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chaos0xomega wrote:
IMO, if you're making a blue book game that isn't based around a specific real world historical period with an ample supply of existing models in a variety of scales available for it, then it should essentially be generic - I.E. have design rules out of the box or generic statlines that are widely applicable/customizable regardless of the minis you and your opponent use. A Billion Suns and Gamma Wolves are good examples of this in practice that enable players to "flavor" their armies with faction benefits and playstyles while keeping the system miniatures agnostic.

By giving us specific and restrictive fleet lists and ship designs we are basically locked into playing with Brigades miniatures, or whatever derivatives people cook up based around their design paradigms. In essence it stops being a typical blue book centered around generic flexibility and instead becomes the next iteration of a ruleset designed around one specific manufacturers miniatures range (ala Aeronef and Imperial Skies). At that point you might as well cut out the middle man and launch your own miniatures line and IP.

The game is scale and model agnostic. You can use whatever you want. Just because there are no ship-design rules does not mean it is a restrictive ruleset. I am really confused on where this leap of logic came from?

Sure, a Queen Victoria class battleship is a Queen Victoria class battleship stat-wise but it can be represented by any model you want. You want a Dystopian Wars model? Use it. Leviathans model from Catalyst Games Lab? Sure! Irregular Wars Brotherhood of Uranus? Fine! The actual HMS Valiant from GHQ? Yes! A 3D printed model from Thingiverse? Go for it! A paper template of the actual HMS Queen Victoria? Can do! A coin marker? If you want, I guess. Makes no difference to the game.

The game doesn't even care if the ships are the same size. You want to put a GW BFG ship against a Brigade Aeronef? It will work fine mechanically. Might look weird, but the game functions fine.

In no way are the rules for any ship hard coded off what Brigade makes. If anything, I looked closely at real-world ships of the era and used broad categorizations to then give them some game stats to ship classes and types. The factions are based on the actual Great Powers around the time of WWI, and that is about it.


However, the process was not "science" it was a combination of broad guidelines and game feel. There is a level of abstraction so having 12 quick-firing cannons, and 12 4-inch guns, 58 machine guns, two turret mounted 16-inch naval guns to fore and aft, etc are abstracted into a generic set of stats by ship. It does not count individual weapons, turret, barrels etc. This is not a WYSIWYG game down to gun calibers, as the scale makes that level of detail irrelevant. Instead, having a lot of machine guns and rapid-firing guns just gives a ship improved point defense against aeroplanes, torpedoes, and mines, etc. Having 8 16" guns vs 8 12" guns gives a ship class different firepower and armor penetration capabilities.

Also, the games specifies that ship classes are "public knowledge". After all, back in the day any observer with glasses can look at a ship's profile, check their ship recognition manual, and then know exactly what each ship was capable of thanks to Jane's. This game assumes the same, ship classes are not "hidden knowledge" and are specified to be freely shared. Therefore, if a player asks for the stats of a ship, the other player is expected to share them.

I hope this clears things up. The game is not designed to have a "warship building" sub-game like Battletech of Gamma Wolves. There are still strategic choices as certain classes are better at different things, so you have to plan around their capabilities. That is the strategic choices of the game.

Sounds great to me!

Anyone else noticing that Osprey has been pimping the RPGs pretty hard the last few months? That and Cryptid and Brian Bormu (sp) as board games?

Perhaps the Osprey Wargaming Series and other wargaming books are not hitting the mark in the profit department? Or they think they have hit the threshold of wargamers they are going to reach so no need to pimp them as hard?

No idea really.....

could be they put out a call for manuscripts (since most of their stuff is effectivly done by the authors then Osprey publishes them), and so they'll all now coming to the point of being ready to go?

It might also be that Wargamers, because they are often tied to a model army, tend to stick to fewer systems and are slower to change to new ones.

Meanwhile RPG gamers are less tied down and more willing and open to changing systems because some won't even use models and many that do have less attachment to them because ultimately many of them might only see the table once and then never again. Plus their systems are almost totally model agnostic so they can chop and change things much quicker and more freely.



I mean heck on Kickstarter you can often see a new DnD 5th ed campaign book get into hundreds of thousands in raising money whilst if you were to release a wargame rules set without models you'd struggle just to get uptake.

Northstar Minis (and I think possibly Warlord?) are constantly posting stuff for Osprey wargames on the socials, albeit through model releases and bundle deals ...

Well, whatever the case they have been MUCH more active promoting stuff in these lines than ever before. I appreciate that.

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:



-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.



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

A very detailed account of the thought process behind the design goals listed above. Seems to hit most of the points I'd personally love to see in a steampunk game about flying battle ships, I'm getting quite excited for this Osprey Blue Book (quite a beast at 80 pages too)!

I'm also excited to get my copy and have two Imagi-nations duke it out.

And how did you manage to wrangle a bigger book out of Osprey?! Does this mean you're the vanguard in longer bluebooks?

They recommended it! They all ready paid for the artwork anyway, so they probably wanted to use it all.

Hopefully if this one sells well enough, and they get the profit margins they want with it, they will make bigger books? Who knows, but I can not imagine that the margins are high for these books.

Well if it sells well, perhaps we can look forward to Moving Castles? Rolling Castles? Castles in the Mud?

So, here is what I have gathered about Operation: Flashpoint.

- Based on an old video game, so that informs the mechanics of the game a lot
- Platoon plus game where one side is a NATO unit defending in WWII vs the Warsaw Pact
- Heavily campaign based, with the NATO units building and losing resources as the game goes on
- I am less sure how the game handles the Warsaw Pact forces, as it seems like a good set-up for solo-play.
- Reagan 80's level of tech, if I understand correctly.

Anyone else know more?

Issue 414 of Wargames Illustrated apparently has a preview of Castles in the Sky!

This surprised me as the theme is about the rise of Prussia. However, Osprey Games referenced in in their Social Media posts.

Well, would you take a gander at this.....

A set of wargames rules covering heroic adventure and dastardly villains during the early 20th Century.

Enter a world of perilous adventure and explore steaming jungles, desert canyons, and arctic wastes! Brave the perils of nature and discover lost ruins, ancient treasures, and the secrets of forgotten civilizations! Race against rival adventurers and face off against diabolical villains! Take to the city streets and fight back against gangsters, spies, and sinister cults!

Pulp! is a scenario-driven skirmish wargame set during the interwar years of the early 20th Century. Players build teams of bold explorers, daring archaeologists, hardboiled detectives, and costumed avengers – or criminal masterminds and evil geniuses – and dive into a world of fortune, glory… and menace. Designed for both solo and cooperative play as well as the classic head-to-head mode, Pulp! contains all the rules needed to game globetrotting escapades in this rip-roaring era.

You have my attention.

FYI - Google Play store has Osprey ebooks on big discount (everything basically $9.99). Just picked up Castles in the Sky on sale (congrats Easy E!)

These RPGs have hit the site proper.....



and



The second one interests me as a long time Shadowrun player.....

From FB:"Lion Rampant V.2
+++Update+++
The release date has been pushed onto the 4th of August unfortunately. Rest assured, if you've pre-ordered from us we'll still be getting your book out to you the moment it arrives with us.''

From amazon, cover for Xenos Rampant.

I have been waiting for this one since Dragon Rampant came out.

From FB: ''Lion Rampant V.2
Heads up, the first print run might be sold out before it even hits the streets (4th August). We've still got some spare, but once our retail stores start ordering they are going to go fast, pre-order now to secure your copy.''

From FB: ''We've just had a notification that Lion Rampant V.2 is on it's way to the North Star warehouse. 🥳
🤞🤞 we're hoping they arrive Monday, that would be excellent!!''

There's a review of the Lion Rampant V2 on the GMG youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppQjjmZDbRI

The Black Adder wrote:
There's a review of the Lion Rampant V2 on the GMG youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppQjjmZDbRI

Awesome, thanks for the link!

Another review for Lion Rampant 2nd edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSw3tcdjous&t=1s

FB ''Xenos Rampant is due to be released in November.
We will have a special offer for all you customers so save those orders for North Star.
Plus, author Richard Cowen has written three special Army Lists for us, using the Stargrave/ Frostgrave plastic figures. We'll make both the Army lists and the figure deals available in the pre-order campaign.''

Anyone seen any reviews or mechanics info on Crescendo of Violence or Hard City?

Also, per the author on another forum, the Operation: Flashpoint Osprey Wargaming Series "Blue Book" will be delayed indefinitely due to the conflict in Ukraine. I guess they and Osprey felt it hit a little bit too close to home right now.

I was looking to pick-up Crescendo of Violence, and I ran across a book labeled as Dracula's America: The -RolePlaying Game

That tweaked my interest. It looked like a 5/2023 date with no cover art yet. However, those dates are notoriously fickle, so no one hang a hat on that.

Anyone else hear any scuttle on the topic?

Oh that would be neat!