April 2020: Airships Ahoy!

With the release of the new Vehicle Guide from Pinnacle I was able to go through and adjust vehicle stats in Frozen Skies where needed. More interestingly, the Vehicle Guide had stats for airships which has enabled me to update airship and skyship stats for Frozen Skies. So this month features updated stats and some more thoughts regarding air combat.

Levitations of the Sky

Not only do they have updated stats, there are also new rules for airships and skyships.

Airship: This category covers lighter-than-air craft that gain their lift via use of a lifting gas, but are typically unarmored. Non-Heavy Weapons reduce their damage die by one when attacking these type of craft.

Skyship: These more heavily armored craft are akin to flying warships, as such they have the Heavy Armor characteristic. However, skyships are vulnerable to attacks from above and thus these sort of attacks increase the weapon's damage dice by one.

And now, some stats;
 
B-class Frigate

Top Speed: 40 MPH; Toughness: 32 (8); Crew: 10; Climb: 10; Handling: -3; Size: 16 (Gargantuan)
Weapons: 1x 57mm Deck Gun (Front Pintle Mount), 1x Heavy MG (Top Pintle Mount); Notes: Skyship

Bayleaf-class Freighter

Top Speed: 30 MPH; Toughness: 28 (3); Crew: 70; Climb: 10; Handling: -4; Size: 20 (Gargantuan)
Weapons: 4x Heavy MGs (Fixed Left), 4x Heavy MGs (Fixed Right); Notes: Skyship

Rover-class Scout Airship

Top Speed: 40 MPH; Toughness: 21 (1); Crew: 10; Climb: 10; Handling: -3; Size: 15 (Gargantuan)
Weapons: 2x Linked Heavy MGs (Turret Front), 2x Linked Heavy MGs (Turret Rear); Notes: Airship

Regal-class Light Cruiser Skyship

Top Speed: 35 MPH; Toughness: 45 (14); Crew: 570; Climb: 5; Handling: -3; Size: 19 (Gargantuan)
Weapons: 4x Turrets – 2x front & 2x rear – 2x 6” guns in each turret (Range in miles 6/12/18; 6d10; LBT, AP 10, Heavy Weapon)

4x 40mm Quad-linked Cannons (2x Fixed Left, 2x Fixed Right) in open mounts

1x Linked 40mm Cannons (Pintle mount on top of No.2 Turret)

2x 20mm Cannons (1x Fixed Left, 1x Fixed Right)

Notes: Catapult launcher, Scout plane, Skyship

Scout Plane

Top Speed: 110 MPH; Toughness: 11 (2); Crew: 2; Climb: 10; Handling: 0 (-2 when loaded); Size: 5 (Large); Weapons: 1x Medium MG (Fixed Front), 1x Medium MG (Pintle Mount – Rear), Bombs

Notes: Flotation Gear, Zeppelin Hook

Zephyr-class Armed Merchant Cruiser

Top Speed: 30 MPH; Toughness: 21 (1); Crew: ~50; Climb: 10; Handling: -3; Size: 17 (Gargantuan); Weapons: 6x 6-inch cannons (Fixed Left), 6x 6-inch cannons (Fixed Right); Notes: Capacity for 3 light or medium sized aircraft (1 air deck + 2 launch ramps), Airship


More Thoughts on Aerial Combat


Follow-on from last month's post, been giving some thought to aerial combat in Frozen Skies. Still looking like a hex grid may be the best way to go, offering a more tactical style for those who want it but at the same time it still has to be balanced towards the Fast, Furious, Fun ethos of Savage Worlds.


Basically need to strike a balance between being simple but having a bit of meat to them.


Thinking with Immanuel Turn of having an aircraft move half it's Top Speed in a straight line before turning round 180 degrees. Could also factor in an aircraft's Climb value as some sort of bonus here.


Something interesting that somebody proposed was adapting the Vehicle Fatigue rules from Savage Rifts. Could work I suppose, though it will have to be something to try out with a playtest.