Burning Skies is official rules supplement for Warhammer 40000 found in GW book Campaign: Crusade of Fire. This 92 hard-cover full colour book have been released, as a limited edition, back in 2012 when Flyer's have returned to the game. The book itself is not a subject of this post but its worth mentioning that it gives a groundwork for any Game Master willing to create and run its 40k campaign.
As your truly keeps working on RPG campaign for Thunderbolts, I looked into this book for inspiration. So allow me to share what have been discovered: Burning Skies is a relatively simple game-inside-the-game system which could be used in most 40k games. Simply put it add a mechanics similar to challenge mode in 6th edition of rules, but with added layer of complexity. Rule set is comprised of Burning Skies section described on 3 pages, Special Manoeuvres described in 4 pages, and Fighter Aces on additional 4 pages.
What these rules are about?
Burning Skies revolves around idea of micro combat during the Shooting Phase. As players end their Movement phase, they roll d6 to see if Dogfight mode could be initiated. Result could be modified by position of the aircraft toward each other. If that succeeds, then players roll for 3 stages of dogfight on special tables. Stages of dogfight are Pursuit, Lock-on and Destroy. Each stage imitates its description and players roll for tactics used during this micro fight.
Three avaliable tactics are assigned by roll of d6 and rolls are grouped into 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 results. Both Attacker and Defender apply rolled tactics on table with 9 possible outcomes. Each of the dogfight stages have its own unique table, where results could be quite surprising.
Uff... Tired? Me too. However if you played 40k long enough you may be adjusted to mentality of many dice and extra tables. The pay-off for all these suffering and rolling is an extra Victory Points for killing enemy aircraft, as well as promised extra VP which could be generated during dogfight.
One of the biggest reservations on my part against it, is why should I give an enemy an extra chance of survival against my Shooting attack? Or even give an enemy a chance to fire back at me? The results on some of those tables allow for that to happen. When if I play simple-stupid mechanics I manoeuvre and blast the enemy out of the sky. Period. The biggest and saddest part of it for me, that Burning Skies does not change the way models actually manoeuvre or act towards other models in the game, and all this dogfighting is happening only in your imagination.
One of the biggest reservations on my part against it, is why should I give an enemy an extra chance of survival against my Shooting attack? Or even give an enemy a chance to fire back at me? The results on some of those tables allow for that to happen. When if I play simple-stupid mechanics I manoeuvre and blast the enemy out of the sky. Period. The biggest and saddest part of it for me, that Burning Skies does not change the way models actually manoeuvre or act towards other models in the game, and all this dogfighting is happening only in your imagination.
On a bright side, these rules are supplemented with Special Manoeuvres part. This is where things get hot and interesting. Each major faction of W40k universe gets two special manoeuvres which could be used during one of the stages of dogfight or during normal Movement, Shooting and Assault phases. To use any of these manoeuvres player must pass either Leadership, Initiative or Toughness test. Should they succeed then aircraft may either gains and extra cover save, re-roll outcomes of dog-fight stage, gains extra attack, smash and ram enemy units, give allied tanks re-rolls to hit or perform a psychic attack.
From my little gaming experience with Burning Skies, if used in time and skillfully those manoeuvres make a great difference. However the biggest downside is that W40k is clunky and rigid game as it is and adding an extra complexity to it does not improve gameplay at all.
Speaking of complexity... Third part of Burning Skies called Fighter Aces brings the pain to your brain. In its essence it is an extra roll on another table, similar to your Warlord table. Luckily there is only 3 results which modify your pilots chances of engaging in dogfight, hitting the target, inspiring allies or getting a re-roll. The price you pay is 50 points for an Ace.
To give an overall verdict to this rules supplement is difficult. If you are an experienced player looking for more micromanagement in addition to number of shots you fired, attacks generated, number of inches moved and charged, you will find these rules easy to adapt and give your games an extra level of epicness.
If you only starting to grasp the foundation of 40k, then you may want leave it for later, as it is your decisions as player will not have a significant impact on outcome of the dogfight. That area is ruled by dice and chance, though authors do insist that we should trust our pilots to make decisions, rather than take control ourselves. Then again, why should I?
Sincerely yours,
Mark-Paul Severn
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