These are just as artistic as the counters. The thirty-eight wooden blocks are mostly black squares that the stickers will be attached to. A small amount of dexterity is needed for this, unless you have some freeloaders (sorry, I meant children) around to do this for you. There are six decks of cards: Escort Reaction, RAF Advantage, Luftwaffe Advantage, Bomber, Tailed, and Head on & Tailing. These are heavier than usual cards that do not feel flimsy to the touch. The front of the card has one of the names above while the back shows you one or more example of how it is used. Then comes two card stock Pilot Rosters. On one side is a squadron with names and on the back are Squadron Logs. These Pilot Rosters are also historical for the 303 and 54th squadrons. You also get a pad of the same with no names of pilots or a squadron number on them. As I mentioned above, the addition of some historical names really helps with the immersion and is a great addition. There are three large folding Player Aids that are made of card stock. They are for the Interception Sequence, Pilots, Raid Vector Sequence, RTB Sequence, Intercept Bombers, Intercept Escort, Sequence of Play. So, everything is right at hand without having to peruse the Rulebook each turn, at least in the beginning. There is also a 'Circle Display' for the defensive maneuver that BF 110s used. Next is a small, mounted map with the Squadron Display on one side and the Advanced Squadron Display on the other. Last, but not least, is the mounted Game Board which is mostly taken up by the Interception Map. It also has some other charts and tables on it. These are exactly the type of manufactured components that we have come to expect in a GMT game. The heft of the combined components has already been mentioned for those of us who still give some credence to the weight of the box and its worth.

 

 Apparently, the idea of a Skies Above Britain for a game was not received by some as actually a game that could be designed. Here is a quote from Gina Willis, one of the designers:

"Call me stubborn, but the cold water that Mark and Jerry (Jeremy White and Mark Aasted designers of Skies Above the Reich and Storm Above the Reich) tossed on wishes for a "Skies Above Britain" only made me more curious to see if and how such a game really could be made to work."

 These two quotes from Gina Willis are about the design itself:

"Since German bombers depended more on escorting fighters for protection than their own armament, a Battle of Britain "Skies" would need to move the fighter-vs.-escort aspect of combat more to the foreground than it was in the earlier volumes."

"One new wrinkle was putting the bombers on moveable tiles instead of printing them in a formation on a board. Tiles on a tabletop could be removed or pushed apart to show disruption and attrition effects on bomber formations in a direct, spatial way."

 Some of the Optional Rules are:

Confirmed Kills - Bomber kills are recorded one for one. However, to show how many times claims were not accurate, four fighter kills equal one kill.

Weave - One section will fly above and behind as a lookout. This costs more fuel.

Random Events - Self-explanatory, and too numerous to list.

Cratered - Your aerodrome has been damaged and you must fly from a nearby one. Parts and replacements are not there, and no one can return from hospital.

Graduated replacements - This replaces the one pilot replacement after every patrol. It is done by die roll now.

 Some of these can only be played when using the Advanced Squadron Display. The Advanced Squadron Display adds more rules to the game. It is much like playing with basic and advanced rules.

 As far as my opinion of the game: do I like it? No, I love it. This next information will tell you exactly how the wargaming community in general viewed the game:

2022 Charles S. Roberts Awards Winners Announced

Best Solitaire or Cooperative Wargame:

WINNER: Skies Above Britain, GMT Games, designers Jerry White and Gina Willis

 That pretty much sums up my feelings as well. One of the best parts of the design is the fact that the Rulebook actually tells newbies "You don't have to read the whole Rulebook to start playing." Even with the number of things in the box and the three different rules/manuals, it is still an easy game to learn and to start playing. You can start the dogfighting pretty much right away. The way that the designers have added so much historical flavor to the game is also a wonderful bonus. Let us not forget the RPG part of the game. You actually feel for your small fighter pilot friends. To be able to, hopefully, follow them through a campaign let alone a single sortie is a sign of a great designed game. The tension in the game is palpable. Do you break off with your ammo getting low, or do you choose to go for that one lone bomber? Each of your decisions can be found to be the wrong one by the game's highly, (I cannot say intelligent), evolved matrix of choices the designers have given it. Just like in reality ditching your plane over Britain is usually followed by a safe parachute flight. However, woe to the poor pilot who has to eject over the Channel. This is one of those games where you look at the clock and see four hours have passed but you still sit and play a few more sorties. 

 Thank you so much GMT Games for allowing me to take Skies Above Britain out for a spin. I knew the history more from the German point of view rather than the British. This game has made me read some books that deal with the British side of the Battle of Britain. If that is all I got from the game, it is worth playing but there is so much more than that in this box.

Robert

GMT Games:

GMT Games

Skies Above Britain:

GMT Games - Skies Above Britain

Link to the Rulebook:

SaB RB March 22 2022 (amazonaws.com)

My review of Storm Above the Reich:

Storm Above the Reich by GMT Games - A Wargamers Needful Things