The full, correct quotation:


('As I See It' are game reviews from the perspective of a gamer who is short on time and attention span. My favorite games that are fun and interesting, where the mental load is on making decisions not bean counting or fiddliness. Therefore the review spotlights innovative, clean, and elegant mechanics that work toward the above and key decision points. I play both eurogames and wargames, but since eurogames tend to be well reviewed in BGG already, I'll be mostly be reviewing wargames.)

Introduction

In anticipation of RAF II, this is a review of RAF I, why it's one of the great solitaire games, and areas I feel it can be improved in RAF II. RAF is an operational level game of the Battle of Britain. After the fall of France, Herman Goering told Hitler that he could bomb England into submission by destroying her morale, crippling her industry, or at least destroying the Royal Air Force and neutralizing the Royal Navy, making her unable to resist invasion from the Wehrmacht, which so far had an unbroken string of enormous successes since the beginning of the war.

In the game, the player fills the role of Fighter Command, placing the day's patrols and determining which squadrons intercept each raid. You are the thin blue line holding back the German onslaught. Though outnumbered, the British have three weapons: RADAR; an efficient centralized control system; and a resolve to never, never, never give in.

Gameplay

As usually, I feel the easiest way to explain gameplay is to walk through the sequence of play.

Daily Upkeep

Initial British setup (courtesy of Lawrence Hung)

Each scenario consists of a number of days of possible German raids. Each day, the following occur:

Reinforcements and replacements: Both sides receive replacement aircraft, which can either return eliminated units or restore damaged units.
Repair: Disrupted radar stations and Fighter Command headquarters can return to operation.
Weather Forecast: The weather over England can range from Clear to Cloudy to Storms. The weather tends to be cloudy, and storms prevent all raids and make the next day's weather more likely to be worse.
Squadron Patrol: At this time, you put up your morning patrols. (More on patrols later.)
German Effort: Depending on today's weather and yesterday's German Effort, you roll to see how strong today's German effort will be, ranging from Light to Normal to All-out. Not surprisingly, Germans tend to make a bigger push on Clear days.

Initial track setup (courtesy of Firepigeon)

Raids

Each day is comprised of a number of raids, which are resolved as follows:

Target Determination: The player draws a Target card. Each Target card contains a ton of information, but let's deal with each item as it comes up. Of immediate importance are the target's Type (Airfield, City, Industry, Port, or Radar) and Value (1 through 3). Based on these two and the current German Effort and Target Priority, a table determines whether it is a Major, Minor, or No raid. If it is No raid, another Target card is drawn until a raid occurs. Light days tend to be mostly Minor raids. Other days usually are about half Major and half Minor with a slight tilt toward the former.

German Target Priority tends to be slowly changing and determines what the current focus of the German bombing strategy is. It starts the game with High priority to Ports and Radar, Medium to Airfields, and Low to Cities and Industry. This actually has a large impact on play as Fighter Command will find their job toughest when the Germans are targetting their airfields and radar.

British Detection: This step determines how much warning Fighter Command receives of the raid (None, Late, Medium, or Early) and how much intelligence they receive (Poor, Vague, and Accurate). Major raids spend more time forming up over France, giving a bonus to the die roll. However, most of the British bonus drm comes from how many functioning radars can see the raid and an Observer Corps Value (the contribution of citizens armed with binoculars and good hearing, though it is halved on Cloudy days), both of which are printed on the Target card. Believe me, you will feel the difference if your radar network ever gets damaged.

Warning determines which squardrons can intercept. The Target card lists both sectors Enroute and In Range. Squadrons patrolling in the Enroute sectors are always eligable to intercept. With more warning, squadrons on the ground and squadrons In Range can also intercept.

Now is a good time to explain patrolling: the map is divided up, as it was historically, into Fighter Groups, which are in turn divided into Sectors. Each British squadron is based in a particular Sector. When patrolling, thereby allowing it to intercept raids with less warning, each squadron can patrol in its home sector or an adjacent one. Unfortunately, you cannot send every fighter into Hell's Corner to prey on the Hun.

Gruppen Selection and Deployment: Intelligence determines how much information you receive before you decide which squadrons to intercept with. The raid composition is determined by drawing 2 Force cards. The 1st determines the size of the raid (~7 for Major raids, ~2 for Minor); the 2nd determines raid composition, which can be all bombers, all fighters, or anything in between. Based on how much intelligence you receive, you decide what to intercept with after the 1st or 2nd draw or before both of them. How many times have I tallied a Minor raid on Poor intel, hoping for a pack of vulnerable bombers, only to get jumped by a fighter sweep? Too many times, I tell you.

Raid Event: The last card draw is an Event card, which may modify this raid, the next raid, cause something to happen in between, have something happen on the campaign level, etc. I'll cover events in more depth later.

The other thing the Event card does is determine how much time passes while this raid is being resolved. Each day starts at 0600 hours and goes until 1800. The greater the German Effort, the less time passes between raids, and the more raids there are that day. My back of the envelope estimates are:

Light: 1-2 raids
Normal: 3-4 raids
All-Out: 5-7 raids

Raid Resolution

Tally ho! Not that this position could ever happen in the game (courtesy of Zopper-alf)

The raid is resolved on the Combat Display. In general, Me 109s are placed in the Hunt box, Me 110s is the Close Escort box, and bombers in the (surprise!) Bomber box. This can be can modified by various events; for example, some Me 109s may be ordered to close escort rather than free hunt.

Each raid is resolved as two combats. First, German gruppen in the Hunt box attack intercepting squadrons. If any squadrons remain, they may attack the bombers and close escorts.

Each combat is resolved by counting up the number of gruppen involved and the total combat strength of all attacking and defending units. This sounds a little odd, but I suppose the math works out: the combat strength of German bombers are pretty high (5-7), Me 109s are 0, Me 110s are 2, Hurricanes are 2, and Spitfires are 3; all fatigued units are 1 point worse.

These numbers are cross-referenced in a table (not quite a combat odds table), count down 1d6 rows, and read off the result for both Germans and British. Results range from No damage to Light to Heavy to Eliminated, each of which has different effects if the unit is already fatigued. Furthermore, each unit has a '+' or 'o' symbol, and the combat results table (CRT) gives different results for each.

If there are any bombers left, they bomb their target. If an Airfield was the target, squadrons on the ground may be damaged. Industry hits disrupt the flow of replacement aircraft. Damaged Radars are out for a number of days equal the amount of damage.

One quick aside: there is a line on the map beyond which Me 109s do not venture due to fuel limitations. Instead, all escorts are Me 110s. These raids are especially good targets for the British to intercept because there is no combat in the Hunt box to rough up squadrons before they engage the bombers.

End of the Day

Raids are resolved one at a time until the time marker reaches 1800. The main thing that happens during the end of the day admin phase is that both British and Germans conduct Relief. There are 6 states each non-eliminated unit can be in; from best to worst:

1) At airbase, ready
2) At airbase, fatigued
3) Rest box, ready
4) Rest box, fatigued
5) Damage box, ready
6) Damage box, fatigued

Units will be placed in various states mostly as a result of combat, but also due to Events and German attacks against British airfields. During Relief, each unit improves one state. Only units at airbases can conduct operations the next day, and fatigued units fight at a penalty.

Victory


Victory in the game revolves around preventing Sealion, which is tied the current VP value. A month into the campaign, the player compares his VP value to target numbers printed on the calendar. Depending on how well (or how badly) he is doing, Hitler may begin preparations for Operation Sealion, delay it, or cancel it. If it is cancelled, the player wins. If Sealion is delayed, another check takes place in 1 to 3 days. If preparations begin, the player has 10 days to beat the Luftwaffe or else. As the days go by, the range of target values narrows so that it becomes easier to scrub Sealion, but it's also harder to prevent. There is also an automatic victory condition if the VP value ever goes to +35 or -35.

The player loses VPs from bombing, having squadrons eliminated, and resorting to reinforcements. The player gains VPs by eliminating German gruppen and simply surviving another day.

Ooh, Shiny!

Events: A lot of the chrome in RAF is implemented via the Event cards, which can have a variety of effects. Some of these have minor or fairly localized effects:


There is one event that deserves mention: Secondary Target, which causes some or all of the bombers to hit the secondary target listed on the Target card instead. Occasionally, the primary target is something low on your priority list to defend, like a Port or City. However, if the secondary target is a Radar or Headquarters, you might want to take it more seriously as the player cannot change his response after seeing the Event card. This is the only way Fighter Command Headquarters can be attacked, but the penalty is severe: for attacks against affected sectors, the bonus to the detection roll is halved. I once had Sector 11 (Uxbridge) HQ suffer heavy damage; never again.

There are a few events which have a long-term effect that also deserve mention:

Change Target Priority: This causes the Germans to reevaluate their target priorities. The higher the drm, the more likely Hitler orders a Terror bombing strategy, the main effect of which is cards are added and others removed from the Target deck to focus on London.

Increase Fighter Escort: If the current VP total is +5 or higher, several cards are added to the Force and Event decks, slightly increasing fighter-to-bomber ratio and the likelihood of Me 109s close escorting.

Luftflotte 3 Gruppen to Luftflotte 2: Between 26 August and 10 September, Luftflotte 3 may be ordered to help Luftflotte 2, which faces southeast England and carries out most of the raids. This makes it more less likely fatigued gruppen in Luftflotte 2 will be called upon to participate in raids, but it does put more strain on Luftflotte 3.

There are two (important) events, but I'll save them for the next section.

Reinforcements and Green Pilots: If the British feel stretched thin, they can call upon reinforcement squadrons by taking a VP penalty, remembering that many things, including Sealion and Target Priority, are tied to the current VP value. This can be as high as -4 VPs for entering a Spitfire squadron in the first couple weeks of the game, equivalent to needing to shoot down 2 additional German gruppen.

Replacement squadrons, which occur after a squadron is eliminated, may enter with green pilots to give the player +2 VPs. However, until green pilots are blooded, they give a penalty to the die roll on the CRT. For example, in a combat involving 4 gruppen (not uncommon), a -2 green pilot penalty can be worth 4 combat factors, equivalent to 2 Hurricane squadrons. In short, it is best to introduce green pilots in very controlled environments, preferably in combats against 1 gruppen else they may adversely affect your other squadrons. Or, better yet, don't use them at all.

Night Raids: An optional rule allows you resolve night raids. On the one hand, night raids are another source of British VP loss as night interceptors can rarely stop them. On the other hand, it deprives the daytime raids of fresh gruppen while the British can use Blenheim bombers and Gladiator biplanes as interceptors, which would otherwise be useless. This rule only slightly increases the length of the game, adding about 3 die rolls per day.

Elite Gruppen: There are also a couple elite Me 110 Zerstorer gruppen which have a minor impact on the game.

As I See It

What is special about RAF is that it is one of the few games (the only?) that covers this much of the Battle of Britain (the entire southern coast) in so short a time. The reason why is that every raid is resolved in 4 card draws and 2 rolls of the dice, and there's on average only 3-4 raids per day, and only if there is combat that day. Truly, the Target, Force, and Event cards are a brilliant piece of elegant game design. The Target cards, which taken in conjunction with German Effort, generate believable German raids, British detection, and determine what squadrons can intercept without looking up clumsy tables or counting hexes. Though I have some issues with German raid composition (which I discuss below), the Force cards generate a mix of free hunt, close escorts, and bombers. And the Event cards, though I have issues with a couple of them (also below), add chrome and a little (good) uncertainty. The combat system I also discuss below.

It's my belief that the best British strategy in RAF is, when they intercept, to throw every ready aircraft they can at the raid. Without going into too much detail (this is a review, not a strategy article), this comes from analyzing the VP rewards and penalties. British lose VPs from getting squardons shot down: don't put squadrons into risky combats. British lose VPs from bombing: there is little reason to intercept unless you can get odds to inflict heavy damage or higher to stop them before they bomb. British gain VPs by eliminating gruppen: intercept raids if you can get odds to eliminate gruppen.

A corollary to this is that, since intercepting with fatigued squadrons is a Bad Idea, each squadron can intercept once per day and the British must choose which raids to intercept and which to leave alone. Unfortunately, this is complicated by the fact they rarely have both Accurate intel and Early warning. Thus, often they cannot bring their full weight to bear or must commit to intercepting without knowing what they're facing. Furthermore, they don't know where other raids will hit that day; maybe a better opportunity will come later, maybe this will be a squadron's only chance to intercept today. To intercept or not to intercept: that is the question. And it's an agonizing question, but that's what makes the game so fun.

So which raids should the British intercept? Well, besides the targets it must defend (like Radars; too bad Radars are on the coast and get low warning), to earn VPs they should intercept raids where they have a good chance of eliminating German gruppen. Unfortunately, it's rather hard eliminate ready gruppen; to get maximum odds against a Me 109 gruppen takes 6 Hurricane squadrons (or 4 Spitfires). Against bombers it's a bit easier: 3 Hurricanes.

On that other hand, it's much easier against fatigued gruppen as a Heavy damage result will eliminate the unit. Unfortunately, since each gruppen partcipates in at most one combat per raid, it's impossible to fatigue then eliminate the gruppen in one raid (on the other hand, British squadrons can be fatigued by combat in the Hunt box then eliminated by combat in the Bomber box). This means the only way the British can tally fatigued units is when the system is dumb enough to use them while determining raid composition. Oh, sure, the British can make these events happen more often by inflicting damage on some gruppen, making the others take up the slack, but due to weather breaks and German Relief, as often as not it's because of bad German luck drawing too many force cards in one day with Ju 88s for Luftflotte 2 or similar.

This brings us to one of the Event cards: German Relief. When this event is drawn, every gruppen not participating in the current raid instantly improves one readiness state. How many times have I pulled this event in the middle of an All-Out day when the Germans have a ton of fatigued gruppen ready to be shot down? What did all of my hard work (and the lives of my men) accomplish? I feel the presence of this event indicates that the German and British relief rates are out of sync, that something is wrong with the raid composition mechanism and/or CRT, and this event is a (poor) fix.

While I'm on events, there is one more to discuss: Patrolling Squadrons Land. When this occurs, every squadron still on patrol lands and becomes fatigued, and thus they probably should not intercept anymore that day. The thing is, on average, one Patrolling Squadrons Land event happens per day, but they can come down after 3 hours or last until the end of the day, who knows. It just feels... random. Historically, standing patrols weren't a good idea because it quickly fatigued pilots and might not come to anything if the Germans don't attack that sector. So the logical conclusion may just be not to play that game and keep your squadrons on the ground. However, as I mentioned above, to get the best odds of eliminating gruppen, the British need to mass squadrons, which often requires having patrols waiting to pounce. Patrolling is also the only way some of the northern squadrons will be able to participate, though I don't even know if planes from Wittering (Sector 3/12) ever contributed to the battle in southern England. Other Battle of Britain games allow you to scramble fighters as you see the raids forming up over France; this is factored into the detection table and, if you get enough warning, squadrons on the ground can intercept.

There is one more mechanic I would like to discuss: the '+' and 'o' markings on the units. Sometimes I'm not sure if this is genius or looney (the dividing line can be thin). As mentioned above, the CRT lists separate results for each group. Furthermore, events Cloudy Weather Causes Abort, Mass Rendezvous Failure, Me 109s Close Escort, and Secondary Target affect one group or the other (sometimes both). This allows a very wide variety of results. For instance, half your squadrons may get chewed up by the free hunt, but the other half sneak past and tally the bombers. Or bombers you inflict Heavy damage on happen to be ones that would have hit their secondary target, like your Radar station. Or maybe the half you don't stop are the ones who do hit your Radar station (though you would think you'd order your squadrons in a manner to protect it). Well that's just it: the mechanism, while it produces a variety of results, it also produces them in way that has high variance. For instance, the Cloudy Weather Causes Abort and Mass Rendezvous Failure creates raids off all one type, so you may get all Heavy or all Light damage (rather than a mix, as you might expect). Or if you get a +L/oN result in the Hunt box, all your '+' squadrons are flipped to their fatigued side, so now all your squadrons are 'o' for the combat in the Bomber box. Now if each unit had a type that was something like a combination of symbol and color on backgrounds of different shape, Events and the CRT could use different partitions that don't create these extreme interactions.

Okay, enough talking about individual mechanics. How does the game feel overall? Well, actually, after a while it feels to be a lot of the same. There are fluctuations in weather and German Effort, sure, but weather doesn't really factor into my decision process. German Effort does to a small degree: if I think it's going to be a Light day (such as on a Cloudy day after an All-Out effort), with only 1 or 2 raids, I patrol heavily and throw everything I can at any raid that dares show itself; All-Out days, I try to grab at the likely opportunities while waiting for the gruppen to become overworked and I can pounce on fatigued units. Even the slower moving but more permanent events like Increase Fighter Escort don't really enter into the equation. Change Target Priority has a small impact because I really try to protect my Radars. Really, my decision making boils down to two data points: how many squadrons can I intercept with (largely a function of patrols and warning) and are there fatigued gruppen (or is the raid otherwise likely to net eliminated gruppen)? Luftflotte 3 Gruppen to Luftflotte 2 is annoying, but this is factored into where I look for fatigued gruppen. I mean, okay, the Battle of Britain was a grinding battle of attrition, but what ends up happening is that some squadrons and gruppen get Heavy damage or eliminated, both sides lick their wounds while the game is held up by rain, and the process starts over again.

Furthermore, a good strategy for winning the game is to get to +9 VP as soon as possible and stay up there. Why? Because once the Hitler orders a terror bombing strategy, the game becomes much easier. Half the time, London is the target. This means you don't to worry as much about your Airfields being bombed, and you can mass squadrons to defend London. And the way to get the game to start terror bombing is pulling a Change Target Priority (VP) with a positive drm, and +9 VPs is where you get a +1 drm (climbing to +2 at +19 VPs). But this means if you're already winning the game, the game becomes easier. Meanwhile, if you're doing badly, the target priority chart tends to have the Luftwaffe continue pounding on your airfields, making your life harder. This may make sense from a historical perspective, but not from a gaming perspective.

Decisions, Decisions

I think the previous section covered this pretty well. Basically the British decisions boil down to this:

* Do you use standing patrols? If so, which squadrons and where? What do you when Patrolling Squadrons Land happens?

* For each raid, do you intercept or let it go? What if you have little warning and can only intercept with a couple squadrons? What if you have no intel and don't know what you're facing? Will this be the best opportunity for that squadron to intercept that day?

* Do you bring in reinforcements? Will the extra squadrons offset the VP penalty, making it easier for Sealion preparations begin and harder to get a positive drm on Change Target Priorities?

Components

I'm not a bits man. And, frankly, if you're looking at a 1986 wargame, you're probably more interested in the game than the components anyway.

Map: Real map not in Spanish (courtesy of Felisan88)

It's a 22" x 34" unmounted map. It doesn't have the matte finish of contemporary game maps, but feels thicker and sturdy. And though everyone agrees I have no eye for art, I like the layout of the map. Not only are the curves a welcome change, but it's very easy to select raid composition, resolve combats, and track unit damage. Artwork is a bit dated.

Counters (courtesy of bbhanson)

160 0.5" counters. The 'artwork' are aircraft silhouettes in the background. These days, such a counter would have a good sized, full-color aircraft taking center stage... with all the numbers getting pushed to the corners. Though they don't look much, it's very easy to read unit ratings and which sector/airfield they return to. My counters were die cut so the nibs were at the corners. Side nibs? Eww.

Cards (courtesy of domus_ludorum)

134 Target, Force, and Event cards. These are smaller and flimsier than what you'll find in card driven wargames. On the other hand, you rarely have to handle them, so they'll last.

Rules: A 16-page rulebook, 4 pages of which are a pull-out player aid containing tables. The rules are clear with plenty of illustrations and examples, not that the game is particularly hard to grasp. I usually have the rulebook turned to the Event Summary toward the back since I rarely have to reference the rules.

Conclusion


RAF has a reputation as a hard solitaire game. This is partly due to the fact that the player is asked to make some grueling decisions, either intercepting at not-ideal odds or with incomplete information upon which to make the decision. That is the part that makes the game interesting and fun. You can also play the entire Battle of Britain campaign in one (long) sitting.

However, the game is also hard because the British score most of their points from eliminating German gruppen, which only occurs under precise circumstances. But there's a couple events that interfere with that, and I don't know what they're modelling or feel they model it poorly. That, combined with the fact that the game can get repetitious and the way the Change Target Priorities (VP) event causes positive feedback (making the game harder for a losing player, making the game easier for a winning player), causes me to rate RAF

+ Ok game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood
+ tilt factor for some elegant pieces of design

But RAF has some very good ideas, and if RAF II addresses some of the issues I have with the original, I think it'll be a winner.

Also thanks goes to Winston Churchill, who is an infinitely better wordsmith than me.