Failure to Launch - Castles in the Sky AAR

For Septembers SJGA club meetup, I offered to run an intro game of "Castles in the Sky", one of Osprey's newest entries in their wargaming rules series. 

The scenario was an ambush set in the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese players needed to escort, or protect a dreadnought (with no weapons), while the Americans needed to destroy it. 

I let the Americans set up one of their squadrons in a cloudbank on their half of the table as an ambush that would be spotted when the Japanese came within short range distance of it. They chose the center cloud bank.

The Japanese players led the dreadnought around the left side of the table, directly towards the American's ambush spot. 

Long range fire didn't result in much damage, but did put friction on both sides (the ruleset's way of messing with command and control). 

The battle quickly turned into a giant furball as the Americans sprung their ambush.

Unfortunately, the previous turns had taken so long that we had to end the game before there was any decisive results, which was discouraging. Unfortunately I think the game failed to impress.

Observations that I made:

+The group liked the core mechanics of the game

+If the players knew the rules, it would have gone better, instead of a single turn taking an hour or more.

-Players thought I started the fleets too far apart, which did keep the action from happening earlier on. I probably should have started both sides closer by 6"-12", maybe even closer.

-There were too many ships for too many new players. I probably should have only had them running 3, or even just 2, ships each.

-I needed something other than dice to indicate altitude. Chits would have been a better choice.

This project will probably get shelved for a while. 

Painting Update - Castles in the Sky

Here's a look at the Japanese fleets for Castles in the Skies (which I had just finished on the day of the club game).

The Japanese first squadron consisted of a Yamashiro-class battleship, two Akeshi-class light cruisers, a Nagatsaki-class destroyer, and a Mikasa class frigate.

The second and third Japanese squadron consisted of a Yashima-class battleship, a Yakumo-class heavy cruiser, a Nagatsaki-class destroyer, and a Mikasa class frigate.

The objective of the game was for the Japanese to defend a Shinano-class dreadnought that had inactive weapons. 

Painting Update - Castles in the Sky

There's no after action report this week, so let's take a look at what I've been painting: 

I've been working on a club game with the somewhat new rules for aerial naval combat, "Castles in the Skies." I decided to put together two fleets, split into three squadron for a six-player game. 

The first American squadron has a Lincoln-class battleship, a Lexington-class battlecruiser, a Brooklyn-class destroyer, a Decatur-class Frigate, and a Saginaw-class frigate.

The second American squadron has a New York-class battleship, a Maryland-class cruiser, a Brooklyn-class cruiser, two Decatur-class frigates, and a Saginaw-class frigate.

The third American squadron has a Maine-class battleship, a Maryland-class cruiser, a Brooklyn-class cruiser, a Decatur-class frigate, and two Saginaw-class frigates.