Scramble II

AIR COMBAT 1935 – 1945

New Listing 10th November 2023

·         Current Edition: 1.0

·         Recommended scale 1/300

·         Complexity: 6/10

·         Level of detail: 7/10

·         Dice required: D10, D6

This new revised edition of Scramble appears 25 years after its original version. Much has changed in how we design our rules since then, and many of these changes are reflected in this new edition to simplify how the game operates (and speed it up). Some of the changes are listed:

• You now get everything on one package. There is no longer a supplement with the extra aircraft you want. There are 44 pages of aircraft data within the rules. We have restricted the scope of the rules to cover a more concentrated span of dates from the mid-1930's to the end of the Second World War.
• We have removed the ammunition depletion rules, which in the original version were derived by "hand waving" based on calibre. Despite the passing of years and the greater availability of data, it still remains patchy. If we could get ammunition data for all the aircraft we would have created a simple mechanism to cover depletion.
• We have changed the Skill generation for Pilots and Aircrew. There are no longer individual Aircrew to keep track of, just their number.
• Air combat now uses a single dice roll to hit for each group of guns firing in the battery (which may be all the wing guns, or guns in an individual turret or mounting etc.) Aor combat now takes account of the number of guns, rate of fire, muzzle velocity and weight of the bullets; these create a to hit modifier and also the number of damage dice inflicted.
• Flying your aircraft has been simplified, particularly when climbing. The old concept of a "climb track" has been dropped in favour of a test using the Pilot's Skill and the aircraft performance.
• Attacking surface targets has been streamlined. The Player does need to selected the right weapons to attack the targets he has selected, however the actual attack system uses a simple test.
• We have also added (optional) Tactical Cards which add some excitement to the game. These cards usually modify the chances of your success in various tests in the game.

These rules operate in three dimensions while only physically using two, height being indicated beside an aircraft. Weapon effectiveness is taken into account, and the skill of your aircrew is paramount. This is varied by nation and period to get the right feel for the game. The system also caters for game balance to ensure that no game is a walkover. There are simple rules for Flak, Bombing, Night Actions, etc.

The rules are simple enough for a player to pick up the fundamentals quickly, and to control several aircraft. Experience has shown that a players can handle about 4 planes with ease.

While the rules are quite short, they are supplemented by data all the significant aircraft of World War Two. Major Nations covered in the rules are France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland, the Soviet Union and the United States of America. In addition we include aircraft from Australia, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

Game support material is available to download on the publisher's website at www.aandagames.co.uk.

New Entry 10th November 2023