Airships

General

Airships are very similar to balloons and behave the in much the same way as one, except for the very obvious fact that airships have engines and can maneuver themselves unlike balloons that are at the total mercy of the wind.

Cover and visibility

The same rules for balloons apply to airships

Trees and hills

The same rules for balloons apply to airships

Movement

Because Airships are rather large and do not posses powerful engines they are still at the mercy of the wind, especially if the wind is rather strong. As normal determine the wind speed and direction at the beginning of the game and again at the beginning of each turn. Use the same rules and tables as is used when using balloons. An Airship can move a maximum of 6d6 per turn it can accelerate 2 dice per turn but only decelerate 1 die per turn.

For example on turn 1 the airship is traveling at 3d6 during its movement the player decides to accelerate the airship its maximum 2 dice to a new speed of 5d6 the following turn the player wishes to slow down but can only do so by one die. The next turn the speed of the airship will be 4d6. Airships can move when there is no wind however if the wind speed is over 8mph the following rules must apply to the movement of the Airship.

• For each whole 4mph of wind speed over 8mph decrease the maximum airship speed by 1d6. This is only when the airship is trying to travel directly into the wind. For example the current wind speed is 20mph this is a total of 12mph over it will give a total of 3d6 loss of movement and so the airship will only be able to travel a maximum of 3d6 while pointing into the wind.
• If an airship is traveling within 45degrees of the wind then for each whole 6mph of wind speed over 8mph will reduce the maximum movement of the airship by 1d6. For example the wind is blowing from the north at 18mph if the airship was pointing either NE or NW it movement dice would be reduced by 1d6.
• If the airship is moving at 90 degrees to the wind it will be blown sideways 1d6 for each whole 8mph of over 8mph. If the wind is blowing from the south and the airship is traveling east or west then this rule applies
• If the airship is traveling with the wind including each 45decree each side of the wind direction the airship will increase speed by 1d6 for each 5mph over 8mph. If the airship ever travels faster then 8d6 in a single movement it will break up under the strain and plummet to the ground. Of course the owning player can decelerate the normal amount per turn of 1d per turn and can even drive the motors backward to a maximum of 2d6.

Because an airship cannot make sharp turns due to the control surfaces the following table must be applied to determine the turning radius of the airship. The turn radius is expressed in movement forward: turn movement.

Speed of Airship	Turn Radius	Chance of breaking up
1d6	0.5:1	0%
2d6	1:1	0%
3d6	1.5:1	0%
4d6	2:1	0%
5d6	3:1	0%
6d6	4:1	15%
7d6	5:1	50%
8d6	7:1	100%

For example an airship is moving at 3d6 and wants to turn for each 1.5 inches forward it moves it can turn its facing by one inch and so on. If the speed of an Airship exceeds 5d6 there is a percentage chance that the airship will breakup under the extreme speed. Roll percentile dice it the roll is within the range expressed in the table above then the Airship has broken up and crashes. All hands will be lost. The crash zone for the airship is 2d6 inches in the direction that the airship was last traveling. Any figures under the crash zone will role 1d20 each and on a result of 1-4 they will be crushed by the falling airship.

Combat

Because of the nature of Airships and the larger gondola that they would normally have, a larger crew can be carried. In most gondolas can have up to two mounted machine guns that can fire directly out the side of the gondola see the attached diagram.

Each gun can fire in an arc of 120 degrees and can depress far enough to be able to fire directly below. However due to the nature of the construction of the Gondola only one gun can be fired per turn because the high level of recoil would cause damage to the Gondola. This would not prevent the gun crews from firing if an emergency arose. Firing both guns will damage the Gondola by 1d6 points. Because Airships are larger than balloons they can sustain more damage before being destroyed. So an Airship can sustain 20 points in the bladder and 15 points in the gondola before being destroyed. However the following points must be adhered to due to the nature of the hydrogen-lifting agent.

• The same rules for targeting balloons apply to airships including the missed attack damage on the gondola.
• If the bladder suffers more than 6 points of damage from single artillery attack the bladder will explode and destroy the airship.
• If the bladder suffers more than 5 points of damage from a single machine-gun attack the bladder will explode and destroy the airship. This is due to the tracer rounds in the machine gun link.
• The same rules for bombing apply to airships except the crew to bomb ratio table is different. See below.

Crew	Bomb Attacks
6	4
5	5
4	6
3	8
2	12
1	25

• However due to weight restrictions if any bombs are carried machine-guns must be left behind.
• All bomb crews carry pistols and can be used as the normal TSATF rules

Crews for Airships are a little different as well. A maximum of 8 crew can be carried by an Airship. This number must include a pilot and an engineer, this means that the maximum fighting crew that can be carried is 6. If 2 machine-guns are carried then the maximum crews for each gun can be only 3 men. For simplicity if machine-guns are used than no bombs can be carried and vice versa. Even if a player wishes to combine one machine-gun with a small load of bombs, this is prohibited because it would make record keeping more complex then necessary.

The pilot and engineer are valuable members of the crew and without them the Airship will not function. If an attack on the airship results in a crew-member being hit check against the following table.

Card Drawn	Result
Ace Hearts	Pilot Killed
Ace Spades	Pilot Wounded
King Hearts	Engineer Killed
King Spades	Engineer Wounded

Any other result will hit a normal crew-member. If no other crew-members are alive then the result will be a hit on the gondola. The death or wounding of the pilot or engineer will have the following results.

Pilot Killed: Airship cannot turn, change speed or change altitude at all for the rest of the game. This could result in the airship flying off table or crashing into something.

Pilot Wounded: as above except due to superhuman effort the pilot may be able to maneuver the airship. Every time the pilot exerts himself there is a cumulative chance that the effort will kill him. Every time the pilot maneuvers the airship after he is wounded there is a cumulative 10% chance that he will die of his wounds.

Engineer Killed: Airships are complex devices and miracles of the modern world. If the engineer is killed the airships engines could fail if he is not there with the oil can or use the dirty rag that is needed to keep the engines going, occasionally he will be needed to hit the engines with a large spanner. Each turn after the engineer is killed there is a cumulative 25% chance that the engines will fail. If they do fail the airship will be able to maneuver for one turn after the engine failure and then be at the mercy of the wind, the airship then behaves like a balloon except that the pilot cannot change altitude.

Engineer Wounded: As above except that with superhuman effort the engineer might be able to restart the engines by hitting it with the large spanner. He will be able to restart the engines on a 60% chance each turn that he attempts to restart them. But like the pilot each time that he attempts such a physical exertion there is a cumulative 15% that he will die. If the engines are restarted the chance for failure is reset and checked again every turn.

Steampunk Variants for The Sword and the Flame Or, Poop Poop, It’s the Only Thing

Balloons
Airships