Bloody April, 1917 award winning board game goes digital!

[Toonces]

This news pleases the Toonces.

[Nefaro]

To be honest, I don't know that I'm really all that much of a fan of Wing Leader.  Now that I've got enough games of it under my belt, I find that it's a little to constrained and a little too reliant on dice rolls.  Up until flights actually engage, there's not really a lot of player choice available as most flights are required to act within a very narrow set of parameters.  I wish I liked it more than I do as I'm a big fan of the subject matter.   I'm a huge fan of LBW's Bomber Command.  Nightfighter is OK but it's a little too light for my tastes and it's not really a two player game.  I haven't tried Downtown or Elusive Victory as the jet era holds no interest for me anymore.  I did play Burning Blue once but we had to quit early so I never really got that much of a feel for it.  I did like what I saw though.

I picked up Bloody April because it was on a Christmas clearance sale for $20.  I think it looks interesting but I don't know that I'd be able to get the couple of wargamers I have to play against locally to give it a try.  They aren't really fans of air warfare or tactical level games which is a shame as those are my faves.

Bloody April, EV, and DT are much the same way.  Although they are more front-loaded with hidden mission planning.  Routes mostly iirc, although the jet-era games also have more Air Defense stuff, as mentioned.

The big difference being that those three games have a heavy reliance on limited or hidden information.  Doesn't solo well on it's own, in most cases, but could be ideal for a digital game versus AI or other players on PBEM server.  Although, in BA, the German side is very focused on defensive missions.

[Gusington]

GIGGITY

[bbmike]

Nice! I hope the 'board game goes digital' trend continues.  O0

[Father Ted]

I'll just RoF it.

[Swatter]

Very cool

[jomni]

Nice! I hope the 'board game goes digital' trend continues.  O0

Depends on the board game.  Some games have rules only a human can comprehend and hard to do a good AI.

[Grim.Reaper]

Am I reading right, development won't start until 2017...so likely will get in 2018?

[MengJiao]

Cool!  I've had the game and the expansion on my shelf for quite a while now but still haven't even read the rules.

The mechanics are very similar to LBW's more recent Wing Leader games, albeit from a top-down perspective.  Simo's  air war games, this & the Arab-Israeli one, Elusive Victory, came from the same pedigree (Downtown) as you well know. 

I'd kinda rather see Elusive Victory, or even Downtown, over the WWI title.  If only because they have more of a learning curve due to the SAM, Radar, and EW rules.  Plus those more modern air wars have a higher emphasis on hidden opponent units (being more air defenses).  But Bloody April is one of the lightest of the bunch, so maybe this is just the first in a series?  *wink wink nudge nudge*



I hope the digital version has some kind of long-term campaign.  The British air offensive around "Bloody April" suffered huge pilot attrition.  Trying to keep the crews alive, to fight the next day/sortie into enemy territory, should be a big part of the gameplay!  Was a tough grind.  It would take a long time and some home brewed rules to do such a long campaign with the tabletop, but a digital version would be a perfect way to go.  Bonus points if it has some procedural mission generation.

  I'll happily play the digital version.  I seem to remember Simo mentioning somewhere in some design notes (maybe for BA) how BA relates in terms of time, speed and distance to Downtown and Elusive Victory.  Of course BA has a very different feel to it than the jet games do.  One thing I recall from having played BA a few times, is how hard it is to climb in an airplane in 1917.

  A campaign would be fine and more workable in a digital format, I'm sure.

[Nefaro]

Am I reading right, development won't start until 2017...so likely will get in 2018?

Well.... these guys have already been working on the Check Your Six! digital translation.  So I hope they get that one done before moving all their eggs to different baskets.  Looking forward to a CY6 computer series more than anything, but I'll throw money at them for nearly any tabletop air wargames they wanna do.  8)

[Boggit]

Sounds very interesting. O0

[bbmike]

Nice! I hope the 'board game goes digital' trend continues.  O0

Depends on the board game.  Some games have rules only a human can comprehend and hard to do a good AI.

That's why they all must have a hotseat mode.  8)

[stolypin]

Yes!

[ArizonaTank]

One of my gaming buddies and I played a campaign day with the board game.  A heck of a lot of fun...but took us 9 months. 

So looking forward to a faster option to play this game.

My only fear is that I really haven't seen many board game / digital translations that really work for me.  All, seem a little out of place and clunky.... The exception is "Heroes of Normandie".  But there are plenty of other great board games that can really suck once they go digital: I am not a fan of what they did to "Conflict of Heroes" and "Empires in Arms" for example.

IMHO, if they just ditch the pretense of staying true to the board game, and make a real time game...like the WWI version Combat Modern Air Naval Ops with some pilot management thrown in for good measure, they will have a hit.

[BigBlueFleet]

Looking forward to both this and Check Your 6.