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Thread: More from Warlord in December

  1. #1

    Default More from Warlord in December

    Four new Squadron Box Sets from Warlord in December - all resin

    P40, P47, 109G, 262

    Click image for larger version. 

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  2. #2

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    I play this game quite a bit. I'm looking forward to the new minis.

  3. #3

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    Is this one worth picking up? I wanted to do WGS but the extreme lack of availability of aircraft is keeping me from doing so. Can BRS be played solo at all?

  4. #4

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    BRS is not a super friendly solo game - but it's not impossible to play alone either. I just play both sides to the best of my ability, and the dice throws introduce enough randomness to give you a few surprises.

    It's quite a different game from WOG. There are no fancy maneuvers; you use a ruler to move general distances, and use the tilting base to indicate 'advantage' rather than try to track altitude. 'Advantage' can be traded off for tighter turns and maneuvers, but then needs to be regained to get a shot on an opposing plane.

    I think folks who like their air combat games crunchy and detailed will hate it, but I like the trade-off - although concepts like altitude or difficult maneuvers are abstracted, it keeps the game fast-moving.

    The little 1/200 miniatures are pretty mediocre, frankly. I wish they were painted like WOG and better quality, but then to sell a starter set with a dozen painted miniatures would cost so much no one would buy the game. The newer minis are cast in resin and are a big improvement from the cheap plastic planes in the Starter Set.

    I prefer BRS to other air combat systems I've tried, but everyone's taste is different. No hexes, no pre-written orders, no fiddly movement cards: just open ruler movement with turns up to 45 degrees. The movement rules are simple, and I like the advantage/disadvantage mechanism for simulating altitude and other aspects of aerial combat. Aircraft have a few basic stats, plus cards are used to track aircraft traits, national doctrine, theater aspects, and ace skills.

    The simple rules make it fairly easy to operate relatively large numbers of aircraft per player. I find with WOG that handling more than two or three aircraft is a real chore, whereas with BRS you can easily fly a half-dozen or more. Last weekend a pal and I played 6 ME109s escorting 3 JU-88s against 6 intercepting Spitfires. It was a fast-moving battle, a lot of fun, and lasted maybe 80-90 minutes.

    I think that although BRS doesn't have the accurate simulation of other air combat games, it is much faster moving. And the advantage/disadvantage system really does a great job of mixing it up and challenging the players. I think I would give it about an 8.5 out of 10.

  5. #5

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    Though I would disagree on some of the detail of LS650s post above I would agree with his overall points. My main point of difference would be that I think that by getting away from what are artificial "simulation" details and concentrating on what is important, position and "advantage", BRS does a far batter job of representing WW2 air to air than other systems.

    However the comments about solo play is also correct - you can set up a bomber formation and have it drone across the table, but beyond that there is little scope for solo fighter vs fighter games because the game, like the real thing, is so reactive.

    Model quality is variable. The original "soft" plastic starter planes vary from acceptable (P51), OK (Spitfire and Yak1) to poor (109E) with additional issues - the Spitfires are prone to wing warping and the Zero is a bit small - actually all are a bit small, closer to 1:210 to 1:200. The second wave of hard plastic - Me110, Fw190A , Hurricane and Mosquito are far better. They then switched to metal and some were very good, but some suffered from mould compression. Finally they are adopting a resin material - this holds details well and the models I have seen are very good. They're back filling the previous metal releases with resin which I hope should resolve the compression issues.

    It's a very good set of rules, more nuanced than you may first think, but may not be for everyone

  6. #6

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    Oh, my wallet!
    <img src=http://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/image.php?type=sigpic&userid=2554&dateline=1409073309 border=0 alt= />
    "We do not stop playing when we get old, but we get old when we stop playing."

  7. #7

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    I am really happy I resisted this game. It is too late now, I can not complete everything, so now it is easy. Please, do not invent time machine

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by LS650 View Post
    BRS is not a super friendly solo game - but it's not impossible to play alone either. I just play both sides to the best of my ability, and the dice throws introduce enough randomness to give you a few surprises.

    It's quite a different game from WOG. There are no fancy maneuvers; you use a ruler to move general distances, and use the tilting base to indicate 'advantage' rather than try to track altitude. 'Advantage' can be traded off for tighter turns and maneuvers, but then needs to be regained to get a shot on an opposing plane.

    I think folks who like their air combat games crunchy and detailed will hate it, but I like the trade-off - although concepts like altitude or difficult maneuvers are abstracted, it keeps the game fast-moving.

    The little 1/200 miniatures are pretty mediocre, frankly. I wish they were painted like WOG and better quality, but then to sell a starter set with a dozen painted miniatures would cost so much no one would buy the game. The newer minis are cast in resin and are a big improvement from the cheap plastic planes in the Starter Set.

    I prefer BRS to other air combat systems I've tried, but everyone's taste is different. No hexes, no pre-written orders, no fiddly movement cards: just open ruler movement with turns up to 45 degrees. The movement rules are simple, and I like the advantage/disadvantage mechanism for simulating altitude and other aspects of aerial combat. Aircraft have a few basic stats, plus cards are used to track aircraft traits, national doctrine, theater aspects, and ace skills.

    The simple rules make it fairly easy to operate relatively large numbers of aircraft per player. I find with WOG that handling more than two or three aircraft is a real chore, whereas with BRS you can easily fly a half-dozen or more. Last weekend a pal and I played 6 ME109s escorting 3 JU-88s against 6 intercepting Spitfires. It was a fast-moving battle, a lot of fun, and lasted maybe 80-90 minutes.

    I think that although BRS doesn't have the accurate simulation of other air combat games, it is much faster moving. And the advantage/disadvantage system really does a great job of mixing it up and challenging the players. I think I would give it about an 8.5 out of 10.


    Quote Originally Posted by PilGrim View Post
    Though I would disagree on some of the detail of LS650s post above I would agree with his overall points. My main point of difference would be that I think that by getting away from what are artificial "simulation" details and concentrating on what is important, position and "advantage", BRS does a far batter job of representing WW2 air to air than other systems.

    However the comments about solo play is also correct - you can set up a bomber formation and have it drone across the table, but beyond that there is little scope for solo fighter vs fighter games because the game, like the real thing, is so reactive.

    Model quality is variable. The original "soft" plastic starter planes vary from acceptable (P51), OK (Spitfire and Yak1) to poor (109E) with additional issues - the Spitfires are prone to wing warping and the Zero is a bit small - actually all are a bit small, closer to 1:210 to 1:200. The second wave of hard plastic - Me110, Fw190A , Hurricane and Mosquito are far better. They then switched to metal and some were very good, but some suffered from mould compression. Finally they are adopting a resin material - this holds details well and the models I have seen are very good. They're back filling the previous metal releases with resin which I hope should resolve the compression issues.

    It's a very good set of rules, more nuanced than you may first think, but may not be for everyone
    Hm, thanks for the assessment guys. I've kept an eye on this one since release but I'm still on the fence. Maybe I'll pick up the beginner box and see how I like it.

    I know it's a little OT, but are there any other WWII air combat games you guys might recommend? WGS would be my first choice but lack of availability hurts

  9. #9

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    Bugger! Warlord have put the release back to February - they're concentrating production on the Black Sails and Judge Dredd releases :-(

  10. #10

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    Bugger! Warlord have put the release back to February - they're concentrating production on the Black Sails and Judge Dredd releases :-(

  11. #11

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    I know Dave (AIM) is very busy with BRS planes. He has all of the planes mentioned here.

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by BobP View Post
    I know Dave (AIM) is very busy with BRS planes. He has all of the planes mentioned here.
    Yup - Dave's models are excellent - I own what may now be about a hundred - not sure if I dare count them tbh, and I know some of the guys at Warlord do too.

    However I don't think there is any risk to his livelihood here - Dave doesn't need to worry, nor does anyone here.

    The truth is Dave doesn't have the capacity to cast up the volumes to meet the expected demand these are going to sell to BRS players - let alone people here. To put it in perspective in the period June - August 2019 Warlord sold about 18,000 models for Blood Red Skies (don't ask how I know - it's a secret), but that's 6000 a month and the reasons these sets are delayed is that Warlord have realised they're not going to have enough ready by December to meet expected demand. I don't know Dave's capacity but I would guess at a fraction of that - he has zero (pun) chance of competing on volume. Luckily he doesn't have to. Dave will continue to sell to people here (and me) and most importantly, as now, will pick up additional sales from BRS players who want something less mainstream that Warlord don't do. Dave will continue to thrive I'm sure.

    Next year will see BRS going PTO - I suspect Dave may want to start casting up Catalina's and Mavis' soon to be ready for the rush

    So in short don't worry about AIM - the only threat BRS poses to them is exhaustion trying to fill the increase in orders :-)


    AND interesting (puzzling) factoid. The Me109G model that Warlord are releasing is the souped up Me109G10 , which is something Dave doesn't do. Why they chose that is a bit strange, but there you go

    Cheers



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