Editing Crimson Skies (section)

==Game History==
Crimson Skies was developed in a partnership between [[FASA]] and FASA Interactive (the latter company being owned by a mix of Microsoft and senior FASA employees). It started as a mixed tabletop and video game property, along the lines of the BattleTech/Mechwarrior franchise. Following FASA's typical model, the initial release had significant fluff and rules gaps that they planned to patch with subsequent novels and game sourcebooks. The timeline was set to begin in late !1936 and early 1937 (with all text written in-universe where possible), and advance throughout the sourcebooks. The game was first printed as a boxed set with punched-card counters. This release was contemporary with, and very similar to, the BattleTech 4th Edition boxes. The PC tie-in game was developed closely with the tabletop game's Line Developer and creative team, while FASA benefitted from Microsoft's graphics and model designing expertise.

The tabletop game has been dogged throughout its existence by poor marketing, and not at all helped by repeated buyouts killing releases mid-stride. FASA closed its doors long before the first edition was even ''mostly'' complete, selling the IP to WizKids; Microsoft acquired their share of FASA Interactive and promptly sat on the rights for years. The Clix reboot was similarly felled in its initial release waves after Topps acquired all the WizKids properties - and promptly killed almost all of them for a baseball CMG (yes, really).

===Current Status===
All of the Crimson Skies games, books, and rulesets are out-of-print. The Clix rules are somehow ''more'' complex than the originals, but are also more commonly-available (since the original ruleset is years older and basically requires three books to play). Iron Wind Metals inherited the Crimson Skies molds along with the rest of [[Ral Partha]]'s lines, and currently produce metal miniatures for some forty of the sixty-odd canon designs. The Clix game reproduced only eleven designs in plastic, plus one promotional "chibi" Santa Claus figure. They are the same scale as the metal models, though some are slightly revised to accommodate the new material. 

===Releases===
*'''Boxed Set''' - Set in late '36 or early '37. Difficult to find. Contains three books, three double-sided maps, and a selection of record sheets for the 14 initial aircraft. 
*'''Wings Over Manhattan''' - Set in late 1937. Added autogyro (primitive pseudo-helicopter) rules, and detailed the history of the Empire State, while adding significantly to the "American Breakup" storyline. Contains a bit of information on Quebec and the Outer Banks Protectorate, as well as the ISA. Adds two Autogyros, both "generic" aircraft.
* The Crimson Skies PC game came out around this time, adding semi-canon fluff as well as aircraft that never saw tabletop stats or minis (The Ford Hoplite autogyro and the Balmoral Bomber).
*'''Behind the Crimson Veil''' was the Pirate/Free Colorado sourcebook, and contained a major fix to the construction rules as well as rules for customizing planes in a campaign and boarding and prizing Zepps (the latter essentially taken from BattleSpace). All further books used the "optional" construction rules and costs from BtCV. Added quirks and revised the cost of all previous planes, but ignored autogyros. It contained two planes for Pacifica and one each for the ISA, Mexico, the Atlantic Coalition, and the British.
*'''Aircraft Recognition Manual''' - Set in 1937. Added 26 aircraft, giving each major !American power at least three. About two-thirds of the planes got a model; other than the promotional Misericorde, these were the last metals released for the game. 
*'''Pride of the Republic''' - Set in 1938. Follows Texas' internal tensions, and the machinations of the European powers in the Southeast. The closest you'll ever see to a Dixie sourcebook. Added 4 Texan birds with one autogyro, as well as one French aircraft. 
*'''unknown name''' - the Nation of Hollywood sourcebook was reportedly in-process when FASA went down, and already had a catalog number reserved, but never saw the light of day. 
*'''Blake Aviation Security''' - Pure fluff, following "Paladin" Blake and his fellow unlucky bastards through several short campaigns. 
*'''The Airman's Gazetteer''' - As with many FASA books, this is set up as an in-universe publication; a security brief from Blake Aviation Security. Discusses geopolitics in December of 1937. Adds seven more planes, most of which never saw a model release, and canonizes some of the events in the PC game. 
*'''Spicy Air Stories''' - Several pulp novellas, along with stats for the Misericorde.
*'''Zeppelins and Bombers''' - Went up for preorder on Amazon (July 2001) but died with FASA. Recently the authors finished their draft copy and released it on the net. Rules for campaign/scenario and force design, bombers, parasite fighters, and of course Zepps. 
*'''High Road to Revenge''' - the XBox game. Less simulation, more arcade game. Wildly popular, and briefly revived interest in the franchise. Added several new aircraft and weapons types. Notably, the "Coyote" depicted in this game (an agile middle-weight tractor-prop fighter) bears no resemblance whatever to the table-top aircraft of the same name (a heavy, pusher-prop flying wing design).