Ace skill cards

[Dreadpirate]

Are the Ace skill cards assigned to a specific Ace when chosen or can the card be played on any Ace in your squadron?  (It seems like the retention tests on most Ace skill cards would be pointless if you can only play the Ace card on one specific Ace, so I’m leaning toward being able to to play an Ace skill card on any Ace in your squadron).

[Renko]

No – Ace cards are specific to individual Aces. The retention test is per turn = these are Discards not Removes.

 

From the FAQ

“Q.: Are Ace skills tied to specific Pilots or can they be played on any Pilot Skill 5 aircraft?
A.: Ace skills are assigned to specific pilots before deployment begins and, with exception of
‘support’ skills like Mother Hen, can only be played on the Ace they are assigned to.”

The clarification of the “support” skills comment at the end (before it gets asked) is that the card is played by the specific Ace with the skill, but the effect is applied to other aircraft

 

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Renko.

[Dreadpirate]

Thanks.  We have always played with the optional open hand/open deck rule.  I guess the retention test would be relevant if you are using the standard action deck rule.

[Renko]

We switched to Open Play and have not looked back. The way to think about Ace Skills is just because one person is good at something and is in the same group as another talented person with a different skill, it doesn’t mean they are both good equally at the same things. In football Liverpool have Salah as a striker and Alisson in goal. Both are (usually) superb at what they do, but Salah is not a good goalkeeper……….

There was a Four Aces (Wildcat) list at a tournament before lockdown where the four different aces each had complementary skills. It looked unbeatable on paper, and made top table, but was picked apart by an opponent who realised the four needed to be in proximity to each other to gain the benefits, so their position was painfully predictable. He just came at them from different directions, and that was that.

 

 

[Dreadpirate]

Thanks for the feedback.  I have only played a handful of pickup games with friends.  I’m still struggling to figure out the game mechanics.  They seem counterintuitive to me for some reason.

I just got beaten a couple days ago by the four wildcat aces list in one game and then a swarm of something like 11 buffalos using Ram Attack in the next game.

I have been sticking to P-51 lists to try to limit the learning variables and to master one plane before moving on to the next. Oddly, the Mustang’s high speed has seemed like more of a detriment than an advantage so far and Great Dive seems to be of very limited usefulness.  I have tried using the Sustained Dive doctrine and Wall of Lead, but didn’t seem to do much better.

I’m going to try Aggressive Tactics next and see if that makes things any easier.

[Renko]

There are a couple of suggestions I would make.

Firstly, your comment about speed seems to suggest you are trying to turn fight as the turning circle of a P51 will be wider than almost anything else as it has a higher minimum speed due to its high max speed. Solution, don’t turn fight, use energy. I’ll explain in a bit. The other issue with the P51D is cost. At 44pts a plane you cant get six reasonable pilots, so don’t try, take four or five, take drop tanks and a theatre card like Restricted Airfields – it’s pretty much equivalent to a free kill, and choose your moments carefully.

Do you have Air Strike? That tightened up the list building to prevent too many “Clown Car Swarms” so there is a minimum of four and a maximum of eight planes in a Squadron (assuming 500pts).

Ram attack is an attack – so it can only be used on an opponent that is already at a lesser advantage. Don’t put yourself in that position.

Great Dive. This is an interesting one and comes back to energy fighting vs turn fighting. GD scales with the speed of the plane and becomes more useful as the top speed increases. At speed 7 like a 109E it is pretty “meh”.  A Mustang at speed 9 can attack an opponent from 24″ away using GD and Sustained Dive and still have the advantage and initiative for the following turn to take a second shot then get out of the area. That can be immense, and if done right, totally impossible to counter.

If you don’t want to go that route try Low Alt Performance, if you can survive a turn you will automatically reset to neutral and be back in the fight.

There is no meta or auto win in BRS, at least as far as I am concerned. Good luck!

[Dreadpirate]

I’m not trying to turn fight.  I’m trying to do basically what you said.

The problem is that I am finding it difficult to get the angle I need to set up any kind of an attack run since I have to move a minimum of 5″ and can only turn 45* at the end of my move.  I’m usually outnumbered and my opponents do a good job of coming at me from multiple sides during deployment.  Setting up a tailing shot is very difficult in those circumstances.

In order to attack, it seems like like I always have to get within 9″ to outmaneuver someone down from advantaged and once I close in to that distance things fall apart.  The 5″ minimum move turns into a disadvantage and it seems like other planes designed for turn fighting have the advantage at that range.

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