This is a game and observer list for a Play-By-eMail contest of Birds of Prey (BoP), the Game of Air Combat Manuever in the Jet Age, currently in the advanced development phase. This dogfight, set in 1985 during a hypothetical Syrian-Jordanian conflict, is an engagement between two RJAF Mirage F1s and three Syrian MiG-21MF Fishbed Js. The scenario ("Damascus Steel") was created by Tony Valle and Karl Mueller.

This is demonstration as well as a playtest game, intended to make it as easy as possible for spectators to follow along. Our intent is both to help new players learn the system and to provide people who are curious about BoP with a chance to see how it plays.

Questions from observers are welcome, either about what's happening in this game or about BoP more generally (suggesting tactics to players is inappropriate, though).

Flight rules and play aids for the game system, and the aircraft data cards for the Mirage F1 and MiG-21MF, are posted in the Files section, along with a series of maps and a game log file that give details of the action as it proceeds. Photos of the game as set up on a physical map using box miniatures are posted at http://tinyurl.com/eyw22.

More information about Birds of Prey can be found at the game website, http://www.airbattle.com, and on the Yahoo discussion group for the game system at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/airbattle.

Update, 28 July 2006: Play of this game has been suspended while new Birds of Prey rule revisions are being developed and tested.