It is May 1917 and you are in command of No. 10 (Naval) Squadron. A few weeks ago, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) experienced the disaster of "Bloody April". Approximately 250 pilots were lost in combat against Germany's best, including the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. The RFC begged for relief and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) stepped in to hold the line.
Everyone expected a massacre. The leadership of the RFC, expected that "Bloody April" would extend and "Bloody Summer" would follow as the hastily assembled relief squadrons from the Royal Navy, almost all Canadian pilots, were swept from the skies. Yet the Canadians of RNAS proved everyone wrong. Not only did they not get massacred, they turned the tide.
One squadron among them, Naval 10, as it was called, bore the brunt of the challenge. Within that squadron, one Flight - just five pilots and aeroplanes - known as "Black Flight" and lead by Flight Sub-Lieut. Raymond Collishaw, took to the skies over the Ypres Salient and set a record in aerial combat that stands to this day - in eleven weeks, Naval 10 downed 87 German aeroplanes, many of them drawn from among Germany's finest.
Today, despite being the highest scoring naval aviator of all time, the name of Raymond Collishaw is little known. In skill, he rivalled the prowest of the Red Baron himself. Flying his Sopwith Triplane, over the course of those eleven weeks, personally he downed 30 of the Germans.
Black Flight is a solitaire air war game set in the Great War, often called the First World War. As with all wargames from Historic Wings, Black Flight is deeply researched. You learn about history as you play the game - not the Hollywood version, but the real thing. The rules are built to mirror history, carefully crafted to recreate the true circumstances faced by Collishaw's Canadian pilots. Yet the outcomes are not guaranteed. You will be called on to fly historic missions across the trenches and over No Man's Land - and beyond, where the Germans wait patiently with their Albatros and Halberstadt scout planes.
Your orders will reflect the actual patrols of the time - OPs, Offensive Patrols that penetrated deep behind enemy lines; LPs, Line Patrols that ran north and south over the trenches; escort missions where you protect bombers, reconnaissance aeroplanes, photo reconnaissance flights, and artillery direction missions. The routes you fly will be historically accurate - yet through the careful construction of weekly changing tables, each game will be a new and different experience, ensuing extraordinary replayability.
At the core of the game is that you manage your own Naval 10 squadron. You will recruit your pilots and each will have unique characteristics as defined by a mix of 45 Trait Cards and 45 Vice Cards that give each the very strengths and weaknesses that reflected the times. With they lived in. Each time you play, your squadron will be different, your challenges will be unique, and your struggles will be memorable. Unique among aviation games today, Black Flight recreates the diverse personalities of the pilots themselves - some may be reckless, others ruthless, in the wake of bad experiences, their condition will deteriorate. Your best ace pilot, seeing one to many of his friends shot from the sky, may take to alcohol. Your most trusted and reliable cornerstone of the squadron may suffer a nervous breakdown. Yet the orders keep coming. Just as experienced by the real Naval 10 from May through July 1917, your losses will mount and your men will become progressively exhausted and stressed.
Black Flight is the first in a series of solitaire Great War titles from Historic Wings that, as the series is published, will enable players to fly against one another - pitting the Canadians of the RNAS against the Imperial German Air Serice, taking to the skies with the RFC, or, between glasses of wine, kicking the tires of your Nieuports and flying into the teeth of battle. Each nationality will have its own unique Trait Cards and Vice Cards that reflect the times, the traditions, and the historic personalities of each.
Suitable for gameplay with miniatures - including with 1/350th or larger models, right up to 1/72 if you have a dining table playing space!!
Will the fifteen pilots of your own Naval 10 fare better than Collishaw? Will your leadership help turn the tide against the Germans? Will you reverse the disaster of "Bloody April" and open the way for the upcoming Messines and Ypres offensives or will you experience a "Bloody Summer of 1917"?
For God, King, England, and the Commonwealth!
Rulebook & Historical Notes included, with 22x28 CANVAS map, 5 countersheets
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