Sky Aemyril -Rules for Airship Battles on the World of Alwyd

Had today off for reasons, so while waiting for the phone to ring, I cleared off my messy wargames table and unrolled my sea mat to try playtesting my airship battle game idea. I published the initial draft here. As you can see from the pictures I've gotten more ships painted this past week. This about half of them.

Royalist battleship emerges from cloud cover in Game 2 to fire a broadside into the Crusader heavy battleship

I decided that I had too many ships identified as Carriers in the first post, and thought that some, or most, could be battleships. So the ships previously identified as battleships have now become battlecruisers.

I also decided to add a "heavy" battleship. Yes, we could call it a dreadnought, but that seems very earthlike to me.

Class BB - Heavy Battleship 9 Damage Points, 6 heavy batteries, 3 light batteries SLOW 0-2 MEDIUM 3-4 FAST 5-6

Class BC - Battle Cruiser 7 Damage Points 4 heavy batteries 2 light batteries 1 rocket pod SLOW 0-4 MEDIUM 5-6 FAST 7-8

Royalist battles cruisers and cruisers

Crusader Cruiser squadron

Game 1. I rolled for where each fleet set up and they rolled for opposite short sides of the table.

I decided on a doubles initiative roll that a storm would arrive and move across the battle space like some alien horror from Original Star Trek.

Flanking cruiser squadrons veering to avoid the storm

Crusader Cruiser squadron is caught and thrown into disarray, with some minor damage suffered.

Even though they can't shoot as a unified formation now, they get some good hits, blowing up the Royalist heavy battleship.


Cruiser goes down from accumulated damage points


Royalist Battle Cruiser explodes!

Crusader Battleship explodes

So that was interesting. I was madly scribbling notes across my print out as I moved models and rolled dice. There were a few things missing, like a proper set up and weather. The complicated Formations weren't working, and I decided to just measure moves and shooting instead of using the hexes.

I decided to add proper set up, borrowed heavily from Nimitz.

• Each side rolls a d6. Low Roll is Disadvantaged.
• Disadvantaged Player starts with a 12"x12" box 12" in from the right hand corner of his table edge. He rolls a second dice. 1-2 adds a second 12x12 directly to the left along the table edge. 3-4 12x12 box adjacent to upper left corner. 5-6 12x12 box on the top of first square. He deploys his fleet inside these two boxes (yes, he can include the area between the corners if he rolled the diagonal boxes). The fleet is pointing in the direction from initial box to box rolled.
• Advantaged Player then sets up anywhere on his half of the table.
• Roll for weather.

Roll 2d6 for Weather after both fleets deploy.

1/1 Big Storm covers a 12"x6" area. Roll for where around the table it starts. Every turn it moves 2d6 towards the opposite table edge/corner. +1 on the damage roll for any ship caught by it.

1/2-5 a 6"x6" storm

2-5/2-5 2d6 3" clouds placed alternately around the table

1/6 12"x6" cloud bank roll for initial placement and moves 2d6 across table

2-5/6 6"x6" cloud bank

6/6 Clear Skies

After lunch I cleared things up and set up another game.

Game 2. 

Crusaders are the Disadvantaged Player and rolled 1-2 for Deployment. Then we got 2d6 clouds.

Clouds are placed alternately by the players.

For Activation I reached for the This Quar's War: Clash of Rhyflers card deck. 3x 3s, 4x 4s, 3x 5s. Draw first card and discard face down.

Advantaged Player gets first card. 1 Activation you can Move or Shoot a Formation or Single Ship. 

A Formation or Ship that has Moved can be Activated again to Shoot. But may only do each only once per card.

The black pipe cleaners are marking who has fired.

Ships can only move as a Formation if they are bow to stern in line with no more than 4" between posts. Ships in squadron may "follow the leader" to stay in Formation.

When you're a Squadron of Destroyers and find yourself going broadside to broadside with the enemy Battleship Squadron!

Your Destroyer only scores 2 hits, but you roll really well on the Damage

Boom! A fire is started on the Royalist Heavy Battleship which promptly explodes some ammunition! 

Later in the game the Royalist Destroyer Squadron repeats the performance. Close range Rocket salvos blowing up a Cruiser and a Battleship.

Still need to clarify maneuvering. But Nimitz's one 90 degree turn somewhere during the move seems OK.

Measuring from the posts and using the hex bases for firing arcs still seems to work though.

Like, That's Just Your Opinion, Man

I shared this video on across my Social Media,  including a few wargaming Facebook Groups. 

I prefaced it with:

This, so much.

The only wrong way to wargame is when you aren't having fun.

Unpainted, poorly painted, wrong uniforms... if YOU are having fun, then you're doing it right.

And the only place I got any push back was a Napoleonic Wargaming Facebook Group. Someone felt that if you weren't taking it seriously and getting every detail correct, or playing with unpainted figures, then you were just being lazy.

An argument followed, which I decided to resolve by Blocking that voice and leaving that Group. Because no one needs that kind of negativity.

Personally, I paint as well as I can, and don't put unpainted figures out for a game, and you all know that I like a well dressed table.

But that's me. It's not for everyone. I've played some memorable games with unpainted figures because the people around me were fun to play with. 

So just.... wow.

It's no wonder Napoleonics has such a bad reputation. 

Big Guns

 ...there was a heavy battery operating just beneath the ridge, at a kept interval of minutes, with unnerving inevitability, as a malign chronometer, ticking off with each discharge an exactly measured progress toward a certain and prearranged hour of apocalypse. (In Parentheses by David Jones. p.135)

I needed two more guns for Brequar Manor, so Don found an .stl for a First World War British 8 inch howitzer and printed a full battery of four. I was wrestling with various ways to get enough gun crew with my Coftyrans when the Tollyn-Mearyn were released. I got extra bodies and extra empty hands printed to make gun crew, as well as extra crew from the field gun set.

OK some of the poses are extra dynamic. But whatever, they're excited. I only had three plastic shells, so I gave a couple spare sponges from some black powder artillery equipment in my bits box to give their hands something to do. I've seen modern gunners use sponges to make sure the breech is clear of any burning cinders before the next charge is thrust in.

I did two crews with the hats and two crews with the helmets.
 

Since I issued their very modern looking recoilless rifle to the Crusaders and Toulmorese, I have given this misprinted German 150 mm infantry gun to the Tollyn-Maeryn. It's more old fashioned looking and I think fits better with the more old fashioned looking uniforms and spiked helmets.

I'm also getting Don to print me some trench mortars, I think these figures would look ok acting as crew for those as well, since I've got 4 sets of them.

They can also crew a Maxim gun set up on the edge of a trench at a pinch too.

I'm sure they'll welcome the extra firepower when defending against Crusader (or Coftyran!) assaults.

Now I just need three more gun pits so that I can lay out the battery at Brequar Manor properly.

I'm Not Crying, You Are: In Which Rabbitman Re-Reads The Lord of the Rings

The final pages of The Lord of the Rings, and the death of Theoden never fail to leave me a little misty eyed.

If you haven't been paying attention, I'm a bit of a Tolkien fan, as I declared way back here. Some folks seem to think that C.S. Lewis is better, but they're usually Anglicans, so they're biased. Tolkien's craft, command of language, development of character is just vastly superior. And he doesn't smash you over the head with his theology. But it's there if you're paying attention.

OK, since White Supremacists seem to try to co-opt Tolkien as well as everything else, maybe he's too subtle. But White Supremacists aren't terribly deep thinkers, so it could be right in their face and they'd miss it, just like they missed that Homelander in The Boys is a Bad Guy. But women's agency, indigenous oppression, the rejection of Power, enviromentalism, the dangers of Corporate Greed, and the value of small things done with love are all there. Tolkien tells us that the mighty only exist, not to set things right, according to their wills, but to make space so that the small folk can build a better world, one garden at a time. 

Something the rich and mighty in our world should think about. 

I decided to return to my comfort blanket this spring because of all the stuff going on in the outside world, where it seems, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, that the Power of Mordor is growing. As I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I noticed that all of the things that Jackson cut out of the movies are things of great value that I was only too happy to appreciate again.

There's more of the Shire, especially as Frodo and Sam move to Crickhollow. And if you're a Hobbit-head, and would like to live in the Shire, like me, then these chapters are super rich.

Merry and Pippin are actually intelligent and capable young hobbits, not the clowns that the movies cast them as. And Farmer Maggot. He squares up to a freaking Nazgûl! But this is an early indicator that Tolkien thinks real goodness and power comes from being rooted in the soil, oh... like Sam.

The Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, and the Barrow Downs, all show us that there are perils and powers beyond Sauron and the White Council. I think Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are present to show us what Middle Earth would have been like without Melkor's Rebellion. That was going to be my Ph.D thesis in the alternative timeline where I got to be a Professor of Literature. 

The Pukel-Men. These, if anything, are an indictment of Numenorean Imperialism, which is touched on in The Silmarillion, but the emphasis on Elendil and his heirs pushes the conquering, oppressive expansion of  the Numenorean Empire into the background. We don't learn in the movies of Numenor's spiritual and literal fall into darkness. Same with the Dunlendings. In the movies we don't really get why the Dunlendings hate the Rohirrim so much. You get pushed from fertile farmlands to scrabble a living in the mountains and see how you feel? The Dunlendings, full of hatred and anger, fall victim to the lies of Saruman. The Pukel-Men however, recognize the greater threat and side with the powers of Good.

The Fields of Cormallen and the whole long gentle winding down after the fall of Baradur. Wars just don't wrap up neatly, and everyone goes home. Troops didn't return home from the First World War until 1919. This part of the story gives Tolkien the time to tie up all the lose ends, and give us more time with beloved characters. 

The Scouring of the Shire.  I get why Jackson cut it out, but I think doing so diminishes the hobbits. But the movies do diminsh the hobbits to make Aragorn,  Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf  bigger heroes. The Scouring finishes the hobbits' character development arc. And the hobbits come into their own and solve their problems without Legolas trick shooting while surfing on a shield. And Sam's Gaffer gets some great lines.

And there's more hobbits as the Shirefolk rise up against oppression and then rebuild.

Then there's all the stuff Jackson inserted into the movies.

Elves at Helm's Deep? Sigh. Thank goodness he resisted the temptation to have a bad assed Lara Croft-ish Arwen arrive to save the day. He filmed it. But left it out thank God.

The Witch-King breaking Gandalf's staff at the siege of Minas Tirith. Really? Doesn't that rather render Gandalf impotent now? And Merry dealing the fatal blow with his elvish blade is downplayed in favour of Eowyn's blow.

Faramir dragging Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath and Frodo having that dumb face off with the Nazgûl.

Aragorn killing the Mouth of Sauron is definitely not cool either. Aragorn is a valiant, honorable king and knight. Killing an Ambassador, even the Ambassador of the Dark Lord, is a moral failing. Poor way to start your reign. 

I shan't bother itemizing what's wrong with The Hobbit movies. No one has time for that. 

But it was good to re-visit beloved stories, and refresh them in my memory.  Especially in our digital culture where the movies so easily erase the written text in the popular discourse. 

Meet the New Boss

Master-Yawdryl Paerwyn kept his eyes fixed forward, even though the new Is-Caerten's hat plumes bobbed directly in front of, and level with them. He wondered to himself, not for the first time, which Ancestor he had annoyed to get lumbered with this self-important runt of a quar. Said runt was the scion of a First Family and fresh out of Officer's School by the sounds of it.

He saluted the air above the Is-Caerten's hat with crisp precision. A flutter in his peripheral vision told him that the salute had been returned. He dropped his arm. 

"Master-Yawdryl Paerwyn reporting, Sir!"

"Stand easy Master-Yawdryl." Is-Caerten Gwyffyth ap Foldgyhth'wlech looked up at the large, burly Senior NCO. He'd need this remarkable example of soldiery on his side if he was to be successful in his new command, the 8th Company, 22nd Fusilier Regiment. The Master-Yawdryl relaxed and looked down at him, eyes tinged with curiosity. 

"I'll need someone to look after my kit, but until then I cadged a pot of tea from the Company Cook." Gwyffyth gestured to a chair. "I'll be Mother and pour. Sugar?"

Master-Yawdryl Paerwyn sat down stunned. 

"So we'll need to go over the company training and duty schedule, don't you think?"

Master-Yawdryl Paerwyn blinked in surprise. He was used to officers leaving him to do all the work while they ran up Mess bills.

"I'm sure you've got it all in hand, but I really should have an idea what the bucks are up to, don't you think?"

Paerwyn took the offered cup wordlessly. 

"I think I should inspect the company tomorrow. Just to see where we stand. Let the rhyflers have a look at the new Boss, so to speak."

Paerwyn found his voice. "Route march tomorrow, sir. 6 o'clock start." He prayed to whichever Ancestors still liked him that the new Is-Caerten liked to sleep in.

"Oh excellent! Full marching or battle order?"

"Marching, sir." Hoping this extra burden would help the junior officer remember a regimental staff meeting he had to attend. 

"Outstanding! I'll be at the barracks at quarter to six then ready to go! We can discuss ideas for improving training as we bimble along, listening to the rhyflers singing their marching songs."

Paerwyn sputtered inarticulately.

"Are you all right, Master-Yawdryl?" Is-Caerten Gwyffyth looked at him solicitously. He held out a plate. "Biscuit?"

******************

Here is batch number 2 of the Tollyn-Maeryn. I think the official intention is to use Crusader officers for the Tollyn-Maeryn. But when have I ever stuck to the official "lore?"

The officer is a spare Coftyran Baenyr who had broken at the ankles. I cut off his head, drilled out the neck and attached a Tollyn-Maeryn head with the hat. The ball shaped carving bit on my Dremel Tool has proven to be perfect for making new neck sockets to facilitate head swaps.

I used my Dremel Tool to shave the hood, which is prominent on Coftyran officers, off the back of the figure.

The Master-Yawdryl is identifiable by his sword. Again, I added a small pack to the shoulder belt.

The cook was a flash of inspiration. Fortunately, Don prints multiples, just in case, and these are great for inspiration. I thought that the Penny-farthing bicycle helped this army look that little bit more archaic and increase the Great War aesthetic. I did a head swap on the Crusader cook and disguised the very prominent Crusader back rig for packs with four spare plastic ration tubes.  I gave him a blue neckerchief as a nod to the Bavarian Corps in WW1 who faced the Canadian Corps in some key battles.

Finally, another Yawdryl and five more rhyflers. 

This gets the force up to an Officer, Master-Yawdryl, Company Cook, Messenger Squirrel Handler, two Yawdryls and 12 Rhyflers.

While I was slapping field grey around I painted that die cast truck I bought at Hotlead in March.

This gives me a nice convoy of two trucks now.

The Basing is a mix of model railway ballast and fine sand blasting medium.