This past week, I featured the solitaire wargame Skies Above Britain by designers Jeremy White and Gina Wills from GMT Games (2022) as my game of the week. In Skies Above Britain you, the player, lead a squadron of Royal Air Force (RAF) Hurricanes or Spitfire fighters in the skies above England in the summer of 1940 during the Battle of Britain.
It actually has taken a whole week to learn and play a campaign of Skies Above Britain thanks in part to the programmed learning approach. The programmed rules teach you the Dogfight Cycle, the Bomber Cycle, the Intercept Sequence, and the Raid Vector Sequence. Learning each portion of the rules and playing the demo scenarios has taken several hours. As we get close to the end of the basic rules, we now turn to the end of turn sequence, best described as Fate, and pilots…
…which are the most important rules in Skies Above Britain. The pilot rules singlehandedly transform Skies Above Britain from just another aerial combat wargame into an Adventure Wargame where the player becomes truly invested in play.
Return and reset
As the last fighter disengages or the last bomber goes down in flames, it is time to RTB or “return to base” for your fighters; or at least what fighters are left. During a patrol in Skies Above Britain some fighters might be Severely Hit and moved to the Fate Box. Through a series of die rolls the “fate” of the plane and pilot will now be determined. Will the fighter land without incident? Will the plane crash and injure the pilot? Worse case, will the pilot die? Maybe they managed to bail out in time?
Other fighters on the RTB Track of Skies Above Britain need to check fuel to see if they have enough to make it back to base. At this point I should mention my admiration of the fuel-depletion game mechanism that is very well done. I really like how the Designer Notes section talks about how fuel is used in the game design:
Speaking of fuel: The fuel-depletion mechanic that uses colored cubes also serves as a clock, since you’ll notice there’s no turn track in the game. And because different game actions might burn more or less fuel, this also captures the feeling often reported by fighter pilots of time appearing to speed up or slow down at various times during a patrol. We know that fuel was seldom a limiting issue for RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain; “fuel” is just a thematic term we use for what is really a hybrid mechanism that combines various effects of spent fuel and elapsed time.
Skies Above Britain, The Optionals, Designer Notes, p. 17
“The best of the best of the best, sir!”
The fate of pilots is a key outcome of a Skies Above Britain patrol and part of the most important design element in the game. In some ways pilots in the game are treated generically; some pilots are Green, others are Regular, a few are Veteran, and even fewer might survive or be successful enough in combat to earn the coveted title of Ace. The important game mechanism is what comes along with each of those proficiency levels.
Green pilots are what one expects. These are the ones, “fresh out of flight school and have limited experience flying a modern fighter let alone doing so in the face of an enemy” (Rule Book, p. 49). Green pilots often suffer disadvantages in combat.
Regular pilots are the default experience level. If a Green pilot survives four patrols they are “promoted” to Regular status and lose their Green disadvantages.
If a Regular pilot survives five patrols they become a Veteran. These pilots earn one Veteran Privilege—in effect an “power-up” or exception to the rules—that potentially makes them more challenging in combat. My favorite Veteran rule is Pluck which awards a +1 die roll modifier in certain situations.
Any pilot that that shoots down five enemy aircraft earns the coveted title of Ace. Yes, you (theoretically) can have a Green Ace. An Ace earns a special Ace Skill. My favorite Ace Skill is Innovator which is only available in later campaigns but allows the RAF player to fly not in the restrictive Vic formation but in Finger Four.
In the Campaign Game each player manages not only a squadron of aircraft and spares, but has a roster of pilots to assign to aircraft for that patrol. At the end of a patrol, the fate of those pilots need be determined. Survival and success in combat brings bonuses; be it loss of Green status or Veteran Privileges or Ace Skills.
Players will, of course, always want to send up the best of the best of the best but, like real pilots fighting in the Battle of Britain, doing so risks that pilot not being as sharp as they should be in the air which in Skies Above Britain is called Fatigue. If used too much (assigned back-to-back missions) there is a negative consequence to certain die rolls. If still used to an extreme (five missions in a row without rest) the pilot is exhausted and becomes, in effect, a wounded pilot which sends them to a hospital from which they might not emerge.
Pilot Player Experience
Recall my comments when I explored the Intercept Sequence of Skies Above Britain:
Up to this point I have been very excited to dig into the Skies Above Britain game system. As a grognard with now grown children my built-in wargame opponents are moving on which in turn makes me look for various solo game systems to fill in. Skies Above Britain is supposedly a well regarded title that earned several accolades to include winning an award for the 2022 Charles S. Roberts Best Solitaire or Cooperative Wargame.
After playing through the two programmed learning scenarios for the Interception Sequence in Skies Above Britain I am, frankly, less than excited to continue on. My increasing frustration comes in part because I sense Skies Above Britain is a largely formulaic game system with little player agency. It is, to use the words of designer Lee Brimmicombe-Wood when discussing Atlantic Chase: The Kriegsmarine Against the Home Fleet, 1939-1942 also by designer Jerry White from GMT Games (2020), an “experience game:”
“Wargame SITREP 24-26 ~ Wargame of the Week – Skies Above Britain (GMT Games, 2022) Introductory Intercept Scenarios,” RMN, 28 May 2024
Now that I have made it to the end of the basic rules of Skies Above Britain I ponder if my opinion, which was trending negative at the end of the Introductory Intercept Scenarios, has changed.
The pilot rules in Skies Above Britain transforms the game into something a bit more than just another aerial combat wargame. The most engaging part of the game experience is not the combat, but the narrative in play that emerges from following the fate of pilots. The real player investment is not in the joy or study or learning that emerges from the tactics or strategy of combat by aircraft, but of the “drama” of the pilots.
In my taxonomy of gaming, the pilot rules transform Skies Above Britain from just a wargame into an “Adventure Wargame.” I define an Adventure Wargame as a game that uses elements of both wargames and roleplaying games. In the case of Skies Above Britain, the fate of the pilots in your squadron become the most important part of any patrol and their fate in the campaign becomes the central focus of the player.
Few planes…fewer pilots…experienced by one player in one game.
Feature image “Polish RAF pilots of Squadron No.303 – 1940” via reddit.com
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Agency, Office, or employer.
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Might have to look that one up.
Sounds a little like American/British Tank Ace but with spitfires instead of Shermans.
Skies Above Britain focused on squadron patrols not individual aircraft (vehicle). Level up in focus and abstraction.
Ok.
Interesting that it focuses on the narrative more than anything else.
Cheers,
Frank