Castles in the Sky - Flip-Throughs and Reviews

[Eric Farrington]

Greetings all,

Here are some videos and reviews I have found online about the game. Feel free to add to this thread as you find them.

Here are a few to get you started:

RJL Games
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja9UDAH_Jl8

NotJay's Tabletop Gaming
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TILORc9wzQ

[Eric Farrington]

If looks like Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy has a review of the book in this issue:

www.karwansaraypublishers.com/products/wargames-soldiers-and-strategy-120-1940

[Eric Farrington]

Also, Ash from Guerilla Miniature Games read through the book here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0PhHJg1Ric

[Eric Farrington]

I tracked down this review on the Historical Miniature Gaming Society website:

www.hmgs.org/blogpost/1779451/Historical-Book-Reviews?tag=warships

BOOK REVIEW: Castles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships

by Eric Farrington.

Softcover (7.25 x 9.75 inches). 80 pages. 2022.
Osprey Wargames 30.

Consider this a First Look as I have not gamed with these rules.

In the post-Martian invasion world of 1872, humans reverse engineer Martian technology and learned how to mix new chemicals with lighter metals and add steam power to create lighter-than-air warships. The old GDW Space 1889 used kinda the same setting. Yeah, it's a steam-punk speculation of John Carter of Mars.

Brigade Models makes small aerial ships and apparently here's the Osprey rules for them. Think of this as pre-WWI naval warfare, but with elevations.

The rules uses three ship classes: escorts, cruisers, and battleships. Individual ships use a series of firepower, movement, and special characteristics to differentiate, with a number of d6s rolled for firing and also adding and subtracting dice for various sky terrain and ship attributes.

One quirk is that a lot of specialty "Command" actions use 1d6 rolls with a 4+ for success. Otherwise, it's move and roll to hit (4+ base), with 2d6 damage table for successful hits. Boarding (rolling a number of Command Dice -- again 4+ base to hit), entangling, air torpedoes, airplanes, and sky mines add spice to direct fire.

A number of scenarios along with a campaign game are included. Ship specs for nine countries' aerial navies are included. The usual array of Osprey illustrations populate the booklet.
As I noted, I don't know how this plays, but it is encouraging me to break out some of my Avalanche Press games and loot the counters for a test drive.

And you never know. Alas, I failed to find flying ironclad miniatures at Historicon. I imagine you can use regular 1880-1890s ironclads just fine.
Enjoyed reading the rules for its possibilities.

[Eric Farrington]

You can hear the review here:
manbattlestations.libsyn.com/episode-69-castles-in-the-sky-review

[Eric Farrington]

The Joy of Wargaming has been ramping up to play some games of Castles in the Sky. Here are some of his initial attempts at playing the game. Might be of interest to those here:

[Eric Farrington]

Joy of Wargaming has even more Castles in the Sky content up!



There are a few rules errors that I address in the comments.

[Eric Farrington]

If anyone speaks German, perhaps you can give me an overview of this video?