Man Battlestations Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Easy E on March 10, 2022, 05:01:41 pm
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Greetings all,
This 5+ year journey is almost at its completion. Castles in the Sky is up on the Osprey website for pre-order. This is the game of flying battleships circa 1914.
https://ospreypublishing.com/store/osprey-games/osprey-wargames/castles-in-the-sky
(https://ospreypublishing.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/958def80b7ce809d46640f86aa46835c/9/7/9781472844965.jpg)
This one is 80 pages long and filled with brand new art from Osprey, and brand new photos from Brigade Models. This is a very nice looking book, perhaps my favorite one that I have done with Osprey yet.
If you have questions let me know and I will do my best to answer them.
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Outstanding news! I already have my pre-order in. Can't wait to get my copy :)
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Thanks for all your support on this!
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Looking forward to this one too, congratulations!
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Looks very interesting.. I was wondering whether you think it could be played Solo?
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I did not design it to be solo-play, as this started way before the need arose.
That said, anything can be played solo with some spit and polish. I have all ready had requests for ship design rules, more South American fleets, and now Solo-pay rules. I better get cracking on the expansion. :)
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I am sure many of you have noticed that the Osprey Wargaming Series has another title coming out in June. This one is called, Castles in the Sky- A Game of Flying Battleships. This book was 5 or 6 years in the making, and has been one of my most difficult games to get "right". There are a couple of things you will need to know about it right away:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg25x6xBB0wtCx0ZuC1--MFnf4PnGA7zvhRtUN4g5V8ex0Zkq_r68Jc6hz4FNSyrIRgi9ZPxc00M06d9vHGdNdNnFpTnvTKQwjrP9Sfpw1qS7tEbLjtefhR68AkB8v6MYLyt_yIVMYqVo2aePSoR2PNok-y9kXvEdJzt27ZjGVbiD1-DSMSIO2VFXl3=s320)
-This game is 80 pages long, longer than a typical Osprey Blue Book
-All the art in this book is new and unique, never before seen in any Osprey book
-All the model shots are new from Brigade Models taken just for this book
-This book is V5.2 of the rules, and took many people's help and assistance to get this far. This one was a community project just as much as something I wrote. Big thanks to all those who helped along the way, there are too many Usernames, names, and handles to document without getting into trouble for missing one, but you know who you are! Huge thanks.
As many of you know, the first game I made from scratch was a 40K wet-navy wargame, and I see my efforts here as a return to my "roots". This is a game that sprang from a few different sources of inspiration:
-Castles of Steel and Dreadnought by Massie. Two works about the naval arms race prior to World War I between Britain and Germany. They are the sources of the name for this book.
-My studies in college about naval warfare and work on pre-WWI diplomatic history
-The Aeronef genre of games such as Aeronef, Imperial Skies, Leviathans, Sky Galleons of Mars, Dystopian Wars, and many more, and Musings on the Delta Vector blog
-A variety of wargames from oceans to space and beyond.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjuyFrIORjLVuHPo_WwG0s0VRYQycKvQDURYnqOo61h3O7Up-1oUwHJO1JONNPCvzBejwjdJ5vlZCjoMa4OQT3fHwy65KBEFiEnhMPrhCgyfUeI89j4AlcIVlKu0AVzL_NnzjGiDHHVBgIwhl-8oPDYlKKGIBWH_ZDDD82ORQE8CvNV52l9Fh343mEM=w300-h400)
As I approached Castles in the Sky, I had a few key design elements that I wanted to be sure to capture in the rules. I will let you read them and decide if I was successful in my goals. My design notes did not make it to the final book for space reasons, so you will have to read them here instead. I hope you enjoy or gain some insights.
Castles in the Sky had the following design goals:
-Scale and Model agnostic
-3D battlespace
-Meaningful choices to be made
-Ships that can take a pounding, until they can't
-Battleship > Cruiser > Escort > Battleship
-Maneuver matters
-Some relationship to naval warfare of the period..... but flying
You can read more about the game and how I came to these design goals on my Blood and Spectacles blog post. That can be found here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2022/04/wargame-design-castles-in-sky.html
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My copy just arrived this afternoon, looking good!
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Thank you for your support!
Let me know if you have questions, and I would be happy to answer.
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Here are some flip-throughs from Youtube for your enjoyment:
RJL Games
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja9UDAH_Jl8
NotJay's Tabletop Gaming
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TILORc9wzQ
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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
Ash of Guerilla Miniature Games fame also did a read-through of the rules here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0PhHJg1Ric
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I finally got my hands on my copy :)
I have to say, it might just be the prettiest Osprey game book I've yet seen!
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Yeah!
All new, original art from Michael and great, original model photos from Tony at Brigade.
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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.
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This week on the blog, I have a post with a bunch of resources and photos for Castles in the Sky.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilG_nEHuXIHTXp5qrZfCWv1iIkjsZO_OlLo2LkMBPCnT0DRnT5c_wLpv-PTeU76-aNtgcYxY-Xf1pqr6JJix4xexxBM-Z3CEV3PUirBXdHxErvSYSmqEAb5wzCpU-EUtZofLvT-HSU58iKLlo8xdi8WZhBJzGUN4XnkNxAqUBP0z30XO3GWonlCv2c/s320/291BE217-0C46-421F-8B54-705683B704AE.jpg)
The resources include:
- Quick Reference Sheet
- Tokens for game play
- Record Sheets
- Ship templates
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX1C8cjay7WXwvcq_7j24buFbiXz69lA9GJVCYJXWGsFCOzGKmzo-dKac1IqRhRABXudhXJay0o4ae59T0puhjlu6YMuhF8EZwa78CDQstpI8Qsturfx8A2Zxsf2t6B1aBsxWBBc8G_u_EVRMQa4prTRhlw4XcWxYcOt5gwj8VXbzYXOSmDBHeE0Zq/w640-h450/IMG_2335.HEIC)
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/01/castles-in-sky-random-photo-dump-and.html
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Very handy! I'm hoping to get this to the table sooner rather than later ;)
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShKxrFYqty887n4C0n-eRguUcHw3XI1F1wBLO5h0-Kh62RIkiXYJCdDD7hL5BuOvfOL9YcnVokr4XtS9HoxzxFjGBtAo6yv3_Ka6cLR8m6OwnRuu0oE835rTXkZB__lkrjZaeHWQ14VmZoMjArcaK1n5I_CF2g6Lw7qzU1eXNb3_FoCRs3beNKzAX/s320/IMG_2500.PNG)
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!
Over the next few weeks the blog will have new and expanded content for Castles in the Sky. You can see the first entry with some new ships for the British, French, and Germans. In addition, there are rules for the Regional Powers that never made the book. You can find this new content here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/02/wargame-design-castles-in-sky-new-ship.html
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShKxrFYqty887n4C0n-eRguUcHw3XI1F1wBLO5h0-Kh62RIkiXYJCdDD7hL5BuOvfOL9YcnVokr4XtS9HoxzxFjGBtAo6yv3_Ka6cLR8m6OwnRuu0oE835rTXkZB__lkrjZaeHWQ14VmZoMjArcaK1n5I_CF2g6Lw7qzU1eXNb3_FoCRs3beNKzAX/s320/IMG_2500.PNG)
More new ships can be found on the blog this week!
You can find them here:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/04/wargame-design-castles-in-sky-new-ship.html
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Nice! Exciting to see you continuing to expand the game 8)
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An amazing method for basing ships for Castles in the Sky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r6zRwoI37I
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Great use of stackable bases, and the color coding was a good bonus.
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShKxrFYqty887n4C0n-eRguUcHw3XI1F1wBLO5h0-Kh62RIkiXYJCdDD7hL5BuOvfOL9YcnVokr4XtS9HoxzxFjGBtAo6yv3_Ka6cLR8m6OwnRuu0oE835rTXkZB__lkrjZaeHWQ14VmZoMjArcaK1n5I_CF2g6Lw7qzU1eXNb3_FoCRs3beNKzAX/s320/IMG_2500.PNG)
The last rules update with Ground defense rules and ground defense stats is up on the blog.
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/05/wargame-design-castles-in-sky-ground.html
I will have a PDF version with the addendum data on Wargame Vault on the Blood and Spectacles page in a few weeks. Until then the blog should get you through. Enjoy!
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The Joy of Wargaming has been ramping up to play some games of Castles in the Sky. Here are some of his initial attempts at playing the game. Might be of interest to those here:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP97jruI5to&t=43s&pp=ygUaY2FzdGxlcyBpbiB0aGUgc2t5IHdhcmdhbWU%3D[/youtube]
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Joy of Wargaming has even more Castles in the Sky content up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfFao729cSs
There are a few rules errors that I address in the comments.
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If anyone speaks German, perhaps you can give me an overview of this video?
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHaqd1KTns[/youtube]
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As promised, I put all the blog content of new ships, expanded rules, the QRS, and a few other tidbits into a PDF and put it up on the Wargame Vault.
(https://www.wargamevault.com/images/11064/436354.jpg)
You can find it all here:
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/436354/Castles-in-the-Sky-Addendum?src=newest_recent
Now, I can start focusing on Mobile Fortress: Verdun next!
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Annnnd....purchased ;)
Thanks for putting this together!
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Thank you for the support!