The French Republic
The French Republic does not fight on a flat battlefield. It never has. While other factions maneuver for range and angle on a single plane, French commanders are already calculating elevation, already thinking about what the engagement looks like from above and below and from angles that the opposing captain has not considered yet. Height is not a bonus in French doctrine. It is the foundation of everything. The fleet that controls the vertical space controls the terms of the fight, and the French Republic has built its entire aerial identity around never letting that control slip.
French airship design favors speed and agility over armor and endurance. These are not ships built to grind. They are ships built to move, and their crews are trained to treat that movement as a weapon in its own right. A French formation that has spent the first two turns climbing to a dominant altitude has not been wasting time. It has been setting up every engagement that follows, creating firing angles that the enemy cannot easily answer and positioning itself to drop, shift, and reappear somewhere unexpected the moment the opponent thinks they have the range dialed in. French captains create uncertainty deliberately and then exploit it at the moment of their choosing.
This is a faction shaped as much by national character as by military doctrine. France entered the aerial age with something to prove and the engineering talent to prove it. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine and the humbling experience of the Franco-Prussian War left a mark on French strategic thinking that translated directly into aerial doctrine: never again cede the initiative, never again fight on someone else's terms, and never underestimate what speed and position can accomplish against a heavier and slower opponent. French captains carry that understanding into every engagement.
Master of Altitude puts this doctrine into practice at the ship level. Once per Round, one French airship may change altitude by up to two levels without spending a single Movement Command Point, keeping the fleet in constant vertical motion without paying the cost that would ground any other faction's momentum.
Faction Trait: Master of Altitude
Once per round, the French player designates one of their airships to benefit from Master of Altitude. That airship may change altitude by up to 2 levels without spending Movement Command Points. Altitude changes made through Master of Altitude do not count toward the airship's maximum Movement for the Round. This designation may change each Round, allowing the French player to apply the bonus where it is most needed. This ability may not be used during a Reaction.
When the French commander decides the moment has arrived, Ride the Wind answers. Every airship in the fleet that is not moored gains 3 bonus Movement CPs instantly, spendable in any direction including lateral movement, turning a fleet that was already fast into something that crosses the battlefield before the opponent can reposition to meet it.
Strategic Command: Ride the Wind
Once per game, at any point during the French player's Turn, declare Ride the Wind. All French airships that are not moored immediately gain 3 bonus Movement CPs. These bonus CPs may be spent immediately in any direction including laterally, and do not require facing changes. Each airship may use any or all of its 3 bonus CPs independently. Altitude changes made using Ride the Wind bonus CPs do not count toward the airship's maximum Movement for the Round. Normal movement rules apply including obstacle avoidance, except that lateral movement is permitted. This ability may not be used during a Reaction.
3D Models or STLs (sold separately):
2D Airships included as artwork in the game rules!
