Boat to Bolivia

This week sees the release of the penultimate South American fleet for Imperial Skies. Bolivia is landlocked and bordered by no fewer than five other countries – Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile – most of whom it has been at war with at some point in history since gaining independence from Spain in 1825.

Bolivian Fleet

The main firepower in their aerial fleet is carried by the Bolivar class Patrol Battleships, which are not the largest but do carry a fearsome punch. The rest of the fleet consists of vessels no larger than destroyers, with the most curious being the Jacamar class gunboats. These are armed with the US-designed Dynamite Cannon, a strange weapon which propels 500-lb projectiles filled with dynamite using compressed air (this was a real thing – you can read more about it on Wikipedia).

In Imperial Skies, we suggest the following (unofficial) rules for the Dynamite Cannon: treat them as torpedoes, but with a short range. At targets under 3″ a 4,5,6 is needed to hit; up to 6″, a 6 is needed; damage is 2d6. They can only fire in the ship’s forward arc, and each cannon can only fire on alternate moves due to the time needed to refill the compressed air tanks. However, unlike normal torpedoes they have no ammunition limit and there is no limit to the number that an individual ship can fire in one turn. When designing your own vessels, each Dynamite Cannon costs 1 point.

We’ll have stocks of the Bolivians – both fleet packs and individual models – at Hammerhead tomorrow, along with the new Hammer’s Slammers rulebook.

VANFP-3001 – Bolivian Fleet Pack – £24.00
VAN-3001 – Bolivar class Patrol Battleship – £7.50
VAN-3002 – Santa Cruz class Battery Destroyer – £1.50
VAN-3003 – Cochabamba class Patrol Destroyer – £1.50
VAN-3004 – Charcas class Corvette – £0.80
VAN-3005 – Jacamar class Gunboat – £0.80
VANF-3001 – Bolivian National Flag