Jim, that is awesome. You're our Flying Cheesehead.

This is seeding some ideas. It could be fun to put such a ship in air, and as it approaches, pegs are removed or added. This way, the ship can swoop in, fire, maybe be fired upon, and then rise to safety.

I think the primary way I am going to get younger folks to play in our area, is to do some ahistorical scenarios such as pirates, sea monsters, races, etc. - true with Wings as well. Fantasy, as opposed to historical, is the primary (mmm, maybe only) genre alive at our FLGS. Outside of the WoG and SoG games I run, I don't think I ever saw folks playing historical games.