Read through this rule set today, it had been a long time coming. One thing about this whole isolation thing, is that I have had the chance to read a lot of rules. Not having to prep for any specific game has meant that I can work on whichever project that I want to, and read any rules that I want to.
I was surprised by this rule set. I had anticipated, given it's size, a more detailed complex game. What I found was a straightforward fun game.
The book is 117 pages long, so with out opening the book I thought I might be in for another Dystopian War scale game. The actual rules of the game are only 30 pages, there are 12 pages of historic fluff, 6 on designing your own ships, 36 pages of ship stat cards and 26 pages of 'painting guides'.
First off, let me comment on the painting guides. They are far more than just painting guides. They are a very informative collection of hobby guides, taking the miniatures through prep, priming, and painting, but also 'how to guides', to help you modify your ships, build ground installations, how to use brass to add details, where to locate extra , and how to apply decals, and more. A truly great addition, and useful for other games.
The fluff part is like any other historic fluff by any other game universe, it provides a timeline of events that led to the nations of the world using lighter than air ships of war. II confess I only glanced through it, but it does provide a player with ideas of who supports who, who is at war etc.
The stat cards are nice to have as are the rules on how to build your own ships. What would have been nice is an explanation of all the symbols on the stat cards. I confess, some of the symbols just are not that intuitive. By trial and error I did decipher almost all of them. However, when I went to the Brigade models Imperial Skies web page, I found a one page sheet that fully explained the stat cards, I guess that somehow was left out of this edition. The cards are nice, very brightly coloured, and would eat up ink like crazy if you were to photo copy, or print them. I think I would have preferred a plainer product, or at least the option. Now this game has a Facebook page, and there may well be printer friendly alternatives there. Some time I will go to face book to find out. Also of note the game uses movement templates similar to games like X-wing. These templates are not in the book, but can be downloaded for free.
The rules, they fairly well written, well organized, and in clear language, I have not found any major issues with the rules. The turn sequence is:
- Command roll Simultaneously both roll D6+1
- Initiative phase Simultaneously, both roll 1D6 high roll has control.
- Assign command point Simultaneously, points can be used to activate special rules.
- Activation Player with initiative decides who moves a unit first, then alternate
- Cleanup Remove unused command points
Nice to see that both sides are involved throughout the turn, All too often we see games where one side does all the action and the other side might as well go out for a snack. This is a nice straightforward turn sequence. When you select a ship to activate, you must move it a minimum of 2" (except blimps & zeppelins), but may move it up to its movement rate, then fire. Always move then fire.
The command roll, works out to be a very nice addition. It grants points that can be spent in a number of ways. You can use 1 point to gain/activate the following:
- Add 1 to your initiative roll (must be done before either side rolls a die)
- Activate the repair feature on one ship
- Increase speed by 3"
- Re-roll 2 missed attacks
- Group activation 1 ship plus up to 2 other ships within 4"
I like this. It gives commanders the chance of doing something different/extra in a turn, to try and change the course of the game, without these special effects dominating the game. I really like the +3" to speed, as it can be used before or after you fire your guns, nice to get in quickly or to move a bit out of range.
Now the game is dice heavy, and a on an attack roll of 6 the die will 'explode', allowing another die to be rolled and added to the result. So you will be rolling a lot of dice, feels like classic Warhammer, but thankfully without additional toughness and saving rolls. In fact, there is no separate armour listed for the ships. instead, better protected ships can sustain more damage. Damage is recorded on a track, once a row is filled in the ship suffers a negative modifier from -1 to -5 depending on which row is filled in. This modifier reduces speed and the number of each gun type that can fire. (less dice per gun type)
Overall it appears to be a very good game. The rules are concise, the fluff is, for the most part kept out of the rules, and the how to guide is really excellent.
Now I came form Sky galleons of Mars, and Dystopian Wars. Oddly, Sky Galleons, is more complicated than Imperial skies, and I had thought that it was pretty stripped down. In Sky Galleons, there is armour on ships, and guns have a penetration number. They also have detail rules around officers, and forming boarding parties. Also Sky Galleons have more detailed boarding action rules. I miss that detail, but I do understand that Imperial skies is aiming for larger fleet action engagements.
Dystopian wars covers land, air and sea action, something that Imperial Skies does not. I miss that interaction. I find it odd that there has not been any expansion that would, at the least, include naval engagements, or anything other than just air combat. I feel that Imperial Skies is missing a key element. Dystopian wars is a far more complex game, with many different special rules, special weapons, and lots of stats. It too uses exploding dice, and a fistful of dice. But it is the combination of the three aspects of warfare, land, air and water, that separates this game from the others. The rules are nicely integrated, utilizing the same systems for all three aspects.
Nit pick 1: The rules use dice of 3 'different' coloured dice. However they chose yellow, orange and red, colours that are very close to each other, and thus, for some, can be a challenge to perceive. Also, scanning my large dice collection, I must note that I do not have any yellow or orange dice. So while I can substitute, the ship data cards are colour coded to these 3 dice colours.
Nit pick 2: The ship data cards are beautiful, but they are colour dense, photo copying them, or printing them out, will eat up some ink. I did not see any less colourful data cards online.
The true test will be in a game, if only I could get a game played.
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