Battle over Britain

Battle over Britain is the first in a game series featuring single plane-vs-plane air combat in WW2. Play is driven from a standard deck of cards (which you supply), one die, plane ratings (Speed, Agility, Firepower, Performance, Durability), and your skill. Includes 20-page illustrated rules (standard rules, optional rules, solitaire rules, and "roleplay" options for customizing pilot flying abilities), historical scenarios, Battle of Britain (1940) campaign game, and set of 16 airplane counters, Dogfight Display, and Reference Card. Planes included are Supermarine Spitfire I, Boulton Paul Defiant, Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Hurricane I, Me-109E Emil, Me-110C, and Ju-87 Stuka. Fast, furious, and fun... Tally Ho!

Each plane is dealt a hand of cards, the number of cards dependant on the plane's speed. Each turn represents just several seconds of real time. You play a card from your hand each turn to try and establish "Advantage" over the opponent... the side with Advantage may (depending on the values of the cards played) be able to fire a burst at the enemy. You will need to consider two main things each turn: your relative altitude (which is suit dependent), and relative fire position (which is card value dependent). When you find yourself "disadvantaged" (tailed), you can try to break off.

Plane ratings make a great deal of difference... for example, faster planes have larger hands, those with superior performance are tougher to tail and tougher to shake once they are tailing you, and an agile plane can "yank the stick" more effectively in a pinch. Firing a burst means you compare the relative fire position cards, roll one die, modify the roll by the plane's firepower modifier, and check the Fire Combat Table to see if you cause any damage (and/or critical hits) to the enemy. (And watch out for those rear firing gunners.)

If you find yourself damaged or out of ammunition, you can always try and disengage. When the deck of cards is exhausted, the game is over. You will quickly be able to "read" each plane's strengths and weaknesses from their ratings. Superior planes are stronger, of course, but anything can happen, and one false move might see you suddenly dodging bullets rather than dishing them out.