Dawn Patrol (Fight in the Skies)
by Mike Carr
The classic TSR game Dawn Patrol by Mike Carr. Dawn Patrol, originally titled Fight in the Skies, was conceived in the mind of a 15 year old Mike Carr after watching the classic movie starring George Pappard: Blue Max.
While the game is not designed for miniatures play, originally, it was played using 1/72 model aircraft. Since it is easily modified into a miniatures game, we shall include it in the scope of our
game reviews.
Fight in the Skies was published by hand for the first three editions, and later was picked up by Guidon Games (now defunct) for the 4th edition in 1972. In 1975 TSR produced the 5th edition, and later changed the name to a
sexier "DAWN PATROL" in 1983 with a large produciton run for the 7th edition.
My good buddy and I bought this game in 1983 (the 7th Edition by TSR) at the same time we bought Boot Hill. (At the old Kaybees Toy store at our local mall in Cedar Rapids. Of course then we couldn't drive, so we had to pedal our little legs off. I can remember the grin on my friends face on the way back from the store, it will be forever etched in my mind. I also remember swerving in front of him, pretending to be a fighter plane, then seeing him wipe out, go head over heels onto the road. Woops! Forgive me Bob-Rob.)
We literally wore this game out. We actually had to go and buy another copy because the maneuver cards were falling apart. I recently snagged another copy off of ebay, as I loaned
mine out and never got it back.
There are two games in the set, the Basic Game and the Advanced Game. The Basic Game covers the things you need to play, while the Advanced Game enhances the game, and provides
a great system for campaigns without adding too much more complexity.
This game is still being played at GEN CON, and as a personal testament to the game I have kept ole Raven von Matthias, my high-scoring personal pilot for the game (Shot down and captured July 1918 with 71 kills), if I can find him (I know her is here somewhere!), I will post the scan of his sheet. This game has
been out of print for a while, but if you are lucky you can snag a copy on ebay or amazon for around $30 or so. There are rumors of an 8th edition coming out at some point, hope to see it soon.
Fight in the Skies/Dawn Patrol (Mike Carr) $OOP ($30 on ebay)
The first thing I thought when we opened our 7th edition (1983) Dawn Patrol box was 'squares?' I had been wargaming for a couple of years at that point, and hexagons were the way you played wargames (well, except my dad's copy of Tactics 2 anyway).
The nicely done and colorful gamesheet depicts an aerodrome, railroad junction, roads, trees, some elevation, and a stream. For scramble, bombing, or base-defence missions, the board serves very nicely. The only comment I had about the
map other than the square spaces was that there was no trenchlines to fight over. But once we thought about it, we realized that the game ws a game of air to air combat and that the map was perfect.
We did play scenarios where the road network represented a the trenchline of the enemy.
The counters were so beautifully done that we stared at them for a good half an hour, looking up each aircraft in my buddy's Aircraft book. This is when we learned that there is no way to pronounce the word FOKKER and not get the look from your mom. Once she
saw what we were trying to read, and that it really was an airplane name, she relaxed and put down the bar of soap. Each aircraft on the counter set is magnificently painted. My favorite has to be the Albatross with the red heart on it. True to form, the German
aircraft are colored in a nice array of individual patterns, with the allied aircraft being rather dull green (there are some variations - white Nieuports, etc). Once we learned that this was historically accurate, this was alright by us.
There are several aircraft cards that depict the vitals for each of the aircraft types. They note the armament, maximum speed, maximum altitude, etc.
The cards also denote the performance for the aircraft at various altitudes, their turn rates, etc.
Movement is done by initiative, the low roll moving first, then the next, and so on. The great thing about this is that aircraft that have a height advantage
of more than 2000 feet over other aircraft move after those aircraft below them. Also, if you are tailing another aircraft, there are special rules for how you move
than work out rather nicely (a little clunky right off by compounding (and reversing) the I go you go mode, but once you see how it works there is no problem!)
There are a set maneuvers that you can perform any time, and your speed denotes how many spaces you move and which maneuvers you have the ability to perform.
Moving aircraft is pretty simple once you understand how it is all done. It is when you are tailing another aircraft that the tailing cards come into play
and where the fun really begins!
If you are being tailed, you pick a single maneuver card to execute, keeping it hidden. The player who is tailing you picks a number of maneuvers indicated by
a chart. The closer you are to the opponent you are tailing, the less cards you get to pick. If you match the other player, you have successfully tailed them through their
maneuver and can proceed with blasting away. (The neat part about this is that we were able to use a random maneuver draw for NPC aircraft when we were playing campaigns,
that way nobody complained.)
One thing nice about this is that there are REVERSAL maneuvers. Provided that your opponent cannot match your maneuver, you can turn the tables on them by doing a loop or another type of maneuver.
A very neat way of getting yourself shot down if you are not paying attention.
Combat couldn't be any easier if you tried: Check your firing arc, check your range, drop a die on the shooting table, if you hit: apply d6 damage to random areas determined by the
damage tables provided. In the Advanced Game, there is a little more to the damage system, including critical hits, which add agreat dimension to the game.
I can still remember when we played out our first campaign with the Dawn Patrol rules. you roll for the starting experience of your pilot, his rank, etc. and
watch them progress as their kills and mission tallies increase. There is a mission generator that can be used (this is actually included in the Advanced Game), as well
as a nice little bit about medals, awards, etc. that comes in handy as your pilots progress.
Currently, there are still groups that play Dawn Patrol on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, Mike Carr recently (October 2006) mentioned to me that there was a group running in St. Paul Minnesota
on a regular basis. There are regional tournaments, and as noted above, folks still show up to play this classic at Gen Con every year.
One thing you absolutely MUST check out is the
dawnpatrol.org website. It has a club, events, newsletter/periodical (AERODROME), etc
that will keep you in the loop as far as tourneys, news etc. goes.
For you miniature airplane wargamers, I have one thing to say: Get this game and play it with miniatures. I rating of a 5: quick to learn, easy top play, and a joy on your
gaming table. It does require the use of square hexes if you are going to use hexes, although I have talked with some who have done away with the hexes and just use pure inches of movement.
I have not played that way yet, but who knows. Mike Carr put together a great game that is still played more than 20 years later! Well done!!!
Johann