Imperial Skies - Thoughts after my first few games...

I finally managed to get a couple of games played of Imperial Skies.

Both games so far were played with only class A and B ships and a pretty low number of ships.

The first game was a training exercise between two fleets of Turkish ships.  I took 2 Muin-I-Zaffer Class Dig Cruisers.  My opponent (Doug) took 1 Muin-I-Zaffer Class Dig Cruisers and 3 Keyk Class Patrol Digs.  We set up fairly close and had no terrain on the table.

A couple of rounds of fierce battle and I had claimed victory.

After the battle we discussed our thoughts and our primary concern was that the group activation action seemed very powerful.  Of course, I'm certain that wasn't written with this size game in mind, but if we play more games of this size, we may need to make some adjustments to that command action.

The second game saw a small clash between a Turkish force of 3 Keyk Class Patrol Digs, and 2 Muin-I-Zaffer Class Dig Cruisers (commanded by Randy) and a French force of 5 Hussard Class Motor Torpedo Nefs and 1 La Brouchet Class Torpedo Frigate.  Again, we set up on an open table, and this time we started about 3 feet apart.

This game was very close with both sides taking heavy damage.  The torpedoes seemed to be very powerful, but since they are limited to 2 shots per turn and the ships carrying them only had 3 structural points, they didn't seem over powered.

The French flotilla took the advantage and managed to dispatch the Turkish forces.

Overall Thoughts...

I want to play more games with some larger ships before I give a final opinion, but for now, I like it.  The game mechanics are pretty simple and plays quickly.  Some might think that is a bad thing, but I liked it.  I really hope that as we add in bigger ships, the speed of play stays.

There is not a lot of book keeping, but you do have to keep track of which ship is which (if you have multiple ships of the same class).

We have not used all the rules yet (elevation, fighters, ground targets, etc) so we still have a bit to learn, though I am not sure we will use all of the possible options.

I also think use of scenarios will spice things up quite a bit.  I wish some had been included with the game, but I think I can come up with some decent scenarios for future games.

I will put together a more complete review after I've played a few more games with larger fleets and larger ships.