Battle over Britain Game Series
Battle over Britain, 2nd ed. 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. This 40-page full color, illustrated book includes standard rules, advanced rules, solitaire rules, and "roleplay" options for customizing pilot flying abilities), historical scenarios, Battle of Britain (1940) campaign game, a set of 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. This 2nd ed. includes some new options, and several new planes (Spitfire VC, Hurricane IIB, Fairey Swordfish, Bleinheim IV, Me-109G, Fw-190a, He-111), allowing you to create exciting scenarios occurring after the Battle of Britain. 32 plane counters, Dogfight Display, and Reference Card are included in the pages of the book. Fast and furious fun!
You may order a set of physical game components separately. To get the Battle over Britain components, you may order either Bomber Command, or Fighter Command. (See description of these elsewhere on this page.)
For a link to see, specifically, what planes are included, and to access the special offers were are currently running featuring Battle over Britain, 2nd, click here for the Specials page.
Flying Tigers was vol. 4 in the BoB series. It included twelve-page illustrated rules (advanced optional and solitaire rules, China 1941-42, Poland 1939 ,and Netherlands 1940 campaign games), Reference Card, and set of 28 airplane counters. Planes included are Chinese AVG P-40B Tomahawk; Brewster Buffalo, Nate, Oscar, and Sally; Polish P-11C, Spitfire I, Bleinheim, Fokker D-XXI, MC-200 Saetta, Me-109E, Ju-87D, He-111, Me-110C, and Hs-123.
Each game and module in the series is fully compatible with the others, and stress playability and historicity. Aircraft are rated for speed, agility, firepower, performance, and durability.
Faith, Hope & Charity was vol. 3 in the BoB series. It covers the Malta campaigns, 1940-41, with core rules, and set of 12 airplane counters: British Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Hurricane I, Vickers Wellington; Italian MC-200 Saetta, SM-79 Sparviero, CR-42 Falco; German Ju-87 Stuka, and Me-109E, plus two Historical campaign games, and scenarios.
How the Battle over Britain game system works:
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.
Additional games and planes are planned.
Battle over the Pacific was vol. 2 in the BoB series, and covers the Pacific War (1941-42), Japan vs the USA. Includes full rules (including scenarios), set of 35 warplane counters: US Wildcat, Kittyhawk, Buffalo, Dauntless, Devastator; Japanese Zero, Oscar, Claude, Nate, Val, Kate. Fully compatible with any game in the series.
Tally Ho! is volume 5 in the Battle over Britain game series, covering North Africa, 1940-41. In addition, it contains warplanes and six other campaign games featuring Italy, Britain, Germany, the USA, Japan, AVG China, Poland, and the Netherlands from 1939-1942... 119 warplanes in all. It also provides six new "stand alone" scenarios--a first for the system--such as Rommel himself trying to escape behind lines in a Storch, or a short campaign scenario pitting a single Chennault's Fighting Tiger (without spare parts) against the Japanese, or flying against an Me-109 on escort duty (rather than on its own), and more. Also new is guidelines/formula for rating the value of warplanes yourself, based on game ratings, to allow for more in-depth comparison of aircraft.
The game system is identical to and compatible with Battle over Britain. This 52-page full color, illustrated book includes standard rules, advanced rules, solitaire rules, and historical scenarios. In fact, the aircraft and campaign games include those contained in Battle over the Pacific (Vol. 2), Faith, Hope & Charity (Vol. 3), and Flying Tigers (Vol. 4). (See descriptions below for details.) This edition is a handsome volume and comes with new North African and Additional Plane counters, featuring aircraft new to the system, plus others such as the RAF Battle and Hudson, the Italian C-32 and SM-82, American P-38 Lightning, Australian Boomerang, and German Storch and Ju-52 Tante Ju. Also included is a "points system" for rating planes (or design-your-own scenarios), and new stand-alone game scenarios. If you are new to the system, buying Tally Ho! means you do not need to purchase vols. 2, 3, and 4.
The plane counters, Dogfight Display, and Reference card are included in the pages of the book, and will need to be scanned and printed before play. If you wish to purchase a set of physical game components, you may order Fighter Command (see description below) which includes all the components mentioned.
Battle over Europe (volume 6 in the series) covers the French and Russian campaigns, thereby taking the series to the end of 1942.
BOMBER COMMAND is a module in the game series, that adds multi-crew bombers to the system. This module does not contain rules, it only comes with game components (specifically, the Bomber Command counter sheet (32 planes), Dogfight Display, Reference Card, Battle over Britain counter sheet (32 planes), and 4-page folder).
You must own the core rules to the system to use this module. If you own Battle over Britain 1st ed., and all you want are the physical components, getting this module is an option for you.
For a list of the planes included in this module, click on the link here.
FIGHTER COMMAND
This module contains physical game components from several Battle over Britain games, but no rules (or scenarios). You must own the system rules (e.g. Battle over Britain, Tally Ho!, or Battle over Europe) to use these components. Includes Dogfight Display, Reference Card, and plane counter sets from Battle over Britain, Tally Ho!, Bomber Command, and Battle over Europe. A total of 175 airplane counters.
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Tally Ho! (volume 5 of the BoB series) contains all the planes, rules, and campaigns originally included in vol. 2-4 pictured below.
Original vol. 2, 3, & 4 are out of print, thogh may be available in PDF file format. Visit the PDF FORMAT PAGE.
