Defying Gravity - Leviathans Style

Gotta love the idea of a flying battleship! The base game contains 8 PRE-PAINTED models - 2 battleships, 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers split equally between Great Britain and France. These are made from plastic and are scaled at 1:1200th - the same as those from Brigade Models from their Aeronef/Imperial Skies range

I have a long history with Victorian Science Fiction aerial wargames. Initially this was down to the Aeronef rules produced by Wessex Games years ago - a set I have fond memories an, along with Aussie Paul of The Man Cave fame,  even collaborated on a mini campaign supplement called Aeronef over the Aegean. I scratch built fleets of Balkan dirigibles for the Turks, Greeks and Bulgarians, and in short, had a lot of fun with the genre.

Since then I have sort of looked at genre a few times - mainly with a view to scratch building the models again - but never really got anything off the ground so to speak. I am going to look at Robin Fitton’s Imperial Skies (available from Brigade Models I believe) and even revisit Castles in the Sky for additional inspiration but something has appeared at Maison Crook that the genre did probably not expect….

Leviathans is a miniatures based game of flying warships set around 1910 - firmly in the Dystopian Wars/Steampunk ‘era’. I remember seeing mention of the game prior to its launch around 2011 and being pretty ‘meh’ about the whole idea. I have a vague recollection that the models were going to be released moulded in transparent plastic which I was underwhelmed by - not sure why but at the time it did not appeal for some reason - and also the range of ‘official’ models seemed quite limited. 

Nowadays I tend to be a little less precious about ‘official’ models - how very avant-garde of me - so when a copy of the released game popped up for sale on one of the Facebook groups I belong to I thought I would take a look - just for old times sake and all that.

I looked into the current situation of Leviathans and was surprised to see that a further edition had been fully funded on kickstarter and added in the Germans and Russians as well as extending the original game to include the Great War. The new base game features French and German Leviathans with the inevitable extra fleet packs adding additional models. A quick messenger exchange with the game’s producers - Catalyst Game Labs - confirmed that the new version is essentially the original game rebadged and expanded and critically, all the original material is still relevant and usable. That clinched it!

Now I should perhaps explain my thought process at this point. Obtaining a copy of a game like this - self contained, with pre-painted models and ready to use straight out of the box - is at the present time probably the best way for me to get into something new. Although this is not strictly a new project per se, it is something that has been on the radar and I do have ‘form’ with it. Is that a justification? Perhaps - but it what passes for rational decision making in my universe it was a no-brainer!

The Game Itself

When this large box of goodies arrived the first thing I realised was that aside from the eight ships in the base game there were also the British and French expansion packs - a further eight models! I queried this with the seller and he said he had forgotten about them. He did not want any extra money as a result which was a generous gesture indeed although I had managed to score one of each set off eBay in anticipation - which now means that I will have twenty four models in all!

There are two double-sided map boards - these are 16 by 17 hexes (the hexes are 33mm across the flat sides). The above are the ‘land’ sides….

….and this is the ‘sea’ side

Some of the models on their bases along with the data cards and damage cards

More of the game components

The paperwork - the Lieutenant’s Manual is the quick start version whilst the Commanders’s is the full rules set. The Gazetteer is a 90 page background guide to the world of 1910 and the technology involved. The world is very much historically aligned although a few changes are present!

A poster featuring the main types involved in this version of the game.

All of the models - the lighter grey types are French, the darker are British

The models from the base game.

The models are rather nice but do feel a little fragile. The paint jobs are acceptable although even reluctant old painter me has felt the urge to ‘pimp’ them up a little - time however, is still my greatest adversary!

All in all then, this is a welcome addition to the collection that crucially does not need much in the way of getting it table ready. The new version should be available later spring so will increase the available models somewhat. I would have liked to have scratch built them but sadly time would not permit so having an ‘over ready’ option for the genre is really handy.

The map boards could also serve for 1:600th scale aircraft games so all in all the game has many benefits - even if I used the models elsewhere. 

In closing the only thing I would say is that I am not a fan of the bases used!