When it came to big battles, my instinct was still to look for the really splashy moments, whereas Phil wrote with more of an eye toward “strategy porn.” But every so often you get a moment that’s both.

We’d been foreshadowing the development of Gastonian airships as far back as Chapter 4 (arguably 3), and that foreshadowing intensified with the focus on Rendar back in 23. But it’s been long enough that this hopefully surprised most of you as much as it did the Champions.

We’re not quite gritty enough to set up six fighters who seem bound for glory and then just slaughter them all in a bombing raid. This is not 1917 or A Farewell to Arms. But it’s nice to make you feel, even briefly, like such a thing could happen.