White Star/Blue Sky (WS/BS) Sky published by Simtac Inc., continues the game system introduced in John Stanoch's, "Squadrons", and "Red Sun/Blue Sky (RS/BS), and details the US European bombing campaigns of 1942 - 1944. Unlike the other two games, WS/BS is not a complete game but is an expansion module for RS/BS. It is 48 pages long and includes two new aircraft data cards, one for the US/UK aircraft and one for the German aircraft introduced to the game system, for a total of 40 new aircraft.

In addition to one solitaire and six normal scenarios, WS/BS includes a section on scenario design - this is good; it treats three general types of mission and is point value-based. Finally, WS/BS includes two campaign games. The first is a fast campaign of (only) 20 missions that has the US player plotting strategic targets and assigning bomber missions to destroy them and the German player desperately trying intercept some or all of the missions. The other campaign game takes 40 or more hours to play and may involve flying more than 300 missions. Remember - a typical mission takes 1 - 2 hours to play out; this one is definitely not for dabblers...

Using the former game as its core, WS/BS adds special rules for heavy bombers that reflect their diverse defensive firepower and widely distributed crew. It also provides mechanisms for two types of daylight bombing, aircrew quality advancement (used in the campaign games), and aircrew recovery (again, campaign games).

Wrapping things up are three pages of well-written designer's notes and the ubiquitous Collectair/SIMTAC aircraft listings for 1/300 scale miniatures suitable to the game. Production values remain high, as with the previous two games, and if you like John Stanoch's system (I do) you will happily pay your local game shop owner $15.95 for White Star/Blue Sky (I did). If you happen to live far away from anywhere and cannot locate a game shop, contact SIMTAC Inc., at 15G Colton Road, East Lyme, CT 06333.- BILL RUTHERFORD

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