Module:The Burning Blue

Publisher	GMT Games	Era	WWII
Year	2006	Topic	Air Combat
Players	2 to 2	Scale	Operational
Length	Long

Files and Module Information

Filename	Filetype	Size	Date	Compatibility	Developer	Other Contributors
3.1
Tbb_v3.1.vmod	Module	50.33 MB	2024-07-30	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
3.0
Tbb_v3.0.vmod	Module	49.4 MB	2024-07-06	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
2.3
Tbb_v2.3.vmod	Module	47.92 MB	2024-05-04	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
2.2.2
Tbb_v2.2.2.vmod	Module	47.6 MB	2024-04-09	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
2.2
Tbb_v2.2.vmod	Module	47.7 MB	2024-03-20	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
2.1
Tbb_v2.1.vmod	Module	47.46 MB	2024-03-05	3.7.9	steenkh	steenkh
2.0.1
Tbb_v201.vmod	Module	40.81 MB	2023-12-17	3.7.4	steenkh	steenkh
1.3
TheBurningBlue-v1.3.vmod	Module	9.64 MB	unknown	unknown	rickbill	rickbill
1.2
tbb_v12.vmod	Module	6.07 MB	unknown	unknown	rickbill	rickbill
1.1
tbb_v11.vmod	Module	6 MB	unknown	unknown	rickbill	rickbill
1.0
tbb_v1_0.vmod	Module	5.84 MB	unknown	unknown	rickbill	rickbill

Comments

GMT Games LLC and Lee Brimmicombe-Wood's game about the Battle of Britain, 1940

Thanks to the playtesters: Kevin Ankoviak, Evin Mulron, Torsten Spindler, and Mark Wardell.
Thanks to Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and GMT Games LLC for allowing me to release this module.
Thanks to Allan Cannamore for creating the fine Cyberboard Gamebox of which this module is a conversion.

If/when you discover bugs, please [email]

The current version is Version 3.1

Changes from version 3.0 to 3.1

Bug fix: Scenario 4: Duplicate 46 Sqn in North Weald removed.
Bug fix: Scenario 4 special rule f advancing Duxford Wing units with a single die roll is now being implemented for the "Advance Squadrons".
Bug fix: 421 Flight can now be deleted.
New feature: In the Chits window (Alt+Shift+C) there is a button that sets up the Weather (including Winds, and London Haze) automatically.
New feature: A new command has been added to RAF squadrons to show the HF range from the appropriate ground stations (Alt+Shift+R). This should be easier than the old command that showed the HF range from the air unit (alt+Shift+H). However the old command has been retained for those units, like flights, or wings, that have no fixed sector affiliation.
Enhancement: Climb markers created through a right-clock command now belong to a unit so that it is possible for Alt+A "Climb" to create a Climb marker for every unit in a stack without creating a new Climb marker for every time Alt+A is pressed.
New right-click-ommand to send Me109 units to the Channel Patrol Display (Ctrl+Shift+P).
The Convoy marker now have Send To commands to send it directly to a convoy location.
The London Haze marker now has a Send To command (Ctrl+S) to send it directly to the London weather zone hex.
Planning Arrows no longer leave a trail when on the Hostile Raids display.
The Sun direction is now set according to the Time of Day when a new turn is started with the "Advance Clock ..." button.
Weather markers and London Haze are now stacking separately from air units so that you can't accidentally move them when moving a stack of air units.
The Markers window now has Alt+M as shortcut.
The Luftwaffe Form-Up and Planning markers window has changed the shortcut from Alt+H to Alt+P.

Changes from version 2.3 to 3.0

Bug fix: Added 74 (Tiger) sqn to scenario 4 Duxford Wing roll 3.
Bug fix: Some Climb and Dive Bomb markers were not removed by the Remove temporary markers function. They are removed now.
Bug fix: The "Setup Scenario" and "Advance Squadrons" buttons were greyed out in online games if the game was not started by the RAF player. This has been corrected so that the "Advance Squadrons" button is never greyed out, and the "Setup Scenario" button is only gryed out when the button has already been pressed once.
Bug fix: The Bad Data errors in connection with the automated RAF setup have been fixed.
Major change: The old palettes have been removed. LW air units are to be found on the LW Airfields map, and RAF air units are found on the RAF Tote Board. Flights and Staffels are to be found on a new window, and there are other windows for markers, and German planning (including Form Up counters). Order, Tally Ho!, Orbit, and Patrol Lines markers are created exclusively through the right click menus of the air units.
Patrol markers now have a command to draw a line between them.
If one of the matching patrol markers is deleted, the other one is also deleted.
Position of weather markers adjusted to conform more closely to the hex grid.
Extra zoom level in the Luftwaffe Hostile Raid Display.
LW air units now have a command (Ctrl+R) at the bottom to send them to the Luftwaffe Hostile Raid Display when they are on the Luftwaffe Airfield Display.
New button picture for the RAF Tote Board.
Some counter images have been improved.
The chit cup icon has been made more recognizable.
Plan Notes can be placed anywhere on the map and will no longer use the hex grid.
New "Show Unmoved" button that toggles a circle of coloured hexes around unmoved counters.
When Alt-Up is used for climbing, a Climb marker is put on a unit if it doesn't already have one.
Keyboard shortcuts overhauled. Many added, a few have changed.
Texts have been added to the main map to tell players to use the special displays for the Game Clock, Tracks and holding boxes. These texts are actually immovable counters, and can be deleted
It is now only possible to create Patrol Lines, Order, Tally, and Orbit markers on the main map.
Stacking is modified so that it looks the same on all maps, and the Detection Deck no longer stacks, so that you will not experience that cards can't be placed where you want them (it has the side effect that cards are now always placed below the counters).
The "Show HF Range" (Alt+Shift+H) now shows the correct HF range based on the position of the HF Range track marker.
All markers in the Tracks window now write a message with their value in the chat log when they are moved or changed.
Form Up counters have always been without strength per default, but now it is also possible to change the strength to nothing if they were set at something else.
Dummy Form Up counters now flip over to the back side when placed on the map. This is to prevent that the Luftwaffe player makes a mistake and forgets to flip it over when placing them on the map. If the Luftwaffe player places the cursor over the dummy, its dummy value will be shown. The RAF player will only see the back side of the counter.

Changes from version 2.2.2 to 2.3

Bug fix: Order markers and Tally Ho markers could be difficult to grab and move away from their hex of creation.
It is no longer possible to have two Order, Tally Ho!, or Orbit markers for an air unit at the same time, because it messed up the system of finding them from the parent unit. In any case it doesn't make sense to have more than one, so instead, please use the commands for converting between Tally Ho! Order, or Orbit markers, or delete the marker so that you can create a new one.
Messages in the chat window during the lengthy “Setup Scenario” and “Advance Fighters” process are now printed when they are generated, and do not wait until the end. You can also watch the squadrons being moved about.
In addition, “Setup Scenario” is now printing some comments at the end of the setup process to remind the players about some adjustments that need to be made manually.
The "Remove temporary markers" has been replaced by a new button "Advance Clock and remove temporary markers" This button moves the Game Clock forward by five minutes, and the temporary markers are now all the markers that are removed in the Admin Phase: Barrage, Climb, Dive Bomb, and Strafe Disruption markers. Bombing Disruption markers are only removed the turn after they were placed.
“Advance Fighters” now halts advances on disrupted airfields. Disruption can be from Bombing Disruption, or Strafe Disruption. Place the marker on, or above the name of the airfield on the Tote Board. Alternatively, the disruption marker can be put on the airfield hex on the main map.
The “Afld Status” marker in previous versions has now been replaced with an Airfield Disruption marker with two sides, one for each of Bombing Disruption, and Strafe Disruption. You flip the marker with CTRL F. The Airfield Damage marker has now become a separate counter (in the physical game Airfield Damage and Bombing Disruption are on the same counter, and Strafe Disruption is on a separate counter).

Changes from version 2.2 to 2.2.2

Bug fix: The Find command was broken.
The Help file which was missing in ver. 2.2.1 has now been updated.

Changes from version 2.1 to 2.2

A new button has been added to the RAF Tote Board that sets up the RAF squadrons in the appropriate boxes according to the readiness status in the scenario. This takes a lot of time, but saves the player for a lot more tedious work. The dice rolls for readiness and Duxford Wing are rolled automatically. This button is not available in the "Build Your Own scenario".
You can now use the "Find" command to draw a line between a Tally Ho! marker and an air unit, just like for Order markers.
Sorting of units in RAF inventory improved

Changes from version 2.0.1 to 2.1

New button hides normal units to show only planning.
Fixed bug that removed planning tracks when removing Moved markings.
Planning Notes are now written in the lower half of the hex, which means that with judicious spacing in front (usually 6 spaces) you can make it appear in the upper half of the next hex.
Visibility of the Planning marker trail improved.
The White Planning Marker has been given a slightly more grey trail in order to make it stand out more against the map.
The Detection Deck is now always shuffled, and the ability to draw multiple cards has been removed
Removed the Clone command for Detection cards.
Overview map now zoomed out more.
Intermediate zoom levels have been set up for the Luftwaffe Raid display, and the RAF Tote Board.
Buttons that should only be pressed by one player side are now disabled for the opposite side.
Luftwaffe and RAF are limited to only use the Mark Moved command on each other's units.
Inventory information improved, and is now only available to the appropriate side.
Changed order of buttons to make it more logical (in my opinion!).
"Remove Climb, Barrage, and Dive Bomb markers" renamed to "Remove temporary markers" in anticipation of future plans.
New image for Chit cup button.
New image for Detection Deck Button.
New image for the Channel Patrol and Holding Boxes button.
Wings box and a Combat box added to the Channel Patrol and Holding Boxes map. The Combat box intended to be a place to put units involved in a combat - because you don't have free space outside of the map in a Vassal game, and the map is sometimes too cluttered.
All markers can now be rotated to 12 directions
Patrol Lines have been added. They can be created directly from RAF fighter unit's right-click menu, or from the Counter Palette. Flip to change direction.
Added Place Orbit marker command to fighter units.
Orbit markers now have a command to replace with a Tally Ho! or Order marker.
When an order has been created with a right-click command, a line can be drawn between the order and its unit with a CTRL-F command.
Arrows (not Planning Arrows) renamed to Track Counters (5.3.1).
Fixed bug in size labels on German units that could cause confusion in the stack viewer.
Fixed spelling errors ("Hostle" on the raid counters is not a spelling error: it is a necessary abbreviation).

Changes from Version 2.0 to 2.0.1:

Fixed error in pre-defined scenarios

Changes from Version 1.3 to 2.0:

New system to ease German on-map planning with special planning markers, comments, and more. See help file for details.
Automation of RAF Tote board movements. Again, see help file for details.
New right-click commands for RAF fighters to move them from an airfield hex on the main map to the corresponding Tote Board Landing Box, and vice versa, for moving a fighter from the Scramble Box to the corresponding airfield hex on the main map.
RAF fighters have been renamed so that the assigned airfield is no longer part of the name.
Luftwaffe units have been renamed to exclusively use roman numerals for Gruppen, and they are now ordered after their Geschwader.
The game log no longer gives away German dispositions, but should still be detailed enough to give the other player an idea of what is going on.
The Referee, and the extra players for each side have been removed in order to make the module secure to play-by-mail. It is still possible to play more players on the same side if they share the password.
An Order marker now has a right-click command to turn it into a Tally Ho! marker, and likewise a Tally Ho! marker now has a right-click command to turn it into an Order marker.
Many counters can now be rotated 1/12 instead of 1/6. This is done for aesthetic reasons (for instance, the Clock Hands).
Some commands have been given new key combinations in order to make them usable on non-English keyboards.
Vassal’s hex grid has been aligned to fit better with the map.
General attempts at making Notes and comments more visible on the map. The Order text has been removed, because a Note does the same job.
A new Note in table form has been introduced for each unit, it is much like the Log command, only more general.

Changes from Version 1.2 to 1.3:

Updated main map with cleaner image to make map features clearer
Added a new hidden window "LW Airfields" which allows for available LW units to be placed at their airfields for easier planning by dragging units directly from this window to the raids hidden map.
Recreated setup files for all 5 main scenarios. These include Brit units already placed on tote and LW units in the LW Airfields window at their appropriate airfield for the scenario.

Changes from Version 1.1 to 1.2:

Modified unit names to adhere to British Squadron designations
Added Delete command to TALLY HO and ORDERS chits
reduced setup files to only 1st 2 scenarios and the into

Changes from Version 1.0 to 1.1:

Modified commands so climbs and dives can be done with keyboard arrow cmds (alt-UP/DOWN)
Modified commands so unit movement can be done with keyboard arrow cmds (ctrl-UP/LEFT...)
Supplied startup files for scenarios 1-5 (and the intro)
In addition to the Tote Board setup, Luftwaffe units are placed at scenario airbases
Fixed a couple of OOB errors/ommissions
Fixed a bug with the Detection Card discard command