Blue Seas/Blue Sky

WWII Air Combat Rules: Med

Review By Bill Rutherford

Blue Seas/Blue Sky (BS/BS) is the long-awaited newest release in the ongoing series of WW II air combat games authored by John Stanoch. This is not a complete game but is an add-on addressing the peculiarities and special aspects of the air war in the Mediterranean during 1941 - 1943.

The rulebook is 60 pages long, including advertising and a pair of card aircraft data charts for 42 new aircraft (10 British and American, 14 German, and 18 Italian), is staple-bound, has full color covers outside, and is clearly printed inside. Building on the popular air war rules most recently iterated in Red Sun/Blue Sky (early Pacific War air battles, required for use with this supplement), BS/BS includes three pages of new rules to reflect the peculiarities of air combat over the Mediterranean. This is followed by a restatement of the series’ sequence of play and a description of Italian and British aircraft formations and how they affect play. Aircraft morale checks (for Italian aircraft) are introduced in BS/BS, too. Slight elaborations are made to the RS/BS ship rules and ship data are included for the entire Italian and French fleets, as well as most of the Royal Fleet (more than 200 ships in all). Two entertaining pages are devoted to secret weapons including Italian parachute torpedos, radio-controlled bombers, and German guided bombs.

The meat of the book, of course, is the scenario section and here, BS/BS does a good job. The 25 pages of scenarios include four solitaire scenarios, eight standard (two-player) scenarios, and three mini-campaigns. The solitaire scenarios, as one might expect, pit an active player against enemy ships or, in one case, bombers. The standard scenarios cover the usual gamut ranging from bomber intercepts to fighter engagements, to a lone duelist facing massive odds… I liked the mini-campaigns. The first pits Axis bombers and their escorts against an ever-dwindling British fighter defense over four missions, the second is an entertaining “round robin” that has the players rotate in turn through the Axis player’s side to see who racks up the highest victory tally over five missions, and the last is a six-mission air blockade against Axis aerial supply convoys.

As usual, the scenarios include extensive historical commentary and are interesting reads even if one doesn’t actually play them… The book wraps up with five pages of players’ notes, three of designer’s notes, and two pages of bibliography (unfortunately unannotated). If you play the Blue Skies series of games this book is a must-have because of the rules and aircraft charts provided. Even if you don’t play these rules the scenarios, as usual, make this book a good buy!

Blue Seas/Blue Skies is available from your local game store for $19.95 or, failing that, directly from the publisher, Regal Ent. Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa 50325, or see them on the web at www.regalminiatures.com. Recommended!

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