Wargame SITREP 24-24 ~ Wargame of the Week – Skies Above Britain (GMT Games, 2022) Introductory Dogfight Scenarios

Skies Above Britain by designers Jeremy White and Gina Wills is a solitaire wargame from GMT Games (2022) that has the player control a squadron of Royal Air Force (RAF) Hurricanes or Spitfire fighters in the skies above England during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. I came into possession of my (gently) used copy thanks to a local game market match.

Open up the hanger

Skies Above Britain is a rather dense wargame, both in terms of components and rules. The game uses two game boards, multiple displays, and ships with over 200 cards and over three dozen blocks. Thankfully the blocks in my game were already stickered and the counters punched and sorted so I didn’t have to spend an hour simply getting the components ready!

The core rules for Skies Above Britain come in a 64-page Rule Book, one of three in the game (the others being a 52-page Situation Manual and a 20-page Optionals tule books). At first glance the hefty Rule Book is daunting until one realizes that White uses a programmed learning approach. There is a special rule for new players in the Introduction that signals that learning approach:

Newbie

You don’t have to read the entire Rule Book to start playing. Read this Introductory section and then the Dogfight section. You’ll be ready to play the Dogfight scenarios in the Situation Manual. That booklet contains information you need to set up scenarios, and when you’re ready, campaigns. Most scenarios are followed by an illustrated example of play. For now, work your way to the bomber scenarios. When you are comfortable with the Dogfight and Bomber Cycles, try the two intercept scenarios. Then you will be ready for a patrol and the campaign.

Rule Book, p. 2

The Introductory (actually “Introduction”) section is a short five pages and the Dogfight (actually “Dogfight Cycle”) is a further 10 pages.

First (dog)flights

“Scenario 1: A Fly By?”

The first five scenarios in the Skies Above Britain Situation Manual are all dogfight scenarios. “Scenario 1: A Fly By?” pits a single RAF fighter (technically called in the rules an “independent RAF fighter”) head-on against a lone German Me-109. Three Dogfight Cards later my Hurricane pilot had been shot down, hospitalized, and returned to the squadron. By the scenario Outcomes that is a “Short Career.”

“Scenario 2: Tailed”

“Scenario 2: Tailed” pits a section of RAF fighters (3 aircraft) that start the scenario tailed by a lone Me-109. Yellow Section starts with the Evade Maneuver which allows two Dogfight Cards to be drawn and the best choice picked. The single Me-109 is Reduced (removed) and Yellow Leader has a Low Ammo marker. Scenario ends in an “Inconclusive” outcome.

“Scenario 3: On their Tail”

“Scenario 3: On their Tail” has Blue Section on the tail of a schwarm (4 fighters) of Me-109s. This longer battle progressed through five Dogfight rounds:

1. Damage (Kill for Blue 2) but another rotte of Me-109 appear behind Blue Section.
2. Blue Section chooses not to maneuver; Blue 2 kills another Me-109 but Blue Leader’s guns jam as the rotte (2 fighters) Splits which puts a lone Me-109 behind Blue Section. Meanwhile, the reinforcing schwarm scores a Trivial Hit to the wing of Blue 3.
3. Blue Section Evades; the reinforcing schwarm is Reduced to a single fighter; the other single fighter scores a Trivial Hit on Blue Leader but a Severe Engine Hit on Blue 3 (moves to Fate Box).
4. Blue Section choses to execute a Turn. Against tailing fighter 1 the result is Tight Turn with Low Ammo to Blue 2 along with a Severe Wing Hit (Blue 2 to Fate Box) with the fighter now in the head-on aspect. The second tailing fighter should see another Low Ammo but since Blue Leader is now an independent fighter that is no result.
5. Blue Leader is in a bad way. They are head-on to one fighter and tailed by another. The head-on combat cards sees the German vanish as does the tailing fighter but not before scoring a Severe Fuselage Hit against Blue Leader. Technically the scenario ends in the “Fly a Desk” outcome.

Out of curiosity I roll for the Fate of Blue Section. Blue 2 (Severe Wing Hit) is able to land safely and returns to the Hanger. Blue 3 (Severe Engine Hit) catches fire with the pilot KIA. Blue Leader is able to return to the Hanger safely.

“Scenario 4: RAF Advantage”

“Scenario 4: RAF Advantage” starts with Yellow Section drawing an RAF Advantage Card which shows the Hurricanes are tailing a rotte of Me-110s. The Dogfight rounds progress this way:

1. Trivial Wing Hit to Yellow Leader; 1x Me-110 shot down by Yellow Leader; Yellow Leader guns jammed.
2. 1x Me-110 shot down by Yellow 3; Low Ammo Yellow 3, Trivial Cockpit Hit to Yellow Leader. This is a clear Victory outcome.

“Scenario 5: Luftwaffe Advantage”

“Scenario 5: Luftwaffe Advantage” is the reverse of scenario 4 with two RAF sections (Yellow & Red) jumped by German Me-110 heavy fighters coming out of the sun. Per the Advantage Card,

Red Section. The Luftwaffe Advantage Card would place a rotte of Me-110 head-on but the text on the card, “Stay on them!”, allows the RAF to ignore that result an draw a RAF Advantage Card instead. The RAF Advantage Card drawn finds Red Section tailing a rotte. One ME-110 is shot down by Red 3 while the other vanishes as Red 2 suffers low ammo and a Trivial Wing Hit. Of note, this Dogfight sequence took less than two minutes to resolve.

Yellow Section. The Luftwaffe Advantage Card has a rotte of Me-110 head-on to Yellow Section. Two Dogfight rounds later Yellow Leader has shot down a single Me-110 and the second has fled but not before Yellow Leaer suffers a Severe Cockpit Hit and is forced to bail out of the crashing Hurricane but lands unwounded. As with Red Section, this Dogfight takes less than 2 minutes to resolve.

Short sharp engagements

All told, the total amount of time spent learning the rules and playing the five introductory dogfight scenarios in Skies Above Britain was about an hour. The first three scenarios took up the bulk of that time as that was where the heavy learning was taking place which required more rules referencing and look-up of icons. By the time the last two scenarios came along the Dogfight rules were pretty well ingrained and resolving a Combat Card went much faster.

At first, my reaction to the quick Dogfight resolution was disappointment. I mean, is every Dogfight going to be a quick and simple series of card pulls? Where is the fun in that? When one remembers, however, that dogfights are just one small part of a greater campaign game then one realizes that each dogfight needs to be short and sharp. Skies Above Britain is not a fighter dogfighting wargame but a game of the day-in-the-life of a fighter squadron. The RAF fighters were not flying in the skies above London to take on German fighters but to stop Luftwaffe bombers. The Bomber Cycle is the next section of rules introduced.

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Feature image “”Tally Ho!” by Alex Hamilton – Hawker Hurricanes Mk 1 of 85 Squadron, led by Squadron Leader P.W.Townsend, attacking Dornier 17’s during the Battle of Britain” courtesy pintrest.fr

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