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OK. The Scramble rules arrived this morning! These comments are based on a quick look through to get an idea of the mechanics, and my views (and comments!) may change with a later read-through.
First up, well done to Spirit Games. Web site was easy to use, the guy on the phone knew what he was talking about, he said that the web site is kept automatically up to date, and getting the rules to me in three days during postal disruption is great service! Thanks.
I got both the core rules, and the update book, Angels 15.
The rules seem very elegant. They have a good amount of detail for me, but look like they will stay playable. Measurements are made in 'units' which change according to the scale of the models. 1/300 makes one unit equal one inch. 1/600 would make a unit equal 1cm.
Basics - The game does not use hexes, and the only restriction on minis is that the base should have an area of at least 'two units', so 1/300 aircraft should be on a base 2 inches squared. This seems a little large, and I will need to see how big 'standard' flight bases are. No record is kept of speed (more later) and only altitude is recorded, next to the aircraft.
Each aircraft has maximum and minimum (stall) movement rates, and must move any distance between these two numbers each turn. Aircraft also have a ceiling (max altitude), and going higher than this has an adverse effect on the planes stats. Turning is made at 30 degree increments, followed by a minimum move (different for each aircraft and therefore dictating how agile they are). Shooting is the basic (!) dice + modifier > target defence value. In addition, each type of gun has an ammo index (for example, a 20mm cannon has an ammo of 9), and any dice result of this value or higher results in this (one) gun being out of ammo. Criticals can also be scored.
In general, the rules cover pretty much everything that you can imagine, and are written in a easy to read style (I particularly liked the 'Rules of the Air' list, for example 'The propeller is just a big fan...to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.' Or, 'You know you have landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.')
There is a good amount of research that has gone into the rules, and I am fairly impressed. In particular, there are a number of aircraft stats provided (I would guess about 200-240 in the core rule book) as well as a number of 'available lists' of aircraft for a number of specific theatres, and the web site even has calculations for transforming 'real world' stats into game stats.
I am not sure how it will play, and whether I will miss having 'plane x is moving faster than plane y', but it looks promising on first glance.
_________________ https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond. https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
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