Beta Stat Cards 1

[Mark Barker]

I’ve got a 1/100 Tomcat – you just have to hold it twice as far away …

[Mark Barker]

Andy, I think you are pretty safe with a Firepower 0 (i.e. you can fire but no gunnery bonus) as opposed to Firepower – (i.e. no fixed armament so you can’t fire) without causing confusion but you have more experience of players than I have …

Per previous post we’ve already started using Firepower 0 for 109E-1s in our group but they are pretty experienced. It gives a bit of variety and a feel you are not playing the same 6 109s again and again to tide us over until the new planes come out.

Christmas hints to the effect that “A Big Wing would look nice” have already been dropped in the direction of the Mehmsahib with an encouraging response after she played BRS with the whole family this weekend at the Bognor show. Our two boys (14 and 11) picked up the game like a shot …

Good to see Warlord supporting the smaller local shows as well with a demo of Strontium Dog. More of a Dredd man myself, but game itself looked top class.

Mark

[Steve Burt]

Is there a Spitfire 1 card?
The game comes with the Spitfire 2, which only came into service after the Battle of Britain was mostly over.
The 1 is almost identical but is crucially slightly slower (353mph) than the me109 (354) rather than slightly faster.

[Mark Barker]

The early Spit Is were actually faster than the IIs – see earlier posts in this thread.

Mark Barker

[Cat Shot One]

On the subject of very lightly armed planes, I agree with Mark that there should be no high chance of confusing “FP 0” planes (being allowed to shot with no bonus to pilot skill) with “FP -” planes (no forward armament). It would allow to include early WWII/Spanish Civil War era planes or even WWI planes into games while still maintaining the ability to differentiate from more “firepowerful” designs.
It just doesn’t feel right for me to put for example fighters with just two (rifle caliber) machine guns into the same firepower class as those with 8 (Spitfire, Hurricane).
Some of the beta cards for bombers (B-25C, Ki-48) already use this type of firepower listing.

[Cat Shot One]

Renko, I appreciate your work on the beta cards very much – and the nice graphics by Martin of course 🙂

I found some planes came with different stats here on the forum and on the public BRS facebook page.
So let me check briefly which ones are the most recent ones:
– Bf 109G: Speed 8 & 37 points or 9 & 41?
– P-39: I have the D and the Q version for the US. For the SU, I found two files (no version letters), with speed 7 & 23 points and speed 8 & 26 points. Which of the two is the most appropriate one? Which plane variant (version letter) would that “historically” be?

How does “Rapid Roll” on the Spit V L.F. work? If I’m not mistaken it is a novel aircraft trait not explained anywhere else.

(As a suggestion, you could inlude a tiny version number in one of the card corners in the future to prevent confusion between different card versions.)

[Renko]

Version numbers is a good idea – I’ll see about adding them, however it may not be soon as we rely on Martin having some spare time and its strictly voluntary so I don’t want to over burden him.

As for your question – the 109G card the slower one is the “correct” one. I suppose technically both are right but the faster one is based on some of the coach built “specials”, the speed 8 one is the standard model that will (hopefully) get produced.

The P39 has a bit of history. We were trying to represent several different versions at first, but it became clear we were in danger of over complicating. All the versions are correct but again it depends on which mark of P39 you are looking at. We decided to tidy the whole thing up and do just one card for the Sovs and one for the US. The Soviet P39s could be either of the versions on the cards but the slower one is intended for general representation – actually there will probably be a fair few reviews of that before it ever gets produced officially.

Rapid Roll is a variant on Tight Turn – basically allows you to take your “normal” turn at the start of a move only (not at any point as with TT). There are several planes that will have this – the Fw190A and La5 for instance

Hope that helps

[Mark Barker]

It will be interesting to see the 190 when it comes – a ‘poor man’s Tight Turn’ will not really do its roll capabilities justice.

The prototype 190 minature in the recent You-Tube footage looked very good indeed.

Mark Barker

[Renko]

Rapid Roll is the second most effective tun trait after Tight Turn. Until you see the whole picture you cant really make comparisons. Combined with the Fw190s agility, speed and other traits Im pretty sure it will be one of the most potent fighters out there.

Of course there will always be disagreement over statistics but at some point you have to recognise the designer makes the final decision. It’s not his first dance, and he has a vociferous group of playtesters offering “assistance”.

[Renko]

Another “Ready Room” Leak of the Week. Here is the almost forgotten Curtis Hawk 75. It’s a fascinating little plane that saw a surprising amount of service. The H75s proved to be the most effective fighter in French service during the Battle of France, accounting for around a third of the claimed kills. They also saw action in both Vichy and Free French hands, in China under the Nationalists and in The Dutch East Indies against the Japanese. Captured French examples were sold by Germany to Finland who used them against the Soviets. The RAF used them for training. The USAAF flew them as the P36, but they only saw action at Pearl Harbour, where six P36s accounted for two A6M2 Zeros for the loss of one of their own. We have chosen to use the French version as our example, but although there are minor changes in specs and equipment this can also stand in for the others. In BRS the H75 is a nice little plane, very manoeuvrable, but the lack of speed means that it will always be at a tactical disadvantage against most opponents. Thanks again to Martin Evans for the rather beautiful card graphics. As always give it a try and tell us what you think. Cheers

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[Cat Shot One]

Bienvenue to the first French entry!

Renko, cheers for your answers. A last one: How does Heavy Hitter work? Must be the P-39’s 37 mm cannon.

[Renko]

Yes 🙂

Heavy Hitter gives +1 firepower and all hits are automatically critical hits, from shots within 3″

Basically applies to either low velocity guns or those with low rates of fire

[Claire]

Has there been a consideration for a card in the deck, not sure what type of card it should be, of something like “initial burst” or “limited ammo?” I’m thinking of the early 109s that had the two MG and two cannon config but with limited ammo for the cannon. The card could either bump the FP by 1 for this fire (then assuming the 109 was reduced to FP 0), or could be used by an enemy to reduce the FP by 1.s

Not sure how widely applicable it would be.

And also, not sure whether the limited ammo for the 20mm on the 109s were an issue. I don’t really remember reading any pilots talking about it as an issue in combat….

[Andy Chambers]

Limited ammo is why the Bf109E is rated at firepower 1 rather than 2 despite having cannon, the same applies for the earlier Zeros. From what I’ve read the different armament mix meant that pilots attacked slightly differently; mg-armed aircraft had more ammo so they would take snap and deflection shots more readily,open fire at long ranges and use multiple bursts to zero in, that all said each individual burst was less likely to cause serious damage. Cannon armed fighters seemed to go in for only using the cannon when they had a good chance of a hit, i.e. at close range or from a tailing position. In BRS these subtle nuances get rendered in to Firepower 1 in earlier aircraft, and sometimes heavy hitter traits in later ones to reward a closer approach.

[Claire]

Ah, makes sense!

[Author]

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