Blood Red Skies: Flying Mig Alley Alone

Back in the days when I was playing a lot of board war games. I played a lot of air games  from time to time but I think in many ways I liked the information the games had more than the actual play. The games I played seemed to have so much detail that a lot of the feel of high speed maneuver seemed to be lost but I spent a lot of time comparing the data cards of different planes and in the days of Air Superiority / Air Strike I was always happy to get the latest issue of the newsletter so I could take a look at new planes.

The play of these games was a lot of work so I wasn't to upset to leave them in the past. I played some of David Redpath's games at Cangames and those seemed to work well and I played a few games of Wings of Glory and allied games and thought they were ok but not enough to get me to buy into them.

Some at the club years ago ran a few games of Bag the Hun which I enjoyed but it had a weird mix of abstraction and detail that didn't quite work for me.

Then when Blood Red Skies was released a few years ago I was tempted but always had enough on the go that I wasn't sure I wanted to bother with something new and wasn't sure if it would be for me and wasn't sure if I wanted to invest in the 1/200 planes -- I thought the planes were a really good size but it was a Warlord only scale and I wasn't sure how well they would support the game.

Just as things were shutting down with the Coronavirus, I did a panic buy of paint and Black Seas ships and decided to get Blood Red Skies -- All I could get in the shop I was ordering the paint from was the rulebook  the Mig Alley box set and a box of  Yak-7s.

The jets painted up well and quickly and even the decals went on relatively painlessly. After posting my solo Black Seas game I decided to do the same with Blood Red Skies.

First of we generate the pilots for each side.

The Soviet MiG-15s get very lucky with 2 Aces. I have to add an ace card for each plane to the action deck and just select these two at random from the cards I have

The American F-86E Sabres are very unlucky with two rather poor pilots

The initiative roll was a tie and I decided the Americans needed a bit of a break so I had the Soviets set up first with the American planes behind them.

After the planes are placed the advantage level is determined. The Soviets roll  Neutral Advantage but they have the theater card for "Radar Support" which allows them to make a maneuver check to gain advantage and both succeed

The American bad luck continues with one plane rolling to be Disadvantaged and one Neutral.


In each turn the planes move in order of advantage and then pilot skill and speed to break ties. In each planes turn there are 4 phases -- (1) Shooting (2) Burn Advantage [optionally drop one level of advantage to maneuver or add 6" of speed in the move phase] (3) Move 1/2 to full speed and turn up to 45 degrees (4) Action Phase [one of Shoot, Outmaneuver, Climb]

The first Soviet plane opts to burn advantage to maneuver and ends up facing the disadvantaged Sabre head on. Because it has neutral advantage now it can shoot at the disadvantaged Sabre. There  is some risk to this because the target can shoot back in a head on attack but the MiG pilot is feeling confident.

The Soviet pilot gets 2 dice for it cannons and 5 dice for the pilot. If there is more than one success (as here) it counts as a critical hit and is harder to dodge. The American gets 2 dice for cannons and 2 dice for the pilot and still manages to get one hit. Both pilots will get to dodge but they still take one "Boom" chit for being hit

The dodge roll is similar, the MiG gets 2 dice for agility and 5 for the pilot and the Sabre gets 2 dice for agility and 2 for the pilot and loses 1 because it is dodging a critical hit.


The Sabre is shot down so the American side gets one more "Boom" chit. This takes them to 2 which is 1 more than the number of remaining planes so the Americans will flee ending the scenario. I decide to play a few more turns just to see how movement works.  One thing I have learned so far is that with Jets the starting separation needs to be greater. The scenario calls for 18" but with a movement of 13" the MiG can (as we have seen) get a turn 1 shot.

The second MiG did the same maneuver but had no shot because both it and the Sabre were neutral so choose to outmaneuver the Sabre forcing it to Disadvantge.

Because it is disadvantaged the Sabre can't dive or maneuver in its turn and moves level and turns 45 degrees. It moved less than a full move to stay within 9" of the MiGs so they wouldn't get a free climb for advantage at the beginning of the turn (all jets have this ability) and then climbed to get Neutral advantage (this it turns out is wrong, you can't climb within 9" of an enemy Jet unless you are a later generation Jet).

There were a fewer more turns of the MiGs getting on the tail of the Sabre but not having enough advantage to shoot (and I missed another rule that will give disadvantage to any aircraft that is being tailed) and eventually one of the MiGs got a shot bringing the final Sabre down.

The scenario itself was a bit of a disaster but the choices for maneuver were interesting and engaging (at least as much as is possible when I am playing both sides). I think the game needs more planes -- I am not sure if I will get another MiG alley box but I have since ordered the Battle of Britain box and and box of Hurricanes and a box of Bf110s. I am pretty keen to paint those (though disappointingly they don't come with the decals other than basic insignia) so maybe there will be another solo game not so far away.

Black Seas: Out of the Fog, Alone

Sailing the Black Seas Alone 

Since I am stuck at home, I have decided to play through a few of the Black Seas scenarios solo so that I can get an idea of the rules and what I like and don't like about them.

Because I only have US ships painted at the moment, I will imagine these battles taking place during the Civil War -- even though on checking the only ship on the Confederate side (of this type) was the United States (they didn't change the name which I have always found a bit odd) and it was stripped down and used as a harbour defence vessel. The Union had more ships of the vintage covered in Black Seas but even there they were regarded as obsolete. As an aside, I do hold out hope that Warlord will eventually do some Civil War vessels in this scale (there is a fair bit out there in 1/600 anyway but it is nice to have the common ships in plastic)

Scenario One -- Out of the Fog

This scenario is basically a duel between two ships. There is a bonus of 4 victory points for the first ship to exit if it is undamaged (and 2 if it is damaged) with each ship getting 1 victory point for each point of damage inflicted on its opponent. Since the windward ship always moves first it makes sense that it go to battle sails and move across the board as fast as it can (there is a -2 penalty to hit for the firer is under full sails so there maybe a cost to this when combat starts)

Here are the ships ready to go. The windward ship (further from the island) is going to sail as fast as it can across the sea and the leeward ship will turn as close to the wind as it can to get into combat as soon as possible. I will be using all the advanced rules particularly the More Realistic Wind Effect on Movement and the Fire as She Bears rules.

A roll of 6 indicates the wind does not change and the windward ship sails speedily across the map moving 3 times its 5" Rate of knots.

The Leeward ship moves a single multiple of 5" and turns to be as close to the wind as allowed.

The Leeward ship has the enemy in its firing arc but the Light Cannon bow chasers are just out of range (14")

The wind remains constant so the Windward ship carries on at Full Sails -- it will take a penalty to hit but will get the first shot. It is also going to sail off the table next turn barring catastrophic damage or a collision

A Frigate normally gets 2 Heavy Cannon, 1 Light Cannon and 1 Carronade but because this is its first broaside it gets a bonus of an extra Heavy Cannon and an extra Light Cannon. The only modifier that applies is the -2 for shooter under Full Sail so a 3 or less will hit

The 1 on the Carronade die indicates a critical hit and there is one other hit from a Heavy Cannon. This does 5 points of damage to the target (3 from the Carronade and 2 from the Heavy) A D6 roll of 1 gives a Quarter Deck critical hit meaning the ship will need to make a skill check to change sail level or direction.

Fortunately the Leeward ship can get its target in its broadside by continuing straight at light sail. The same dice will be rolled this time needing a 5 (It could fire high with a -2 hoping to slow the enemy with mast criticals but the odds of that working seem worse that just hoping for lots of damage)

One more hit than the enemy for 6 points of damage. The light cannon critical rolls a 6 for the critical setting the Windward ship on fire. A D6 roll of 2 causes 2 additional points of damage.

Right now the Leeward Ship has 8 points and the Windward ship 5. The Windward ship will only get 2 bonus points for exiting so it will lose if it leaves the play area this turn.

The wind remains steady and the captain of the Windward ship decides to concentrate on the battle rather than devoting crew to putting out the fire  A skill check of 2 means the fire continues this time doing 6 points of damage. By dropping to Battle Sails and turning as sharply as possible the ship remains barely in the play area (using the island to indicate the edge of the play area is wreaking havoc with the narrative at this point!)

The ship has not taken half damage yet so still fires its regular broadside

But it looks like the crew are distracted by the fire and the guns miss their mark.

The Leeward ship starts to tack across the wind to get to its target.

The carronades are out of range but the other cannons hit twice for 3 more points of damage and another critical from the light cannon

The critical is a rudder hit on the the stricken Windward ship (which is no longer actually the windward ship but I will stick with the names)

The Leeward ship is now moving first but becuase it is facing into the wind it needs to make a skill check to complete its tack. It fails and moves straight forward and is now considered anchored.

Oddly, there is no anchored token in the otherwise generous sheet of tokens provided with the game so I am using a whale token. There is nothing I can find that stops the ship using the Fire as She Bears rule before going into irons so it fires away

Even without the -2 modifier for Fire as She Bears these shots weren't hitting anything!

The windward captain is going to try and put out the fire this turn but rolls a compulsory turn for the rudder hit meaning it can't do damage control. The skill check for the fire fails and it burns doing 2 more damage to the ship. Even with the compulsory turns the ship moves off the map.

The Windward ship ends up with 5 points for damage plus 2 for exiting first for a total of 7. The Leeward ship has 19 points for damage (maybe the fire shouldn't count for points but either way it is clear which ship won)

Single ship duels are usually pretty pointless from a gaming point of view but this was a good introduction to the mechanics of the the game. They are a bit simple and even the advanced movement rules leave something to be desired but I think with a few more ships this will be a pretty good game.

I will probably play the second introductory scenario in a few days and hopefully I will get to play with an opponent some time in the not too distant future

Sailing the Black Seas

Since the beginning of my gaming days, I have always had an interest in the Age of Sail. Back when I was playing board wargames in Junior High and High School, Wooden Ships and Iron Men was always a favourite.

 I can always remember an article in the General magazine which had special rules for various fictional captains and the rule for Nicholas Ramage (from the books by Dudley Pope) was that he suceeded on any task on a roll from 1-6 (on a D6). The term "Ramage Roll" took on a life of its own in my gaming group for many years.

Several years later after moving to Ottawa, Tod ran some War of 1812 games using (I think) 1/1200 ships using Fire as She Bears for the rules. I bought the rules, which I liked and still have somewhere, and some ships. I found the process of rigging so frustrating that I ended up literally throwing the ship across the room and decided I would never ever try and build anything like that ever again.


I had one relapse from this when I played an American Civil War naval game at an HMGS con and I bought the Smoke on the Water rules and then ordered the Monitor and Virginia (no sails and masts there!) and then got a sailing ship that was present at Hampton Roads (USS Congress) and gave it away within days of getting it in the mail.

When Warlord Games announced the upcoming release of Black Seas I was very interested but cauatious -- Mike and I decided we would split the starter box. When it arrived I had 4 brigs and 2 frigates to build (I think we got a few extra from Wargames Illustrated). I decided to build the US Navy -- Imagining battles against the Barbary Pirates and the Quasi-war with France (though the reality was likely to be fighting Mike' British).

I got the 4 brigs built and painted and one of them rigged and decided it wasn't as horrible as I remembered -- I think the larger scale and the solidity of the plastic models made rigging easier. Scheduling conflicts got in the way of actually playing a game but I went ahead and oredered some more ships -- the US Fleet box, the USS Constitution, some Merchants and Gunboats. I also got the terrain pack which had some shore batteries and a Martello tower (and a few other odds and ends)

Just as I had a good force to play with finished (2 frigates, 4 brigs and 4 gunboat squadrons) the shutdown started and Mike had to self-isolate after returning from the US so it looked like I wouldn't get to play for a while. Just before Warlord shut down their shipping I ordered the Schooners and the USS Essex though they have not yet arrived.

The current painting status is that the Merchants are nearly finished painting.

 the terrain is underway

and the USS Constitution, USS United States, USS President, USS Constellation, USS Chesapeake and USS Congress (yes, I got it again!) are assembled and primed (except the masts -- I am not putting those in until I finished painting)

When Mike Posted last week about Out of the Box games last week, I had a look at what they had and ended up buying the French Fleet box so I am not going to run out of ships to paint soon.

Well I should get to painting now. I guess my next blog will talk about the rules for Black Seas unless I get distracted by something else...

Painting Fantasy

Being cooped up in the house has given me an excuse/reason to start adding to my blog again.

Since I last wrote anything I have had a pretty big case of Painters block but I have played quite a few games of Team Yankee, Saga: Age of Magic, The Walking Dead: All out War and Gaslands.

When I was having some discussion with Ed about my lack of painting motivation -- I had some SPQR Romans and Saga: Age of Magic Undead on the painting table but they really weren't getting anywhere -- and I decided largely out of nowhere I would paint a dragon. I did some searching for figures and I came across both the Wizkid Nolzur's line and the Realmsmith.tv tutorial videos. I ordered the  Young Blue Dragon and picked up the colours I didn't have at the Hobby Centre.

I was surprised by both the price and the quality of the Blue Dragon. It cost less than dragon miniatures did decades ago when I was last buying fantasy figures. It might no be as detailed as a really good metal mini but it is still very good -- I think the detail on this softish plastic is better (or at least different) than on more traditional hard plastic. The light weight of plastic is nice in a model that is flying.

The Realmsmith tutorial was also very good. It is an archive of a livestream and probably could be better with some editing but that would be a lot of work. The techniques were mostly ones I had used before but it was somewhat therapeutic to have someone tell me what to do and just paint along without giving it much thought.

I enjoyed the process so much that I ordered the Brass Dragon as soon as I finished.

By then I developed a dragon addiction and ordered the other 5 young dragons that were available (Bronze, Copper, White,  Green and Black). I think the Red and Gold are available now and I will probably get them in the near future.

 I had a justification (if one is needed) in that I could use them as the Morrow Island warband for the Horde Faction.

Once they were all painted, I did just that and fielded them (and a Chimera I had painted years ago to have 8 monsters) in a battle against Mike

I have since painted a Frost Giant and

a Cloud Giant which could work in the Morrow Island List

As well as  a Night Hag, Green Hag and a Bullette which were fun to paint but have less immediate use.

Finally a Kraken which I have plans to use as particularly hazardous terrain  in a Saga: Age of Magic game and by the time my Black Seas ships arrived from Warlord games I was back in my painting groove.

I have a few other unpainted giants and odds and ends that Realmsmith has tutorials for so I will have them in case I run into painters block again (and I think ultimately I will want to get some monsters that count as Behemoths for Saga: Age of Magic.

As another note, this was the first time that I had used the Vallejo Game Color and I noticed that they were different than the Model Color and Model Air that I was used to (and I liked it better to be honest). I did a bit of  digging and the different lines are slightly different in terms of composition (as well as colour, obviously) so it is probably worth trying all the ranges and seeing what you like best.

Assuming that I remain cooped up, expect a posting about Black Seas in the not too distant future.