AegisGrimm wrote:
Makes me really wish I had picked up some of Catalyst Games' Leviathans plastic ships when they were still available for less-than-insane prices.

Regional Powers
Besides the Great Powers, there are a number of other countries attempting to gain regional power through the use of an Air Navy. South America is especially rife with these types of regional politics. However, they are not the only place. The countries bordering the Baltic Sea have a similar regional competition politically, economically, and militarily.

Most of these countries lack the industrial base to build Air Warships on their own. Instead, they tend to form alliances or sign building contracts with one of the Great Powers. This power tends to act as their “patron” on the world stage. This patronage allows these lesser powers to improve their own military forces with secondary units and designs from their Patron powers. The United States and Britain are exceptions to this process as they are willing to sell Air Ships to anyone with the right coin.

These Regional Powers tend to have one “fleet” of Air Ships that consists of a few cruisers and escorts. They can not field larger forces and it takes great national effort to field the Air Ships they have. Some try to emulate their patron’s doctrine’s and organization, others adhere to the Mahan school, while others follow the Jeune Ecole approach to Air Warfare. No matter the doctrine, there are few formal academies and actual hands-on training is rare compared to the Great Powers. There simply is not money in the budget to fly the fleet on a regular basis.

Officers tend to come from families with commercial interests in knowledge of Airships. The crews are the left-over conscripts that the local armies do not want. Therefore, command ability can vary wildly and crew skill is low at best.

These regional forces do not intend to compete with the Great Powers, except in desperation. However, the can be effective against local nations with limited access to Air Power. Such a fleet can make the difference between victory and defeat. Hence, all nations that aspire to greatness must try to build an Air Fleet of their own.

Lesser Powers include regional powerhouses like Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, China, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Belgium, and similar countries. Most have a single Patron that provides the bulk of their forces, with a few airship supplements from the United States or Britain.

Determining Command Dice
Regional Power
Roll a d6 for each ship:
1-2= Command of 1
3-5= Command of 2
6 Command of 3

Line-of-Battle
Choose a patron Great Power for the Regional Power. They can choose Armored Cruisers, Cruisers, Light Cruisers, and Escorts from this list. In addition, they may add 1 United States or British Cruiser for every 2 Cruisers from their Patron. For every 3 escorts taken, 1 may be taken from either the United States or Britain.

For Example, Argentina has Britain as a Patron Great Power. Therefore, they choose to take a Minotaur class armored cruiser, Active class Light Cruiser, and 3 Shah class frigates. Assuming they still have Operational Value left, they can then choose 1 United States Cruiser and 1 United States Escort. In this case, they choose Denver class and a Smith class to round out their fleet.