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The Hardest Days is a purpose-designed solitaire simulation of five critical days in the Battle of Britain, the five days that saw the heaviest air action in the sky over England in the summer of 1940. Each of those days is presented as its own scenario. The Hardest Days puts you in control of British Fighter Command, responding to air raids launched by the Luftwaffe, which is controlled by the game system.

Each one-day scenario represents up to 14 hours during which the Luftwaffe launches raids against targets in southern England, defended by the squadrons of the RAF's Fighter Command. German raids include bomber Gruppen (groups), attempting to bomb specific targets, and fighter groups protecting those bombers and attacking British fighter squadrons.

The German goal is twofold: inflict damage on targets and destroy squadrons to gain air superiority in preparation for the invasion of England. The game system controls German strategy and tactics to try to further those goals. You use your fighter squadrons to respond to the raids in an attempt to destroy or turn back the raiders and prevent their effective bombing of their targets, while minimizing your own fighter losses.

Your fighter squadrons and German fighter groups may participate in several raids in a given day, while German bombers, flying from distant bases, participate in only one raid per day. To track the passage of time, as measured by the sequencing of raids and the turnaround of squadrons and groups during each "Raid Day," the action is divided into seven two-hour time segments, from 0600 to 1800 hours, inclusive.

Reviews Review Game

By	polydor	From	Lancashire in United Kingdom
Review
John Butterfield is probably the best known and most highly regarded of solitaire designers and The Hardest Days will certainly do nothing to diminish that reputation. Though those of you who already possess RAF his solitaire/2 player redesign may want to consider whether this is sufficiently different to make it a worthwhile purchase. Certainly the map and counters exactly match in style and layout those in his previous game on the topic of the Battle of Britain. The most significant difference is that the standard sized map only covers the south of England as far west as Weymouth and little further north than Luton. Each of the coastal areas now has three potential avenues of approach by the luftwaffe and altitude is introduced on a simple basis of high/medium/low. If you\'re willing to persevere the depth will certainly be rewarding and you will come to follow the desperate course of each of your Spitfire & Hurricane units in each of the five single-day scenarios.

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