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witchdoctor wrote:
Aeronautica is hands down the cleanest most fun ruleset to come from GW (though I haven't played AT, but heard it's good.) I think the hex movement will make things even cleaner and faster.

That is really encouraging

Can't wait for more info!

I'm actually more worried the hex movement will kill the quality of the game by making it too cramped. The old AI gave a reasonably good sense of space, models moved a reasonable distance relative to the actual size of the models and their bases. You could cover reasonable portions of the table when moving fast, or get in to a lower speed turning dogfight. I'm looking at the hex table thinking "damned that's small... perhaps too small?".

There are other hex based dog fighting games out there, but I haven't liked them as much as AI.

But we'll see, it's still early.

I still haven't played "Blood Red Skies", but that seems to be in a similar realm to the original AI.

I've just assumed it's the same rules but with all the ranges halved.

As for game size - dogfight would normally be between 3-5 planes a piece taking about 30-45min. And a lot of the missions were definitely geared towards the smaller side of things and you only had 8 turns worth of fuel.

I can remember if it was a house rule or something they recommended, but I vaguely remember quite a tight time limit in the plotting phase (when you place your secret orders). 10secs a plane or something like that or you just go straight.
Definitely kept the game fast.

The hex map is bringing back good Crimson Skies vibes. If it's a little small for our taste either concert the rules to hexless tabletop (like BattleTech; simply multiply all ranges by whatever number of inches you want, and all turns are multiples of 30degrees) or get a mat with bigger hexes.

Hexes is what has me the most interested! The fiddliness of bumping ships in X-wing / etc was always a bummer for me, especially in games where you need to interact with the base (like Dropfleet).

Obviously we'll have to see how it's implemented, but this is what I've loved about Underworlds, as well - removing measurement / adjustment time speeds things up immensely!

I think hexes could work, but it'd need to be a really big hex board to work. The one in the AI picture seems to be roughly 13 by 15 hexes large, that doesn't really seem large enough for an air combat game, but we'll see how it goes when it comes out, I'll grab at least one copy either way for no other reason than I need some Marauder bombers for my existing Imperial squadron

 RiTides wrote:
How long does a game usually take for you, Easy E? I'm guessing it might be faster now with hexes, too

That depended a lot on how things went. For example, I have had a game end in 3 turns, and some last the maximum of 12 (IIRC). The three turn games took longer to set-up then to play because I foolishly went head-to-head with Chaos 1 hit HellBlades against Tau Barracuda with good front firepower. Once I lost three B'Blades, the game was over. Lesson learned!

Typically, they are between 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on how good you are at avoiding the kill zone. Dogfights tend to take longer than ground attack or other missions as your planes can go anywhere. In a mission oriented game, the planes tend to have to "be somewhere" to achieve their mission which means you can predict the location of enemy planes easier to shoot them down.

Edit: Speaking of a quick game..... Aeronautica Imperialis!- Old Skool

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2019/08/battle-report-aeronautica-imperialis.html

From the Aeronautica Imperialis Facebook group:



Price looks great, this release has come really quickly!

Oooo, nice price. Glad it’s low, as the inevitable card packs will push the cost up

If true, oh my days!

that's a great price for the starter set.

Any guesses on $€£¥ for the models? I'm inclined to think $30-35 range for fighters & gunships & $35-40 for bombers etc...

€70,- is decent enough for the main set I suppose. I just hope I can hop on in time to get all the extra cards as well, before they inevitably sell out within minutes.

How many planes are in the starter box?

 Crimson wrote:
How many planes are in the starter box?

9 - 4 Imperial & 5 Ork.

Two Thunderbolts, two Marauders, three Dakkajets, two Fighta bommers:

Seems like a pretty decent deal.

That's a really low buy-in price that should see it sell LOADS of copies which is good for the health of the game at launch which might well translate into more aircraft from more races!

Hopefully the game is as good as the previous edition, I do wonder about the map. While Hex based games are great, that map looks far too small for a game about airplanes.

Is that $90? I'm not sure what "tier" 55 pounds is. $90 doesn't seem like a great deal to me. I guess kind of what I'd expect, really.

I heard the first wave of releases will have a bigger board, campaign book, cards, dice and terrain. I hope this doesn't mean the starter will just have a demo version and you have to buy a bunch of other stuff to get the full game like in Necromunda.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
Is that $90? I'm not sure what "tier" 55 pounds is. $90 doesn't seem like a great deal to me. I guess kind of what I'd expect, really.

It's the same price as a Start Collecting! Astra Militarum boxed set.

Adeptus Titanicus is a lot of fun, and that team did an excellent job of capturing the feel and scale of the titans. I'm hopeful that AI will bring the same to the table, and the deal on the starter set is actually pretty decent.

Between AT and AI, I might sell out of 40K entirely (not happy with the game anymore anyways) and move exclusively over to these two games.

Well that starter price point has bumped the game from "meh" to "might as well give it a go" in my eyes.

Great looking models. Happy to see the specialist games chugging along. Man Id kill for a proper epic release.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I heard the first wave of releases will have a bigger board, campaign book, cards, dice and terrain. I hope this doesn't mean the starter will just have a demo version and you have to buy a bunch of other stuff to get the full game like in Necromunda.

I hope that's the case as well, Necromunda was a disaster. Hopefully the campaign book is just a series of special scenarios and some cool fluff, and not a core part of the game that is excluded in the starter (like Necromunda). If the cards are just more pilots/upgrades/skills I can live with that, but if all those things are necessary to experience the game I will probably pass on the reasonably priced starter and skip the game all together. Again, I'd have no problem picking up the extras if I enjoy the game enough, but I don't want to have to pick them up to experience the game in full.

Also here's hoping the cards aren't a "limited time only" deal like was the case with Necromunda.

I'm looking forward to seeing the prerelease reviews from GMG and the various other online outlets next week.

Nice, finger crossed for Destroyer variant of the marauder.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I heard the first wave of releases will have a bigger board, campaign book, cards, dice and terrain. I hope this doesn't mean the starter will just have a demo version and you have to buy a bunch of other stuff to get the full game like in Necromunda.

Of course it will. This is GW we are talking about. Rope 'em in with a "that's not as badly overpriced as the rest of the line" and then suck them dry on purchases to get to an "acceptable" level for the game.

Saying that, I *might* pick up the base rules and Imperial side - but only if I can get confirmation we'll see Tau fighters down the line (and something better than the existing 40K versions).

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I hope this doesn't mean the starter will just have a demo version and you have to buy a bunch of other stuff to get the full game like in Necromunda.

Also Blood Bowl, but nobody ever complains about that one.

Frankly, it isn't a terrible idea. Aeronautica Imperialis is not a household name and the hype seems extremely limited, so they need a cheap way for people to demo the game. If the buy in is $170 (like Warcry and Kill Team starters) or $300 (Adeptus Titanicus), fewer people will bother to try it out. Even at, what? $90?, it's just a bit too high for me to try, sight unseen - but it is low enough that good word of mouth can convince me to pick it up. But at $170, no way. That's Blackstone Fortress expansion levels of nope.

Is there a shot of these planes next to something else? How big are they supposed to be? Because $90 for a stater set with 9 models doesn't seem like a great deal. Even comparing to other GW stuff. But maybe they are much bigger than I'm picturing.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
Is there a shot of these planes next to something else? How big are they supposed to be? Because $90 for a stater set with 9 models doesn't seem like a great deal. Even comparing to other GW stuff. But maybe they are much bigger than I'm picturing.

Next to player's hands, from the trailers.