BOMBER RUN – RULES
COMPONENTS
(12) d4 dice (6 per player)
Expanded Formation - (16) d4 dice (8 per player)
(12) Fighter tokens (6 per player)
Expanded Formation - (16) Fighter tokens (8 per player)
(2) d6 dice (1 per player)
(2) Bomber tokens (1 per player)
Expanded Formation - (4) Bomber tokens (2 per player)
(2) Base tokens (1 per player)
Game board
OBJECTIVE
Escort your Bomber(s) from your Base to your opponent’s Base and destroy it by completing a successful Bombing Run.
If all Bombers are destroyed, the winner is the player who eliminates all of their opponent’s Fighters first.
SETUP
The board uses an eight-direction grid: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW. Players begin on opposite sides of the board: one on the west edge and one on the east edge.
Place Your Base
Your Base is placed on Column “C” for the West player and Column “V” for the East player.
Determine its row by rolling 5d4 (result: 5–20).
Place your Base on the numbered grid square corresponding to the roll.
Deploy Aircraft
Place your Fighters and Bomber(s) in the designated starting formation.
Determine First Player
Both players roll a d6. Reroll ties.
The higher roll chooses to go first or second.
GAMEPLAY
Fighter Movement Phase
Players alternate Fighter movements, beginning with the first player.
This alternating sequence continues until all Fighter movement d4 dice have been used.
If a player exhausts their movement dice before the other, the remaining player continues resolving their Fighter movements consecutively until all of their remaining movement dice are spent..
Bomber Movement Phase
After all Fighter movements have been resolved, players alternate Bomber movements one at a time, starting with the first player.
MOVEMENT
General Rules
All aircraft must move at least one grid square forward or diagonally forward each turn.
Allied aircraft may not occupy the same grid square.
Any aircraft that leaves the play area is considered to be retreating and is removed from the game.
Bomber Movement
Bombers move exactly one grid square per turn, either forward or diagonally forward.
Bombers do not roll for movement.
Fighter Movement
At the start of your turn:
Roll one d4 for each Fighter you have on the board.
Each die result provides movement points.
Assign each die to a Fighter; each die may only be used once.
Fighters spend movement points as follows:
Forward movement (1 square): 1 point
Diagonal movement (1 square): 1.5 points
Acrobatic Maneuver: 2 points
Additional Fighter rules:
Each Fighter must spend at least 1 movement point per turn.
Unused movement points are lost.
A Fighter’s nose direction must match its final movement direction.
Enemy and allied Base locations function as an unoccupied square.
Acrobatic Maneuver
Acrobatic Maneuvers allow a Fighter to rotate its nose to face any direction within its square.
Prior to performing this maneuver the Fighter must move at least one square forward or diagonally during that turn.
Any movement points remaining after this maneuver can be spent as usual.
Special Movement
Kamikaze Attack: A Fighter may end its movement in an enemy-occupied square (Fighter or Bomber). The attacking Fighter makes an attack roll and then is destroyed immediately after its resolution:
On a success, the enemy aircraft is also destroyed.
On a failure, only the attacker is destroyed.
If a Bomber ends its movement in an enemy-occupied Fighter square the Bomber makes an attack roll:
On a success, the enemy Fighter is destroyed and the Bomber survives.
On a failure, both the Bomber and the enemy Fighter are destroyed.
If a Bomber ends its movement in an enemy-occupied Bomber square the Bomber makes an attack roll:
On a success, the enemy Bomber is also destroyed.
On a failure, only the attacker is destroyed.
COMBAT
Attack Runs
Fighters roll one d4 for attack and defense rolls.
Bombers roll one d6 for attack and defense rolls.
For Fighters, to attack, the target Fighter or Bomber must be:
In an adjacent grid square, and
Directly in front of the attacker’s nose.
For Bombers, to attack, the target Fighter or Bomber must be:
In an adjacent grid square, and
Directly in front of the attacker’s nose, directly in behind of the attacker’s tail, or directly to the side of the attacker’s wings.
Both players roll the corresponding die for their respective aircraft:
If the attacker’s roll equals or exceeds the defender’s roll, the defender is destroyed.
Otherwise, the defender survives.
An attack may be made:
Before movement,
During movement, or
After movement.
Snap-Shot Attack
If an attacking aircraft moves into a valid attack position of an enemy Fighter or Bomber at any point during its movement, the defender can make a Snap-Shot Attack.
Resolve Snap-Shot Attacks as soon as the moving aircraft enters an enemy’s attack range, but only after the moving aircraft finishes its own attack against the Fighter or Bomber it moved into range of (if applicable).
Anti-Aircraft Batteries
Anti-Aircraft guns fire from Bases into the NE, NW, SE, and SW squares adjacent to the Base.
Anti-Aircraft guns are unable to fire upon enemy aircraft sharing the same square as a Base they’re stationed in.
Anti-Aircraft guns can only fire at aircraft that end their turn within range. Aircraft that momentarily fly through a battery’s range are moving too quickly to accurately target.
Anti-Aircraft guns roll one d4 for attack rolls at the end of the enemy aircrafts' turn.
BOMBING RUNS
Only Bombers may perform Bombing Runs.
To initiate a Bombing Run, the Bomber must occupy the same grid square as the enemy Base.
Resolving a Bombing Run
Roll a d4:
1: Miss. The Bomber must leave the Base square and return on a later turn to attempt another Bombing Run.
2–4: Hit. The Base is destroyed and the game ends immediately.
END OF GAME
Destroying the opponent’s Base wins the game.
If all Bombers are destroyed, the player who first eliminates all opposing Fighters wins.