Review - WtNW: Airships and Skypirates

Another review, and it's not even Christmas yet. This time it's the newest supplement for When the Navy Walked, a growing system and setting. So far so good - each release raises the bar in playability and visuals. All my reviews are listed in the right sidebar.

WtNW is Victorian and Edwardian sci-fi, basically steampunk alternate reality. Currently the only game carrying the WtNW name is a command-driven unit-level wargame, but there's a skirmisher-RPG under development. The wargame is built around stands of miniatures, and while anything up to 15mm is the intended scale, that's easily changed.

That overarching setting itself borrows from the mood and ideas of the early sci-fi of H G Wells and Jules Verne as well as the pulps. So far we've had coverage mainly of the Great Powers, as well as the Martian forces in Conflict on Mars!, with the peoples and prehistoric creatures of Earthin, Atlantis and Venus the major factions still to come.

Airships and Skypirates is a bridge between the Great Power and Earthin spheres of the setting, focusing on the skypirates raiding from Earthin and aerial war machines in general. It's also a major extension to the core ruleset for air and space combat.

Thematically that makes it something like Spelljammer meets Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, but far less silly than that might sound; it even manages to feel rather dignified. In mainstream big-name terms, it's also vaguely Dystopian Wars meets Battlefleet Gothic, but allowing play in that naval style at a single scale within a larger battle that looks and feels more historical and a little like GW's Epic or Warhammer.

The supplement itself is a pdf with 108 A4 pages in black and white. Like the core rules and Conflict on Mars!, it has its own intricate themed page edging, and a dynamic feeling one, and there are plenty of framed images with that characteristic etching effect. As usual, these images often show potential units, which could be useful as there are only a few WtNW miniatures at the moment and scratchbuilding, seconding or sourcing elsewhere is necessary. There are also some fun images of the aircraft maneouvres.

Visually, it's recognisably When the Navy Walked, which is a very good thing. I'd go as far as to call the aesthetic 'sumptuous'. As with It Came from Beyond the Still though, the quality might be double-edged given the page load time was a little sluggish for me, but that could just be the age of my technology - I'm almost steampunk myself...

As with the core ruleset and Conflict on Mars!, Airships begins with fictional context, four pages on the discovery of Earthin, the origin and expansion of the skypirates, the shaky unity with which the Powers respond to the new threat, mercenary and rebel operations, and the imaginative science of the ships and their classifications. This is followed by a timeline of major events. It's worth bearing in mind that while some of the ideas in this section might even be offensive, it's clearly written in character.

The new rules follow, and there are quite a few, many of them for sailing - covering wind, sail use and various types of shot. There are even more for expanded air movement and combat, building on the material in CoF!, including elevation, with stalls too, aircraft manoeuvres, various aspects of melee and bombing, and there are optional rules for full fleet battles. The rules for play in the aether are simply an extension of those for flying over ground, and include use of the Tesla broadcast carrier and a table of six hazard types, among them storms, flora, fauna and asteroids. There are also rules for fires, and the Recon order and alternative command point system from CoF! are here too.

The section as a whole is 19 pages and numbered in the usual way for clarity and quick reference. The diagrams are clear, and in the case of the maneouvres more for the mood than any need for practical understanding. The rules feel tighter here than they were in the core, so although there's space to note clarifications, it may not be needed.

That said, some areas are complex, the wind and sail rules in particular, with a need there to consider direction and bands of strength as well as orders, so much so it might be best to play first with vessels other than those under sail. Bombing is also arguably a little heavy, and ideally needs an oval template to be made up. Then again, the main table is small enough to memorise fairly easily, especially if you use bombs often, and the template can be approximated based on the clear dimensions given.

Personally I'll tweak details, if only for speed and memory, but then I am a tinkerer and that free space is ideal to note any house rulings. On the other hand, that complexity of the sail rules does suggest the complexity of all those crew members, ropes and the harnessing of nature while fighting a battle. It's also fair to say the elevation and stall rules for example are simple, fairly easy to track and add a more 3D thinking and drama.

One other thing I'd suggest, for remembering all the orders and maneouvres there are now, is making up a master reference list or table from across the pdfs, matching the types, flaws and edges. That could make play faster and fuller, with more options used. ArmChairGeneral has a lot of free additions like this up at the Wargame Vault page, so there might be something of the kind planned, and even a set of those oval bomb blasts.

 
There are then six single-page scenarios, an inspiring mix and the usual expansion of the game world, with the now standard design of map, some also marked with elevations. The scenarios cover an attempt to capture a frigate, a surprise encirclement, destruction among the clouds, an obstacle course for inventors to race across as part of a contest, a three-way aether squid hunt and a raid on cargo ships being escorted through an asteroid belt. Some also have special rules, for glare, sentry guns and the giant Aethersquid, and there are two stat blocks, for the Aethersquid and cargo ships.

The supplement follows this with an appendix, eight pages of new edges and flaws and over 50 pages of army lists for the fleets of the great powers and the Asteroid Pirates, as well as a blank roster and the reference sheets. For those new to WtNW edges and flaws are unit upgrades and downgrades, and here too they're a way the flavour soaks through, with options like the various types of shot, lateens, oars, 'solarian' sails, Tesla broadcaster bays and the corresponding fighters and bombers, and the THOR engine mentioned in the background, as well as flammability and ground hugging.

As ever, the army lists are more than just the quantities of units, also being the stat blocks for the given units, with a range of builds. There's the usual local naming too, which makes me wonder how many languages ArmChairGeneral knows, and how much history. I'd be interested to hear how native speakers of the various tongues see the choices. I'd imagine there's some humour, but that they're true to the era and respectful.

That's a general point that strikes me too. As fantastical as WtNW can be, the whole thing does have it's feet on the ground, and recognising beyond the glamour and glory also the drudgery, danger and loss of military history, which is that dignity I mentioned earlier; the supplement is actually dedicated to veterans globally and includes a poem.

 
The supplement ends with a few promotional pages showing the range so far, the cover and release date for the Earthin supplement - spring 2012 - and a teaser pic for Atlantis.

In summary then, no surprises for anyone who's been following my interest in When the Navy Walked over the months. Overall I'm very positive towards Airships and Skypirates.

It has extra context in the form of the new background and artwork, the scenarios and their special rules, and the mass of lists, ready-made units and upgrades. It offers that new depth in the game mechanics themselves, as well as the fleet-on-fleet material, potentially a game within a game. Some material is repeated from Conflict on Mars! of course, which could go both ways depending on what you already have and want, and the pre-prepared army lists are almost half of the whole pdf, which will be more or less attractive based on how much you use the construction system in the core ruleset.

It's great to look at and a solid source of inspiration for the setting and wider genre, with so much material I can't see any gaming group running out of ideas to try for some time.

You can see a preview of the contents pages here, the When the Navy Walked range as a whole is here, and ArmChairGeneral's blog is the place to keep up with developments.

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