As many of you know, when I was writing Castles in the Sky there was a strict word count for the book. However, I wrote so much content that I had to go back and remove some of it from the book. Even with my edits, the final book is still larger than any of the other Osprey Wargaming Series books! Instead of the normal 64 pages, it is 80 pages of content!
To make the rules fit to the new expanded size, I still had to cut out some rules and other details that I wanted to keep in. The biggest space eater, was the ship templates. Therefore, I had to remove a lot of ships. Therefore, each fleet was left with only 1 Battleship, a cruiser of two, and 1 or two escorts. All nationalities lost at least a single ship to make space. I want to make these ships available to the community here on the blog!
First off, here are the rules I had originally intended for the Regional Powers that are not represented in the book:
Regional Powers
Besides the Great Powers,
there are a number of other countries attempting to gain regional power through
the use of an Air Navy. South America is
especially rife with these types of regional politics. However, they are not the only place. The countries bordering the Baltic Sea have a
similar regional competition politically, economically, and militarily.
Most of these countries lack the industrial base to build Air Warships on their own. Instead, they tend to form alliances or sign building contracts with one of the Great Powers. This power tends to act as their “patron” on the world stage. This patronage allows these lesser powers to improve their own military forces with secondary units and designs from their Patron powers. The United States and Britain are exceptions to this process as they are willing to sell Air Ships to anyone with the right coin.
These Regional Powers tend to have one “fleet” of Air Ships that consists of a few cruisers and escorts. They can not field larger forces and it takes great national effort to field the Air Ships they have. Some try to emulate their patron’s doctrine’s and organization, others adhere to the Mahan school, while others follow the Jeune Ecole approach to Air Warfare. No matter the doctrine, there are few formal academies and actual hands-on training is rare compared to the Great Powers. There simply is not money in the budget to fly the fleet on a regular basis.
Officers tend to come from families with commercial interests in knowledge of Airships. The crews are the left-over conscripts that the local armies do not want. Therefore, command ability can vary wildly and crew skill is low at best.
These regional forces do not intend to compete with the Great Powers, except in desperation. However, the can be effective against local nations with limited access to Air Power. Such a fleet can make the difference between victory and defeat. Hence, all nations that aspire to greatness must try to build an Air Fleet of their own.
Lesser Powers include regional powerhouses like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, China, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, and similar countries. Most have a single Patron that provides the bulk of their forces, with a few airship supplements from the United States or Britain.
Determining Command Dice
Regional Power
Roll a d6 for each ship:
1-2= Command of 1
3-5= Command of 2
6 Command of 3
Line-of-Battle
Choose a patron Great
Power for the Regional Power. They can
choose Armored Cruisers, Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Escorts from this
list. In addition, they may add 1 United
States or British Cruiser for every 2 Cruisers from their Patron. For every 3 escorts taken, 1 may be taken
from either the United States or Britain.
For Example, Argentina has Britain as a Patron Great Power. Therefore, they choose to take a Minotaur class armored cruiser, Active class Light Cruiser, and 3 Shah class frigates. Assuming they still have Operational Value left, they can then choose 1 United States Cruiser and 1 United States Escort. In this case, they choose Denver class and a Smith class to round out their fleet.
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| Brigade Models British aeronef take on Prussians from Spartan Games Dystopian Wars range |
The following are additional warships for the British Navy. They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.
Category: Battleship
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 6
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +4/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +4/+2/+1 Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/4/3/1 -/-/- Bow/Port/ 5+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/2/1 -/-/- Stern/Port 5+
Starboard
Point Defense 4/-/-/- -/-/- All -
Operational Cost: 11
Class: Lion
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 8
Altitude: 8
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/6/4/2 +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/6/4/2 +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Bow/Port/ 5+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All -
Operational Cost: 6
Class: Invincible
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)
Armor: 7
Speed: 2- 8
Altitude: 8
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/4/2/- +1/-/- Bow/Port/ 5+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Operational Cost: 5
The following are additional warships for the L’Aire Nationale. They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.
Category: Battleship (Heavy Cruiser)
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 5
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/7/5/3 +4/+3/+2 Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/7/5/3 +4/+3/+2 Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Bow 5+
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Starboard 5+
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Port 5+
Air Torpedo 4 (Speed 18) +3 Bow
Operational Cost: 6
The following are additional warships for the German Navy. They follow the normal rules for generating Command found in the main Castles in the Sky rulebook.
Category: Battleship
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 6
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +4/+3/+2 Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +4/+3/+2 Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Air Torpedo 1 (Speed 18) +3 Bow
Air Torpedo 1 (Speed 18) +3 Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
Category: Battleship
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 5
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/7/5/3 +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/7/5/3 +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Air Torpedo 1 (Speed 18) +3 Bow
Air Torpedo 2 (Speed 18) +3 Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
Category: Battleship
Armor: 9
Speed: 2- 5
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Medium Battery -/3/2/1 +2/+1/- Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Medium Battery -/3/2/1 +2/+1/- Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Air Torpedo 1 (Speed 18) +3 Bow
Air Torpedo 2 (Speed 18) +3 Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 11
Category: Battleship (Heavy Cruiser)
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 5
Altitude: 7
Turns: 1/45
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/4/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/4/3/1 +3/+2/+1 Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Medium Battery -/4/2/- +2/+1/- Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Medium Battery -/4/2/- +2/+1/- Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Bow/Port/ 4+
Starboard
Light Battery -/3/1/- +1/-/- Stern/Port 4+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Operational Cost: 6
Category: Cruiser (Battle Cruiser)
Armor: 8
Speed: 2- 6
Altitude: 8
Turns: 1/90
Lift: 1
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +2/+2/+1 Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Heavy Battery -/5/3/1 +2/+2/+1 Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Light Battery -/4/2/- -/-/- Bow/Port 4+
Starboard
Point Defense 2/-/-/- -/-/- All
Air Torpedo 1 (Speed 18) +3 Bow
Air Torpedo 2 (Speed 18) +3 Port/Starboard
Operational Cost: 7
Category: Cruiser (Light Cruiser)
Armor: 7
Speed: 2- 10
Altitude: 9
Turns: 2/45
Lift: 2
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Medium Battery -/2/1/- +2/+1/- Bow/Port/ 3+
Starboard
Medium Battery -/2/1/-` +2/+1/- Stern/Port 3+
Starboard
Point Defense 6/-/-/- -/-/- All
Bombs 4 (Speed 6) +1 Stern
Operational Cost: 4
There are new ships for all the Great Powers. However, for the sake of space, I will leave it at the first three Nationalities for now. In a few weeks I will have more ships to add for the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Italy, and The Dual Monarchy and more.
To sign off, I want to provide access to a couple last resources that maybe useful to you in your games:
I must say "thanks" for adding this content! Very much appreciated, although is there any chance of adding these new vessels as a PDF download, like you did for the QRS and templates and such?
ReplyDeleteOnce I have them all published on the blog, I will release a PDF with all the details on it.
Delete