Aeronef: Attack over the Falkland Islands

Rules Doctoring

Maybe I'll get this out of the way first: I only have the core rules for Aeronef. Realizing I said I'd play the rules as written, I just couldn't get past some items that I felt needed tweaking, so tweak I did. There is another book out there with additional rules and it may cover some of the things I added, but I don't have that book and am currently in a "don't spend money if you don't have to" mode of thinking and haven't looked into buying it.

So my tweaking included two things:

1) Air torpedoes - I built some of my models with the memory of having read about them in the rules. They are not actually there. So I made up my own that I will, perhaps, post later.

2) I was a little more specific about how many gun dice could be used when firing, taking into account the number of guns I placed on each model and where it looked like they could be pointed. For example, Ansaldo is a round platform with guns positioned so they could all fire forward, but only two turrets could fire out either side or the rear, so full gun dice used for forward fire, and half for the other three arcs.

Reinforcements were rolled for at the end of each turn - 1d6 vs. 1d8. If the d6 beat the d8, reinforcements arrive. For each try after the first, +1 was added to the d6.

On to the scenario...

September 19, 1889

The Falkland Islands have been under British rule for over 60 years. A small force of British air ships is stationed at the archipelago to reinforce British claims over the islands, which are disputed by Argentina.

One of the richest countries on the South American continent, Argentina is still far less wealthy than England. Yet, the Argentine government has bided its time and saved up a reserve which they have started to dip into. They have acquired two airships, which now make their way towards the contested islands. First, the Almirante, a Class 2 airship commissioned of a German builder is accompanied by a small contingent of craft. Second, the Ansaldo, a Class 1 vessel purchased in secret from Russia for a very affordable sum, likely because the Russians didn't tell them about the propulsion problems they were having with it...

The British Admiralty, having known about the Almirante for some time, have sent a second Class 3 airship and torpedo dirigible to beef up their presence in the area. They thought this would be enough to keep Argentina at bay. They didn't know about a second deal with Russia, and the Ansaldo has rounded the Andes and is on course to rendezvous with the other Argentine airships at Islas Malvinas (the Argentine name for the islands), intending to send the English packing.

Set Up

Layed out four islands on the play area (mine was 3' x 3').

British set up their ships (minus one Class 3 and the torpedo dirigible) in any configuration around the isles. All but one start at speed 0. The ships not set up are en route from England (or Canada, perhaps) and come in as reinforcements from the N, NE, or E table edge.

Argentina sets up all of their ships, except Ansaldo, in their choice of NW, W, or SW edge of the table. Ships start at top speed of the slowest airship, probably Almirante. The Ansaldo has experienced propulsion issues en route and arrives late as reinforcements.

Victory conditions

Major Victory, England - Accomplish minor victory conditions and bring down Ansaldo

Minor Victory, England - Inflict 1/2 of total hull points damage to the Argentine force or bring down Almirante

Minor Victory, Argentina - Inflict 1/2 of total hull points damage to British force

Major Victory, Argentina - Down both British Class 3 airships

Battle continues until one of these conditions is met.

The Play (in pictures)

Three British ships sit "at anchor" next to one of the islands. To the north, a fourth, meanders through.

Argentine fleet incoming! Ansaldo waiting to arrive (on table edge).

Turn 2 sees the two groups coming into range and each side fires a torpedo. The white peg torpedo will hit the larger dirigible with minimum damage.

More torpedoes flying in turn 4. The nearer one (friendly fire) misses Almirante and will continue on with no further targets along its path. So far as guns are concerned, small amounts of damage done to either side. In the distance, reinforcements arrive for the Brits.

Ansaldo finally arrives in turn 6 and immediately starts hammering a British Class 3.

Then the larger Argentine dig runs into a torpedo and the damage is too much. Blast that friendly fire!

Ansaldo finishes off that Class 3 in turn 7...

... and gets hit by British air torpedoes! It's only minor damage for a Class 1 ship, but it's enough to trigger the condition for a minor British victory.

So Argentina retreats, saving a badly damaged Almirante from a doom that was too close for comfort. Surely, the Brits will take the Argentine threat quite a bit more seriously and try to send a more beefy support for the islands before another attempt on them is made. But there are rumblings that friction between England and Germany could lead to war, which might limit a response from England. However, other South American countries have been participating in this localized arms race and may see this as their time to make a move. Time will only tell.

Aeronef?

Another set of rules I've had downloaded for some time because I really like the theme is Aeronef, the game of Victorian sci-fi airship battles. The other inspiring thing about the book version I downloaded is that a number of the miniatures pictured on its pages seem to be scratch built. I first came across mention of this game while perusing the pages of the blog The Stronghold Rebuilt. The concept just struck me as so neat (link to posts tagged "aeronef"). All of Stronghold's Aeronef posts were put up in 2012 where he builds a couple of fleets from scratch.

There are a number of airship models that can be purchased. I've spent some time admiring the ones on the Brigade Models website, produced for their airship game called Imperial Skies. So, with this idea ruminating all these years and aptly inspired by Brigade Models, I finally set myself to building some airships over the summer. Aeronef construction, in my shipyard at least, is mainly accomplished using popsicle sticks, doweling, bread tags, large gauge copper wire, and paper clips.

I currently have two factions created, which I shall be using soon (hopefully) to actually play the game. One side represents, I think, a well-ordered and standardized faction: comprising of two airships from each of three classes. This, I would offer, might be one of the well-established, wealthy nations like England, France, or Germany. In my mind, the second task force is reminiscent of some nation that is less able to produce their own vessels, opting instead to buy what they can. Thus, it is a collection of one-offs, some of which look unconventional, like prototypes of designs considered unfit by the more wealthy nations. I think of the South American countries who tried to get in on the arms race of the historical pre-dreadnaught period, like Brazil or Argentina. It's why I ended up painting it the colours of the Argentine flag. I'm considering the first battle I play be related to some kind of Falkland Islands dispute.

And now... the pictures!

In going with my scenario idea, this will be the British force. In back are two cruisers, on the right are two destroyers, and in front are some dirigibles with air torpedoes mounted on them.

The Argentine ships. At back could be a battleship or battle cruiser (it has torpedo tubes), the big round one could be a battleship purchased from Russia, then a destroyer with torpedoes, then two dirigibles in the foreground (one a little bigger and better armed than the other).

Also of note, I have mounted these all on Heroclix bases for flying supers; removing the dial stickers and filing off the paint. I have ideas about using the dials to keep track of airspeed.

Granted, in reading up on other people's writings about playing this game, they find it rather lackluster. Perhaps I will too, but I intend to play according to the written rules first then start implementing ideas I've already been having about what to change. Wish me luck.

Where did the summer go?

This summer has been quite busy: multiple camping trips, Jenni working on a graduate degree, kids in musical theater and volleyball camps, and outings to the local reservoir to swim meant not much time was spent on gaming-related stuff. And any gaming I did do, I took no notes as writing it up here wasn't even close to the priority list.

What I have done, in summary:

1) One of the unplayed rulesets lurking in my collection is Aeronef. I like the steampunk/alt. history setting and have often thought of playing. I could play using my 1/3000 battleships, but I want to push fantastical soaring cruisers and destroyers around the table. So I've started making some.

2) Have I written about making American Civil War stands using figures printed from Junior General? Well, I put together some cavalry to go with them. Also made 3 buildings and a bunch of zigzag fences. But looking at army lists for historic battles, now I feel like I need more infantry to play anything larger than Blackburn's Ford.

3) Painted some more figures from my Blacklist Games Fantasy order: spiders, rats, boars, and wolves.

4) Made two simple hills for terrain.

5) Introduced a couple of my son's friends to wargaming.

I've also been thinking about what I post to this blog. Kind of feeling like I should do fewer "after-action reports". Maybe. Or do I want to change format and start a new blog. Or maybe I just needed the break. Even now, I'm fighting sleep at 11:46 pm, having started 40 minutes ago to just write this little bit.

How about for now, I'm not posting anything unless I include some images.