On July 21st, several of the usual suspects showed up at my place to give my latest VSF air-naval rules a spin. I drew some inspiration from the Seas of Steel rules that we have played in the past, and melded it with ideas taken from a few other sources.
The game was straightforward. A British dirigible convoy, escorted by two squadrons of Aeronef, were set upon by a French commerce raiding flotilla. After the French withdrew, one of the British squadrons gave chase. The escort commander, suspecting a trap, moved most of the remaining squadron up into the thick cloud cover above, staying just low enough to track and follow the dirigibles below. The plan was to lure more French raiders in to attack the poorly defended convoy.
The British transports and their escort sail steadily toward their destination. As always, click to view a larger image.
A French commerce raider flotilla in two squadrons moves to attack the British convoy.
The British pursuit squadron rushes to the rescue of the dirigible convoy.
The convoy sat at the middle of the table, moving toward the northeast edge. A French flotilla entered sight from the northwest, rushing to intercept the poorly protected convoy. And the British squadron that had hared off after the earlier attackers makes best speed in line astern from the southeast, trying to rejoin their charges. This sets the stage for the game; the remaining British ships are hidden on the table, waiting for the right moment to descend and attack.There are two play markers for each ship. The die on each base shows the ship's altitude. Altitudes go from 0 (for a ship that is landed) up to 6, and altitude affects what targets are available. The yellow and red rings (which will end up hanging from the ships in later pictures) show the ship's current speed rating: red for slow, yellow for cruise, and green for full. These ratings determine how far each ship can move in a turn. The clouds in the distance were also at altitude 3, providing cover and protection to the ships. Everything else shown is ground color and had no effect on the game.
Msrs. Ed and Sean, the two French players, have started their attack against the convoy.
British escorts screen their charges, taking fire and damage.
Combat began quickly (maximum range is 36", and the table is 60"across, so gunfire started as soon as there was a clear line of sight through the clouds). French fire damaged the Vulcan (the round black token next to the base) and inflicted a critical hit, damaging the ship's lift systems. Each turn it had to test, and if it failed it was forced to descend an altitude level.
Jim's British squadron races to rejoin the convoy, as the escorts continue to take damage from French gunfire.
The French move to cut off the convoy's escape, while the British struggle to catch up.
After another turn, Sean attempts to cut off the convoy's escape. Tiger has been destroyed, and Vulcan is crippled (the red token) and has suffered multiple critical hits. The hidden British (under my command) have descended from the cloud cover, but at altitude 5 they cannot fire on the French Their deck-mounted guns cannot fire at ships lower than they are. Sean's French L'Epee (the leftmost ship, facing to the right) has climbed to altitude 4 in order to bring her heavy forward guns to bear on the British Exeter without Ed's ships blocking her fire.
British attempt to intercept the French before they can cross the convoy's "T".
The British squadrons continue to advance; Hyderabad and several light escorts (visible with Exeter in the distance) open fire and shatter a French destroyer. Exeter, less maneuverable, is still too high to engage the enemy escorts. She fires at L'Epee in the distance, damaging her.
Exeter takes severe damage. A critical hits the primary magazine, detonating it and destroying the ship utterly.
The French cross the convoy's "T", with concentrated fire destroying the Majestic and one of the lighter transports.
Ed's ships engage the Exeter, Hyderabad and their escorts, destroying the Exeter and several light ships. Meanwhile, Sean cuts off the convoy. Note that they descended, preventing Jim's escorts from firing back at them with their main guns. The dirigibles' guns are mounted low, and thus can fire at anything that is not higher than they are. However, they are lightly armed and their fire was ineffective. The escorts light weapons, which could fire high or low, inflicted a "ship shaken" critical hit on one of the destroyers, preventing it from firing next turn.
The British move broadside to broadside at point blank range…
Jim positions his light escorts to fire broadsides into Sean's squadron, with Rawalpindi and Lahore firing broadsides into the head of the French line. Behind, I move the remaining convoy dirigibles into the cover of the cloud, where they can't be seen by the French gunners. Beyond them, Ed's ships are ready to mop up my remaining escorts and then encircle the convoy next turn.
…and both sides take a beating.
At this point we called the game. The British ships were heavily damaged, while the French were still in good shape for the most part. Jim and I could see no way to get the dirigibles off the table before the French could destroy them. In discussing it, the scenario setup was heavily biased against the British, as they had to cross half the table to get into range while the French started out able to fire on the convoy. There were also some glitches in the ship designs that caused problems.
Overall, it seemed like the system worked well for everyone. Movement and maneuver were quick. Combat was sufficiently bloody at close range, while long range fire was mostly ineffective, mostly providing an opportunity for critical hits to occur. I need to fix the broken ships, rework how I calculate the stats, tweak the ship record sheets a bit, and make some small rule adjustments. But overall I like how it turned out. Especially for a game where, in fine Jackson Gamers tradition, I finished writing the rules less than 12 hours before play.
For future games I'll want to get some smaller dice for altitude, and possibly some of those acrylic dice docks that various people make nowadays to hold them steady. I also want to get acrylic tokens for the various game markers: critical hits, fast move markers, speed markers, etc. The paper markers I knocked together worked, but colored acrylic markers would be less obtrusive.