Last of the Mohic... ...Tyrannosaurus?

This is a spin-off of my homebrew medieval Middleheim rules. The British and French clash alongside Indian allies, in battle to control the lucrative dinosaur hide and ivory trade.

The Ohio Valley has caves that lead deep into the hollow earth (Middlehiem) and British and French trappers and colonists race to stake their claim in the terrifying but lucrative forests of the underworld.

Warlord (Perry sculpts I presume) humans and dollar-store dinosaurs share the world. 

The native tribes, spurred by the wealth offered by British and French, battle alongside their allies and penetrate even farther into the depths. Their traditional hunting methods are supplemented by the firepower of .75 cal Brown Bess - capable of blowing through two human targets, it troubles even large dinosaurs.

 The Compagnies de Marine are the spearhead French unit, adapting native stealth and guerilla ambush techniques to become the finest fighters in the underworld. 

The dinos are from kids-toy packs and cost less than $1 each. They are made from gummy plastic so... just don't undercoat them with spraypaint like I did... I used mostly cheap craft paint as these were to be 'cheap and quick'. The buildings are, I think, Zvezda Russian log cabins, slightly out of scale.

After initially taking heavy losses, including the battle of Monogahela Caves, the British increasingly rely on light infantry and locally raised Ranger companies. Roger's Rangers are one of the most famous, ranging deep into the middle-earth on scouting and raiding expeditions.

I initially intended to use my homebrew Middlehiem rules - intended for psychic War of the Roses knights mounted on dinos they easily adapt to slow firing muskets. However I may simply adapt LoTR:SBG to keep it accessible to my kids (and we all know it is an adaptable set of rules - a la Legends of the High Seas/Old West).

Besides serving as steeds for medieval knights, the dinos may come in handy for another projects - the kids and I have discussed a game world where dino herders in mech suits (thanks Avatar) battle pirates and poachers (also in mechs) while collecting eggs and raising young dinos... but I think that may be more suited to 15mm.... hmm, time to raid the kids toy box for smaller scale dinos....

Dracula's America (Rules Review) Weird West/Gothic Horror Skirmish

Not a bad set of rules - but I feel like I could have skipped these and saved my money. It just feels like house rule/simplified Savage Worlds/Deadlands with lots of stuff removed.   Remove all the SW stats and replace them with a single "do everything" stat called "Grit."  Prune away most of the spells, skills and abilities. Add in a generic Necromunda-lite campaign system like most skirmish games are doing nowdays.Voila! In fact, this could have been an Osprey Blue Book - I don't feel it needed 137 pages and a hardback version. It's not a bad set of rules though.

The Shiny

It's a 137-page rulebook, hardbacked, which is very generously spaced out (easy to read). There's decent art and pictures of minis, a nice table of contents and a quick reference which I always appreciate. It's an easy rulebook to use and looks pretty. The fluff is pretty cool - Dracula assumes control of the Union after Lincoln is assassinated, the Confederacey dabbles in zombies, railway occultists clash with Indian skinwalkers...   Even better, the fluff does not get in the way of the rules which are laid out logically.  Well laid out, pretty rulebook.

Overhead

You need 6+ each of d6, d8 and d10s, you roll a number of the specified dice with 5+ being a success. Your dice is determined if you are novice (d6), veteran (d8) or hero (d10). Modifiers are applied by adding or removing dice. If you get the max score on a dice (6 on a d6) you can re-roll another failed dice. You count up your successes. You also need some tokens for overwatch, jammed weapons, and "done acting" etc. 

Instead of a "long line of statistics to determine how tough, accurate or brave a model is" - the book is proud of how it makes them all a single stat, Grit. I'll spare you the full rant on how illogical this is but merely observe this merely means (a) either all models are the same, or (b) the author relies on a "long list of special rules" to differentiate each model.  Yeah, you guessed it. Each model gets a literal paragraph of explanations and special rules under them, and it somehow makes it 'simpler' than using evil stats. I mean, it's not like wargamers would understand stats like Move, Shoot, Fight, Defence and Will. Lucky we avoided those complicated stats, boys!

Despite my gripes, with only about 30 pages of main rules (and pretty consistent mechanics) it's not complicated to learn.

Given its a skirmish game, mini requirements (6-10) aren't high. It's pretty simple/logical in its mechanics, and most people have a range of dice nowadays. I'd say it's pretty accessible.

 

Activation

It uses a playing card activation system, probably because all Wild West games have one, but it doesn't accomplish much for the extra work it adds. Players get cards = their leader + 1/2 their warband. They can activate one or two minis with each card draw. Players play cards with high cards going first.  Facing matters (which is good) and models can move, shoot, fight or lookout (hold/overwatch).

While the cardplaying aspect does add some choice (i.e. play your best card to try to go first) I don't think it's worth the effort.  

Movement & Combat

All models move 4" (but I'm sure there's extra special rules for faster and slower models) and the usual charge/climb/jump/fall rules that exist in most skirmish games. Models are impacted by their 180d facing/vision arc which is good and adds tactics. Models can hold an action to react later to opponents.

Models Shoot at the closest enemy target (but may attempt to override this with a test) and you can pre-measure to see if the target is in close/medium/long range. The shooter makes a 3-dice test based on their Grit (basically d6, 8 or 10 depending on their level of experience). There are modifiers for range and cover. Some weapons need to make a Jam check.  Weapons have the usual 40K ranges ie. 24" for rifle, 18" carbine/bow, 12" pistol and naturally they all get their own special rule.

If a target is hit, it also rolls "save" using its Grit, modified by the successes the firer inflicted.  

When models Fight, both models roll 3 dice and compare their successes; with the winner doing the damage (and a possibility for draws). The loser makes a save as per shooting attacks. The winner can choose to "pushback" opponents which could add some cinematic moments. 

When rolling for damage, the 'degree of failure' determines if a model is shaken, downed or removed completely. I.e. you need a 7 and roll a 5 you might be shaken, but if you rolled a 3 you would be downed. 

Morale is very simple; once 50% casualties, the highest ranked model makes a test.

There are rules for mounted combat, dynamite, bystanders (including human shields) random events and unusual terrain like gunpowder barrels. 

The actual combat mechanics are pretty straightforward. Not bad, not great. "OK"

 

Campaigns & Other Stuff (aka the other 100 pages)

You start with a d10 hero and d6 novices. You arm your models and add "skills" from a list of 18. Which is less than you think as most of these skills do things like add +1 Fight and +1 Defence, and +1 to Shoot tests (cough cough...  acting just like stats). <- is the horse dead yet? Let me whack it again

There is a decent 8 scenarios and there are rules for team games.  There are optional "Agendas" (like assassinating an enemy boss) which are kinda like side-missions to earn extra Victory Points. Although I can't test this, I suspect this game would shine in a multiplayer demo/club-game format with competing gangs. 

There are the usual campaign tables for injuries and advancements - the advancements are somewhat randomized - sometimes you can choose, and sometimes you can't. Your gang has income and it has a "encounter" chart where you can roll for random occurances. (You can also use a supernatural encounter chart instead). You must roll for new recruits and may get novices or veterans based on circumstances - but getting better recruits if you win seems likely to "snowball" things so better gangs get even better - not wise in my opinion. Underdogs do get extra funds.

There are rules for hired guns (specialists who must be paid each campaign turn) who of course each come with their own paragraph of special rules. You can buy and sell weapons, horses and gear from a list of about 30 choices- from snake oil to telescopic sights. 

There is a list of supernatural models (which can be summoned by some gangs) and arcane powers - the 11 spells seem to be culled from Savage Worlds but this is probably a coincidence. 

There is a list of factions - vampires, monster hunters, skinwalkers, railway cultists, voodoo abolitionists, Confederate necromancers, etc - each with their own benefits and rules.

There are rules for in-game supernatural events (which can replace unexpected events) - such as zombie outbreaks.  Finally there is a bestiary of monsters and supernatural hired guns, as well as supernatural gear like silver bullets, grimoires, holy symbolsetc.

Actually this is one of the best/most comprehensive Necromunda-esque campaigns I've seen in a while, with lots of charts and stuff to do.

TL:DR Recommended? Maybe

As the owner of Savage Worlds/Deadlands I feel this is a bit of a wasted purchase (i.e. it's an expensive yet stripped down version of what I already have), but this is by no means a bad game. The rulebook is well laid out. While I'm not a fan of the card activation or the "single stat does everything" approach; combat mechanics are straightforward enough, and it has a campaign system which is more in-depth than most I see. I can certainly see it working very well in a club/multiplayer setup where you can play 1v1s, 3-4 player free-for-alls etc - depending on who wants to play.

Zona Alfa (Rules Review) for STALKER/Metro 2033 Skirmish

Probably my initial favourite of the 3 Osprey books to land on my doorstep lately, Zona Alfa is a a pretty straightforward game for playing 28mm S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Metro 2033 skirmishes - you know, post-apoc Russia in "The Zone" - home to mutants and radioactive artifacts.

The Shiny

It's a typical 64-page Osprey Blue Book - softcover, with bits of Osprey art and photos of minis. It was quite dense with a high text:image ratio. It had a good table of contents and I found it easy enough to use and navigate. 3.6 roetengen - not great, not terrible.

 Overhead

It plays on a 4x4 table, using 4-12 minis from any company. The rules are cheap and it uses d6 and 4+ d10 dice. It's pretty cheap.  You'll need 4 types of tokens for status markers. A fair bit of terrain would be good, but you could use most WW2-modern or ruined buildings. The rules are pretty consistent, simple and logical.  Models have 4 stats - Move, Combat (a mix of shooting/melee skill), Armour and Will. A good mix. The core rules are 24 page long and there's only a dozen special rules. These rules are cheap and very accessible.

Initiative & Activation

It's alternate activation, with no rules for mitigating bigger forces (i.e. the more numerous side tends to get a tactical advantage with unopposed moves). It revives the old (early 2000s?) "action point" system; basically rookies get 1 action (move or shoot); a regular 2 and a veteran 3. Basically, better troops can do more stuff, and start with more skills. 

Once activated, soldiers can choose to shoot, move, aim, climb, reload, remove pins, etc as an "action" or reserve an action for later (aka overwatch) at the cost of two actions. Some complex skills like defusing bombs require a "Will Check." This is all logical and solid without being amazing. 

 Movement

Models get a 360 FOV (I prefer 180 as it adds more choices at the no real extra complexity). Obstructions, soft and hard cover add modifiers to firing and even Will. Troops move individually except pack of rats, etc which have a 1" coherency. There are climbing and jumping rules. Again, very simple.

Combat

You roll a d10, and score equal or less that the (modified) Combat stat. Rolling low is a little odd, but I can't complain as I've just been using it for my own homebrew rules. 

Any hits can be "saved" by the defender rolling equal or under their Armour (minus any weapon bonuses).  

Melee is simultaneous - a defender gets a free "fight back" - which means both models can take each other out at the same time - which I'm not a huge fan of. Attackers (active player) can use their hits to cancel defender hits which should favour the attacker.

Rolling low is a bit unusual, but rest is simple & consistent - but not a huge fan of the melee rules.

The rules are quite dense at times compared to other Osprey Blue Books.

Damage

There are successful damaging hits, and those deflected by an armour save. A successful hit wounds which knocks out/removes most non-hero models (mitigated by medikits). A deflected hit causes a Will Check - failing this roll collects a pinned token. A hero with a wound halves their speed and combat stats. Pinned models cannot do anything except defend themselves and remove pinned tokens by using actions in their turn.  This is again, simple and straightforward.

Gear, Skills, Squad Creation (Necromunda-esque stuff)

There is a decent, logical range of armour and weapons from teeth, claws and machetes to assault rifles, flamers and HMGs and grenades. There are 8 weapon special rules but they are logical - like "Reload" - the weapon (say a RPG) must reload after each shot.  

Troops choose from a restrained 11 special skills and can choose from 15 pieces of equipment like binos, gas marks, anomaly detectors etc. 

Crews are bought/balanced based on total actions (i.e. a squad of 4 rookies would be worth 4, while 4 veterans would be worth 12). You can also "trade" an action and raise a single stat of a model by 1. I.e. instead of paying 3 for a 3-action veteran, you could pay 3 for a 2-action regular with a +1 combat stat.

Factions include traders, scientists, military, independents, cultists and bandits which come with their own squad pros and cons. They can be allied, neutral or enemies to other factions. 

Crews collect "advances" (like XP) and can improve stats, equipment and skills; which can also be purchased with cash. Wounded/downded models can collect injury effects. You can buy new gear and weapons for cash and hire new recruits.  It's a typical Necromunda/Mordhiem system, but on the light side.

Missions

The missions themselves have "threat levels" based on how far you go into the Zone. "Hot Spots" are marked places on the table that can contain loot or threats - more dangerous missions have more hot spots with more risk vs reward dilemmas. Hot Spots can be triggered by base contact or a "bolt toss" (a tribute to STALKER) and spawn random hostile mobs which must be eliminated before the area can be searched for salvage. Sometimes a hot spot can trigger a dangerous but valuable anomaly. This must be cautiously searched using a Will Check (and a detector) to collect rare artifacts - or suffer dangerous effects.

The missions themselves are more suggestions - Zona Alfa is designed to be played with mates, creating your own stories and missions, rather than competitively. There's a mere three fully fleshed out mission examples.  The hot spots and Zone threats are cool and give a STALKER vibe, but there's nowhere near enough "proper" missions. 

TL:DR Recommend? Yes

There's nothing new or exciting but it does what it says on the tin - deliver a simple, unobtrusive set of rules that don't interfere with playing a game. Its consistent mechanics and sensible amount of special rules means it is an easy game to teach to newcomers or as a club game. It has a reasonable campaign system and interesting "Zone" mechanics, but lack of proper missions are a drawback. It's not an exhaustive, complex ruleset, and is clearly aimed at narrative, not competitive play. If you want to get minis on the table, and game a campaign in the "Zone" - then I can strongly recommend Zona Alfa.

Wargaming - Man vs Dinosaur

 In WW2, dinosaurs were prized for their ability to effortlessly wield heavy weaponry.  Their vital contribution to the war effort is often glossed over by modern historians.

Inspired by my daughters toy dinos shower adventures (that sounded odd) and partly by PC games (Dino D-Day, ARK, and the ORION series - especially the latter - I mean, who hasn't dreamt of fighting a T-Rex equipped with a crossbow, jetpack and lightsabre?)   ...I've been wondering why there aren't more dinosaur wargames?

 Iron Sky has been vital for exposing the Nazi menace from their moon colonies.  A new documentary reveals their Hollow Earth bases.

Like pirates and ninjas, they are the most under-represented faction of "cool" on the tabletop.  We have plenty of robots and mecha, and every idiot and their dog is making a zombie game.  Cowboys? Tick.  But is there any dedicated dino games and miniatures lines?  No, the only way you'd get them is through some tiny boutique manufacturer, sold in a paper bag like a X-rated VCR.  They might be mentioned in passing in pulp rules, or in a supplement no one much plays.  (Though the lovable pulp-obsessed oddballs at Lead Adventure probably have a forum on it)

I can't think of any wargame franchise where dinos have their rightful starring role.  I mean, we know they fought with the Nazis in pivotal moments of WW2 (thanks to classic historical works such as Iron Sky, Danger 5 and Dino D-Day).
(No, Lizardmen don't count. They're Aztec alien lizards from space, not dinosaurs.  They're as much dinosaurs as Michael Bay's Age of Extinction transformers)

Here's my second thought - how would humans in various eras match up against dinos? 
Sure, if you're jetpacking past wielding a lightsabre you might have a fighting chance - but surely a T-Rex would mong down on a medieval knight?

I've personally never "bought" the theory a giant asteroid mashed the dinosaurs or whatever it did to bring about their extinction.  I mean, Occam's Razor suggests the most common cause of animal extinction would be behind it - i.e. mankind.   A generation raised on Jurassic Park might think "T-Rex - RUN!" but our hardier ancestors may well have throught "Yippee - food for the whole village - in one easy package!"

Since 100% of our dinosaur knowledge is educated guesswork (and in many cases, wild conjecture presented as fact) I think the man vs dinosaur matchup can be pretty much how we wish it to be - but would be slanted in favour of humans rather more than contemporary movies suggest.   Heck, computer simulations suggest a human can keep pace with a T-rex, as opposed to the "chase-down-a-jeep" speeds shown in movies.  Humans are, after all, an exceptionally cunning and vicious species.  I'm sure they would have adapted specialist tactics to bring down whatever dino they hunted. (Also, with those tiny forearms - am I the only one who thinks a T-Rex might not be so scary if it was tripped over?) Heck, they might have only had to knock out the dinos traditional food source, rather than directly hunting carnivores, but I wouldn't bet against it.  That said, for wargaming, I'm thinking traditional tactics:

Shieldwall (Romans, Greek, viking) vs Dinosaurs
Horse archers vs Dinosaurs
Knights vs Dinosaurs
English longbowmen/Crossbowmen vs Dinosaurs
Muskets vs Dinosaurs....

..I mean, just grab your favourite historical period and add dinos in.
Finally, a way to make Napoleonics fun?

As firearms become more capable it becomes hopelessly one-sided, but remember, we're flexible - if scientists have latitude to make up stuff about dinosaurs, so can we.  You didn't know that Velociraptors had infared vision and could spit acid, did you?   ...and they haaate Tiger tanks.  It's something about the smell of diesel that makes them go into an attack frenzy. 

Many species of dinosaur make excellent steeds and are both stronger and more vicious than a trained warhorse - something many medieval knights took advantage of.

Liberated from the guesses of others, we can attribute intelligence and traits as we please to - for example, perhaps dinosaurs were much smarter than their cranial capacity suggests.  Maybe they were all more like Jurassic World raptors or elephants rather than crocodiles or goannas.   Think along the lines of a Mumakil-esque gondola on a brachiosaurous or armoured ankylosuarous deflecting arrows then smashing through a battle line...   ...dinos could act as mounts or beasts of burden, even towing siege equipment or breaking enemy lines like war dogs.   

Dinos, dinos everywhere...  a visit to any department store or $2 shop will usually turn up dinos sold either individually or by the bag.  They're super cheap, and often quite decently modelled. Generally the main concern is a hideous paint job, which is easily enough fixed.  Note: the softer plastic ones don't accept spraypaint to well (so round #2 will have me holding the can back so the solvent doesn't hit it (styfoam-ball style) or see a brushed undercoat first.  I'll upload pics when I steal more dinos out of my daughters' sandpit collection.

Anyway, I meant to explore what existing wargame rules would work well with dinos, and how to fit them in to games, but I realised I must get to bed before my wife checks how late it is and my fossilized carcass is discovered thousands of years later....

Pulp Jets

I'm fiddling around with house rules based on the "principles" of CY6 sans the written orders, probably with a d10 mechanic instead of the 2d6/bucket of dice used by most other aerial games.

I'm going to use a alternate-pulp-history.  I'm focusing on early jets before the advent of air-to-air missiles.  I.e. 1945-1955. The weird and wacky designs of a "transitional period" are more interesting than the more streamlined, copy+paste planes of today, and have less "historical" connection than iconic 60s and 70s designs like Phantoms, MiG21s, Mirages etc.   I really like "just strap wings and a bunch of cannons to a rocket" design philosophy in an era when a "special gunsight" could still be chewing gum stuck to the canopy.   The metallic paint and colourful paint schemes are attractive as a modeller.  

Each aircraft will have a special rule to give it unique flavour, and be "somewhat" based on its historical counterpart.   This is pulp, after all. There will be handwavium, aliens and flying carriers.  However I want the flight model/basic mechanics to be as realistic and straightforward as possible, so I can transfer it to other periods (i.e. 1960s-70s jet warfare in Middle East/African Imagi-nation, maybe 1930s prop fighters).

The P-80 - American's primary post-war fighter, just screams "pulp."  Just the sort of thing to dogfight flying saucers....

Warning: Rambling fluff ahead

I don't want to be stuck with straight Luft '46.  So I'll give a nod to history without outright committing to it:

It is years after the Global War, where the unimaginable power of the Vengeance weapons tore rifts in the fabric of reality.  The world is a very different place.

Wormholes created by the devices gape menacingly the skies above, creating tunnels to alternate universes.   Humanity is fleeing our devastated planet, to the world beyond.  However not all these worlds are unoccupied....  ...and the War may be over, but it is not forgotten.

Human Forces

The Fourth Empire
They unleashed the apocalypse, and are now evacuating the ruins of their nation to the worlds beyond.  The first to develop jet tech, they rely on modifications to older designs due to the strain on their industrial capacity.
Fighters: Ta183, Me262, Ho229, He162, Me163
Bombers: E55, Ar234

 Of course, Horten flying wings need make an appearance...

The Collective
V-weapons left half their nation scorched and ruined.  However resilient, numerous and hardy, they are rebuilding.  They are convinced that the peace with the Empire will not last.  This time, they will be ready.
Aircraft: Yak 23, MiG9, MiG15, MiG17 (MiG19, Yak25)
Bombers: IL-28, Tu16, Tu14

The Yak-23 exemplifies the "jet engine with wings added" approach of the 40s and 50s.

Commonwealth of Albion
After their island nation was destroyed, the survivors spread out to their Colonies.  Like the Legion, they are bitter about the perceived "betrayal" by the Federation and the truce with the Empire. 
Fighters: Vampire, Venom, (Hunter), Meteor;  Sea Hawk, Sea Vixen, Sea Venom
Bombers: Canberra

 The quirky twin-boom Vampire is one of my favourites. 

Legion Lafayette
Once fighting to free their nation from the clutches of the Empire, the Legion has evolved into a mercenary force of considerable strike power.
Fighters: Mystere, Ouragan (Super Mystere)
Bomber: Vautour

I always preferred the look of F9F Panthers over the more famous Sabre.

Federation
Relatively untouched by the Global War, the Vengeance weapons brought home the horror of war.  The Federation remains riven; many want the Federation to assume its place as a global superpower, the current policy is isolationism, rebuilding and avoiding conflict. An unusually high number of "volunteer" units explore the galaxy, and the Federation's flying carriers can project power to counter alien incursions.
Fighters: P-80, F-84E, F-86E, F94B, (F100);  F9F, F4J Fury, F3D, F2H
Bomber: B-47, B-52, B-57

The Aliens

The Scythe

This AI force has sophisticated hacking, stealth and EW which is relatively useless against the human's analogue/mechanical computers.  Blazingly fast, their supersonic fighters struggle in atmosphere. 

Fighters: Studio Bergstrom Scythe Fighter

Bomber: Studio Bergstrom Scythe Transport

Draconians

These are close human cousins, perhaps spacefaring humans from the era of the Pyramids. They would like to "destroy all humans" (or at least rule them) but find themselves vastly outnumbered by humanity.  Not at all inspired by Buck Rogers. Possibly lead by a megalomaniac ruler with a wispy goatee or hot exotic woman wearing lots of leather.

 Fighters: Studio Bergstrom independent factions (not-Wing Commander ships)

Greys

These classic aliens fly saucer fighters. Our first contact with other races, in 1947.  Crashed saucers gave humans their first antigrav designs which inspired the flying aircraft carriers.  Originally a slave race of the Reptilians, they will work with humans. Manipulative, though physically weak. They seek human genetic material to revitalize their dying race.

Fighters: War Rocket Zenithians (Type 1)

Reptilians
Because everyone needs shape-shifting, blood-drinking reptiles as enemies.   These are relatively long lived but few in number, and try to rule by manipulation and deception.
Fighters: Undecided   (any suggestions?)

So this is pretty much a Buck Rogers-Weird War III-Stargate mashup, using generic tropes?

Yup.  The theory is that there is a sort of Cold War state of affairs - everyone is still reeling from the devastation of the Global War, with old alliances split, and sides both hindering and helping each other covertly.  There is a new age of exploration, spearheaded by aerial forces (due to the airborne wormholes) and fighting tends to be small scale - the larger nations are afraid of igniting a major conflict, and private "air forces" of a dozen or so planes are used to "protect" expeditions by private companies and even religious groups against aliens and each other.

The alien races tend to be vastly outnumbered by humanity, but they may be simply small reconnaissance forces themselves....  .....and all are in diplomatic contact, trying to manipulate the human governments for their own ends. 

In short, a setting where human forces can fight against and alongside each other (and aliens) with an emphasis on small-scale jet combat. 

Aeronef Ramblings Part 2

 EDIT: Note there is now a thread and rules on the google group

Well, here is my design manifesto.
#1.  No meaningless hitpoints.  All hits do something or we simply don't record them.
#2.  12" battleship guns do not accurately track small fast moving targets. That's why ships were equipped with quickfiring secondary or even tertiary guns (see rule #8.)
#3. Altitude is not an optional afterthought but integral to gameplay and tactics.
#4. Crew training is essential to gameplay, as are command skills
#5*. Movement and shooting ranges are low, and ratio between gun range/movement is 2:1 at most.
#6. Ships cannot teleport part each other unscathed.  Some sort of reaction fire mechanic?
#7. Terrain! Clouds, sky islands, weather, mountains, smoke screens. Maybe BFG-esque flak bursts?
#8**. Escorts are not #@$*ed over by the rules. Small ships actually have a purpose and a lifespan beyond the first game turn.

Within this framework, I have a lot of questions.  I'm going to toss out some directions the rules could go, and kinda question myself about them.  I'm documenting my mental thought processes.

ACTIVATION (see #6, #8, #4)
Where to go here?
I have a kinda hankering for a BFG vibe, so I'm thinking a Warmaster-ish sort of thing.  Maybe roll 2d6 against a crew stat, and when you fail, opponent gets initiative. Actually, I could modify some ideas off Delta Vector.
(a) 2d6 + commander rating. Winner can choose one of own or one of enemies ships/units to move. Can either hand over initiative or try to retain it by passing a 2d6 roll vs crew skill.
(b) However - any time a ship's move starts/ends within a set range (say 2 miles) of an opponent, said opponent can do a contested roll to try wrest the initiative off them

Whoa, I'm pretty much writing rules! Steady down. This is just supposed to narrowing them down. 

Not sure how reactions fit into this. (See #6). Maybe light guns can react to enemies sailing past, medium guns react with a -1 penalty, and heavy guns cannot fire in reaction at all. This shows how slowly big guns load and traverse, and give benefits to high RoF smaller weapons.  

I actually didn't consider the use of a hex grid like so many aerial/space games.  Too constricting....

MOVEMENT (see #3)
Okay, we need altitude. A micro d6 blu-tacked to the base takes care of recording, so not a big deal.  But how does it impact the game?  
(a)  Pre-dreadnought weapons had about +/- 13-17 degrees, which had improved to +/- 40 degrees by the end of WW1.  This would create a significant "dead zone" under/above the ship where guns cannot elevate or depress.  This would create new 3D tactics beside the usual naval "crossing the T."  Perhaps firing from different angles has different effects? (i.e. shoot from below at hull) Or too complex?
(b)  The maximum air crew can operate without oxygen is about 12,000 feet (2 nautical miles) and it was the average WW1 Zeppelin's ceiling. The Germans found operating over 15,000 feet for long periods caused nausea and blackouts. As WW1 went on Zepplins improved their ceilings to 18,000 and even 24,000 feet and started using compressed oxygen.  Diving helmets and rubber suits were invented in 1837 so you could arguably use higher altitudes.  Maybe penalties to crew checks over a certain altitude? How big is each range band - a nm (6000ft)? Or maybe half that - 1000 yards or so. (3000ft).
(c) Speed.  Airships could move at 100-120kph (60 knots+). Do we make aeronefs faster, slower, or about the same? Perhaps roughly double the "naval" speed i.e. a 20kt battleship = 40kt nef battleship, and a 35kt destroyer = a 70kt nef destroyer.   This will have a major impact on gunnery - big guns will have an even harder time tracking even faster targets.

DAMAGE (see #1, #2, #8)
I'm currently experimenting with a system for Delta Vector that may work - each hit rolls on a d6 for location. The first hit on said location damages it, the second destroys or neutralizes it.

D6	1st hit on location	2nd hit on location
1	Main guns - halve main guns	Weapons inoperable. Risk of ammo explosion: 5-6 on d6.
2	Secondary guns/torpedoes - halve secondary guns, AA etc	Weapons inoperable.
3	Hull Breach - Cannot climb	Ship sinks 1 level per turn until repaired or crashes
4	Hull Fires - Cannot roll for other repairs until fire "repaired". If fail fire roll, take another 1 random damage	Test for explosion of handwavium generator.
5	Engines - halve speed	Ship can only change altitude, otherwise stuck in place
6	Critical hits - lots of interesting things on a sub-table - bridge, rudder	Simply more rolls on the sub-table.

...but I'm not sure that's how I'm going to go.  I mean, are we firing by salvoes or individual turrets? Do we use generic firing arcs (sensible) or use the actual whacky nef firing arcs (cool)

If I was to copy the rather broad damage effects in Aeronef and IS, I could use 4 hull boxes for all ships, i.e. ranked pristine 100%, damaged 75%, heavy damaged 50%, crippled 25% and destroyed *boom*.  Easy peasy! But is that a tad broad brush - do we need more detail?  Maybe a system damage track?

What about the damage systems from BFG or Man O' War? They are good models for buckets of dice (fun)  Or even the old favourite General Quarters - that worked pretty well with a salvo system (sensible?).

My only rule - it must all fit on (and be no more complex than) a Warmachine unit card.  A complete data-card-less game tends to attract too many tokens...

Should I use a d10 (which I'm fond of as you can radically change mechanics but keep the easy decimal math the same) or maybe use a 2d6 for firing (consistent mechanic, and fun probability curve, but PITA to balance). Not keen on the buckets of d6 used by Aeronef as there isn't enough "room on the dice" on d6 for modifiers like smokescreens, target speed/angle/size. That tends to preclude buckets of dice as most people don't have buckets of d10s.... (except those weird RPGers who insist on visiting this site from time to time ;-)

I'm thinking definitely two separate rolls - a roll to hit, and a roll to damage/saving throw. Combining them leads to issues like in Imperial Skies or Coaling Stations - a 12" gun does the same damage as a 4", but just more consistently, accurately, and to longer range - meaning escorts get chewed apart by big ships at range and struggle to hit each other bar random fluke.

SCALE (see #2, #8)
I'm going to fudge this a bit and say 1" = 1000 yards/km, and 1" speed = 10kts.  So I'm going to say for movement: 4" - battleship, 6" - cruiser, 8" - destroyer. I'm a bit concerned the movement is stupidly slow (like in Firestorm Armada where ships can't move their own length) but I really want room to maneuver on the board.  For gun ranges I'll say all weapons are most deadly inside, say 2000m (2")  but they have a maximum effective range of say 5000m (escort guns); 8000m (cruiser guns); and 12000m (battleship guns) i.e. 5", 8" and 12" respectively.  I have no idea if they are correct or not; I'm just interested in the ratio of gun range/movement.  A destroyer can move further than it can shoot; that emphasizes its mobility. Good. A battleship can shoot 3x further than it can move. Also good. That emphasizes its firepower.

CLOUDS, FLAK, TERRAIN (see #7)
I'm pretty keen to use flak bursts like Battlefleet Gothic.   Shots that hit (even unsuccessfully) against ships creates terrain with the smoke and explosions - perhaps giving a -1 to shots going through it including subsequent ones from the same firing enemy ship who caused them. This, actually, mimics the complaint crews had of predreadnoughts when they would confuse the shell splashes of 12", 8" and even 6" guns when spotting.  Easy to make with cotton wool balls on a stick. The problem - how do I quickly and easily track what height they drift at? 

Clouds give interesting abilities - feathery clouds might act to limit view range and/or give mild (-1) gunnery modifiers; whilst heavy pillar clouds might go through several altitude bands and block line of sight completely to anything not on the edge/within the cloud.  Flying under/over clouds and using them as cover sounds tactically interesting.  This could be an important part of the game. But.... how to implement clouds unless you use a completely flat table?

CREW TRAINING (see #4)
Maybe could be used to test for reactions, repairs, and even how many things the ship can do in its turn i.e. roll 2d6 and how many it beats the crew skill by - that shows how many orders you can give. like changing speed/altitude/heading or opening fire or plotting a torpedo attack, like in Coaling Stations.  Maybe have modes to switch between like in Battlefleet Gothic. 

ESCORTS MUST NOT BE &*%# UPON (see #8)
Escorts
I'm going to make them radically more agile, faster and better climbers - able to break engagement at will with battleships and play tag through cloud cover.  They can lay smoke to cover allies.  Maybe a special "evasive action" ability that gives them near-immunity to gunfire.  When they escort things they don't absorb hits aimed at their charge (**** that) but rather get automatic reactive fire to interdict enemies; or both they and their charge get a -1 to be hit.

Guns
Heavy guns, perhaps, cannot fire in reaction and get huge penalties against small, fast moving targets.  In fact they aren't even good at damaging them as massive AP shells go slap through small unarmoured targets Medium guns can fire in reaction at a -1 penalty. Light guns have unlimited reactions and have very little dead zone as they have special high elevation/depression mounts.  Also, the effective range differences isn't that huge, say 5000m (light) vs 10,000m (heavy) - maybe even less. 

 Torpedoes & Aircraft
 I  will make torpedoes shot ranged but deadly; but escorts able to dodge them with impunity. Unlike Imperial Skies, I will not make it so aircraft can only damage smaller vessels (thanks a lot - as if escorts don't have enough handicaps without an enemy exclusive to them - they really needed a hard counter they were so overpowered before) but instead, escorts are really hard to hit by aircraft. Aircraft are instead a counter to large, slow ships (*cough* battleships *cough*). 

Well, I have more ideas, but I think I've adequately addressed the "manifesto" and I have another shed to clean so I can start the playtest phase of my to-do list.   

A set of draft rules should go up on the google group soon-ish.

Aeronef Ramblings

This is the prelude to working on a set of aeronef rules, as per my holiday "to do" list.
(Warning: Wall of text/think aloud incoming)

First, a quick explanation of why I'd bother when Imperial Skies is successfully KickStarted.   This will also serve as my rationale/design notes.

Let's start with what we know about Imperial Skies.  It is elbowing into the partnership with Brigade Models previously occupied by Aeronef.   Now the Brigade Models minis are characterful, cheap, easy to paint and generally awesome.  I've wanted a good ruleset for ages (my thoughts on the original Aeronef rules are familiar to regulars - the words "Yahtzee" "zillion meaningless hitboxes" "exploding d6s" tend to figure in disparaging tones.)

Here's my observations from the rules explanation in the Kickstarter.

Guns come in three sizes - small, medium and large.  This makes sense.  Original Aeronef lumped them all together.  You use buckets of them - e.g. 10 large, 4 medium and 2 light in the example I noted.    They all score the same damage - 1 hit point - and any 6 is a re-roll. Hang on - isn't this the same exploding d6 method as from Aeronef? Why, yes, yes it is.  

	10”	20”	30”
Heavy	4,5.6	5,6	6
Medium	5,6	6
Light	6

Original Aeronef has only "light" guns which work exactly the same way as the IS ones.   In both games, dice are halved if you don't fire broadside. Sadly, IS adding other gun classes is a mixed blessing due to the way it is implemented (i.e. guns do the same damage, but bigger guns have a better chance to hit....  which is mixing shell size, accuracy, rate of fire, and turret tracking - three very different things). Basically, little ships get screwed over even more.    And they still have the random 'exploding 6 on d6' roll.

Ships have hitpoints (up to 24 for a battleship in the example).  After you take out a row, you -1 off each weapon dice pool, and off the ship's speed.  Which is not a whole lot different to Aeronef, simply replacing division with subtraction (much more acceptable to today's degenerate gamers as you can do the math on your fingers).

Movement is pretty similar too. Imperial Skies has nifty turning gauges instead of having to measure out when you can turn, but big ships turn slower, and small ships turn faster.  There are five turning classes instead of three.  So adding differentiation as well as speeding up...  good  ....but....  altitude rules are still optional.  So basically, IS waved away a key point when making a game about flying battleships, and relegates itself to be simply, in effect, another poor naval wargame.

What's good.  So - guns and hit points aren't much better than Aeronef, and altitude is again peripheral.  Is there anything to approve of?  Yes.  Command points.  You roll d6 and get that many command points to spend on any ships within 30" of your flagship.  You can use command points to co-ordinate group moves (activation is alternate move otherwise i.e. each side moving one ship at a time), boost ship speed, damage rolls, repair, or initiative.  This was great in Robotech and will doubtless add a great layer of resource management atop Imperial Skies.  Sadly, for me, it feels like ladling delicious chocolate topping onto stale bread. I wanted cake! 

I've always liked the Brigade Aeronef models but never really enjoyed the rules...

I was cynically expecting Imperial Skies to be a Warmachine clone i.e. sharing mechanisms with Gruntz, in a shiny package.  I wasn't concerned - that's not necessarily a bad thing. Gruntz is a well thought out, well produced game, and has good unit cards and unit builder - one of my recommended 15mm sci fi rule sets.  Instead, Imperial Skies to seems to be an Aeronef clone which doesn't really fix any of the faults of the original and just glosses over them, before waving around command points with a flourish.  

TL;DR
From where I stand, Imperial Skies has simply added in range bands for gun types (which are a mixed blessing) and its only major improvement over Aeronef seems to be a command point system which you could easily house rule yourself.   Has it improved on Aeronef? Well, yes, I suppose... but not by much. And that wasn't a high benchmark to jump step over.   I have the greatest respect for Rottenlead's efforts (Gruntz is a great ruleset for 15mm sci fi), and Brigade's minis are awesome, but I'm going to pass on this one.

House Rule Design Brief
So, we've established what I don't want - i.e. more Aeronef, tarted up with command points.  So what do I want?  Given aeronef isn't exactly a wildly popular genre (compared to the hordes of platoon level sci fi and WW2 rules that seem to breed like rabbits) I might make a more determined effort to make my own.

Aeronef Manifesto:
#1.  No meaningless hitpoints.  All hits do something or we simply don't record them.
#2.  12" battleship guns do not accurately track small fast moving targets. That's why ships were equipped with quickfiring secondary or even tertiary guns (see rule #8.)
#3. Altitude is not an optional afterthought but integral to gameplay and tactics.
#4. Crew training is essential to gameplay, as are command skills
#5*. Movement and shooting ranges are low, and ratio between gun range/movement is 2:1 at most.
#6. Ships cannot teleport part each other unscathed.  Some sort of reaction fire mechanic?
#7. Terrain! Clouds, sky islands, weather, mountains, smoke screens. Maybe BFG-esque flak bursts?
#8**. Escorts are not #@$*ed over by the rules. Small ships actually have a purpose and a lifespan beyond the first game turn.

Undecided:
(?) Guns fire by salvoes or individually? We could reduce dice rolls (a la General Quarters 1-2) but dice chugging (within reason) is fun. Also, do we make generic firing arcs? Seems a pity due to the wacky, characterful WW1 gun configurations on the 'Nefs.
(?) Serious or lighthearted?  Should I aim for more "simulation" (I say this tongue in cheek) or go Man O War style.  Or rather BFG style. BFG had a real WW1-in-space feel. 
(?) How many ships per side? How much "grit" do we add? Aeronef/IS is 10-30 per side.   Maybe aim more for 5-15?

*The gun range/movement of a WW1/WW2 naval game is skewed radically in favour of gunfire. Ships are slow. Guns shoot far.  I.e. a ship might move 6" and shoot 30".  Shoot/move ratio is 5:1.  As a game design point, it means a ship with a 30" gun range in the middle of a 4x6' table can completely interdict from one side of the table to the other. Gun stats reign supreme. This detracts from maneuver in the game.  How to fix it?  Let's reduce gun range to 8" and  ship movement to 4". Only 2:1 shoot/move now.  Maneuver now matters a lot more - we can skirt around enemies firing arcs and launch flank attacks. I do this for gameplay purposes but we could explain this away as Aeronefs move much faster (100kts not 25kts) and are hard to hit. 

**Allow me to elaborate on #8. It is traditional for all naval or space (and even aeronef, apparently) wargames to defecate on small escorts (destroyers, frigates, corvettes - call em what you like) from a great height.   In such games the role of anything small (i.e. less than a cruiser) is to act as ablative armour for larger ships, a distraction or (if lucky) a kamikaze.  Basically, they are Star Trek's Red Shirts. There to die to make the cruisers and battleships look heroic.  Many games, like Imperial Skies, are even blatant about it "The screening rule allows a larger ship to pass off shots that hit them to a smaller ship within 4" if they have allocated a command point."   Great.  So your 24 hitpoint battleship takes 6 damage, hands all of it off onto the luckless nearby escort, vaporizing the escort but maintaining its pristine paintwork.  It's all in a day's job for the 150 crew on board the luckless destroyer.
 Given space combat is invariably based on WW1/WW2 naval this makes no sense.  (It might if space games actually treated space as 'space', but that's another rant). Destroyers and escorts would not be the most numerous and versatile class in modern naval history if they had the 90% casualty rate they have in tabletop games. Remember the destroyer Spitfire at Jutland? The battleship Nassau blew away a funnel then rammed it because the battleship guns could not depress low enough.  That's.... pretty point blank. Even then, Spitfire got away.  From memory in the same action about a dozen destroyers charged the entire battle line (i.e. about a dozen battleships) and in some cases could not fire torpedoes because they were within 150 yards.  I think one was sunk...  (the other two damaged collided with each other).  If that was in a wargame it would have been 9-10 sunk and maybe 1-2 getting away... You know it's true.  Anyway, I'd love to see a naval, space or aeronef game where small ships have a meaningful role, and a survival chance that depends on how they are used, not on their stats and size.   I don't care how fast a ship is... if it has 4 hitpoints and rolls 4 dice hitting on a '6' out to 10".... and an enemy ship has 20 hitpoints and has 10 dice hitting on a 5 and 6 to 20".... do the math....

Well, since this wall of text has gone on far enough, and a "game design manifesto" has emerged from among the rantings, I can move on to the making bit.... to be continued