Axis & Allies Miniatures Set 3: Contested Skies

Our weekly dose of update is available on the Avalon Hill site.

The Katyusha looks good for the cost, but I can’t decide if the salvo ability is really worth it.  Are there any soldiers that can be hit with only two successes?  It seems snipers and Anti-tank guns already disrupted are the only things touchable.  The Flakpanzer seems to be a good unit to have if you know you’re dealing with a lot of soft targets.

And the preview minis are….A Sturmovik!  It keeps getting better for the People’s Army.  More cool stuff to throw at the facists.  The other mini looks like a forward artillery observer or a simple radioman.  I can’t tell nationality, but it’s definately a winter weather outfit.

Cool, the Italians, Romanians, and French are getting fleshed out.  Each get a commander and some fire support.

2 German, a Japanese, an American, and a Russian aircraft.  Three Air Superiority fighters and two ground attack aircraft.  Five planes?  Not much to contest the skies with.

no spitfires??

The Spitfire is announced in the teaser blurb for the D-Day set.  I have a feeling two or three aircraft will be released over the course of the next few sets.

YES!! Sturmgeschultz!! My favorite German vehicle (thanks to Close Combat 5) is finally going to see the light of day. W00t!!

-=Grim=-

So how does air to air combat work?  Do planes use their anti-soldier attack against each other?  Does having initiative basically mean the enemy is guaranteed to be able to place his fighter right by your plane to shoot it down?

IMO, there should be a seperate attack value for aircraft to use against other aircraft…  Otherwise you have to either make bombers less effective than fighters vs. infantry, or deal with bombers being as good or better at shooting down planes than fighters, and that just doesn’t make much sense…

They’ve already posted the rules. You can read them. It isn’t as complicated and burdensome as I thought they would have been; I was worried with the addition of two new phases.

-=Grim=-

I read the rules but I didn’t see anything specific to attacks from one plane to another…  Does that just work the same as any other unit attacking a plane?  Are planes assumed to have the antiair SA?

Oh, I see what you’re saying. No, I don’t think that aircraft have AA capabilities. The cards released and the rules released don’t say they do. Which makes sense to me. The planes that do will probably have a special ability that negates the -1.

-=Grim=-

The only rules card for an aircraft we’ve seen have been the Stuka and the Sturmovik, both of which are ground attack aircraft.  We’ll know on Wednesday when they release the stats for the 109 if air superiority fighters have an air-to-air SA.

OK, maybe I’m blind then. The links I see tell us exactly what I just said two posts ago, or I’m missing something here.

-=Grim=-

I’ve read those rules and I don’t see anything specific to aircraft vs. aircraft attacks…  Does this mean that it’s just treated the same way as all other units attacking air?  And then does that mean that it helps to NOT have initiative if you want to send your fighter against an enemy’s plane (because you would get to see where he places it, and then place yours next to it)?

My point is that if there aren’t specific rules to deal with air to air combat, there should be.  A Stuka shouldn’t outclass a Mustang in a dogfight simply because the Stuka has a high attack value due to its anti-ground capabilities (I realize the mustang’s stats aren’t out yet, just giving a theoretical example).

The Mustang will probably have some sort of ability to rectify that, like a +1 to hit on each die (negating the -1), and perhaps something else. If not… well, you can always houserule it. This game begs to be houseruled.

-=Grim=-

Good to see the minor powers getting some officers.Â

The aircraft will give good scenarios for doing particular battles if you only get one side.  Mostly Axis for Barbarossa, mostly Soviet for Stalingrad and the late war, etc.

I was apprehensive about getting these sets after seeing the previews (Luftwaffe infantrymen?) but the list actually looks pretty damn good.