"SDG Playtesters needed - flying dreadnoughts game" Topic

Steel Dreadnought Games is currently developing a 'flying dreadnoughts game' based on the Aeronef models from Brigade Models ( brigademodels.co.uk )

Unfortunately, personal commitments have caused most of our current crop of playtesters to have limited availability. So we're opening the door to other interested groups.

What we're looking for is:

*A group of 2 or more gamers that meet to play regularly
*Interest in WWI naval and/or Aeronef-style gaming
*Ability to assess rules for "fun factor" vs. complexity
*Willingness to do writeups of sessions about what worked/what didn't.
*Interest in trying and using ship design rules.
*Commitment

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, PM me here, on our forums, or send an email through our Steel Dreadnought Games site ( steeldreadnoughtgames.com ). Please provide some information about your group, interest, and gaming background.

Playtesters will have their names listed on the credits page as well as free copies of the game when released.

I love those ships from Birgademodels wish I had a group to play such games with. Good Luck!!

Can't do it as it might generate a conflict of interest. But good luck, and I'll probably be buying a set of the rules when they come out.

Fantastic to hear someone is doing better Aeronef rules… the models are great!

Whilst Colonial Battlefleet is not my space 'game of choice' I really thought you did a great job on it, with some nice ideas especially in ship design. Definitely one of the best new space rulesets to come out of late.

I hope you do well with this ruleset too!

Ooh. Email sent.

Steve P

evilleMonkeigh I have the Aeronef rules but have'nt really used them yet,can you tell me your views on the Aeronef rules?

Captain Gideon

I can't really commit enough time this fall to be a playtester, but I'm very interested in how this ruleset works out. Good luck with it and keep us posted, please!

Definitely enjoy both WWII and VSF flying ships, but I'll take a pass. Good luck with that.

Doug

Good luck! I definitely cannot be a playtester as it would be a complete conflict of interests on my end and yours but good luck! Like J i will also probably get a copy.

@Captain Gideon

I haven't had it out for a year, but from memory, a rather more simplistic, luck-based version of Full Thrust. Attack is just buckets of dice with only '6's hitting – but getting a re-roll until no further '6's are thrown – 'exploding dice' at its worst. Luck matters quite a bit.

Nefs have hull hitpoints, and firepower dice equal to half their hull hitpoints. I.e a battleship has 32 hull points and 16 attack dice. When you lose half HP, you lose half speed, attack dice, etc. I'm not a fan of lots of hitpoints but at least it keeps things simple.

Nefs make turns at the midpoint and end of their move. Smaller nefs are faster and more agile as you'd expect. Fighter flights are smaller, faster and more agile again, but are treated the same as small aeronefs. Pretty standard stuff.

There is no altitude in the game, which is unusual in a flying game (lift, thrust, drag, gravity, potential energy etc being pretty central to aerial combat). Especially in that era when it took planes ages to climb to decent altitudes etc. A pretty glaring omission.

As all firing is the same for fighters, battleships, escorts etc – '6' to hit – smaller 'nefs' are easy cannon fodder and have no purpose besides breaking your force into more numerous, smaller parcels – kinda like ablative armour to your main ships.

I like Wessex games, and David Manley is a great naval game designer, but this game has never measured up to the fascinating miniatures line it supports.

Given Steel Dreadnought's success with their space rules (which have some interesting ideas, especially their ship design) I think what they put out will definitely be worth checking out. I hope the game is playtested satisfactorily and comes out soon. So sign up and help em out, folks!

I've got four new groups doing playtest on it now. I think people will be happy with it.

As with all our rules, we're taking our time and doing it right rather than trying to rush something out the door.

We'll see how these new playtesters work out. If they do fast turn around, there's still the possibility it could be out this year.

Although it may fall outside the scope of the game, the ability to use single fighter biplanes would be cool. Sort of Crimson Skies meets Last Exile…

What do you mean 'single fighter biplanes?'

I.e. you could have single planes piloted by individual pilots. I.e. an aeronef could launch 2-3 individual biplanes all of whom could maneuver independently. I.e. 1 stand = 1 plane.

Rather than'a stand equals a squadron of fighters' approach common in most space games, where an ships can launch dozens of fighters – like in Colonial Battlefleet where 1 stand = 6 planes.

I'd like the opportunity to play heroic Biggles-style aerial duels with my VSF airships rather than a Battlestar-Galactica swarm of dozens of fighters…

Gotcha. Don't think that's in the cards for the core rules, but it could make for a great supplement.

It's difficult to integrate battleships as fully playable ships instead of just terrain pieces with some special abilities with fighters individual fighters zipping around into the same platform because they operate on such different levels.

One alternative I guess could be to make the individual planes tougher. So, for instance instead of saying you have a squadron of 6 where one hit kills a fighter, instead you have a squadron of 1 with 6 hp.

Hmmm. . . that bears thinking on.