Skies Above the Reich unboxing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDNFcnupGu0
There is a lot to the game! Come on Brooski let’s have an AAR, with lots of pics! :)
So I take it there was stuff in the box?
I’ll post some pics of my campaign that I’ve taken later today.
Lots of stuff.
Miniature Market has it for $60 as a preorder, but I assume it’s out by now. Anyone order anything from them? Just wondering if they are reliable.
Miniature Market is extremely reliable. I have used them many times, always with great service.
“Pre-order” likely means they do not have stock yet. GMT ship P500 orders before sending anything to retailers. Lag can be about a month.
That’s what I meant in my previous post where I said “it had not reached MM yet,” meaning Miniature Market.
OK, thanks. Did not get your MM reference above. Looking forward to hearing more about the game.
At the risk of getting into P&R territory, I really thought it was fairly well established that (1) the German any committed atrocities in Belgium during the first world war and (2) British propaganda nonetheless exaggerated and invented further atrocities.
This is my understanding as well. The Germans absolutely did commit widespread atrocities. Additionally the British did invent extra ones. Its not really my period so I am happy to be corrected but I think that is the general consensus these days?
I think a lot of it has to do with how one defines “atrocities.” In 1914, the bar was fairly low for something to be considered an atrocity. I dare say that much of what we consider standard operating procedure today would have been considered an atrocity back then.
My understanding is that a lot of the issue about the Germans concerned their treatment of partisans or stay-behinds who sniped at German troops or what not. IIRC there were cases where the Germans practiced collective punishment against groups or maybe even villages in retaliation for guerrilla attacks, or something.
My vague memory of Guns of August is that they lined people up and shot them if villages refused to surrender. Is that not true? Or just not an atrocity? Or am I totally mis-remembering?
Hey, I can’t remember either, though I’ve read a fair number of books on WWI, just not recently.
It’s entirely possible the Germans committed clear-cut atrocities. Given that they were on the offensive, and operating always in hostile, occupied territory, that’s a distinct possibility. Then again, how armies treat civilians that refuse to acknowledge the reality of the occupier’s power has always been a tough moral call. Usually, it is decided by the victors.
I wonder how the occupation of Serbia a year later compared to Belgium? Though it too was exploited by the British for propaganda purposes. I’m with @Rod_Humble on this one above.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only B-17: Queen of the Skies.
You should generally take Flavor Flav’s advice regarding hype, but there are exceptions. I started a 1942 campaign of Skies Above the Reich which is GMT Games’ new solitaire Luftwaffe tactical simulator designed by Jeremy White and Mark Aasted. Here is how the first mission shook out.
The first thing you do is roll the mission situation. Since it’s 1942, I get six Experten, or aces, each of whom will have a special power, like Invisibility or Magic Missile. The campaign length will be six missions. The first mission will be played on Map 1 because I rolled a 4. I roll another 4 to determine the mission type, which means the raid I am intercepting will be “Near Target” – meaning I will have to roll for flak. Then I roll a 6, meaning I will have 4 Ops Points. OP are the things you use to equip your party. I just get four *Me-109s without any attachments like cannons or rockets. I actually can’t get any attachments at all, since they are not available until 1943 at the earliest. The upside to flying in 1942 is that I’ll be facing the more vulnerable formations on Map 1. Once I have purchased my party, I roll for Escorts. A 6 means there will be none. That wouldn’t be possible in 1944-45.
Then I went to the separate Situation Manual and rolled for Pre-existing Damage to the bombers (there was none), Sun Position (High Flank at 2 o’clock to 4 o’clock), Flight Limit (6), and Tactical Points (1). Because it is 1942, the formation is not Anchored and Contrails are not present.
This is a shot of the setup I have for the game, since there was a question about the footprint. I have this set up on a coffee table in my living room. I measured the table and it is only 21” x 41”. I did use two small tray table on either side, but I really didn’t need them.
My pilots are conveniently labeled on their wooden blocks – I choose the names beginning with A-D. Each one takes a different Experte special power. And that’s it! We’re ready to go.
(NB: This is the first boardgame ever with no setup time. You know why? Because the rulebook says that when you are rolling for all the mission conditions, you have already started playing the game. So there! I guess you still had to open the box and take the stuff out of it. Unless you did an unboxing video.)
NEXT: Pilots, start your engines!
- Let’s not go down the Me-109 vs Bf-109 rabbit hole.
I’m surprised the odds of getting escorts in '42 are so high from looking at the chart. From my limited reading I thought the 8th Air Force higher ups felt, mistakenly, that the B-17’s were able to fly missions unescorted so they mostly did. Most missions in '42 were probably close enough to the coast to permit escorts but I thought it wasn’t until the bombers started getting shredded that escorts were more common. Not trying to nit pick the game, just curious if my understanding is correct or not.
The bombers were escorted as far as they could be throughout the whole war. The spitfires and P-38s that can come in 1942 are not nearly as dangerous as mustangs.
Excellent write up! But I believe Magic Missile is a spell not a power…
I have six turns to inflict damage (determined by the Flight Limit). My fighters can enter from any aspect but must be at Low Altitude. I’m going to enter them at Nose (12 o’clock) Low for an initial head-on attack.
The basis for Skies Above the Reich is that the bombers in a B-17 formation are mutually supporting, and some formations are more mutually supporting that others. The four maps in the game depict progressively more defensively powerful formations as the war progresses. Each space has a “lethality factor” that reflects the volume of fire that can be directed against it, which is printed on the mapboard, as are the B-17s.
Entering the map is my move for the turn. We then go through the rest of the turn sequence, which really only has Flak Resolution since I have no fighters engaged. I go to the Situation Manual and roll on the appropriate table. No damage.
Since I only have six turns, I want to engage as quickly as possible. My mission setup only gave me one Tactical Point (TP). Tactical Points can be spent to make extra moves or to make bad things go away. In that way they are exactly the same as military mana. Unlike military mana, however, they do not regenerate.
Movement is free, except when it isn’t. I could climb to Nose Level for free, or pay 1 TP to get to High. Since I am under time pressure, I am going to go ahead and get to High altitude. I could attack on turn earlier by coming in level, and frankly, I have no idea if this would be a better strategy. On later maps, the overlapping elements provide additional lethality to certain spaces when attacked from High, but this 1942 element doesn’t have that advantage. So I’ll get to High altitude and make my first attack. That’s my move for Turn 2.
Again, I have nothing else to do since I am not engaged yet, except for a Flak roll. It misses.
Now it’s Turn 3. My move is into the Approach box for Nose High. That will allow me to Engage during the Attack Phase. But first I will have to roll for Flak, and fighters in Approach boxes are vulnerable. Let’s see.
The flak misses the bombers, but would hit fighters in either Oblique Approach Box, or in the Tail Approach Box. Nose Approach? Safe!
So we move to the Attack Phase. In the Approach Segment, we move fighters out of approach boxes onto the map. If there are more than six, you resolve them six at a time (per wave) but I only have four so I can do them all at once. My plan is to attack with my fighters in pairs. That will expose me to Collision but will also gain me the Rotte Advantage for this element (two fighters attacking the same bomber from the same space, at the same altitude, and coming from the same approach box. I also get the Schwarm Advantage for having four fighters of the same type attack the same element coming from the same box (except Oblique which is not eligible) and all being in Determined Mode. These will be useful later. I place my aircraft on the map in attack position. The fighters are all in Deterrmined Mode. They are all Experten (marked with chits).
NEXT: The Luftwaffe’s first pass
Rule lawyer question incoming: You get the Schwarm bonus for having four of the same fighters attacking the same element from the same box. But your pic looks like it shows fighters in two different boxes attacking two different elements (bombers?). Just curious if you can clarify. Thanks.
Loving this so far so just keep going if my question is annoying.
The element is not individual bombers- it’s the groups on the map. In this case, it’s the only group on the map. The boxes are all the off-map boxes. The spaces on the map aren’t boxes in the same way.
In the later maps, you’ll see several groups of bombers and those are elements.
OK, thanks for that Panzeh.
All is as @Panzeh says. Additionally, the word “box” refers only to the Altitude/Approach boxes. So when all the planes in a schwarm need to be from the same box, they need to come OUT of the same box - in this case they came out of the Nose (High) Approach box. The “boxes” that are actually on the map itself and where fighters are placed during the Attack Phase are called “spaces.”