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 so ships could attack ground installations, and they could fight back. They were cut due to space from the original book.
Ground Combat
Airships may dominate the skies, but ground forces are still needed to hold territory. Great Power competition is primarily concerned with territorial gains. Therefore, the ground-pounders will always play a role in Great Power diplomacy.
However, Air Power will often be called on to eliminate or removed ground forces such as dug-in troops, a fortress, or other targets. Naturally, ground based defenses have also been developed to try and protect ground sites from bombardment by Airships.
Ground Targets
Ground targets come in all different types. They can be troop formations, trains, buildings, and fortifications. For game purposes they are considered immobile and at the Altitude Band of the ground or the height of any terrain they are placed on. They can not use Commands.
Before the game begins, Ground Targets should be assigned an Armor rating between 1 and 10. The harder the target, the higher the rating.
Ground Targets use the following Damage chart using a 2d6:
2 No Damage
3-10 Hull Breech!
11-12 Target destroyed!
If a Ground Target’s Armor reaches 0 it is considered destroyed.
Bombardment
Airships without Bombs may attempt to Bombard a target with their guns. To do so, they must descend to within range of the target.
Ground Targets can be targeted using the same method to attack an Air Ship.
Airships may dominate the skies, but ground forces are still needed to hold territory. Great Power competition is primarily concerned with territorial gains. Therefore, the ground-pounders will always play a role in Great Power diplomacy.
However, Air Power will often be called on to eliminate or removed ground forces such as dug-in troops, a fortress, or other targets. Naturally, ground based defenses have also been developed to try and protect ground sites from bombardment by Airships.
Ground Targets
Ground targets come in all different types. They can be troop formations, trains, buildings, and fortifications. For game purposes they are considered immobile and at the Altitude Band of the ground or the height of any terrain they are placed on. They can not use Commands.
Before the game begins, Ground Targets should be assigned an Armor rating between 1 and 10. The harder the target, the higher the rating.
Ground Targets use the following Damage chart using a 2d6:
2 No Damage
3-10 Hull Breech!
11-12 Target destroyed!
If a Ground Target’s Armor reaches 0 it is considered destroyed.
Bombardment
Airships without Bombs may attempt to Bombard a target with their guns. To do so, they must descend to within range of the target.
Ground Targets can be targeted using the same method to attack an Air Ship.
Ground Defenses
Ground Defenses are artillery pieces designed to fire up at any incoming Airships to try and dissuade them from attacking. Ground Defenses use the following Profile:
Ground Defense Profile
Armor Max Altitude
Armament Firepower Power Ammo
This profile is very similar to those used for Airships.
Max Altitude: How high the weapon can reach a target. Typically a +X indicator with the X being the number of the highest Altitude Band the weapon can reach from the ground.
More details on Ground Defense Profiles can be found in the Great Powers Order of Battle.
Ground to Air Shooting
Ground to Air shooting is worked out like normal firing between Airships. However, the target Number for Ground Defenses to hit any Airship is a 6+ instead of the normal 4+.
Ground Defenses
All nations make use of ground defenses to fortify and protect their strategic assets, key positions, and their borders. Typically, these take the form of dug in anti-aircraft cannons. Sometimes, the work is ad-hoc only being built from sandbags and entrenchments. Other times they are purpose built forts with concrete pillboxes and quick firing guns.
Any nation may choose Ground Defenses from the following list with the following limitations:
Ground Defenses are artillery pieces designed to fire up at any incoming Airships to try and dissuade them from attacking. Ground Defenses use the following Profile:
Ground Defense Profile
Armor Max Altitude
Armament Firepower Power Ammo
This profile is very similar to those used for Airships.
Max Altitude: How high the weapon can reach a target. Typically a +X indicator with the X being the number of the highest Altitude Band the weapon can reach from the ground.
More details on Ground Defense Profiles can be found in the Great Powers Order of Battle.
Ground to Air Shooting
Ground to Air shooting is worked out like normal firing between Airships. However, the target Number for Ground Defenses to hit any Airship is a 6+ instead of the normal 4+.
Ground Defenses
All nations make use of ground defenses to fortify and protect their strategic assets, key positions, and their borders. Typically, these take the form of dug in anti-aircraft cannons. Sometimes, the work is ad-hoc only being built from sandbags and entrenchments. Other times they are purpose built forts with concrete pillboxes and quick firing guns.
Any nation may choose Ground Defenses from the following list with the following limitations:
· No Nation can spend more Operational Value on Ground Defenses then on Air Ships· Defenders in a mission can spend up to 50% of Operational Value in a Scenario on Ground Defenses· Attackers in a mission can spend up to 25% of their total Operational Value on Ground Defenses
Class: Light Battery
Armor: 4
Max Altitude: +3
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Light Battery -/2/1/- +1/-/- All 5+
Operational Value: 1
Class: Medium Battery
Armor: 6
Max Altitude: +4
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Medium Battery -/2/2/1 +2/+1/- All 4+
Operational Value: 2
Class: Heavy Battery
Armor: 8
Max Altitude: +5
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/3/2/1 +3/+2/+1 All 4+
Operational Value: 3
Class: Torpedo Bunker
Armor: 4
Max Altitude: +3
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Air Torpedo 3 (Speed 18) +3 All -
Operational Value: 4
Sky Mine Field
Armor: N/A
Max Altitude: Place at any Altitude
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Sky Mine 8 (Speed -) +2 N/A -
Operational Value: 1
Aerodrome
Armor: 3
Max Altitude: N/A
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Aeroplanes 4 (Speed 10) +2 All -
Operational Value: 5
Armor: 4
Max Altitude: +3
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Light Battery -/2/1/- +1/-/- All 5+
Operational Value: 1
Class: Medium Battery
Armor: 6
Max Altitude: +4
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Medium Battery -/2/2/1 +2/+1/- All 4+
Operational Value: 2
Class: Heavy Battery
Armor: 8
Max Altitude: +5
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Heavy Battery -/3/2/1 +3/+2/+1 All 4+
Operational Value: 3
Class: Torpedo Bunker
Armor: 4
Max Altitude: +3
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Air Torpedo 3 (Speed 18) +3 All -
Operational Value: 4
Sky Mine Field
Armor: N/A
Max Altitude: Place at any Altitude
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Sky Mine 8 (Speed -) +2 N/A -
Operational Value: 1
Aerodrome
Armor: 3
Max Altitude: N/A
Armament: Firepower: Power: Fire Arc: Ammo:
Aeroplanes 4 (Speed 10) +2 All -
Operational Value: 5
That is the last of the material that I had to cut out of the rules for space reasons. Now, if you use the resources on the blog and below, you have everything I made for the initial run of the game. There has been popular demand for some "Build-your-own" ship rules that I have been toying with, so there may be some more content for Castles in the Sky coming.
I have also started some initial work on a ruleset for Land Ironclads that would be set in and compatible with the Castles in the Sky universe. This would allow you to play games in the air and on the ground for a combined arms effort. Let me know if that is something you would be interested with in the comments.
To sign off, I want to provide access to a couple last resources that maybe useful to you in your games:
Quick Reference Sheet
https://app.box.com/s/5smrkaa313mgwu8ypzp9qw56oxhohwgo
Ship Templates
Record Sheets
The Tokens, Templates, and Sheets were made by Robert Kurcina from the Delta Vector Google Group. Thanks to his help, Castles in the Sky was made possible in the first place!
These resources should help you out with your games as you go forward. Good hunting! Let me know if you have any questions.
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Wow
ReplyDeleteAwesome game
ReplyDeleteI would be very down for land ironclads
ReplyDelete