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By 1901, the British had established a colony in the Gold Coast after fighting a number of wars against the indigenous Ashanti/Asante peoples. The British had built a number of railways across the region in order to transport gold and other resources to the coast for export to Britain. This proved to be a lucrative trade route.

At this point, West Africa had been gobbled up by a number of European colonial powers including the Portuguese, Belgians, Germans, and the French. That made control of the air and sea lanes from West Africa back to their colonial overseers a matter of National importance. It was in such regions that Great Power politics tended to rear their head.

Mission:

Again, we used the random scenario and complication generator to determine today's mission. We rolled up the Convoy Raid scenario. The British were determine to be the defenders, while the French were going to be the Attackers.

The Complications table determined that Cloud Cover was going to be in effect. At Altitude 7, and clouds covered the entire board. That means shots in, out and through the cloud bank can not be made. You can only target ships at Altitude 7 if you are also at Altitude 7 and short range.

Forces:

L'Aire National:

Pascal- Commodore Murat

-1 Descartes Cruiser- Command 2

Tangiers- Captain Guy-Victor

-1 D'iberville Cruiser- Command 3

Casablanca- Captain Bayard

-1 Chasseur Destroyer- Command 1

Durandal- Captain Valjean

-1 Voltiguer Destroyer- Command 3

Arc- Captain Danjou

-1 Voltiguer Destroyer- Command 3



British:

HMS Blake- Commodore Boyle

-1 Warrior Cruiser- Command 2

HMS Theseus- Captain Franklin

-1 Active Class Light Cruiser- Command 4

HMS Banshee- Captain Malden

-1 Bull Finch Destroyer- Command 4

HMS Pitt- Captain Horton

-1 Shah Frigate- Command 4



2 Merchant Men- Command 1

- Marie of Liverpool

- African Princess

Set-up:

As usual, we are using a 48MU by 48MU board. 1 MU equals 1 inch in this battle.

We randomly determined terrain using the chart in the book. We rolled up Altitude 1 hills x2, and a land feature that plays no impact. Therefore, we set-up a hilly coastline on the west side of the board, the flank of the fleets. This will represent the coast of West Africa near the Gold Coast.

We also rolled up a Cloud Bank which we placed towards the centerline on the East side of the board. It was at altitude 3. Of course, the complication also places cloud cover across the whole board at Alt 7.

The Marie of Liverpool is placed in the center of the board. For the merchant men I am using Dystopian War airships, I believe they were from the American fleet.


Merchant Men

The rest of the Convoy is placed within 12 MU and all facing the North. The HMS Blake is in the lead of the convoy, and the HMS Theseus is in the rear. The Destroyer is on the East side, with the Frigate on the West side of the convoy. The Merchants are at Altitude 4, and the escorts are at Altitude 3-5 depending on the ship. They are at speed 4.



The French ships are coming from the Northeast corner of the board. The Pascal is leading the attack, with the D'iberville on the flank. The Destroyers are grouped together as well into a battle group, coming on the Northern edge of the attack. The French Destroyers are coming in fast and high at Alt 7 and Speed 7. The Cruisers are at Speed 5 and Altitude 5.



You can read the full report at the blog.....

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/03/battle-report-castles-in-sky-off-gold.html

I've been playing Leviathans recently, and noticing that its combat resolution slows a crawl with just 8 ships a side. Also, the way it represents aerial torpedoes is a bit underwhelming, and anticlimactic, but that's another thing...

How many ships per side have you playtested so far? What do you realistically consider the upper limit for numbers in CITS?

Realistically, I do not expect people to re-fight an Aerial Jutland with them. Instead, I am thinking smaller engagements of around.... 1-12 ship per side. I even tried to write the bare bones fluff in such a way to justify the smaller engagements. In earlier versions, I had used 3-4 battleships a side with an additional 6 support ships or so no problem.


Interesting you mention aerial torpedoes..... I had initial drafts using torpedo tracking, speeds, and height changes, BUT ditched it all as it was a huge, unfun pain with very little reward. Now it is pretty much instant with Torps having a broader engagement window and a vulnerability to Point Defense weapons. Much simpler but still show-off the different nature and threat Torpedoes were/are. They have their own set of advantages and disadvantages compared to just using gunnery.

Hey easy i finally found the PDF for the game rules....you should have posted a link. that thing was a pain to find.

I am thinking of using the last exile minis to make an anatoria and ades federation fleet for the game. (britania VS germany)

How many ships do you thinks is a good number for a small engagement? i was thinking a command ships and 2 or 3 additional. battleships for each side.

Ah, you found V2 or V3. I am on Version 4.something, something or so now.

Version 5 will be release by Osprey, so I have been trying to keep the older versions on the down low. <wink>

That said, in older versions, I played with up to 10-12 ships per side, with 3-5 Battleships per side. It was not uncommon to get so many Friction markers on a ship that it was disabled and would start to fall out of the sky! I hope I have streamlined that a bit in the newer rules.

Cool i think i will start with 3 per side and see how it goes, there are not that many variants of ships for anatoria (4 if you include the sylvana and sylvius) but the ades federation has 6 hulls to choose from.

I got the rules for gun fire increasing in volume as you get closer with the range brackets (0-18/8-16/16-24) but i am a bit confused about the damage capability

looking at the kaiser heavy guns for example it goes +4/+3/+2 for short/medium/long ranges meaning if i am reading this right even if you rolled a 6 on a d6 at long range you cannot exceed damage 8 so armor 9 battleships are immune to damage unless you get them into medium range or they have already taken damage that has reduced the armor below 9.

Yes indeed. Now you are getting it.

It is a game design choice to keep long range inefficient as a way to cause damage with cannons. It does the following:

1. Encourage maneuver as you approach
2. Force players to get in close and mix it up
3. Make Air Torpedoes (and smaller ships that have them) have a distinct role as a sniper weapon