I endorse this product and/or service.

Never had a chance to play the game, what's it like in play?

How much of an investment are we looking at for a basic 2 player setup?

>>5601713
Well I normally hate playing flight simulators, but this was pretty fun, less about staying airborne and more about shooting badguys.
Oh, and the planes were upgradable, I liked that.

>>5601760
I could never get it running on xp much the pity.

... mother of god. I never knew this stuff even existed.

>>5601738

Well, that depends on if you can FIND it. The game is nearly a decade out of print. There IS a scanned copy of the main boxset on /rs/ though. Otherwise I've seen copies on e-bay go for anywhere from $5 to $50+ (original MSRP $35).

>>5601713
Its not very heavy on the simulation, movement is plotted hidden then everyone moves simultaneously, though if you're on someone's tail and you've got a better "Sixth Sense" skill they have to tell you hints about their movement (howmuchso based on the difference between scores). A pretty neat way to simulate the unpredictability of dogfights.

Pic related, its the movement template (well, a copy I MS painted up a few years back). It LOOKS confusing and scary, but is surprisingly simple once you learn how to read it.

>>5601794

Damage is handled in a way vaguely similar to Battletech, though not really. Every plane has a chart similar to the old StarFleet Battles SBDs. Each weapon does damage in a certain pattern of boxes, first you chew through armor then you start hitting internals, which do a variety of bad things.

So is it pretty similar to Aerotech?

brb, googling Crimson Skies

>>5601845

Here is an example of a plane sheet, the Hughes Bloodhawk. You can also see on the side where you note your maneuver for each turn and places to mark other useful stats.

I'll answer questions, but if you're curious about the rules, downloading the boxset might be easier.

>>5601864

Crimson Skies was one of FASA's last games before they died. It features a pulp style 1930s America where the Influenza Epidemic of the 20s, the political struggles of prohibition, and the stock market crash of '29 shattered the nation into a variety of squabbling nation-states.

With the international railway and fledgling highway systems destroyed and rendered useless, people took to the skies. Where in our world people fell in love with the automobile, in the CS universe, the aeroplane is the fascination of the public.

For a nice taste see this, the intro for the 2001 PC game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A8eiA1jhXc

>>5601785

I've heard running the graphics in software mode can help. It has trouble with modern video cards.

The damage system looks like it's the same as in Renegade Legion: Interceptor. Does it use a flowchart for critical hits too?

>>5601916
that actually sounds pretty cool.

>>5602116

It is. Have some fluff.


SO WHAT HAPPENED?
The first signs of change started with the post–Great War influenza epidemic. Isolationism grew in popularity as many fell to a disease brought back from Europe by returning servicemen.

President Woodrow Wilson’s push to form a League of Nations outraged U.S. citizens and allowed Warren G. Harding’s “New Independence from Europe” campaign to flourish. Harding called for greater separation from the world, and his Regionalist party adopted this as its platform’s theme. When the Regionalists won office in 1920, they used their new power to promote Prohibition.

In 1923, however, President Harding died. His successor, Calvin Coolidge, refused to support Prohibition and the Federal bill languished in congressional committees.

Meanwhile, Prohibition became a battle between ideologically distinct regions in America. Checkpoints appeared on state borders as authorities tried to restrict the flow of alcohol. Many states used these checkpoints to levy unofficial—and highly illegal—tariffs.

>>5602147

In 1927, a new and deadly strain of influenza ravaged the country. States closed their borders and converted their liquor checkpoints into quarantine-enforcement sites. Smugglers and raiders adopted the airplane to avoid the limitations of ground-based transportation.

The election of 1928 suffered from low voter turnout, as most people avoided large groups for fear of contracting influenza. The Regionalists launched their “Strong State” platforms and effectively curtailed the Federal government’s power.

In October of 1929, the stock market crash was the final blow to the United States. Regionalism had decimated the national economy and Washington D.C.’s call for financial assistance from state governments was universally rejected.

On January 1, 1930, Texas seceded from the United States, with California, the Carolinas, Utah, and New York quickly following their lead. Unable to mount the political and military campaign necessary to hold the United States together, Washington was now powerless.

>>5602155

As the Federal government crumbled, the vast majority of the nation’s military deserted or swore allegiance to their native states. Many sold their skills as mercenaries or bandits.

North America’s fascination with airplanes now became a necessity, as commerce between the new independent nations ground to a halt. Brushfire wars demolished the intercontinental railway system, and the highways quickly fell into disrepair or were sabotaged.

The automobile, once destined to become the national shipping vehicle, gave way to gyrotaxis, aerobuses, and the large cargo zeppelins that commanded the skylines.

“Air pirates” captured the public eye during this period of turmoil. Small, disorganized bands of thrillseekers and publicity hounds, these pirates begancrime sprees that would inspire others.

The first serious pirate threat came in 1931. Jonathan “Genghis” Kahn—a former businessman from Chicago—created the infamous Red Skull Legion. The Skulls moved into Utah (posing as People’s Collective militia) where they stole a military zeppelin.

>>5602162

Low-intensity border skirmishes between the new nation-states continued through 1935. Amidst the chaos, bootleggers and pirates thrived. Scores of new militias, most determined to defend their states, battled increasingly colorful and flamboyant raiders. The Redmann Gang, the Red Skull Legion, the Black Swans,and other pirate groups pillaged across national boundaries.

The nation-states continued to subsidize their air wings but also began offering Letters of Marque to pirates, allowing them to legally attack the nation’s rivals. Today, North America is a continent politely at war with itself. Rival militias fall on each other in defense of their own national interests. Pirates and privateers challenge these militias for control of the skies, and they are often victorious.

The air lanes are the new frontier, where a single individual with skill and nerve can make all the difference. Today’s flyers are men and women to be applauded, feared, but above all respected, for as long as they can push the envelope and maintain their hold on the skies. We have given them this power. The sky is the limit—but five thousand feet up makes for a long fall from glory.

What do you think the setting would be like once it reached the year 2000?

>>5602493

Who the hell knows. The only real future debate I've ever seen is about how WWII would go in the world (if it would occur at all, the whole world is slightly different due to a variety of influences).

Good, now get Renegade Legion.

>>5602577

Another FASA game, if I recall? Not really in my field of interests.

Crimson Skies + Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow + Spirit of the Century = FUCKWIN PULP ACTION IN THE SKIES.

Alternatively, get Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies.

>>5602819

If I was to run a Crimson Skies PnP RPG,I'd probably use Spirit of the Century.

The question is, would I use the boxset for plane combat or just the SotC rules...

Probably the SotC rules just to keep things simple.

>>5602878

There's people that actually rewrote the car chase rules to better work in dogfights. I'm sure the rule is one the FATE wiki somewhere.

>>5602970

Oh? I'll have to look that up then. Thanks.

The neat thing is, planes could be given their own aspects, like "poor stall speed" or "powerful engine" or "Fast diver".

>>5602819
>Crimson Skies + Sky Captain & The World of Tomorrow + Spirit of the Century = FUCKWIN PULP ACTION IN THE SKIES.
I hate you SO MUCH. SC&tWoT is based on Crimson Skies, not the other way around, dipshit. That was a horrifically bad movie

>>5601785
>I could never get it running on xp much the pity.
I had the same problem until I ran it with software mode. Works perfectly.

zomg Crimson Skies. Best game for the xbox

>>5603115
>I hate you SO MUCH. SC&tWoT is based on Crimson Skies, not the other way around, dipshit. That was a horrifically bad movie
Umm... Nerdrage much?

All I pointed out was that they share some tropes, not least among them "PULP ACTION!". And still you go frothing at the mouth. Tsk.

>>5603184
You sadden me slightly.

The PC game was far better. None of that weather control shit, the Xbox game tried to be too epic, it failed entirely at suspending my disbelief. The PC game on the other hand, managed it quite well. More options to customise your planes as well.

God I miss it.

>>5602602
Wow, is that a scale model Pandora? Where is this picture from?

God damnit, I feel so ignorant.
Thought Crimson Skies were video games.
The one for PC was especially awesome, where you could customize the shit out of your planes.
Xbox version was nice too.

>>5603237
If you saw someone compare one of the greatest gaming franchises ever to a complete garbage movie because the movie is a clear rip-off of the franchise, you'd be angry too.

>>5603238
You can still find the original game on eBay. I actually got my copy at Target, in the discount games bin, about 3 years ago. Prior to that I had a pirated copy, but trust me when I say the real thing is better.

>>5603317
dont feel bad, I did the same thing. started with xbox game, then got really into it and bought the pc game, only to learn there was tt. never seen anyone play it though

>>5603341
I've got the PC game sitting in my CD Drive at the moment, just installed it. It really doesn't like newer Graphics cards though and it's generally a bitch to run with XP & Vista. saying that, the only problem i've had so far is with the fonts bugging up.

Wish me luck, /tg/.

>>5603280

dunno, got it off an old CS website, its just a convert zeppelin model, not a specific CS product.

>>5603317

The creators in FASA originally envisioned it as a video game, but the best they could do to start (to prove it's awesomeness as a setting) as make a tabletop wargame.

>>5604054

only have 3 pics of it though.

>>5604060

I do have a pic of this little patrol gunship zep though.

I know I'm probably asking too much but...

Is there some way to scan the game related ones without cutting them apart or too badly damaging the spine? I'd love to give something back to /tg/ but well... they're hard to find and ten years out of print almost. I'd rather not destroy them.

I've got a large flat-bed scanner/printer and the game-books are all thin soft covers, pretty standard splat book stuff. I might be able to do some decent scans, but I've never done this sort of thing before, and wouldn't know how to PDF them in the first place.

>>5605102
That would be amazing, man. I would love you forever if you did that. In a platonic way, of course.

I don't know how much experience you have with scanners, but just be certain that the pages are lined up. If the spine is causing the pages to warp excessively, put something heavy on there for the few brief seconds it takes to scan.

As for making PDFs, a quick search turned this up: http://www.primopdf.com/

There appear to be other PDF-making software, but you have to pay for some of them.

>>5605410

Yeah, I figured I'd set up the printer tonight or tomorrow and try a few test-scans to see how well it comes out.

Another question I had, regarding something else was. How trustworthy is the Amazon marketplace? There are a few used copies of Beyond the Crimson Veil (only one I'm missing) on it for $15-20, but I've never really looked into that sort of thing before.

>>5605560
I've never heard anything explicitly bad about the marketplace, and I've seen some really good, rare books on there, so I'd go ahead and do it. Sounds like a deal.

Another note about the scanning. I've gotten several Warmachine books from /rs/ and they often have signs of the page curl around the spine, which shows me that the books were intact when scanned, so there probably isn't any reason for you to cut up your books

also that pic is hilarious and awesome. "Uncle Sam's *secret* Tunnel System" ftw

>>5605645
Yeah, that was what I was thinking, plus most of the places offering it had tons of good feedback so whatever.

Your picture is damn amusing as well, and hell it looks like that Pandora I posted the pics of may be based on a model of that very Zep. Same overall shape, same distinct tail area, and the engines are in roughly the same places.

Speaking of, that 5th engine in the back is a terrible idea for the Pandora. How are you supposed to catch the hook to land in the rear bay? I suppose on that version of the Pandora the rear door is the launch bay while the front doors have the arrestor hook for landings. The guide lights seen in the second pic would seem to confirm that.

>>5601760
I REALLY hated you could fire only one pair of guns at a time. What the hell was the point of an aircraft with six guns if you could only use two at a time?

>>5605870
I'm guessing the model is of the Los Angeles, yeah, but it might also be the Akon, Makon or Graf Zeppelin. They were all produced by the Zeppelin Corporation between the late 20s and early 30s, so they all kind of look similar.

As I recall, the Pandora in the game does not have the fifth engine, as I remember coming in to landing by dodging the rear tail fin and just following the landing lights. For that matter, I don't recall a second landing bay door either. Hrm

Fucking Hindenburg for fucking up the blimp industry.

>>5605645
VTECK JUST KICKED IN YO!!

Crimson Skies, huh?
The setting isn't really my bag. WW2 planes don't really do it for me.

Though CS isn't coming back, I think that The new "Leviathan" game is going to be occupying the same mind-space that CS held a decade before.

Whoever developed jet engines in this universe could fuck shit up.

>>5605946
Yeah, I've always meant to go back and see if it was possible to rig the pc version to fire diffrient guns for diffrient joystick buttons.

btw, did anyone else have trouble with the Brigand's tailgun turret suddenly locking up and not working at all on certain missions? It was one of the main reasons I switched to the Firebrand.

>>5606219
That or blow up hydrogen/helium gas generators.

>>5606279
I liked to use the Bloodhawk with a pair of 50s as my person ride. Combine with a HUEG engine and a boost and you can out run anything. You do tend to run low on ammo sometimes though.

>>5605952

Well, that model is a different interpretation of the Pandora than the one in the games. In the games the Pandora has side mounted engines and is painted white.

>>5606078

Blame America if anything, the US Government refused to allow the Zeppelin corporation rights to purchase non-flamable helium from the US (then the only source of helium in industrial quantities) because they feared it would be used for military purposes.

Instead the Zeppelins were filled with hydrogen, and we all know what happened then.

>>5606358
>>5606279

Wouldn't know, I hated the Brigand, I typically flew the Hughes Devastator or, my favorite, the J2 Fury.

>>5602516
Is that a fucking plane named after the Colt Peacemaker?

AWESOME.

>>5606609

Indeed, one of the favored planes of the Texas Air Rangers and other Texan air militias. As well as the plane used by infamous Pirate "Marshal" Bill Redmann of Redmann's Gang.

William & Colt Aviation also produce a dogfighter called the Rifleman, though I have no pictures of it.

>>5605946
I'd liked the limited guns. Load up on AP rounds to shred armor, then when it starts to smoke switch to HE or DD and take them down. They probably did it to inject some strategy.

>>5606176
What else can you say about Leviathan? If it's anything like Crimson Skies I'm very interested.

>>5606279
No, I never used the Brigand, always the Warhawk. Max armor, max engines, 4 .75s

>>5606535
Hurray, someone else who knows something about airships! But anyway, another contributing factor of the Hindenburg's failure was politics. Long story short, the pilot was pressured into landing during a thunderstorm and made a super tight turn that snapped cables, cut the gas bags and, well, you know.

>>5603280
>>5605645
>>5605952
these anon posts were me, by the way

>>5606827
Warhawk always felt too heavy for me, especially for a fighter that didnt have a rear gunner. The J2 Fury was always my turn fight champion.

>>5606827

The Warhawk? Interesting. It is also one of the planes almost directly modeled after a real life prototype. The German Blohm & Voss P.170.01

>>5607374

Another is the Hughes Bloodhawk, based on the German Henschel P.75.

I'm reading one of the fiction books right now, the "Wings of Fortune" one. It features what is probably the first appearance of Nathan Zachary (whom isn't mentioned at all, so far, in the wargame material I have read).

Not finished yet, but so far its featuring his past, his efforts in the Great War and the following Russian Revolution(s).

>>5607374
You will find several German prototypes in the lineup, along with a few American ones as well.

>>5606827
Well, that IS why you mix the AP up with AP-I or whatever.

>>5607803

Yeah, the J2 Fury is likely heavily inspired for the F4-U Corsair, for example. Its profile even mentions they experimented with giving it bent, gull-wings (like the Corsair) but it effected stability or something.

I even used the boxset plane creation system to design my own plane based on the US' WWII XP-54 "Swoose Goose" prototype.

As for the PC game, I typically used Explosive rounds as they did well against both armor and internals, together with Flak rockets (easier to hit planes with, great for destroying Zeppelin engines).

EX ammo isn't in the wargame though, and Flak rockets aren't nearly as good. Though I've theory-crafted up potential uses for mass fire from a formation several planes to create a wall of flak.

>>5608020
For zep-busting, HE into the engines is better than trying to toss a rocket into the 'internals'. Aside from armoring a zeppelin not making sense and all.

>>5608081

Ah, but a well placed flak rocket can severely damage multiple engines on the Zeps in the PC game (depending on placement pattern), to be finished off with quick MG bursts or a second flak rocket.

Jeez, when you see that they built planes like this in the period, all of the crazy designs kind of make sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-10

>>5608885

There are some planes in the Aircraft Manual that look similar to that. Heck, a lot of them are downright crazy.

For example, here is a mini of the McKinley FB-99 Phalanx, a massive heavy-fighter (base target number 1, the largest you can get) armed with a staggering eight 40 caliber cannons, 10 rocket hardpoints (meaning upwards of 20 rockets depending on type), and heavy armor. Still modestly maneuverable too.

And I'm back. How goes the scan?

>>5609577

Haven't done anything yet, been too busy reading one of the books. Just finished it actually, Wings of Fortune. Good stuff, makes me sad no further novels featuring the Fortune Hunter's were written. This book gave a great look in Nathan Zachary's past; recounting everything from his Great War days, a brief look into his life as a rich Wall-street broker and penniless pauper caring for his mother afterward, and the formation of the Fortune Hunters.

Plus some German air pirates and a search for stolen gold around Loch Ness.

I'll probably try some test scans tomorrow.

Does Crimson Skies have aircraft that are designed to take on fighters?

Interesting bit of trivia- at the death rattle of Ral Partha, they were packing Crimson Skies miniatures into Battletech blisters and shipping them off.

To this day, there are FASA-era aircraft that never had so much as a stat for Battletech sitting in nice long rows at my local FLGS (Game Parlor, Chantilly) in the BT section. With the Crimson Skies designators.

>>5602516
I think I've seen about half those designs on luft46.com

>>5609693
Ah, that sounds pretty cool. A word to the wise, though, don't buy the book "Crimson Skies" by Eric Nylund. It's a short story collection that deals with Nathan Zachary, Blake and the Red Skull Legion, but it's so poorly written that it's, well, it's just horrible. Don't waste your money.

pic very related

>>5609763

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this.

Most of the aircraft are designed to combat other fighters, as they is what your target will be 80-90% of the time in the boxset wargame.

>>5608962
Eh, speed is more important than firepower, but TABLETOP GAME.

>>5606078
dirigible

>FASA

FASA OH SHIT FASA YOU MEAN THE BATTLETECH PEOPLE? FUCK YES FUCK YES FASA FASA FAS-

>with a staggering eight 40 caliber cannons

>40 caliber

>cannons

Motherfucker, I demand an explanation. I remember hearing about "60 caliber guns" in descriptions of the PC game- and thinking "oh you assholes that's a 15mm cannon, but go ahead and be cool and use caliber" but 40 caliber IS NOT A FUCKING CANNON. 15mm is about the smallest something can be and still be called a cannon. 40 caliber is something the cops use in their goddamn sidearms. Fuck this shit. Fuck.

FASA, I am fucking DISAPPOINT.

>>5609910
.30, .40, .50, .60, .70 caliber guns. Keep in mind, UHMERICA and all. No sensible Spanish companies making useful 20mm cannons.

>>5609834

Actually it has a Speed rating of 3, which is about average, given speeds rating go from 1-5.

Phalanx:

Base Target Number 1 (rated 1-10 the bigger the number the harder to hit/small the plane)

Maximum Speed 3 (roughly 250mph, planes can be pushed beyond their speed rating by redlining the engine but botching the roll is bad)
Maximum Gs 2 (how harsh a maneuver can be without making a pilot roll, the high the better)
Acceleration Rate 1 (rated 1-3, how many hexes faster it can go than last turn, all planes have a decel rate of 2 as far as I know).

Armor points 390 (spread across 6 sections, for reference the Hughes Devastator/J2 Fury have 220 armor points, the Bloodhawk 150, and the Curtis-Wright P2 Warhawk has 340)

>>5609821
any bombers then?

>>5609982
Which means you grab a speed 5 aircraft, go for altitude, then zoom and boom until you get a good shot.

Again, assuming you can even do that.

>>5609964

>No sensible Spanish companies making useful 20mm cannons.

Valid point. Rage fading.

>>5609910

Just a slight error on the writer's part, I suppose. They are rather interchangable terms, a .40 gun would probably be better described as a machine gun, but the large guns might be considered cannons.

For example, the 20mm cannons used by many fighters in WWII could be considered .70 guns by CS' rules, as 20mm converts to roughly .78 cal.

>>5610068
If you want to de-rage even further, the USN implemented triple/quad 1.1 inch cannons as medium AAA on ships, prior to the licensing deal with Bofors.

>>5610104
They, like the 25 mm IJN guns, blew.

>>5609996

There are planes more useful for ground or aerial attack roles. 500 lb bombs are a rocket hardpoint option and some planes in the Aircraft Manual seem to have internal bays that can be used to carry more bombs (or cargo). Then, of course, there is the aerial torpedo from the PC game. However most of these rules seem to be in the book I lack, Beyond the Crimson Veil.

>>5610021

Differing altitude is not tracked in the game. A somewhat unfortunate loss, however including the third dimension would make the game horrifically complex. Speed is still a great advantage though, however I think I'd take a good G-Rating over speed. Maneuverability > raw Speed, in my opinion anyways.

>>5610166
Well.... you can take a heavier, less maneuverable fighter and make an absolute beast out of it by using altitude. Attack from above, dive to gain speed, make your attack pass, zoom back up, repeat.

>>5610099
I was always mad that those planes weren't included in the PC game.

>>5609882
Yes! Someone pointed it out! Most people are not aware of the difference between a blimp and a dirigible. They're not actually very similar at all, other than being forms of aircraft.

Blimp- big gas bags with a gondola underneath and usually no more than two engines. They cannot haul very much or stand up to punishment because their structural integrity depends on the material of their envelope.

Semi-rigid- largely the same as a blimp, the only difference is that the balloon portion has a "keel," or reinforced bottom. This series of beams and wires can support a much greater load than a blimp, but is still rather small.

Dirigible- nothing like the previous entries. Shape is maintained by a rigid skeleton of metal or fiberglass covered in weather-resistant fabrics. Inside the skeleton are suspended multiple "cells," which hold the lifting gas. Because of this skeleton the ships are much faster, always retain shape, can carry far more for longer, and is almost impervious to damage. After all, you can blow up multiple cells but there are still many left

>>5610099

Indeed sir. The definition of "cannon," I do believe, is when the explosive filler of the projectile is the primary dealer of damage, instead of the kinetic force of the projectile. i.e. a shell instead of a bullet. That starts around 15mm or so, at the minimum.

>>5610104

Aaah, no shit? Yes, the writers should have expressed larger guns as "x.x inch cannons." That should have been tacticool enough- when you start measuring a bullet's size in INCHES, eh?

>>5610137

No doubt. Domestic US cannons just ate shit. Lol M4 Oldsmobile.

... of course, when it's 37mm, low rate of fire can be forgiven.

>>5610194

Same here, the Avenger is a nice looking plane (though I'm not too fond of it's acceleration, only a 1), like a Cadillac or Rolls-Royce on wings or something.

It's "stock configuration" of 6 .30 guns and two .60 cals (A pretty nasty armament really) would've been severely hamstrung by the game's way of handling guns though.

>>5610214
If you happen to be shooting at bombers, maybe. Low rate of fire and muzzle velocity make it difficult to land on small craft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1.1%22/75_caliber_gun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_96_25_mm_AT/AA_Gun

>>5610188

LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN WITH MACHINE GUNS MOTHERFUCKERS

So, I hear that Attack Vector: Tactical has the bestest system for tracking 3D movement evar. This game would be rather simpler to do, because you have a fixed plane of reference that nobody can go under, only over. (That would be the hard, unforgiving earth, of course.)

If we robbed AV:T, could we add a simple altitude system to this game?

>>5610336

Dunno, I'd rather just leave it as is. I like simplicity, and having managed to play a couple games, it works well enough without having to worry about altitude.

>>5610336
FUCK YEAH, P-47!

Also applies to the P-38 and FW-190. Speed and Altitude are life, manuver can help you dodge a pass, but each dodge will cause you to lose energy. When you run out, you die.

Also, B-tech armor on aircraft is really silly for the reason above. With all that weight, you are going to have a slow-ass hog that just flounders around. The IL-2 and A-10 devoted the armor strategically, not all around. No wings full of armor chainmail or whatever.

>If you happen to be shooting at bombers, maybe. Low rate of fire and muzzle velocity make it difficult to land on small craft.

Pretty much. It depends on how much bomber intercept you're doing- if not too much, I'd take a battery of machine guns every time, personally.

Low rate of fire + low muzzle velocity requires point-blank range to make effective; which isn't a huge problem because point-blank range is the best distance to use ANY gun, even machine-guns (to achieve proper lethal density of fire.) Longer ranges, gun vibration scatters your little machine gun bullets over too wide an area and your rain of leaden death is too diluted to hit very hard.

tl;dr bring multiple .50 caliber guns, make 300 yard deflection shots, pass go, collect 200$

>>5610426
Unless you have a good high speed pass on a non-manuevering target that is also HUEG. Though as a close range anti-fighter weapon, a few hits would be akin to grenades going off.

>>5610418

The B-tech style armor is just gamist mechanics really. Wouldn't be much fun if you plane disintegrated in a fireball the second someone got a good bead on you.

However take a look at the damage templates from >>5601845 and the Bloodhawk's damage sheet from >>5601881. It doesn't take more than a few hits to start to chew through that armor and the plane's performance really suffers when internal components like wing struts and control surfaces start to get torn up. Hell a few good hits with AP rounds from .60 or .70 cal guns could shear a wing off (connecting damage boxes from the front of the wing to the back, instant destruction) in only a couple hits!

>>5610678
Just going on my game experience, with a single pair of weedy guns. A P-40 would slaughter just about any of the aircraft in CS.

>>5610678

Btech armour isn't as silly as it sounds- because, like you observe, if they DO get a good bead you're likely fucked, and anything less is more of a "glancing hit" when you flew through their gunsights swiftly.

Much like the 1 attack roll for 6 seconds of combat in D&D, it's an abstraction that requires imagination to properly experience.

>>5610705

Yeah, dude, pretty much. This anon (>>5610228) said that "four .30 cals and two .60 cals" is a "nasty armament" for this game, and the P-40B mounted four .30 cals and two .50 cals, so...

>>5610762
With AP rounds that also had incindiary tracers. Who cares about structure damage when you can light them on fire?

>>5610705

Of course, the P-40 had a max speed of about 360, which would be Speed Rating 6 or maybe even 7. G-rating and Accell would probably be pretty good too.

Apples and oranges really though. The P-40 is more advanced technologically. Plus for whatever reasons the CS 'verse evolved favoring armor over speed.

The closest to a real-world aircraft I've seen is the RAF Phantasma, which looks somewhat like a Spitfire built backwards. Fast (Speed 4), modestly maneuverable (G-rating 2, which is average, despite the scale going to 5), and armed with 4 .50 cal guns and modest armor (by CS 'verse standards). Its also got a ton of special characteristics (most of which I'm not really sure what they do, as Beyond the Crimon Veil has the rules for those) like "Superior Engine" "superior Weapons" "Light Stick" and even an "Ejector Seat".

It also has a whopping $20,000 price tag. Extremely steep given most planes in the Aircraft Manual are priced from $6,000-10,000.

>>5610820

That depends, really, on how flammable the aircraft in this game are. A properly built craft shouldn't catch fire easily- on the other hand, a plane is just a fuel tank with a seat bolted to it.

Given the nature of the game, they're all American planes (so the thick armor isn't so implausible :p) so less 'splodes, I guess.

Or perhaps they all have CASE >_>

>>5610889
Well, self-sealing fuel tanks are one thing. Fires you could extinguish by diving or using a fire suppression system. Again, likely too technical for a board game. Jug with octuple 0.50s would be absolute murder.

>>5610820

Oh god. Ugh.

The game actually has Ceramic-Coated Magnesium (Incendiary) rounds and I DESPISE them. The do a flat spread of damage as you can see on >>5601845 (MG = Magnesium) but they continue to burn into the aircraft for 1d6/2 (round up) rounds. Should the burning rounds strike a full tank, KABOOM. Fighter instantly destroyed, and with the worst bail-out penalty in the game.

As a Warrior of the Air I find them... well, they just aren't "Sporting". A weapon of honourless dogs.

>>5610762

.30 Cal (x6) .60 Cal (x2) Actually. And 4 rocket hardpoints (so 4-8 rockets, depending on type).

>>5610851

>Of course, the P-40 had a max speed of about 360, which would be Speed Rating 6 or maybe even 7. G-rating and Accell would probably be pretty good too.


HAHAHAHA THE P-40 HAVING SUPERIOR SPEED AND ACCELERATION OH GOD I LOL'ED

Ahem. Yeah. That certainly pegs the timeline as mid-30s tech, all right.

>Plus for whatever reasons the CS 'verse evolved favoring armor over speed.

I know why.

ZEPPLINS.

Want to know why? Go download Sierra's Red Baron and take on a Zepplin in the quick mission builder. That fucker will eat you alive. It's several hundred feet of MACHINE GUN TURRETS. Aaaaaaagh fuck. And I am given to understand that Zepplins in Crimson Skies mount cannons and shit- presumably including heavier flak guns.

I'd want thick armor too. Who needs to be fast when all you have to chase down is a zepplin, amirite.

>>5610931

As an aviation enthusiast I was expecting these planes to make me rage, but a lot of them actually look pretty cool. I'm surprised.

>>5610914

Self-Sealing tanks are one of the special characteristics, but the profile of the Japanese Mistubishi A5 (only slightly different from it's historical counterpart, two .50cals in addition to it's twin .30s, slightly difference visual appearance) has them. However the profile also leads me to believe such tanks are state-of-the-art as it says the Japanese stole/copied the technique from the Sikorsky Aircraft. Even the RAF's Phantasm (which the book says is one of the most advanced/state-of-the-art fighters in service) lacks them.

>Self-Sealing tanks are one of the special characteristics, but the profile of the Japanese Mistubishi A5 (only slightly different from it's historical counterpart, two .50cals in addition to it's twin .30s, slightly difference visual appearance) has them

Yeah, in a universe populated by what are essentially flying tanks, that's the only way a Mitsubishi could survive.

So there ARE things like self-sealing tanks and I assume other related "special features" included in the game... interesting. This seems to come across as a more intuitive aerotech. Looks less rules heavy, too...I am intrigued.

>>5610986

You'd probably rage at some of the Aircraft Manual planes. They ran out of real-life prototypes for inspiration and thus, some of them are reaaaaal ugly. Pic related, the Boeing AZ2 Groundhog.

>>5610952

Indeed Zeppelins can be nasty in the CS 'verse. Each Engine usually mounts a defensive turret and there are often other ball turrets or MG nests protecting other vulnerable areas from strafing or rocket attacks. And, yes, some military Zeppelins mount turrets featuring flak cannons. Addition for Zeppelin-to-Zeppelin combat many military zeppelins are armed with "Broadside cannons", massive artillery cannons mounded in the main structure, firing out the sides like the cannons on old sailing ships.

You can see the door-hatches of the model Pandora's Starboard Broadside cannons in >>5602602

>>5611035

The original Boxset is on /rs/ so if you're interested take a look. Like I aid though, it doesn't include these special characteristics. I'm slowly puzzling out what some of them do, but I'm definitely gonna have to buy a copy of Beyond the Crimson Veil.


Pic is the Marquette YV-1 Stalwart, another rather ugly one. check out the (remote operated?) turret on the tail.

>>5611058

Whoops, wrong pic, here is the groundhog.

>>5611058

Wow. That thing is so ungainly... it doesn't fly via lift, it's just so hideous that the earth repels it.

>Addition for Zeppelin-to-Zeppelin combat many military zeppelins are armed with "Broadside cannons", massive artillery cannons mounded in the main structure, firing out the sides like the cannons on old sailing ships.

So, "air battleships" that are just barely realistic enough that they don't make me want to hunt down the authors and shank them. This sounds better and better.

>>5611058
Though heavy AAA would trash a zeppelin quickly.

P-36A: Top speed 313 mph
P35A: 310 mph

Each one has TWO machine guns.

>>5611075

You know, I think I'm going to do that. I lurve Btech to death, so FASA has always had my attention.

>stalwart

Looks like a badass manta ray!

>groundhog

JESUS the skin on the back of my neck is trying to crawl over my head what the fuck. ;__;

>>5611079
Wow. Just make a pass from the side, easy kill.

>>5611128

Then what does the North American A2 Thunderbird, Heavy-Fighter-Bomber do for you? Hard to see on the mini, but those are bi-plane style wings similar to the Devastator's.

>>5611155
It makes me think that aiming for the wing or mid tail would cause the engines to enjoy a nice shrapnel breakfast.

>>5611151

Maybe, maybe not. Though its not in any of the books I have, this catalouge of aircraft I found online says it has a whopping 440 points of armor. Target number 1 though, so its eaaasy to hit. G-rating of 1 too, so it maneuvers like a brick.

Fearsome armament though, two each of .50, .60 and.70 cals, and a .30 cal somewhere, no idea which gun(s) are in that back turret. 10 rocket hardpoints as well. Obviously meant for attacks on Zeppelins or ground targets, where it would do very well, as long as it's buddies kept dogfighter's off it's back (even then, the turret makes things hard).


Another kind of ugly one, the Fairchild F4 Bandit. You just can't beat the originals from >>5602516 (those are the ones in the boxset, plus a few more).

>>5611155

>Then what does the North American A2 Thunderbird, Heavy-Fighter-Bomber do for you?

Pic related.

The biplane wings is one thing, but the mini-engines in the tail...? Eeeearrrrgh.

>>5611198


Whoopsie, forgot the catalogue URL, I'm getting too sleepy.

No pictures though, just some names and quick stats. Annoyingly it doesn't tell how the armor or guns are allocated or I could easily replicate the planes I don't have in my books (well, minus their special characteristics, which are not mention in the catalogue, but I don't know how they work anyways!)

http://firedrake.org/roger/crimsonskies/aircraft.html

Another weirdo, the PacAir Hammer Fist.

>Another kind of ugly one, the Fairchild F4 Bandit.

That one looks AWESOME, and all the more so because it's a Fairchild (republic.) That one looks like a P-47's hateful, voracious spirit made manifest in a world where lift surfaces are for pussies. I fucking love it.

That Thunderbird, though... North American made the MUSTANG, for Christ sake. Which was pretty. How could they ever condone... that.... brrrrrr.

>>5611214

>sleepy

It sounds like you're going to run soon so let me thank an anon for chatting about this. You've convinced me to give this a try.

>>5611249

Those are even Texan Markings I think, though not the Air Rangers. Different Air-Militia I guess.

A somewhat more conventional looking plane is the De Havilland F9 Hornet. I've never heard of De Havilland, sounds European or Brittish.

>Those are even Texan Markings I think, though not the Air Rangers. Different Air-Militia I guess.

That is the most perfect thing in the world. In the entire damn world. I mean that.

>De Haviland

De Haviland, British, like you say. Made the De Haviland Mosquito which was famous for being wicked fast and made completely out of *wood.* A famous aircraft manufacturer in their own right.

Also the dominant design schema seems to be, put the cockpit on backwards, or put the wings on backwards.

Vought XF5U, "flying flapjack", stall speed of 10mph.

Sadly, prototype was finished in 46, and the US was moving towards jet engines by then.

>>5611282

> I've never heard of De Havilland

GASP! Do yourself a favor and Wikipedia that shit. The Mosquito alone is enough to reserve their place in the history books centuries from now.

>>5611329

LOL yes I remember that. I've seen some R/C models of it. Fly good, they do. An early flying wing design. I think it was meant to have an insanely long loiter time, so it could angle at about 45 degrees and use it's xbawks hueg props kind of like helicopter blades.

So wait, are these pre-painted minis? I see Crimson Skies "boosters" at Borders all the time with pre-painted planes mounted on heroclix-style bases, but that doesn't look the same

>>5611315

Pusher planes seem a lot more popular in the CS world. Hughes' Devastator was the first one to feature them according to it's profile, most people expected it to fail when it debuted in 1931, instead it beat the pants off everything that came before it. It's getting outdated by 1937-38 (the period CS is perpetually frozen in, partly by design), but it's still serving well and fighting retirement tooth-and-nail.

>>5611310

The Repbulic of Texas is one of the only two American Nation-States to receive a detailed supplement book; "Pride of the Republic". The Empire State was the other one with "Wings of Manhattan". The Nation of Hollywood was slated for the next one, IIRC, but FASA went bust before then. Though IIRC "Zeppelins and Bombers" was the actual next-planned supplement.

It was going to have detailed Zeppelin rules... (the Zep rules in the boxset are fairly simplistic.)


>for being wicked fast and made completely out of *wood.*

Doesn't sound too far off from the Hornet. Not in my books, but that Catalogue says it has a target number of 9, a speed of 5, a G-rating of 4, and a measly 90 armor points. Making it super fast, very maneuverable, and utterly fragile.

Pic is the GM Tempest, one of the Industrial States of America's premier fighters.

>>5611315

And huge exposed gun barrels with no effort to incorporate them into a streamlined hull.

>>5611352

it was quite nearly a VTOL if I remember right

it could take off with a very, very short runway

that and they were absurdly durable and had a very generous capacity for weight and weapons

pretty pimp

>>5611407

I know you're just poking fun, but thats part of what I love about the CS planes.

They're based on equal parts semi-plausible-reality (some anyways), 1930s SCIENCE!, and Pulp style Rule-of-Cool.

Hell, my second favorite plane, the Hughes Devastator, is basically a "1930s X-wing" as a friend calls it.

>>5611390
Wiz-Kids tried to remake CS with a clicky-shit version. Looked kinda cool, but I don't know how well it sold or played. And we all know what happened to Wiz-kids.

>>5611390

WTF!? People are actively playing this game, or is that like Mechwarrior "Dark Ages," where the name and concept were raped, murdered, and messily dismembered in a dark alley?

>Making it super fast, very maneuverable, and utterly fragile.

Amusingly enough the real Mosquito's wooden construction proved to be surprisingly resilient to explosive cannon shells. On the other hand, it was a big two-engined plane.

>The Repbulic of Texas is one of the only two American Nation-States to receive a detailed supplement book;

>The Nation of Hollywood

I'm laughing hysterically right now. This has all the delicious awesome camp of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," but it stops short of the "fuck off and die" line. (If you're wondering where that line is... submarine-plane. Yeah.)

>>5611390

No, as >>5611464 says, those were part of Wiz-Kid's attempt to revive the series. The Click game was mediocre at best, and, at least for a CS lover like me, had several nitpicking inaccuracies, such as the various pirate gangs using all the wrong planes instead of what they were noted for favoring (though the Fortune Hunters managed to keep some of their Devastators and the Black Swan's gang kept their Furies).

>>5611485
>>5611484
>>5611464
Oh, good to know. I won't bother with the new releases then. But I still have to ask, are the original models pre-painted?

>I'm laughing hysterically right now. This has all the delicious awesome camp of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," but it stops short of the "fuck off and die" line. (If you're wondering where that line is... submarine-plane. Yeah.)
That was the exact part of the movie I stopped watching.

>They're based on equal parts semi-plausible-reality (some anyways), 1930s SCIENCE!, and Pulp style Rule-of-Cool.

>This has all the delicious awesome camp of "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," but it stops short of the "fuck off and die" line.

I can see we're on the same page.

>a "1930s X-wing"

I NEED THIS FUCKING GAME RIGHT NOW.

>Wiz-Kids tried to remake CS with a clicky-shit version.

AAAARGH

>>5610851

It was difficult to say the very least to recreate early war historical aircraft using the rules presented in CS, though possible and used by good players.

During the two years our LGS played CS religiously, another player and I developed what was described as the Messerschmitt design expedition by the people we shot down religiously. While the rules did not support developing anything better than a BF-109a or b model, they did support very efficiently the development of the ME-110 with experimentation with several other early war aircraft with varying degrees of success.

Both planes were woefully under armored in terms of what was generally accepted in the game but were smaller, the biggest was on par with the E1c Avenger... the most efficient killer in the game with a good player who could group their shots correctly.

In the hands of players who couldn't predict their opponents' moves in the game engine, they were death traps though.

Hell, just the Avenger by itself could nearly core a fighter from nose to tail if it got a lucky grouping of shots and a good pilot who's steady hand could pull them together. Had a long history of aiming a line of bullets down through the cockpits of fighters to remove annoying pilots I didn't want ejecting... since shooting them 'out of the silk' caused people to get angry... slaughtering them in the plane... well... that just happens...

God I miss this game so badly. At least the planes are still made.

this auction (http://cgi.ebay.com/Crimson-Skies-Game-plus-Extras_W0QQitemZ140341972544QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defau
ltDomain_0?hash=item20ad088e40&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14) seems interesting. Anyone looking to buy?

>>5611484

Indeed, its pure 30s pulp camp.

It doesn't have submarine planes, but the PC game DID have a submarine carrier launching planes! British even (as they attempted to take over the Kingdom of Hawai'i to make it a base against Imperial Japanese Expansionism.

Nathan Zachary and his Fortune Hunters taught them a thing or two. In fact one mission in the Hawai'i arc has one of the best/cheesiest lines in the game.

>"Attention enemy Aircaft, this is Sir Charles Emmert Winthrop of the Royal Airforce. Disengage your attack immediately."
>"Say Winthrop, isn't it almost tea time? Do you want me to give you one lump, or two?"
>". . . Really, how pathetic. I shall enjoy putting you in your place, pirate."

Plus it seems like every other plane you shot down, Nathan would give his signature battlecry "When you hit the ground, tell them Nathan Zachary sent you!" which the Wings of Fortune book has shown me Zachary loves with childlike glee and has been using since his days flying Nieuports in the Layfayette Escardrille as a 16 y/o American volunteer.

>>5610931
Porco does not approve of explosive rounds either.

Like the man says, when you're trying to fly through a train tunnel and hoping the train isn't coming.

"Any knucklehead can fill a plane with holes but can they barnstorm?"

>>5601976
http://timeslip.chorrol.com/ second news item down

>>5611581

EXplosive rounds are not in the tabletop game, only Armor Piercing, Dum Dum, and thrice damned Magnesium.

>but the PC game DID have a submarine carrier launching planes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_aircraft_carrier

I shit you not, my good anon. I fucking shit you not.

>best/cheesiest lines in the game.

That asshole deserved it for being named "Winthrop." Honestly, just asking for it.

>Plus it seems like every other plane you shot down

Is that like how, in Samurai Warriors, every other fucking second some jackass is repeating the same tagline? Argh. At least the fluff justified it.

>>5611579
If said submarine had to surface to launch planes, then it's infinitely more plausible than LOL SUBMERSIBLE PLANE.

>>5611670

It did, which meant Zachary promplty sent a few explosive rockets into it's hangar, blowing the fuel stores and sinking it.

>>5611666

Yeah, I'm aware of the real life counterpart. Still zany.


This is the most active, longest lasting CS thread I've ever seen on /tg/ you guys are running me out of pictures. Though I've still got some miniatures. Have a Northrop ZF-2 Black Bat.

holy shit crimson skies thread this never happens. I would love you forever if you scanned the Aircraft Manual. If this thread's still up tomorrow I'll post pics of my Vampire and Sandhill, the latter of which has what I call Tropical Island Camouflage.

Does anyone know how high the number of required downings was to become an Ace? (in the books I mean)
Afaik they still used the old WWI rule of 5 downs to become an Ace, which would be kind of easy to accomplish in a setting with thousands of pilots...

>>5611721
Don't worry, you'll have plenty more pictures to show us when you scan those books tomorrow ;)

I love Crimson Skies. I grew up on it, and it started my intense interest in all things airship. Because of it, I've spent several hundred dollars buying old books that still talk about their design and use. Damn our modern disregard for them!

>This is the most active, longest lasting CS thread I've ever seen on /tg/ you guys are running me out of pictures.

You must have caught us at the right time. I'm a sucker for airplanes and anything that smacks of 30s or 40s SCIENCE! camp is right up my alley, to boot.

Pic is entirely juvenile and ultimately, unavoidable. Every time I see a P-47, I'm going to think of the F4 Bandit and chuckle.

>>5611755

Still 5, though "ace" is only a title. And attaining that may not necessarily be easy. The nations of North American conduct what could be considered a very "limited" form of warfare and/or commerce raiding. Most engagements involve less than a dozen planes on both sides, unlike the battlefields of the rest of the world (such as the dozen of planes-clashes of the on-again-off-again civil war between the two halves of Australia, as the Airman's Gazetteer provides as an example).

Being an "Ace" doesn't really give you anything as a pilot/character other than bragging rights. Though you do get EXP for each kill you score (more and more for successive kills during a single mission).

>>5611771

We'll see, no promises. I've no practical experience using scanners and it'll take a bit of effort to even set the damn thing up. PLus I've got plans tomorrow morning.

Pic is the MS Paint sketch I did of the plane I made based on the XP-54, mentioned in >>5608020

Ironically, according to the last-modified date, I made this 2 years and 2 days ago.

>>5611873

And my mediocre attempt at fluff.

Vultee Aircraft V-52 Shamrock

Class - Fighter
Engine - Lycoming O-1230 (1200 HP)

Manufacturer
Vultee Aircraft (Downey, Hollywood)

Wing Span -31 Feet 11 in Length - 30 feet 8 in
Service Ceiling - 27,500 Feet Range - 400 Miles (seems low(?), but this is the standard of CS planes)

Max Speed - 300 MPH
Max Acell -65.6 ft/second

Weapons
Two (2) Sperry-Browning "Zephyr" .30-caliber machine guns
Three (3) Sperry-Browning "Gatekeeper" .40-caliber machine guns

In the mid 1930s Vultee Aircraft Corporation was in state of decline, the booming zeppelin industry had been a significant blow to their business which had consisted mainly of sales of their six-passenger V-1 transport plane. In 1934 when this market dried up, Vultee turned to military aircraft. Attempts to develop an attack bomber based on the V-1 (the V-11) were a mixed success, the catastrophic crash of the first prototype killed the test pilot and lead designer, scaring away most potential customers. The project (and the company) seemed doomed until the Chinese government expressed interest and placed an order for 30+ planes.

To meet this demand Vultee moved from its cramped facilities at Glendale, Hollywood, purchasing an abandoned plant in Downey, renaming it Vultee Airfield. Sales of the V-11 were minimal though, and in early 1935 it was decided a newer craft would be required to continue to stay in business. Gerald Vultee and chief engineer Richard Palmer set out to design a medium fighter, the result is the V-52 Shamrock.

>>5611894

The V-52 (or "Shamrock", as nicknamed by the original test pilot) is a twin-boom, low-mounted, inverted gull-wing monoplane powered by an engine mounted in pusher configuration. The craft is powered by a twelve cylinder liquid-cooled Lycoming O-1230 engine rated at 1200 HP driving a set of contra-rotating pusher propellers. The center wing section is designed around an experimental "ducted wing", in which airflow is taken in via narrow slots in the wing's leading edge and directed over the over the oil and coolant radiators and then to the intercoolers and eventually fed into the engine. Armament consists of a trio of .40-caliber guns in the nosecone and a pair of .30-caliber guns, one in each wing boom.

In practice, the V-52 has proved to be a moderately successful fighter. Good maneuverability, armor, ceiling and cockpit visibility are offset however by mediocre acceleration, and above average maintenance requirements. After failing to make any major sales to Hollywood militias against the competition of the Hughes Bloodhawk, Vultee released the Shamrock on the international market and the plane can now be seen across America. The largest buyer to date have been Pacifica and the Atlantic Coalition who both field several squadrons of Shamrocks as high-altitude interceptors.

>>5611810
Looks like

>>5611873

Actually looks fairly good, IMO.

>>5611810

That was pretty much the basic principle of the F-4 Phantom. It was basically a gigantic fucking jet engine with a few bits of plane bolted to it that didn't so much fly as drag itself screaming through the tortured air. The wings aren't so much lift survaces as windbreakers so it wouldn't rip itself in half from friction.

>>5611910

Took me god-damn forever to make.

Also considered making a plane based on the XP-55 (though not an MS paint mockup) but never got around to it.

>>5611901

Man, I suddenly want to stat up a Gee Bee. High Target number (9, maybe even 10), high speed (5 for sure, its a racer!), modest maneuverability. Low armor, maaaaybe stick a couple of .30cals on it if there is room.

>>5611916

>That was pretty much the basic principle of the F-4 Phantom.

Dead-on. The F-4 Phantom is proof that a brick will fly if you put enough raw thrust behind it. The concept had been explored with the P-47, but the F-4 Phantom used jet engines to take it to it's logical conclusion- a brick that broke several SPEED records.

It is, essentially, like a bowling ball moving at high velocity that cannot be stopped, and a bowling ball moving at high velocity that says FUCK YOU and shoots you with laser eye beams.

I find this to be inherently pleasing.

>Man, I suddenly want to stat up a Gee Bee

Sup.

>>5611983

And then they improved on the concept with the SR-71 Blackbird.

They couldn't sneak a plane into Soviet airspace, because they had too many radar sites.

They couldn't do what they did before and have the fucking thing fly so high it couldn't be blown up.

What did they do?

THEY MADE A PLANE THAT WAS SO FAST IT COULD OUTRUN MOTHERFUCKING ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILES.

The fucking thing is two colossal jet engines.

You see that middle bit?

It's fuel.

That's it.

THAT IS HOW MUCH FUCKING FUEL THIS MONSTROSITY NEEDED TO GET ANYWHERE. THE ENGINES WERE BASICALLY CRUISE MISSSILES WITH AIR INTAKES AND COMPRESSORS.

THE FUCKING THRUST WAS SO INSANE THAT IT DIDN'T SO MUCH PUSH EXPANDING AIR OUT THE BACK OF THE ENGINES LIKE PANSY FUCKING NORMAL PLANES AS IT FUCKING GRABBED SPACE-TIME AND RAMMED ITSELF THROUGH IT.

IT WAS SO FUCKING FAST THAT WHEN IT WENT PAST THE FLASH WOULD SAY 'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?' AND NOBODY ELSE WOULD SAY ANYTHING BECAUSE THEIR SHITTY CONCEPTION OF TIME CANNOT HANDLE THAT SORT OF SPEED.

>>5612080
AND THE REDS STILL MANAGED TO DOWN ONE.

>>5612080

It also leaks like a sieve on the ground.

THIS FUCKING THING IS SO FUCKING FAST THAT I CAN'T EVEN POST AN INANIMATE FUCKING PICTURE OF IT IF I DON'T HURRY THE FUCK UP.

>>5612081

THEY DIDN'T SHOOT IT DOWN.

IT JUST FUCKING EXPLODED OF ITS OWN ACCORD.

IT SAW THAT PANSY FAGGOT AA MISSILE DOING ITS PIDDLY LITTLE ATTACK RUN AND A BABY-FART BANG AND SAID "I'LL FUCKING SHOW YOU AN EXPLOSION YOU FUCKING FAGGOT" AND BLEW UP SO HARD THAT THE EXPLOSION WENT BACK IN TIME AND HIT PRESIDENT KENNEDY IN THE FUCKING HEAD AND SCARED THE FUCK OUT OF BOOTH.

>>5612084

http://www.fromtheinside.us/thinking/Groundspeed_Check.htm

Note: This seems to be an embellished version, or maybe the author had just had a few for this retelling.

>>5612081

That was a U-2, you raging retard. The first flight of the SR-71, the pilot defeated five soviet fighters. They fell out of the air trying to chase it.

The pilot became an ace by flying in a straight line.

>>5612083

Yes, because at altitude the surface heats up from air friction, and the plates expand and seal tight.

This plane is so insane fast that it GLOWS RED HOT.

>>5612084

The Misericorde says hi.

>>5612132

YOU CAN TELL IT'S EMBELLISHED BECAUSE THE RADAR ACTUALLY MANAGED TO TRACK IT.

THE SWEDES PLAYED A GAME CALLED 'TRY TO GET A PAINT ON A MOTHERFUCKING BLACKBIRD AS IT FLEW THE FUCK OUT OF THE SKY OVER THE SOVIET UNION.

THE ONLY WON ONCE, AND ONLY DID THAT BY MEMORISING FLIGHT PATTERNS AND LEAVING THE FUCKING RADAR ON UNTIL ONE JUST HAPPENED TO FLY THROUGH IT.

EVEN THIS WAS SO FUCKING HARD THE PILOTS SENT THEM A FUCKING LETTER OF CONGRATULATIONS.

>>5612129
You're a faggot. Everyone knows that the Tunguska blast killed all the Kennedys.

Didn't a mig-29 once manage to maintain engagement with a blackbird?

>>5612084
Why is it /tg/ is currently more FUCK YEAH, AIR FORCE than deagle troll land?

Ok guys, cut it out.

>>5612132

I LOL'ed heartily.

>>5612084
>On landing after a mission the canopy temperature was over 300 °C (572 °F), too hot to approach.

and it bled fuel all over the runway before takeoff because it was too cool to have a sealed fuel tank

this plane is too badass

You know... I'd like to import an A-10 into CS, or an A-1 Skyraider. Just for giggles.

>>5612229

A Skyraider might be doable if you scaled back it's capabilities to within CS norms, an A-10 is just silly.

>>5612151

DER BATPLANE!

>>5612179

Highly unlikely. The MiG-25 was specifically designed to be a super-fast interceptor that could catch supersonic bombers, and not even it could catch the SR-71.

>>5612182

If you'd been paying attention to the thread, you would have noticed that all of this is building upon a gleeful amusement at the over the top, truly camp-errific levels of PERPOSTERONE evidenced by some of these Crimson Skies aircraft.

We are reveling in it. Stop being a killjoy.

>>5612303

Forgot to say- pic highly related.

the Blackbird's structure using 85% titanium...

>>5612229
I've been playing a lot of ARMA2 lately, and I'm gay for the A-10.

This thread is now about johnny fucking howard!

>>5612264

However, it's appearance is vaguely similar to the Sanderson FB14 "Vampire". Though it lacks the huge "Fuck-off" minigun. It does have quite a few large "fuck-off" cannons though.

>>5612321
You need trolling practice son, this is TG, you need research to derail our threads.

Anyway, crimson skys compared to the warhammer 40k version, anyone played both?

Apparently one of the founders of FASA has started his own video game company and has purchased the licenses for crimson skies, shadowrun and battletech so we should get a crimson skies 2 developed by it's original creator at some point in the future.

I just got my delivery of JOHNNY FUCKING HOWARD! E-Bay ftw!!

>>5612354
I don't think it's trolling, but it's better than Cynder/Flare if it is, no?

>>5612324
idk. it could fit in my poopar

>>5609964
>no sensible spanish
NO SPANISH AT ALL

>>5612405 fair shake of the sauce bottle

>>5612378

>Apparently one of the founders of FASA has started his own video game company and has purchased the licenses for crimson skies, shadowrun and battletech

>purchased

>licenses

>battletech

If you are lying, I will rape you to death. That is my solemn and honest promise.

>>5612354

Completely different games. Might as well compare a cat to a socket wrench.


Also, its 3am, I think I'm turning in for the night. I don't really expect this thread to be here tomorrow morning, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if it is. And, again, I'll try to get some test-scans done, but, again, no promises.

Until then, may the sun always be to your backs, and the enemy beneath your guns.

>>5612303
To fit into CS, the GAU-8A now counts as a .70 cal weapon.

>>5612415
The Hispano-Suiza 20mm was fine, so hush and eat your hotdish.

>>5612152

Nice try, Baron. Turns out the SR-71 is just a wee bit short of lightspeed though, even in the other version (can't find the damn thing) the SR-71 crew do get their ground speed check.

As for the Swede bit, that was fucking easy because for that particular run up and down the Baltic Sea the Blackbird was extremely predictable. It was "simply" a matter of timing a fast climb for the (IIRC) Viggen doing the intercept. Haven't seen any estimates on whether an actual missile could have caught up, though.

BUT PROBABLY NOT, IT WOULD JUST HAVE BEEN A GODDAMN SPARROW OR SOMETHING AND EVEN IF IT COULD CATCH UP IT WOULD MELT IN THE FUCKING EXHAUST.

>>5612423

For a win thread, I salute you, anon.

>>5612426

One .70 cal is just not badass enough.

A final thought, if anyone is still around when this thread sputters out, feel free to archive it at suptg, its been an awesome thread in my biased, OP, opinion.

>>5612419
No, it's true. Jordan Wiseman, I think his name is - one of the BattleTech designers.

>>5612435

Actually, it was a royal pain in the ass until the British refined it a bit. And even then, the British design was a right naughty bitch to mass-produce and had a tremendous number of maintenance and upkeep issues (the Russians were particularly irked by this, when compared to their own 20mm cannons that had similar performance but much easier maintenance.) If the Hispano hadn't been such a miserably difficult and ornery gun, the US Air Force and Navy would have gone to an all-cannon armament.

With that said, the Hispano WAS a damn good gun once it was actually installed in the plane. High rate of fire and excellent ballistics- which generally did not go in the same sentence with "cannon" in the early-war years.

>>5612445

Its on wikipedia, so it must be true!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_&_Tinker

Ok, seriously going to go pass out this time.

>>5612469
It was also all over BattleTech fan sites a while back.

>>5612419
>>5612469
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw5BoRwGiFE

>>5612502
Also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktptUSi9g54

Fuck yeah jenners!

>>5612469
>>5612477
>>5612522

>Smith & Tinker are also responsible, in conjunction with Piranha Games, for the future release of Mechwarrior as announced on June 8/09.[7]

I just squealed like a little girl.

And apparently they're releasing Mechwarrior 4 and all the expansion packs for free download. They should be paying US to download that shit.

>>5612563
Don't be a fag. As action games, the MW4 series are great. Just maybe not simulationist enough for you and your awesome knowledge of theoretical giant space robots.

>>5612571
You what?
The controls are ridiculously overcomplex.

>>5612583
Because they're shit. Remap them and it's all good.

>>5612563
Does anyone still play netmech anyway? I for one welcome any revived interest in battletech and look forward to a resurgent multiplayer scene. It could be a puzzle game for all I care so long as I'm strapped into the cockpit of a summoner again.

>>5612583

Are you joking? I seriously can't tell.

>>5612571

The Mechwarrior 4 series can suck dead gophers. Microsoft fucked everything up.

Compare it to Mechwarrior 3, it's predecessor. Mechwarrior 3 had robots that actually felt like they were three story tall war machines. You could see the edges of the cockpit around you, all the little blinkenlights and shit, and it rocked to and fro as your war machine ponderously stomped over the landscape. And what landscapes they were- they looked great, the little people who ran around could be stomped into red meaty gibs, and missiles that missed impacted the ground and left craters.

Mechwarrior 4? The robots scurried around the landscape ridiculously fast. Multiplayer was a confusing whirl of robots moving at insane fucking speeds. It was basically DOOM with 'mechs. The graphics fucking blew- instead of stomp-able people you had little shit sprite animations that were completely non-interactive and looked stupid as hell up close.

And the weapons... if nothing else, they TOTALLY FUCKED UP THE FUCKING WEAPONS. The hard point system blew, but what's really funny is that they took their stated goal of "avoiding boating" and fucked it up too. Missiles went from max range of 800 to 1,000 and lasers went from 1,000 meters to 800. Mechwarrior 3 faithfully modeled Battletech missile salvos- horrendously powerful at long range, but clumsy and incapable of manuvering much at all. Mechwarrior 4 missiles? I watched those FUCKING things circle a mech seven or eight times until it hit. Absolutely unfuckingstoppable magic missile bullshit.

I did love the sophisticated damage model- with side armor facings modeled (not just HTAL anymore) and the ability to lose missile pods and stuff- but besides that, it was a complete retard clusterfuck.

>>5612604

I have Mechwarrior 2 and DOSbox close at hand...

>>5612625

Like I said, not HARDCORE enough for you.

>>5612625
And then came mech assault.

>>5612625
Yes, Sir. Your retarded opinion is world canon, because you said so. Now sod off.

>>5612625
You missed the biggest difference: the customization. In 3 you could go wild, but in 4? You were ridiculously restricted regarding what you could slap on your mech.

>>5612625

Forgot to mention- Mechwarrior 4 shoved your face up against the glass of your cockpit apparently (no clue that you were in a war machine,) and Mechwarrior 3 had some neat sophistication in it's own damage model missing from Mechwarrior 4 (a lucky shot right in the joint of a Mech could hobble that leg, forcing it to stump along.)

>>5612631
>>5612642

Sure is samefag in here.

>>5612625
Not to mention that mw4 comes with a malicious rootkit that takes hours of registry hunting and hex editing to remove from your pc.

>>5612668
>EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME IS THE SAME PERSON

>>5612648
Because being able to replace bits from your IS 'Mech with whatever you like has always been part of BattleTech, amirite?

>>5612648

Yes. Yes, you were. I would have hated on that tremendously, but Microsoft was really trying to make Mech4 a good multiplayer game, and the hardpoints were meant to stop rampant boating (which happened anyways.) They did it to make mech's more individualized and to force balance...

...which makes their complete UN-balancing of weapons, and their magic unstoppable missiles, an unforgivably moronic DERP. From a balance and design perspective, it failed.

>>5612604
I've never been able to get MW2 online back when I was a kid, and without extreme amounts of backward-bending, I can't get the games to run at all. (CUE file mounting in Dosbox). I'm more than happy just enjoying the nostalgia of the single-player game. I'm not a fan of online play, anyway. I like story, not "Look how many PPCs I put on I can totally kill everyone in one shot now I will be highest ranked evar".

>>5606827
All I can say about Leviathan is that it's got a site up, and that anytime anyone on /tg/ makes a thread about their own homebrew steampunk airship battle game, they're taking concept art from Leviathan.

Website is www.monstersinthesky.com

>>5612677

Uh, what?

>>5612682

During the timeline of Operation Bulldog (i.e. mechwarrior 3) the IS was fielding their own omnimechs. Not all of the mech's in Mech3 were omnimechs- but then again, IS mechs were inexplicably showing up in the hands of Smoke Jaguar defense forces on Tranquil... game design compromises.

OH, damn, nearly forgot! Mechwarrior 3's briefings were FAR better. Excellent voice acting combined with a big area map that showed you what the hell was up.

>>5612707
It comes with a form of drm called safecast which installs a rootkit on your pc which grants the company which runs it access to your webcam, microphone and hard drives every time you run a 3d game.

>>5612765
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SafeCast
Why must you tell lies, anonymous? Why must you tell lies?

>>5612778
Safecast works by embedding your registry key in your boot sector and granting hard drive access to to activate and verify it when you run games. The only way to remove it is to go hunting through hard disk sectors with a hex editor.

>>5612816
None of which has them controlling your webcam and microphone.