For those with access to Facebook, check out the Wishes’ page.

The first game was this last Saturday, the 12th. A humble beginning, to be sure. Then again when I ran the first in-store game at Games & Gizmos a year ago it was pretty humble as well and we grew it into a nice little crowd each month. Hoping to do the same again here.

The game in the photo was a standard Core Box Set set-up of 4 vs 4 on two maps, though I substituted in some of the British Fleet Box ships on my side to mix it up a little. It was great fun, as usual, but despite hammering the French to the point I only needed to roll a 14 on 2DRed to destroy their battleship, I simply couldn’t sink a single ship and the French carried the day.

For those wondering, Bryn and his friend were playtesting the Germans vs. the Italians next to my game. I’m hoping Kristian’s impatience was at fault as the Germans easily swept the Italians from the sky; the Italians are paper tigers and require a lot of finesse. The Italians have done pretty well against the British and French, but I’ve always known the true test would be the Italian finesse against the brute armor and powerful Bracketing Crew Slots of the Germans; Bryn and I will be playtesting that set-up again, naturally.

Next month I’ll be running games again:

June Date: Saturday the 16th
June Time: 1PM to 5PM-ish

I sure hope to see you there!

Till next duty shift!

Randall

Thirty days later…

Aviation Board of Inquiry
La Borget Field
France

Sous-lieutenant François Moreau sat alone at the table for the defense, as was the tradition. The board of inquiry into the events of the previous month was necessary. He had assumed command of the Intrépide, and the French Admiralty had questions that must be answered. While it was standard procedure after an incident such as this, he did not feel comfortable about the situation. More than one officer’s career had been broken in this room. And while he felt his actions throughout the engagement were justified, he also knew the Admiralty might have other ideas and perspectives.

The room was stuffy, made worse by the fact that the hearing was a closed proceeding. That meant no open windows, through which anything inconvenient might be overheard. The two ceiling fans created the illusion that they were cooling the room, but that was all. François tugged at his starched uniform shirt collar and tried to ignore his physical discomfort. If only his unease could be ignored as easily…

The first three hours of the court martial were a summary of the engagement. Capitaine Guisarme attended the proceedings as well, offering his recollections up until he had passed out. He knew he had given command of the ship to a Sous-lieutenant, but didn’t recall that it was to François. Hardly the ringing endorsement François had hoped for. All along, he had harbored the illusion that the Capitaine had put him in command for a reason, that he had recognized François’s competence. That wasn’t it at all. Guisarme had put him in command of the ship because he had been there.

Lieutenant Miller took the stand. He informed the board members that he had insisted on assuming command of the Intrépide but that his junior officer had refused to turn over the vessel to him. Miller gave him a glare as he said this, as if to say, “Take that!” François did not let this stir him. Miller had his own career ambitions. His true colors will show through…eventually.

Finally, he was called to testify. He walked across the ornately tiled floor to the mahogany podium and grasped it with both hands. Around his neck he felt the small wooden medallion he wore on a chain—carved from the splinter of teak that had stabbed him in the leg. He’d had an artisan etch the herald of the Intrépide into it.

Commandant aérien Gravois spoke first, not looking at François but speaking instead to the paperwork in front of him. “Sous-lieutenant Moreau; have the events thus far as presented in the testimony been accurate, in your recollection?”

“Yes, sir,” he replied.

“And you admit that when Lieutenant Miller, a more seasoned and experienced officer, attempted to take command of the Intrépide, you refused to relinquish said command?” He finally looked up from the files and gave François a glare with his light gray eyes.

“That is correct.”

“Why not?” cut in Commander Neville, the youngest member of the court martial board.

François felt his face flush red with the question. “Under regulation 46A, as the acting Capitaine of the ship I was not required to relinquish command until such a time that measures dictated it.”

“Lieutenant Miller has said that he would have broken off the engagement. You pressed the attack on the Renown and the Python.”

“That is correct, sir. It was my estimation that turning tail and attempting to flee would only have invited disaster and a greater loss of life.”

“Greater loss of life? Lieutenant, this engagement cost the lives of eighty-seven of your crew. Another 129 were injured as a result of remaining engaged with the British ships.”

“If we had lost the ship, all hands would have gone down…including me.”

“So,” portly Commandant aérien Lisle chimed in, “You felt that the losses were acceptable?”

François paused. “The loss of a single life is not acceptable to me. But this is the life I, no, we have chosen. I was in command of the ship. When in command, you must be willing to take the risks necessary to protect our country. The British lured us into a trap. If we had tried to flee, I am confident we would not have made it to the coast. The best counter to their trap was to fight and win the battle. That is what we did.”

Commandant aérien Gravois leaned back in his chair and slid the paperwork aside. “Who were you to command that cruiser? Surely there were other officers more qualified?”

<<To Be Continued…

I’ll be running a monthly Leviathans game at the Wishes: Toys, Books and Games store at: 1402 SE Everett Mall Way #335, Everett, WA (it’s in the Everette Mall, where the old Borders bookstore used to be, for those that know the area).

For those with access to Facebook, check out the Wishes’ page.

May Date: Saturday the 12th
May Time: 1PM to 5PM-ish

I’ll be running multiple Leviathans games, from demos to larger scale games, so regardless of whether you’ve never played, or you’ve several games under your belt from various conventions, there’ll be a game there for you. You don’t need to bring a thing…just show up ready to toss dice.

For all those that can’t attend, just as I did last Spring/Summer, I’ll take photos and share after each weekend.

To those that might be able to come, hope you’re able to make it!

See ya next duty shift.

Randall

All games are in D Hall/Catalyst Area.

Shakedown Cruise

A “Shakedown Cruise” is the first time a leviathan is tested under its own power. Come learn to play under your own power as well! This extended introduction is a complete experience to learn and play Leviathans!

Thursday
10:00 am – 11:00 am (1119)
11:00 am – 12:00 pm (1130)
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (1138)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1152)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (1164)
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1174)
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (1183)
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1189)

Friday
10:00 am – 11:00 am (1341)
11:00 am – 12:00 pm (1357)
12:00 am – 1:00 pm (1368)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1380)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (1390)
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1413)
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (1426)
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1432)

Saturday
10:00 am – 11:00 am (1535)
11:00 am – 12:00 pm (1548)
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (1560)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1574)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm (1591)
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1609)
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm (1619)
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1627)

Sunday
10:00 am – 11:00 am (1717)
11:00 am – 12:00 pm (1725)
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (1728)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1732)

KING OF THE SKIES

Graduated from your Shakedown Cruise? Come play in the King of the Skies event. An ongoing melee for dominance of the skies. Battle against other players in a giant free for all. Prizes awarded daily for most kills.

Thursday
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (1118)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1137)
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1163)
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1182)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (1196)
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm (1221)

Friday
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (1340)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1367)
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1389)
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1425)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (1445)
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm (1471)

Saturday
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (1534)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1559)
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm (1590)
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1618)
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (1639)
8:00 pm – 10:00 pm (1668)

Sunday
10:00 am – 12:00 pm (1716)
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm (1727)

See ya there!

Randall

Yet today was the very first day where I received a Core Box Set that was shrink wrapped…meaning the box I open is the box that should appear on your store shelves in the not-too-distant future!!!

Since I have to unwrap it and go through every last piece one last time to make sure it’s all good, thought I’d take you along the trip (many of you have seen a lot of photos similar to this, but this showcases the un-boxing of what you’ll hopefully be doing yourselves relative soon).

Opening a box and seeing the treasure lying beneath…man there’s something so awesome in that.

It may be hard to tell, but see that extra shiny? SHRINK WRAP!

Pull off the lid (nice and tight fit), and the waft of new game smell fills the house; better than mom’s bread rolls, baby.

One of the things we found is that the inner tray works fine for personal use, but surviving overseas shipping to stores…mmm…not so much. So some inserts were included to ensure your Core Box Set lands on your gaming table in top condition.

Pull out the largest insert…and you’ve got ships…mmm…shiny.

Stop typing and give us a closer shot!

The dice insert is removed and pulling up the maps shows the insert below it as well.

Remove that insert and you see a bevy of paper just waiting to be un-shrink wrapped.

How much paper, you ask? That much.

How does all that look spread out? Like this.

Enough with the paper! Back to those beautiful ships!

And yes, I turned all of the French turrets onto the British (apparently the British are distracted, because their turrets are all willy-nilly).

And the best photo I’ve seen in a very, very long time is a great way to wrap this post up.

Once again, there is NO Street Date yet…but this is another crazy good step forward.

We’re almost there, crew!

See ya next duty shift.

Randall

For those that haven’t followed the travails of the HML Leviathans as closely as others, when last we checked in with our intrepid crew, we’d run into a complete inability to crack the miniatures free of the plastics manufacturer and get them into the hands of the paper manufacturer.

After a ludicrously long struggle, the miracle has finally occurred. Not only has the plastics manufacturer told us they turned over the plastics for the Core Box Set, but the paper manufacturer has verified they’ve received them!!!

What’s more, they were kind enough to allay concerns by forwarding on a series of photos showing the un-boxing of the plastic miniatures, their flight into the waiting cradle of a box set, and its transition into a finalized box set waiting for the bottle to smash into its keel (or in this instance, get a shrinkwrap).

So, what does this all mean for our intrepid crew? It means, hopefully, the last major hurdle has finally been cleared. The paper manufacturer is moving forward finalizing everything, but it’ll likely take a few weeks to prep it all to get on a ship. Then it’s 4 to 6 weeks on a ship and another 4 to 6 weeks before it might appear on a game store shelf near you.

Does that mean late summer? Again, I don’t want to make any promises…certainly not after all the craziness to date. All I’m saying is we’re finally past another major hurtle and it’s actually moving again. Once it’s on a ship, I’ll let you guys know that as well so we can check off the next major milestone.

And finally, as I’m sure some of you are thinking it, will it make Origins? Again, I can’t make any promises…but it’s the reason I’m attending and we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure it arrives…but we likely won’t know if it made it until we arrive there a day or so ahead of you guys…so you’ll know as soon as I do.

It’s still not in your guys hands, so don’t want to curse anything…but I did want to once again thank all of you that have waited anxiously for the game, sticking around through all the byzantine madness…means the world to me.

See ya next duty shift!

Randall

Heavy Cruiser Intrépide
North Sea
8 September 1900
1425 hours

Capitaine Rivenburg of the Python was not taking the bait. He coolly angled his ship the opposite direction, firing another salvo at long range. One shot whizzed past fire control, missing by a matter of twenty meters. The other slammed into the mangled armor belt at the aft of the ship. Smoke rose out of the hole—not a lot, but enough.

This one is crafty, so I must be as well. “We need to lure him in,” François said to the crew as he leaned into the mouthpiece again. “Engine room, I need you to create a 10-degree list to port.”

“Sir?” came the answering voice in the ear-tube.

“You heard me. We will be righting ourselves as soon as we lure in the enemy. I need you to fake our damage.” He turned to Miller. “Order the forward turret to depress her guns, set them a-gimble. I want it to look like we have lost that turret. Order the crews to load and stand by to turn and fire when the Python gets in close.”

Miller passed the orders down. “You realize you are gambling with our lives,” he said in a low tone so that the other gunnery officers could not hear.

“It is my life as well,” François replied.

He waited as the ship listed. Out before him, the turret turned and her guns dropped slowly as if they had lost power. Raising his binoculars, he watched and wondered if Capitaine Rivenburg would take the bait.

Suddenly the Python lunged almost straight in. François allowed himself a smile. He glanced over at Lieutenant Miller, whose face reddened.

“Order the turrets to stand by to engage the Python,” Francois said. The British destroyer fired again, another round slamming into the already damaged aft turret, plunging deeper into the guts of the Intrépide. There was a shudder as the shell went off.

“Engine room…” he said as the Python closed into optimum range. “Bring us back upright now!”

The electroid pumps churned and charged and the Intrépide slowly rolled back upright and level. “Lieutenant Miller, you may fire when ready.”

The nimble Python saw the sudden change and swung to port herself, making a recklessly tight turn. For a few moments it looked as if she would be able to spin and keep out of the starboard batteries’ gunnery arcs, but the angle of the Intrépide’s own gradual turn was sharp enough to allow the French cruiser’s long-range weapons to fire. The barrage came from the turrets and barbettes still in action. At least two of the larger shells found their mark, plowing into the Python’s armor belt. The holes they left billowed sickening black smoke from internal fires and damage. The destroyer seemed to vibrate visibly, even at the range between them. There were explosions taking place deep down inside the British ship.

The destroyer turned more and poured on steam, clearly attempting to put distance between her and the Intrépide. François craned his neck to look back and saw the enemy cruiser still moving in the same gentle, shallow arc, flying in the opposite direction.

“Your orders, mon Capitaine?” Lieutenant Miller asked. Weariness had replaced the bitterness in his voice.

It was tempting to go after the cruiser. François suspected her steering gear had been damaged—she had not altered course since the torpedo hit. With the destroyer fleeing the field of battle, the British cruiser would still be a tough nut to crack, but doable.

But we are not at war—not yet, anyway. Yes, the British had either sunk a French merchant or faked the distress call to lure the Intrépide out to the North Sea for the ambush. But their trap had backfired on them. To finish off one or both of the enemy vessels would only kill men senselessly. If this was war, he would not hesitate. But to do so now would be murder.

“We can finish off that cruiser,” Miller added, as if he could read his former junior officer’s thoughts.

“Qui. We could. But I have fulfilled Capitaine Guisarme’s last order to me. I suggest we execute the better part of valor and turn back home.” His injured leg throbbed as if to accentuate his words. He saw the piece of bloodied wood that had stuck in his leg lying on the deck. Almost without thought, he picked it up and put it in his pocket.

“What order was that, sir?” Dumont asked.

“It is time to get this mademoiselle back to port and tend to our injured.” For a moment, he felt his body sag under the weight of command.

To Be Continued…

Heavy Cruiser Intrépide
North Sea
8 September 1900
1425 hours

It took a long, painful two minutes for the Intrépide to arc around 180 degrees. Halfway through the turn, Lieutenant Miller entered the makeshift bridge. His uniform was torn, but he was alive. Where he had been for the last few minutes was something to be learned later. Part of François was happy to see his commanding officer, but that changed the moment Miller spoke. “What are you doing, Moreau? I was in the forward turret and heard you are in command?”

“Qui. Capitaine Guisarme turned over the ship to me,” he replied, not lifting his eyes from the enemy ship. He saw flashes of light from cannons firing just as shells hit his own ship. The Intrépide vibrated violently under the impacts from the Renown, so hard he almost fell over, but still the old mademoiselle was in the air…still in the fight.“I outrank you. I will assume command now,” Miller said. He closed the hatch behind him, cutting out the roar of the wind outside. From what François could see, wherever he had gotten to, he had been in a fight. Black smudges marked his face and his right hand was wrapped in a piece of cloth that served as a makeshift bandage.

“No. By the regulations, I am Capitaine until the engagement ends, I am dead, or I turn over command. I plan on none of that—not now,” he spat back. This was not the time for such a debate, and Miller ought to know it.

“This is not some test at La Borget, boy! Good men are dying below deck. We need to break off this engagement. We are being pummeled to scrap metal.”

“You will mind your tone. I am your Capitaine! We will not break off until I say so! If we try to get away now, they will stalk us like wolves. No, we fight here – now! Assume your station or I will have you relieved.”

Miller looked stunned. “They will court martial you for this, if we live.”

“I look forward to it,” François replied.

Miller’s face reddened as he moved stoically next to Dumont and took over at gunnery control. “Very well. Your orders, Capitaine?”

The Renown kept firing at will, but François’s own guns held their fire, his men awaiting orders. “Stand by the fire. All guns track your target carefully. Ready the aft torpedo launcher. After we fire our barrage, we will bank to starboard. I want that torpedo fired into the cruiser’s path.” The Intrépide shook again from another hit. We can’t take much more of this punishment, can we?

As if to accentuate that reality, a shell from the British cruiser landed near the fire control deck. The entire crew was knocked off their feet. The armored glass on the starboard side held, but was now horribly cracked. The exterior wall buckled from the explosion, only a few meters from where François had been standing.
As he started to move, a stab of pain wracked his left thigh. He looked down and saw a piece of teak, eight centimeters long, sticking out. Blood soaked his dark blue pants. Ignoring a jolt of fear, he gritted his teeth, reached down and pulled the massive splinter out. The wood had varnish on it, a piece of trim from the inner hand railing near the window. More modern ships removed much of the decorative wood trim for just this reason—a near miss could turn wood into shrapnel. Removing the piece of wood hurt intensely, but from the amount of blood he saw, no artery had been hit. He gingerly tested his leg. It ached, but he ignored it, relying more on his right leg. The rest of the gunnery crew clambered to their feet as well. Dumont bore a nasty bruise on his forehead from the fall. None had escaped injury.

The Intrepide and the British ship were at optimum range, passing each other by only 300 meters. François called out, “Fire!”

The entire cruiser rocked, as if she would roll over upside down. The electrode compensators adjusted her trim as the guns unleashed their iron hell on the British cruiser. Explosions raked the Renown from one end to another. Her aft turret took a hit, touching off the reserve powder. The explosion from within the ship shot a pillar of fire up where the turret had been, sending debris raining down to bitter North Sea below.

“Engine room, hard to starboard now! Bring us around 90 degrees. Adjust altitude up 100 meters, gradual.” François did not wait for them to respond. “Lieutenant Miller, prepare the aft torpedo—fire at her before she turns.”

Miller gave out the string of commands to the mouthpiece, then turned to the torpedo officer, Sous-lieutenant Lefevre. “Make your calculation now!” Black-haired Lefevre took out a brass disk and turned it, using a specially designed eyeglass to determine the angles of both of the ships. The brass disk had a cover that allowed him to turn and make the necessary calculations to fire. It took a painfully long few seconds for him to spin the disk, take notes, spin again, take a sighting and scribble more notes. Then he spoke to Lieutenant Miller. “I have the fire angle for the torpedo ready, sir.”

“Fire torpedo,” François said. Miller passed the command down to the torpedo crew. Turning to the rear armored window, François saw the aerial torpedo take off, a wisp of white smoke trailing it. He snapped his head to watch the destroyer in front of him and the torpedo simultaneously, giving each a millisecond at a time. The destroyer was opening up with everything she had, but half her shots missed and those that hit did not have the penetration power to do serious damage. The Intrépide shook off the hits as if they were harmless.

The torpedo was another matter. At the sight of its approach, the British ship attempted to turn, but the laws of physics were in play. Given her speed, the Renown could not bank around too quickly. There was simply not enough time to avoid the incoming weapon. As the British cruiser began to turn, the torpedo slammed into her lower steering gear. The explosion sent parts of her rudder raining downward to the sea below.

With the cruiser heading in the opposite direction, François concentrated on the Python. “It is time we dealt that that annoyance,” he said. “Engine Room,” he called into the communications tube. “I need a turn of 60 degrees to port, now!”

To Be Continued…

Heavy Cruiser Intrépide
North Sea
8 September 1900
1425 hours

François saw that the binnacle had been torn asunder. Along with the scent of cordite was another smell, awareness of which he fought to suppress: the odor of cooking meat. Through the haze of thinning smoke, he could see the helm was twisted by the impact of the shell; the giant wheel was no more than broken pieces of wood scattered around the remains of the shattered bridge. There was no way to steer the ship from the bridge, not now. The ship quaked again, followed by the boom of British cannon. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the British cruiser was now moving. Cutting in the other direction from behind it, masked by the smoke of her engines, was a destroyer. Two ships!

He grabbed the Enseigne and shook him hard to get his focus. “Get him to the infirmary!” he yelled as he made his way to the staircase. François was now in command of the Intrépide—but how long could they last against two enemy ships?* * * * *

As François entered fire control, he barked to Dumont, “All guns, fire at will! Target that cruiser first.” Dumont and Bechtel immediately relayed the commands through their mouthpieces to the turrets. The aging Intrépide roared in response, firing as the British cruiser started to get underway. Her trap had been laid almost perfectly. Now it was up to François Moreau to get them out of it.

With the bridge helm gone, the ship could still be steered from engineering. François grabbed the mouthpiece that relayed orders to the engineering section. “This is Sous-lieutenant François Moreau. The Capitaine has turned over the ship to me. The bridge is out of action. You will need to pilot the ship from steerage.”

The earhorn crackled back. “Who is this?”

“Capitaine Moreau!” François said through gritted teeth. “You heard me right. I am in command. Flank speed immediately. Order the auxiliary helm to turn us 30 degrees to starboard. Do it now.”

“Qui, mon Capitaine!” came acknowledgement from the Enseigne decks below him. The Intrépide surged forward with a burst of speed. Slowly, methodically, she began to turn to port.

“What ships are we facing?” François called to the lookout, who was watching the British ships through his binoculars.

“The cruiser appears to be the Renown, sir. The destroyer, she is the Python… Capitaine,” the lookout replied. François’s mind danced. He knew the ships and their classes. All those late nights spent memorizing the statistics of the British fleet had paid off. The Renown was a new ship, only christened two years ago. The Python was well known to the French. Her Capitaine, Andrew Rivenburg, was infamous for his aggressive tactics. It was not his first dance at the ball.

“Someone run to the wireless shack and send a message back to Brest. Let them know who we are facing here. Let them know we have been lured into a trap.” It would not make much difference. By the time the rest of the squadron got the word and turned about, the engagement would be long over.

The forward turrets fired and François’s injured ear ached for a moment with the explosions of the cannons. Using his binoculars, he saw at least one of the shells plunge into the upper deck of the British cruiser. An explosion threw pieces of teak into the air and smoke rolled from the hole just in front of the enemy’s forward turret.

The faster-moving Python was getting up steam as well, swinging around to come behind him, hoping to cross his T from the aft. For now, he was more concerned about the British cruiser. He was already putting distance between the Intrépide and the destroyer, but with her speed that was a short-lived hope. Her shorter range guns would only be able to get in a lucky shot or two. The Renown, on the other hand…

His thoughts were shattered as the ship rocked hard again from two shells that slammed into her port armor belt. The boom of the British guns followed a second later. François moved to the exterior hatch and opened it, leaning out to see the damage for himself. There was no smoke…hopefully the armor had held. Looking around the ship, he muttered to himself, “If you are going to make it through one more scrap, mademoiselle, let it be this one…”

The Renown started a turn towards him, matching his own turn. She aimed to keep in close. François wasted no time. Returning to his communications tube, he called out, “Engineering—damage report.” His voice was almost drowned out as the Intrépide’s secondary barbette turrets opened up at maximum range.

It took a long few seconds for someone to respond, and as they did they coughed hard. They are fighting their own kind of war down below decks, François thought. “We’ve taken a hit in coal bin number three,” came the voice of the engineer. “There is a fire there, so we are going to dump the reserves before it gets out of control. Other than that, we have a hole on the aft deck. Damage control crews are working that fire.”

“Dump the reserve,” François replied. He watched as the aft turrets of the Intrépide roared with another barrage. The British ship took a hit in her electrode tanks on the side, the impact gnarling the external piping tubes and making the ship rock hard. He studied where the ships were in relation to each other. His own vessel was in front in their race, but the Renown was catching up. He tuned out the chatter of the fire control officers measuring distances and calculating angles and powder charges. If he did a tight turn to port, he might be able to cross the T of the enemy ship…

The Intrépide rocked from a strike to her aft. Running to the rear of the fire control deck, François saw that the Python had scored a lucky hit. Gray-black smoke, whipped in the wind, was billowing from the aft turret. For now, it was apparently out of action. “We’ve lost number three. Get damage control teams down there now.” The last thing he needed was a magazine fire, which could take out a ship in a matter of seconds.

“Engine room. Swing us 90 degrees to port,” he yelled into the communications tube. “Dumont. Have all port batteries load and take aim as we make the sweep in front of him. Await my command before firing.”

The ship gracefully arced to port. François watched as the British cruiser attempted to turn to counter, then changed his mind and swung starboard instead. Suddenly, it was the Intrépide’s T that was going to be crossed, to the aft where her guns were out of action.

“Engine room, bring us 180 degrees to port now!” François turned to the gunnery officer. “Dumont. New orders. Starboard batteries, load. All turrets swing to starboard and wait for my order.” Now the two ships were going to pass right by each other. And looming in the distance, the British destroyer Python, toward which he was heading after the turn completed.

To Be Continued…

We’ve been kicking this concept around for a while, and I’ve got an internal discussion that emphasis that there’s numerous ways to proceed on this. Ultimately I’ve decided that since these are for you guys (especially the PDFs), that I should go ahead and tap the community to get your opinions on this.

With that in mind, here’s an excerpt from that internal discussion:

So been thinking a while of different ways to put these together. My initial concept was to try and pair things up like we’re doing the major factions, but it’s just too funky…you go from Brazil which is close to a major power and then Greece or Peru or Spain with anemic fleets.

I then thought about regions: say Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru as group 1, then Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ottomans as group 2 and finally Scandinavian Union, Holland and Denmark and group 3. However, I didn’t like that either for several reasons. One, the second grouping again is pretty small and lackluster compared to the first and third. Also, it would mean making the PDFs potentially significantly larger than I’d like.

With that in mind I’m actually thinking we release them as single factions. The price for each, then, would scale based upon size; i.e. some will have more ships in them than others, and so will be larger, so we scale it up. Obviously we’re not going to provide all ships…simply not possible and we don’t want to go there for the biggest factions. But still the Brazilians should have more ships in this than say Greece or Spain.

As I see it the PDFs would be as follows:

Page 1: Cover Graphic that’ll be the same through the series, just changing the flag and name.

Page 2: Intro to the Minor Powers Fleets and how to use the PDF (mostly identical to every PDF).

Page 3-5: Fiction piece that really conveys the flavor of that faction.

Page 6-9: Write-up of the nation in question, including map and world-map inset (needs to accentuate the material contained in the Gazetteer, not replace it).

Page 10 (or more as necessary): Recognition Card write-ups for fleet.

Page 11 (or more as necessary): Ship Cards. As noted, for the really large fleets like the Brazilians, I’d still say no more than say 6 or ‘maybe’ 8 ships max we’d actually include in this as Ship Cards with Recognition Card write-ups.

For “primitive” ships, may want to change the color card back, or some such thing, to help differentiate a “modern” ship from a non-modern ship.

As noted, art will be mash-ups of pre-existing art to date. This will actually determine whether we can do all of the factions quickly, or whether we have to make it more like a PDF every few months or more so that we can get art generated for additional major factions to be used in the minor factions so it doesn’t look like the entire world is based upon British/French designs.

Page 12 (or more as necessary): Constructible Fleets; i.e. we’d do up counters like the British/French fleets, not like the James’ Fighting Ships counters. This is fully based upon the concept that we can ‘mash-up’ the orthographics from all sides to make that work.

Anyways, that’s my current thoughts on the subject. Counter thoughts?

So there ya go…what does the community think…one PDF per Minor Power faction, or would you rather try and see them grouped somehow?

Next, you’ll note that I mentioned “mash-up” art…what do we mean by that? Well, to be blunt, the orthographics for the ships (both generated to help create the CAD files and then used in various ways, such as on the Ship Cards) are expensive and we can’t possibly have new art of that scale generated for every ship that would appear throughout the Minor Powers PDFs.

Luckily, by following the “real world” model of ship evolution and construction, we’re able to take pre-existing illustrations and thanks to John’s mad skills (after Matt provided the correct type of files stripped of artifacts that were making it impossible to work with), we’re able to finally create the mash-ups discussed above (literally just got in this art this week).

The art below shows a “standard” ship that will eventually appear in print form, along with a “primitive” ship type sold to a minor power (the Type nicely tying into the new fiction we’re posting).

Just thought it would be interested for you to see the behind the scenes of how we’re trying to expand the depth of the universe for more enjoyment in a lot of different ways…and along the way asking for your in put.

Look forward to reviewing your comments…

See ya next duty shift!

Randall