REVIEW of 'Skies Above the Reich' GMT Games Bonding With Board Games

Skies Above the Reich is a solitaire game depicting a Luftwaffe squadron of Bf109s struggling to deter and destroy the relentless daylight raids over Germany during World War Two. The player's individual aircraft, each represented by a stickered block, must confront the mighty "combat box" formation of the United States Army Air Force, a deadly terrain of B-17 Flying Fortresses.
The game is a broad strokes depiction that presents the arc of the desperate air war. Stretching from late 1942 to early 1945, Skies Above the Reich follows that trajectory in a series of missions strung together to make a campaign. Each mission will take a half hour or more to play, while a campaign can last anywhere from six to sixty missions.

[@antoyal]

Looking forward to watching this review as soon as I can. So far I have only finished a one-season, 1942 game of this, but it was great! I think that the escalation to more formidable bomber formations, auxiliary fighters, and "attachments" to my fighters is going to make for a nice learning curve.

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

There is definitely a lot of play space to be had

[@colonelkilling2425]

Hail to the Chief! All the HAMTAG guys are cool. I'd love to hang out and play games with you guys.

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Thanks Colonel.

[@jimsmith7445]

CHIEF! Great review! in a lot of ways I've been looking for a game like this. Years ago I picked up an AH game called "Luftwaffe", which tried and sort of failed to do what this game is promising. Being a huge fan of "B-17, Queen of the Skies", I put this on my BUY list. Still looking for the best "Battle of Britain" game. Keep up the great work....

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

I too bought Luftwaffe back in the day and it didn't work for me. This was a very fun game and reminded me a lot of the stories in the book 'A Higher Call' A wonderful book by the way. A true story about a B-17 Bomber Crew and from the point of view of a BF-109 pilot. He talks about hitting these bomber boxes early on and how scary it was.

[@robertmoffitt1336]

Super fantastic vid & review!👍👍

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Thanks Robert

[@petemartin295]

Let's have a moment of silence for the two, poor, clueless souls that gave Chief a "thumbs-down". We forgive you.

[@ScotchTestDummies]

Oh not everyone’s a fan. And I can be a bit goofy. Bart

[@barker262]

I would love to have this game. With one caveat; I think it would benefit from better German aircraft counters. Perhaps there is some company making a bit of bling for the game. Hope so.

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

I can see your point

[@barker262]

@@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs G'day Bonding; Seeing as you've had the board closeup, what 'scale' do you think would match the b17's? As a kid I made a few aircraft carrier kits (can't remember the scale but something like 1/600) and I immediately thought of those type for something like this. Not miniatures exactly but something painted nicely and given individual touches for each pilot. And just to test the rules of etiquette here. You don't happen to have played 'The burning blue'? It's a battle of brittan operational level game. I've tried to plug through the rules and they are fairly opaque. I asked the same thing of The Players Aid and they recommended someone on twitter. I'm not on twitter and would never want to be. GMT often produce 'playthrough videos' of there games but not that one. Wouldn't happen to know anyone who could do such a vid? Cheers from Aust.

[@NoEnemiesHere]

Thanks, Chief! Can’t wait to play this game. So far Jeremy White has nailed it in the last 3 games he’s done!

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

He doing great

[@stowcreek1999]

Excellent review of this… Thank you

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Thanks Humphreys

[@melbeasley9762]

Luft Vaf Fa Is how it's pronounced.

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Roger that

[@melbeasley9762]

@@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs OK Out.

[@reftomgreen82]

Thanks for the review Chief, I've been considering getting this game for a while.

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Great. Good to hear from you. GMT has their Battle of Britain version about ready to release. This first one is waiting on a reprint. There is also a second called Storm Above the Reich.

[@reftomgreen82]

@@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs I looked at all three games. I ended up going in another direction for now and ordered a less expensive game "Pavlov's House". Too many games. Too little time. Maybe "Skies" or "Storm" another day.

[@Dalmatinac3]

You should review Star Wars Rebellion :P

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

I’ve got it. The boy didn’t get into it and it went back on the shelf.

[@bgm-1961]

Another value-added video from you. Thanks! When is your birthday? I'll get you some draw bags or purpose specific bowls to replace those pedestrian coffee cups! :)

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Late July. I’ve got big hands so the cups are ok. But thank you.

[@bartdevuyst]

Great concept, but why do most war games look like spreadsheets?

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Helps with the learning curve

[@bartdevuyst]

That's utter bullshit. It's just a lack of money to engage a proper graphic designer. :-D

[@BondingWithBoardGamesRPGs]

Ok, let me be more specific. It helps my learning curve greatly.

[@bgm-1961]

I assume you're talking about the result tables? If so, then what would be your alternate solution? And yes, there are many wargames that show results in a "more graphically pleasing" format. But those games tend to be more abstract and less simulation. Some of us enjoy the simulation aspect of a good wargame. And that's best achieved by crunching numbers and presenting those numbers in a number-friendly format.

[@bartdevuyst]

I wasn't even talking about the tables. I'm talking about the general look & feel of most wargames (the board, cards, manual, ...). The graphic design of everything is mostly really bad, like it's done by amateurs. There are good looking ones but those are the exceptions. I'm not here to nag. But I find that most wargames don't get the visual overload that most modern board games get these days. And that's a pity.