OverviewOur annual
Battletech convention "
Phoenix Con" in northern Germany again saw some formidable air action. Although my time at the convention was severely limited, we managed to get three skirmishes off the ground.
The picture below shows the
Crimson Skies gaming table I prepared to attract (new) pilots.
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Main Flight BookTwo new recruits approached me and after explaining the basic rules we started the
1st skirmish. One of them picked the
Avenger and
Brigand, the other the
Firebrand and the
Bloodhawk. I chose the
Raven and - my favourite - the
Fury.
We neither used rockets nor
Special Characteristics for their first sortie, but we flew on the
Seaport map, to have at least some restraints on flight paths.
For visual aid I placed some tower miniatures on the red dot obstacles where the cranes and radio towers are printed. Also notice the tokens on the map edges where the hillside obstacles are located. The picture was taken right after the first turn.
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Early on my
Raven took a hefty beating to its leading port wing, whereas the
Fury caught a lot of magnesium rounds to its nose. No big deal, as my opponents failed to take advantage of the trailing smoke.
Left picture: during movement resolution, turn 4. Right pictures: after weapon's fire, same turn. Luckily, no collision occured.
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Unfortunately, the second player wasn't able to complete the game due to other responsibilites, and left between turns 6 and 7. His
Bloodhawk got away clean, while the
Firebrand suffered some internal damage before disengaging.
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Due to a well-placed magnesium round it was obvious that the
Brigand of my remaining opponent would be out of the fight in turn 6. My
Raven was a little tougher here: only a nearly completely obliterated wing sent it spiralling in turn 12.
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Avenger and
Fury continued their dogfight and finally duked it out in turn 23 in a classic heads-on showdown. Thanks to some solid shooting, the
Avenger scored an
Engine Destroyed hit on the
Fury. Although the
Avenger also got shot up badly, it was still airworthy and headed home afterwards for a complete overhaul with an impressive amount of experience points!
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The
2nd flight was against a veteran pilot, therefore we used rockets and random planes. He got a
Hellhound (
Defender mini) and a
Devastator, while I rolled a
Monitor (
Brigand mini) and a
Cutlass (
Fury mini).
Naturally, the shooting started with a lot of
Sonics and
Flares.
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Being the slow armor hog that it is, my
Monitor received the anticipated punishment; but taking it almost exclusively to the nose was most inauspicious. My opponent probably would have nailed both my planes, were it not for a disastrous navigating error of his
Devastator pilot, which crash-landed him in one of the crane obstacles on turn 3.
Nevertheless, the remaining
Hellhound was able to shoot another full barrage at the
Monitor's nose and landed a high-explosive rocket right in the center of the heavy plane, thus destroying its engines and forcing the pilot to eject.
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Of course the
Hellhound suffered a lot from the return fire but pushed on nevertheless for two more turns. The record sheets don't show a clear reason as to why the fight stopped after turn 14, but with the state the
Focke-Wulff craft was in, I assume that it disengaged. At least, my
Cutlass was still in good shape.
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The
3rd and final flight was against another veteran pilot, thus using rockets but still no
Special Characteristics. No pictures were taken of this combat, but see the record sheets further down. When rolling random planes my opponent was quite lucky and got a
Peacemaker and a
Coyote, while I was stuck with a
Defender and a
Kestrel.
The first plane to go down was my
Kestrel. The combined power of four .60s, two .70s and four .40s will do that quickly. For my heavy fighter it was turn 3. Naturally, the pilot didn't survive the crash.
Without its bad
Special Characteristics my
Defender actually managed to survive until turn 6. But its weak wing armor led to the wing tip being shot off and netting the
Coyote pilot his second kill.
Here are my planes in their final states:
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And here are my opponent's planes (note that I did at least some damage to the
Coyote )
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ConclusionIt was really nice to take to the skies again, recruiting new pilots and flying skirmishes against some of the veterans.
True, we didn't get around trying out any of the scenarios I prepared; but on the other hand, with the limited time I had, playing three skirmishes was awesome!
Also, we did write down XPs this time, so that everyone may use their pilots next time we play, be it at one of the regular
Battletech meetings or at the
Phoenix Con 2019!
OutlookAs already implied, I'll be offering to play
Crimson Skies at this year's convention yet again. Maybe that time around we can use our 3D board for a skirmish or two...
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P.S.This review was also posted on Boardgamegeek.com
Go and check it out here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/article/30935208 and maybe give it a thumb!
It is also availabel in German here:
http://www.skrupel-sorcerer.de/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=769
, so if you want to play Crimson Skies 
