Numbers Card Question

[Joe]

Hi,

Just a few questions on using the “Numbers” card.

It says to play during deployment, so do you get the extra Aircraft Trait Cards to go with these extra aircraft added to your deck as well?

Also if the extra aircraft are Aces, do you get extra ace cards?

[Nat]

yes you do.

When a plane is added to your squadron you add one trait card (keeping with the 50% split rule) to your deck. There is nothing about timing with this. The same with Aces, when they are added to the squadron they come with a skill card.

This is one of the reasons why its been said that Numbers is a card best left out of pickup games…….

edit – I played a game with every plane being an ace and out numbered my opponents P 51s… game was a draw because I couldnt roll 6s…. I had so many attempts my opponent said it should have been over turn 2 had I rolled near average.. we house ruled numbers out of the game after that!

[Joe]

Thanks for the reply Nat.

Wow, Numbers card seems pretty powerfull!

[Mark Barker]

Joe,

There is another card that is as powerful and tends to get excluded from ‘competitive’ games and that is Home Advantage.

This allows the side operating over its own territory to ‘stick around’ for longer because it has less distance to travel back to base. Historically this was a key advantage for the RAF in 1940 (and the Luftwaffe during the RAF’s period of ‘leaning into France’ in 1941).

The card allows you ignore a boom chit, which sounds innocuous at first until you realise how many balanced games of BRS come down to a single boom chit !

But the real effect comes from it being a ‘Discard’. Dastardly RAF types, no doubt twirling their moustaches while they do so, can then blast through the deck by doing lots of unnecessary Tight Turns etc and get the card back in their hand.

Cycled like this a couple of times a game it can make the home side practically unbeatable, unless of course the other side hold the equally powerful Numbers card to compensate ! As well as being a neat piece of game-balancing design this is historically very accurate for the Battle of Britain, where the RAF was usually outnumbered but could get damaged aircraft (and more importantly pilots) back into action where the Luftwaffe had the longer return journey over enemy territory and the ‘Kanal’ to deal with.

Andy’s recommendation was to take both cards out of competitive play, and even in a friendly game either of them is really unbalancing unless the other is in play on the opoosing side.

For our club games we do not use Numbers but do allow the RAF to use Home Advantange in BoB games as a 1-use only card – i.e. ‘Remove’ rather than ‘Discard’. It gives a nice historical flavour, especially if the RAF players are the less experienced players (which is normally a good idea as the 109s are more difficult to fly well until you understand the game).

Best wishes,

Mark Barker
West Sussex
UK

[Author]

Posts