Ship Games

[paulson games]

I've been noticing a trend with a bunch of ship based games hitting the market of late, was curious what you guys think? Something that's going to stick around or gaming fad?

Uncharted Seas - Been around a long time, never really looked at it closely.

Pirates of the Spanish Main - had a really long run, very simple but nice low start up cost and IMO was pretty fun if you just wanted some quick dice tossing.

Lego Pirate Wars - Not really a formal game but several rule sets are online letting you use the various Lego frigates and pirate ships to battle each other, is usually running several events at Origins and Gen Con each year. Really pricey buy in as most of the ships are discontinued But as an observer it makes the 8 year old in me squell with delight. Also there's some crazy mad lego artist who built a to-scale model of Port-a-Prince with pirate legos. It took an entire warehouse to hold it and is supposed to be accurate to an early 1700s carribean map.

Dystopian Wars - Has been going gang busters on sales overthe last year, I haven't played it yet but it looks cool visually and does some interesting stuff with the steam punk genre.

Leviathans - Catalyst Games previewed it at Gen Con, not quite sure what to make of it as it features flying iron clad steam ships. The models look like they are solid quality but flying boats...?

http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/leviathans/

http://monstersinthesky.com/

Dread Fleet - GW's limited released attempt to get on the sailing ship bandwaggon. One time release like space hulk. For some reason the game tugs at me but I REALLY dislike the ships designs with the exception of the robo kraken. While it's perked my interest for $115 and fugly models I think I'll pass, although the terrain looks decent.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... od1350015a


Then there's of course BFG and Firestorm Armada for the sci fi ship battles fix.

[BlackCatStudios]

I really like BFG, and the wife & I have the first 4 or so sets of PotSM for light gaming with friends new to gaming. But I think ship based gaming is a niche product for most gamers and that this is a fad that will mostly fade from the front lines while it picks up a few more hardcore niche gamers.

[blind pig]

Uncharted seas was quite popular at my games club with 20/50 people playing it, but they have really stopped playing it for the similar Dystopian Wars which uses the same rules set.

Two DW games going on at a Tournament at my Club:


Spartan have recently (this week) bought out photos of their new sculpts for their range (the third resculpt for much of their line) which is PU resin and white metal casts of 3D printed originals.

They are quite stunning.

Dystopian Wars uses the same rules as Uncharted Seas and basically stopped DW being played at my club. Flyers, sea and land based vehicles have made for complex and fun games. Spartan have also recently shot themselves in the foot with the two rules designers having a go at each other on the Spartan Forum, arguing quite publically between themselves in a huge flame war over interpretations of what is really, a poorly worded first edition.

I'm waiting for 2nd ed of DW to come out.

A DW Battle going on:

[Munkey Joe]

I played leviathans at Gencon.... I was not REAL impressed with it but I did like DW.

Also to be fair..... I played Dust before the leviathans and was distracted because that is what i was going to spend my money on. the leviathans was not available for purchase so i did kinda dismiss it...

[mangozac]

[Munkey Joe]

MUST restrain the logo maniac comment.....

Agree with the lack of desire for aftermarket parts. These games seem to be geared to "out of the Box" gamers and therefore will look alike Sans paint. I think the "unique" part is in the painting more than modeling. or so it seems with my crowd....

[blind pig]

Thing is though, with Spartan, they bring out pretty much the full line for any given race at the same time, so no faffing about waiting months for a model to come out.

Blam! here is the release for this month and it is all you need for up to four races. So no real need for aftermarket kits for them, with the exception of buildings and scenery, which they have not really produced much of.

A pity other large games companies do not do similar releases of entire ranges at once....

[paulson games]

I'd seen part of the massive carribean port somewhere but can't find the links at the moment, here's some other impressive stuff though. A lot of these can be found by search for "lego pirates MOC"

There's a pretty cool forum here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showforum=112



















Obviously not pirate related but something I found in the search

[mangozac]

Wow that model of the Flying Dutchman looks amazing! All of those pictures prove my point though: you need to collect insane numbers of Lego sets (or spend big money buying individual bits online) in order to have enough parts to make those kind of really spectacular models...