Lawrence Rusieki's Histo Games must be doing well with its first two titles (HANNIBAL and 1944) because here is a third one. The subject, in case you don't recognize the title, is the Battle of Britain, 1940. It is also boxless, and its "board" is 22"x28" with black and blue inks on tan heavy paper. The rules are all over both sides of a huge, 19 1/2" x 14" single sheet of paper.

Unit counters are very nicely printed and die cut and come in their own inner envelope to protect against loss due to counters coming loose - a nice touch. British units are a brown that closely approximates the khaki uniforms of the British Army, and the German units are a metallic green that suggests the German Army's field grey; another nice touch - except that all the units involved in the game are air force units, and the RAF and Luftwaffe both wore blue! Also included are seven copies of an 8 1/2"x11" "Mission Sheet".

Though I am not terribly familiar with the play of Zocchi's BATTLE OF BRITAIN, it would seem to me that Mr. Rusieki is, for there are more points of similarity between the two games than would be accounted for by the simulation of the same subject. This is not to say that EAGLE DAY is merely a "rip off" of the older game. To the contrary it is a much cleaner, simpler game with much less bookkeeping, which, nevertheless seems to simulate the actual situation, weapons, and tactics quite well. Each German counter represents a "Gruppe" of 27 planes.

The map shows the southeastern part of England covered by the 10th Fighter Group and shows the British fighter bases, London, a Spitfire factory at Woolston and a Hurricane factory at Brooklands. The German player receives victory points for each time that he successfully bombs a British airfield. Some bases are worth one point and others are worth three. Of course, the British try to prevent the Germans from accumulating enough points to win by shooting down German bombers.

The German player also has fighters with which to defend his bombers and attempt to destroy the RAF in the air. The "Historical Game" scenario only covers three weeks of battle (13 Aug - 2 Sep), each represented by 20 turns of play. This time limit was chosen because it was in early September that Goering ordered the bombers to shift from attacks on RAF bases to the bombing of the city of London (which is not provided for in the game, since it accomplished nothing anyway).

The "Extended Game" scenario allows the German to stick to the plastering of airfields for 2 extra weeks to see what would have happened if Goering had not ordered the change. There are also optional rules covering North Sea raids, bombing the aircraft factories, what would have happened had the Germans destroyed the British radar detection system (or if it had not existed at all), and one allowing the British player to alter the historical allocation of lanes to the 10th, 12th, and 13th Groups off the board) and the German player to make raids on their areas. Also included are helpful strategy tips for both sides and a short Historical Summary.

All in all it is a very interesting game and should be well worth the very reasonable $5.00 price ($6.00 Canadian). It is available (postpaid) from Histo Games, 34 Sharon St, Brooklyn, NY 11211.

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