In the category of new and small publisher I knew nothing about, a few months ago I found a new game called Violent Skies: 1940 – Dynamo to the Blitz from Pocket Warfare Publishing that deals with aerial combat during WWII. The game has a subtitle of Season 1 so I am assuming that there will be more on the horizon. I reached out to the designer Ben Rawlings and he was more than willing to discuss his design and the future plans for eth series.

If you are interested in Violent Skies: 1940 – Dynamo to the Blitz, you can order a copy for $9.50 from the Wargame Vault website at the following link: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/460079/Violent-Skies–1940–Dynamo-to-the-Blitz?src=hottest_filtered

Grant: First off Ben please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?

Ben: I am a freelance graphic designer these days, enjoying working on a number of board games but also some of the more ordinary stuff. I am an amateur historian researching Eighth Airforce Fighter groups and a keen guitarist. I have many years of ringing ears from playing some lovely Gibson and Fender guitars a bit too loud, and quiet hours reading about anything with wings and an engine!

Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?

Ben: It started as I imagine it does for a lot of people, playing games and tinkering with rules and player made add-ons. The freedom of tabletop games to be tailored, house ruled and turned upside down in some cases was really inspiring. I also was motivated by the desire to make smaller footprint and simpler games. At the stage I am in life I do not have room for a monster wargame or a permanent game table, so making simple print and play games became as much about exercising creativity as it was about making games I could realistically set up and play.

Grant: What is your game Violent Skies about?

Ben: Violent Skies is a solitaire aerial warfare game where you take the role of an individual pilot, flying sorties and building a career over a multiple sortie Campaign. You will have to make decisions on whether to push an attack or disengage, and face up to sometimes having losing odds. Hopefully by the end of a Campaign, the player will have a rich narrative within their logbook, full of tense decisions, close calls and victories.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Ben: As long as I can remember, I have loved aircraft and especially the history of military aircraft. My father took me to lots of museums and airshows which helped spark in me the interest, as well as retelling stories from his family who had a front row seat to the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Combining that with living in the depths of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, surrounded by old Eighth and Ninth Air Force bases, it was always going to be an airgame I made first!

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Ben: From the start it was to make a simple, quick-playing game that yielded believable results. The idea was borne out of the fantastic Osprey series of books that often pairs two adversaries together in a quick reading yet surprisingly deep history. I thought it would be fun to have a game series that did a similar thing.

Grant: What elements from WWII and specifically the period of 1940 are most important to include in the design?

Ben: In the period I have chosen, from the Dunkirk Evacuation to the Blitz in 1940, the endurance of the aircraft operating at the limit of their range and over enemy territory is one element I wanted to capture. This obviously swaps in the Battle of Britain depending on whether you are flying for the RAF or Luftwaffe. The immensely strong Integrated Air Defence (the Dowding System) has to be present in one way or another as an Advantage or Disadvantage depending on the side. The last and most important is the aircraft. Spitfires and Hurricanes, 109’s and 110’s, arguably the way we live today was shaped by young men in those aircraft in 1940.

Grant: What research did you do to get the details correct? What one must read source would you recommend?

Ben: I could probably bore the most die-hard aviation fan with that question! If you are to read only one book about the Battle of Britain, I would suggest The Most Dangerous Enemy by Stephen Bungay. It is a fantastic read and turns a lot of the traditional narrative around the battle on its head. It combines the human, politics and machines wonderfully.  James Holland also has a great book on the Battle of Britain, title of the same name. This goes into detail on the build up and aftermath of the battle, as well as some missed opportunities for the Allies.

If you want to get into the weeds of aircraft performance, the website http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/ is possibly the best reference on the web for it. Full of performance charts, combat reports and comparative studies, it is one of the best places to explore. Ten minutes reading on that site will teach you more than a day of watching the average TV documentary. That’s more than one I know, but a single source is never enough!

Grant: How does the game use a game card that acts as your cockpit?

Ben: The main part of the game is played on a card that has a top down picture of your aircraft and all the information needed to fly it and track that information. You have an Energy and Endurance Track, using one D6 for each. You also have an Altitude Track which will affect your performance when performing certain actions. It is through the Endurance, Energy and Altitude Tracks that the player makes their decisions on what action to perform. Much like a real aircraft, you won’t be undertaking any manoeuvring while sitting at stall speed!

Grant: What is the layout of the game cards?

Ben: The game cards are laid out in the following way: a postcard-sized aircraft card which is known as the Sortie Card; a postcard sized Campaign Table which is where the narrative part of the game is generated and a logbook to track your progress. The Sortie Card is where your aircraft cockpit, Events and Bandits are. 

Grant: What different elements of the plane are tracked during a mission?

Ben: During a mission you will track the aircraft’s Energy, Endurance, Altitude and Damage. Energy is how much potential the aircraft has to manoeuvre. This is integral to most of the actions in the game. You will spend Energy to gain position which will allow you to shoot an aircraft or get in a position where you can disengage if you need to. Each aircraft has a number of die that you roll to attempt to gain position, these values can be different for Low, High and Medium Altitude. You also will lose Energy to gain position which leads to some tough decisions as the Energy gets low. Endurance represents combat time: how much fuel you have over the area of operations. This, in practical terms, is your turn counter. It is reduced by one every time the Bandit finishes their action. This means the player has a timer on what they can do. Altitude determines the ratings the player and enemy have to roll to pass gain position and disengage checks. Some aircraft want to be High, others Low, while some can perform well across the board. You can also lose Altitude to gain back Energy. Damage is the last and simplest. Two hits destroys your aircraft, so when you get the first hit you might want to think about getting back home. This is expanded somewhat by the optional Damage Table.

Grant: How also does this game card double as a mission generator?

Ben: The Sortie Card also has a selection of four Bandits (enemy aircraft) and six Events. During the setup the player will roll for Altitude, Bandit and Event. From this a mission is generated. A typical RAF mission will involve fighting bombers and hoping not to roll the “Out of the Sun” Event, a 109 diving on you can really ruin a day! From these relatively simple systems, players can get a rich narrative with plenty of decisions to make to either win or lose.

Grant: What types of missions are available to players? Is there a campaign type mode?

Ben: Missions in this edition are generated by the card. They are all Aerial Interception, Patrol or Supremacy missions where the goal is to shoot the bandits down in as high a quantity as you can, while all the time surviving. These Sorties are linked together to form a Campaign. There are four Campaign lengths: Short 10, Medium 15, Long 20 and Veteran 25. It is the player’s choice which they want to do. In future sets, there will be Close Air Support, Naval Strike and more coming to make it a more multi-role game. Il-2s over the Steppe and Beaufighters in Norwegian Fjords could be a fun exploration. 

Grant: How does the log book work with the campaign mode?

Ben: The logbook works as you would imagine, a record of each Sortie. This is used to track your claims, as well as any memorable moments and experience if the player is using the Skill Tree. As more aircraft and theatres come out the logbook will track the pilot’s career: can you survive the war?

Grant: What aircraft are available to fly?

Ben: In this pack you have four main aircraft with two unique Sortie Cards each. The unique Sortie Card offers different Bandits and Events. The aircraft are the Spitfire I/II and Hurricane I for the RAF, and the Bf-109E3/4 and Bf-110C for the Luftwaffe.

Grant: What is the general Sequence of Play?

Ben: Firstly, you will roll on the Campaign Table for weather. This will determine if you need to perform a takeoff roll and the results needed for a Spotting Check. During the Spotting Check, you have to spend one Endurance for every failed Spot. This is the narrative part of the game.

You then move onto the Sortie. Here you setup by rolling for Altitude, Bandit and Event. The game is then played in turns equal to your aircraft’s Endurance. With player then Bandit taking actions to try and gain position and shoot the other down, or get out of a sticky situation by disengaging.

Grant: What is the optional damage table?

Ben: This is for players looking for more narrative. It is a simple single D6 roll that offers more immersive damage. From losing fuel or engine power, to a superficial round passing harmlessly through the aircraft’s skin to a catastrophic hit destroying the aircraft.

Grant: What different skills do players have access to choose?

Ben: Skills are constantly evolving as more aircraft are being written. At the moment they focus down two trees: Aircraft and Ace Skills. Aircraft Skills focus on the aircraft actions and twisting some starting figures around such as more Energy for less Endurance and various re-rolls. Ace Skills focus on the offensive part, allowing bonuses while shooting and extra layers to actions to offer the player a perk. These will mature as the product gains more modules.

Grant: What was the greatest challenge in the design you had to overcome?

Ben: After the initial idea and the intensive play-test, modify, play-test cycle it was trimming unnecessary detail. I wanted to focus this to the essence of aerial fighting without getting too bogged down in the details. That is not to say there is not lots of research to it, it was just knowing where to add depth, and where to streamline. Originally there was ammo tracking, multiple Bandits and pilot skill levels on the card. These slowed down the game and added very little worth to the player’s experience. They also could be better tracked using game mechanics rather than trying to literally represent them.

Grant: What changes have come about through play testing?

Ben: I was fortunate to have some great play-testers and Joe Fernandez and Chris Buhl both made enormous contributions to the system. I worked with Joe on Third Option, a DVG game, and he has been fantastic with advice and general wisdom. After he had looked over it he made some really good points about the Campaign Tables and clarity in the rules. These suggestions were very much the point where I could translate the game idea into a working product. Joe also pointed out a lot of inconsistencies I had in the rules which were something his experienced eye caught and mine overlooked. Chris I know from us both being fans of Table Air Combat, a fantastic print and play game also of WWII aerial combat. Chris played my game and created some great posts and videos. He also found a few problems in the system that had not turned up in my play-testing which led to a change in the Wingman action and the coming update to the player’s logbook. The update will increase the narrative elements of the game with medals, rank and a more in-depth reporting system. All optional! 

Grant: What do you feel the game design excels at?

Ben: You can get plausible and fun results in a very quick-playing game, while occupying very little space. It also has very little to no crafting for a print and play. A pair of scissors for three counters is all you really need, but these can be substituted with a pencil or played on a tablet.

Grant: What new subjects or theaters are you contemplating for this system?

Ben: Currently, the RAF’s fighter sweeps of 1941 and the introduction of the Fw-190A are the most imminent. These will work as a continuation of the current game. After that I am keen to move to the Russian Front and the Early Pacific Carrier battles and the Burma theatre. I really enjoy making these so I am happy to take it anywhere if players have requests. I know there is an interest in Post- and Pre-Second World War so there is a lot more in the pipeline!

Thanks so much for your time in answering our questions Ben. The game looks great and I am glad that we have been able to share this interesting looking little game with our readers. Hopefully, we will have you back on the blog again for future interviews.

If you are interested in Violent Skies: 1940 – Dynamo to the Blitz, you can order a copy for $9.50 from the Wargame Vault website at the following link: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/460079/Violent-Skies–1940–Dynamo-to-the-Blitz?src=hottest_filtered

-Grant