2025Ben Rawlings
- Videos
- 1
- Creators
- 1
1 players5 - 10 min

2023Ben Rawlings
From BoardGameGeek
Sat inside the cockpit with the engine rattling through your bones, you turn to engage. Managing your energy and fuel, can you gain position to get a shot off? Or will the bandit get the better of you? Sometimes it is better to disengage than push a losing fight. Violent Skies is a solitaire game of aerial combat in the Second World War. Using a game card that acts as your Cockpit and also as a mission generator. The player and Bandit take alternating actions to try and get a shot on the opposition's aircraft. This first season of games puts you in the cockpit of the main fighters during the tumultuous months after the invasion of France. Starting with the aerial operations over Dynamo (the Dunkirk Evacuation) to the Battle of Britain and the last daylight bombing raid as the Blitz starts, you will be flying sorties, shooting down bandits and trying your best to survive. Each sortie lasts between 5-10 minutes, and the player has a logbook to advance their career. As the player completes a campaign, they have the option to keep the logbook and continue their career in different aircraft and theatres. All is needed is at least four D6, a small marker for the advantage track, and a pen or pencil for the logbook. Everything else is included in the minimal construction print and play PDF. Three optional counters are included and need to be folded and cut out but the rest is ready straight off the printer. Included as flyable aircraft are the Spitfire MkI/II, Hurricane Mk1, Bf109E3/4, Bf-110C. Each aircraft comes with two sortie cards (your cockpit and mission generator), campaign tables, optional damage table, Skills sheet and counters. There are Logbooks for the Lufrwaffe and RAF in low ink and full colour, as well as a detailed example of play. -description from designer .....and remember, watch out for the "Hun in the Sun" and never underestimate a "fat old puffer"
Violent Skies: 1940 – Dynamo to the Blitz has 3 videos from 2 creators: 2 reviews and 1 how-to-play guide. They date from 2023 to February 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "Violent Skies Play Through" by Poultergeist Board Games, which runs 23 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "PnP Quarterly Q3 2024" by Hissy Cat.
If you like it, try Violent Skies: Fourth but First – The Debden Eagles, also by Ben Rawlings, or Aces of Valor, Wolfpack: The North Atlantic Convoy Struggles October 1941 - March 1943 and Panzer North Africa, which share several of its mechanics.
2025Ben Rawlings
1 players5 - 10 min
2024Mike Bertucelli
1 - 4 players90 - 300 minHeavy weight
2024James M. Day, Fernando Sola Ramos
1 - 3 players60 - 180 minHeavy weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Sat inside the cockpit with the engine rattling through your bones, you turn to engage. Managing your energy and fuel, can you gain position to get a shot off? Or will the bandit get the better of you? Sometimes it is better to disengage than push a losing fight. Violent Skies is a solitaire game of aerial combat in the Second World War. Using a game card that acts as your Cockpit and also as a mission generator. The player and Bandit take alternating actions to try and get a shot on the opposition's aircraft. This first season of games puts you in the cockpit of the main fighters during the tumultuous months after the invasion of France. Starting with the aerial operations over Dynamo (the Dunkirk Evacuation) to the Battle of Britain and the last daylight bombing raid as the Blitz starts, you will be flying sorties, shooting down bandits and trying your best to survive. Each sortie lasts between 5-10 minutes, and the player has a logbook to advance their career. As the player completes a campaign, they have the option to keep the logbook and continue their career in different aircraft and theatres. All is needed is at least four D6, a small marker for the advantage track, and a pen or pencil for the logbook. Everything else is included in the minimal construction print and play PDF. Three optional counters are included and need to be folded and cut out but the rest is ready straight off the printer. Included as flyable aircraft are the Spitfire MkI/II, Hurricane Mk1, Bf109E3/4, Bf-110C. Each aircraft comes with two sortie cards (your cockpit and mission generator), campaign tables, optional damage table, Skills sheet and counters. There are Logbooks for the Lufrwaffe and RAF in low ink and full colour, as well as a detailed example of play. -description from designer .....and remember, watch out for the "Hun in the Sun" and never underestimate a "fat old puffer"
Designer
Ben Rawlings
Artist
Ben Rawlings
Publisher
Pocket Warfare Publishing
Categories
Mechanics