I got my hands on a copy of Imperial Skies (I stole a friend's copy) and read through the rules. I posted a full article of my thoughts of the rules on my blog and am posting a shortened summary here.
The full article can be found here. link
Imperial Skies is a rule set for use with aeronefs in a alternate history from the late 1890s through the 1920s. Don't know what an aeronef is? Think of a traditional wet navy battleship now make it fly through the use of the Loewe Graviton Engine. Zeppelins, blimps, and hot air balloons also fit into this catagory.
Book Quality and Layout
The book is soft cover and has full color pages throughout. I think the book could have used a little more editing, but overall it is laid out well. The book presents the rules logically and has core rules as well as a variety of optional rules that will add complexity and depth to the game.
The book is 117 pages; 30 of rules, 6 of fleet and ship construction, 36 of ship cards, 25 of a painting/modeling guide, and the rest is made up of history and stories.
Factions
The game provides for most of the major powers of the period and several minor powers. With the ship construction rules, you can build stats for anything that is missing, including Martian fleets.
Initiative and Command Points
Each turn players will roll for command points and initiative. Command points can be assigned to ships and allow them to carry out special actions when they are activated.
Players take turns activating ships. A ship will move and attack when it is activated and damage is automatic. So if a ship is destroyed before it acts, then it doesn't get to act.
Attacking
Ships have a variety of weapons and those are broken into main guns of different sizes, bombs and torpedoes. Main guns are classed as small (10" range), medium (20" range), and large (30" range). Guns need a 6 to hit at their longest range, but hit better as the target gets closer. A six explodes (or gets rolled again) so there is a chance (though small) to do significant damage even with a small gun.
As damage adds up on a ship, it will become less effective, with reduced speed and reduced gun batteries.
Moving
Larger ships turn more slowly than smaller ships. Imperial Skies uses 5 sizes of turning templates. These are not provided in the book and you will need to print off a PDF of these templates to use in the game.
Blimps and Zeppelins can sit still on a turn, but normal aeronefs must move a minimum of 2" each turn.
The book does not include any scenarios, which I found to be disappointing. Having said that, it shouldn't be hard to find or come up with scenarios for use with the game.
Overall Thoughts
I love the theme of this game and the models available from Brigade look fantastic. I can't wait to get myself a fleet or two. The rules seem to be fairly straight forward, but have a few optional rules that will add complexity and depth if/when you want to add it in.
