Is the Numbers card overpowered?

[Greg S]

We were playing our first game of BRS last week after many many months of wargaming abstinence.  And we were a little rust on the rules.

We selected our theatre and doctrine cards randomly and my opponent drew Numbers.  Suddenly his force of 4 109s jumped to 6!  Since our forces were pretty much equal on points, things did not look so good for my Yaks.

The Numbers card grants two additional planes at the deployment stage,  It immediately generated a few questions.

We thought maybe it would be a late war Soviet vs German Theatre, ie Kursk, but in fact it is a pacific theatre card.

Is it overpowered?

If you have more than one plane type, which do you chose, and a what experience level of pilot?

 

 

[Koin-Koin]

Didn’t checked everything but if you follow the guidelines for war period and zone of conflict provided in the rulebooks, Numbers should have been given to the Yaks.

Random can leads to highly unbalanced games but you have to keep in mind that BRS has been thought to provide the reality of those aerial fights. Enemies didn’t called each others prior to engage to each others to agree on a balance force ^^. Don’t forget that the main point in air combat is not to kill every single enemy plane but to force the enemy to break combat before you have to. So sometime being outnumbered ends in a victory anyway.

I think that you should follow those guidelines for the first play as you’ll learn how those card impact a force and its counterpart then go to more self created forces as you’ll know what are strength and weakness of your planes.

About which planes and level, the card state that you must match the most prevalent for both planes type and pilots level. If you got equal numbers I would say go for lower points each time as ,in my opinion, the Numbers card makes sense for weaker forces. I would even argue that usually numbered forces (not only in air fight) is a way to compensate weaker trainer soldiers but people with better historical knowledge may prove me wrong.

Also, from what I’ve understood of several Andy’s interview, the game is not aimed for competitive play at its core but more prone to be home ruled so everyone can enjoy it.

[jon skipper]

Short answer Yes!  In airstrike it is suggested that Numbers and Home Advantage cards shouldn’t be used in competitive play.  Basically only use them in appropriate themed missions, otherwise you may struggle.

[Greg S]

I think that you should follow those guidelines for the first play as you’ll learn how those card impact a force and its counterpart then go to more self created forces as you’ll know what are strength and weakness of your planes.

Let me clarify, it wasn’t our dirst game of BRS, it was out first game after 18 months of enforced absence.

The scenario we played was Bounced, which required shooting down planes, not simply driving the enemy from the field.

Short answer Yes!

Thanks to you both.

[Author]

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