[Commercial] Castles in the Sky- Available on the Osprey Website

[fred]

I got the rules yesterday- looks interesting

How closely do your vessel profiles match to the Brigade Models ships?

Flight stand wise, other than Aeronautica Imperialis are there any others with built in dials?

[Easy E]

Flight stand wise, I am not 100% sure.  Litko probably has something that works. 

As for how closely the profiles match Brigade ships, keep in mind I tried to base my profiles on historical ships.  This is a scale and mini-agnostic game so therefore I did not even look at the Brigade models when making profiles. 

However, that has not stopped me from using them.  I just say, this one is a X class, and that one is a Y class.  As long as I can tell the ships apart in game, it doesn't matter to me.

[fred]

Thanks - I’ll check out Litko and other likely sources for flight stands. Having ones that change height would be cool, but may not be that practical!

With the number of photo of Brigade models in the rules, I wasn’t sure if there was any direct link - but as there isn’t I’ll stop second guessing and go with the ones that I like the look of!

[The_Beast]

Flight stand wise, I am not 100% sure.  Litko probably has something that works. 
...

I was just looking on the site, but didn't seen anything adjustable for height, but bases with openings for dice and an upright with 'steps' to put a height 'flag' might do you. I think there was seven or so step/notches.

Alas, couldn't find exactly what I sought, but will keep trying. Can't seem to make the search work for me, and with something like eight thousand possibilities, browsing is kinda daunting.

Doug

[Easy E]

For those interested in a Castles in the Sky Quick Reference Sheet, you can find a draft PDF here:

https://bloodandspectacles.proboards.com/thread/168/castles-sky-qrs

[Golgotha]

Very helpful thank you. See you have loads of stuff on your ProBoard. Well worth registering to download.

[Easy E]

Greetings all,

The blog has some pictures from the book launch gathering in Powell, Wyoming at Gestalt Studios. 



It is always tricky doing something like this in the summer near Yellowstone.  There are literally 100's of things people would rather be doing.  Therefore, I was very happy with the turn out for the event.  We kept the Demo table full, and I was pretty busy interacting with folks during the whole time.  In fact, the game went a bit longer than the allotted 2 hours. 

I got some new, potential recruits for our small wargaming group, sold some books, and met a lot of great people.  That is what I call a success.  I don't have a ton of videos or photos, as I was trying to help moderate a demo game, pitch folks, sell books, etc.  Therefore, my attention was all over the place. 

Anyway, if you want more pictures, you can check them out on the blog here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2022/08/battle-report-castles-in-sky-book.html

[Easy E]

Looks like the game got a write up in Wargames, Soldiers, and Sailors magazine.  You can find the issue here:

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/products/wargames-soldiers-and-strategy-120-1940

[Pattus Magnus]

It did indeed. Based on the short review there I’ll probably pick up a copy soon. I have a couple of small fleets that I bought to use with Aeronef, then packed away. Castles seems like a good set to restart that project with!

[Easy E]

I tracked down this review on the Historical Miniature Gaming Society website:

https://www.hmgs.org/blogpost/1779451/Historical-Book-Reviews?tag=warships

BOOK REVIEW: Castles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships 

by Eric Farrington. 

Softcover (7.25 x 9.75 inches). 80 pages. 2022.
Osprey Wargames 30.

Consider this a First Look as I have not gamed with these rules.

In the post-Martian invasion world of 1872, humans reverse engineer Martian technology and learned how to mix new chemicals with lighter metals and add steam power to create lighter-than-air warships. The old GDW Space 1889 used kinda the same setting. Yeah, it's a steam-punk speculation of John Carter of Mars.

Brigade Models makes small aerial ships and apparently here's the Osprey rules for them. Think of this as pre-WWI naval warfare, but with elevations.

The rules uses three ship classes: escorts, cruisers, and battleships. Individual ships use a series of firepower, movement, and special characteristics to differentiate, with a number of d6s rolled for firing and also adding and subtracting dice for various sky terrain and ship attributes.

One quirk is that a lot of specialty "Command" actions use 1d6 rolls with a 4+ for success. Otherwise, it's move and roll to hit (4+ base), with 2d6 damage table for successful hits. Boarding (rolling a number of Command Dice -- again 4+ base to hit), entangling, air torpedoes, airplanes, and sky mines add spice to direct fire.

A number of scenarios along with a campaign game are included. Ship specs for nine countries' aerial navies are included. The usual array of Osprey illustrations populate the booklet.
As I noted, I don't know how this plays, but it is encouraging me to break out some of my Avalanche Press games and loot the counters for a test drive.

And you never know. Alas, I failed to find flying ironclad miniatures at Historicon. I imagine you can use regular 1880-1890s ironclads just fine.
Enjoyed reading the rules for its possibilities.

[The_Beast]

FYI, did get the book, getting head around same.

https://bloodandspectacles.proboards.com/thread/168/castles-sky-qrs

Just to be sure, looking at the PDF requires membership on that forum?

Doug

[Easy E]

Thank you for the support.

I think you can access it without joining, but need to join if you want to comment on it.

If I am wrong let me know and I will see what I cam do about that.

[The_Beast]

"Guests do not have access to download attachments. Please log in and try again. "

Given my old-man's-attention-span, I keep getting side-tracked on minor quibbles when working out the games structure, and what I assume is a paired down quick reference would help.

Doug

[Easy E]

I hope this helps/works.....

[Easy E]

You can hear the review here:
https://manbattlestations.libsyn.com/episode-69-castles-in-the-sky-review