Messages

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News and Rumors / 2025 Great Wargaming Survey

« on: August 04, 2025, 10:36:46 pm »

Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy has this year's wargaming survey open now for entries through the month of August:

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/en-us/blogs/great-wargaming-survey-blog-wss-magazine/the-great-wargaming-survey-2025

There is a slightly more naval tilt in the questions this year, with a new entry being what is your favorite theater of land, air, sea, or space, which I was glad to see.  After completion, there are the usual giveaway entries from sponsors, and pdf access to a sample of WSS issues, and in a few months' time more analysis on the results from their statistician... the media inspiration was probably the most interesting of the results from 2024's survey.

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General Discussion / Re: Nautilus series on AMC

« on: July 27, 2025, 03:34:51 pm »

A few hours away from episode 6 airing for Nautilus, and given the cliff-hanger last week, I firmly expect the show to jump the shark tonight.  Halfway through the series, and Nautilus has fallen into the pattern of the first Star Trek movies, with only the even numbered ones being memorable...

That being said, my recommendation is still to try out the show, episode 2 was good, and episode 4 was great, being quoted all through the week in our house.  If you can overlook the shaky physics, there are still a lot of ideas presented for anyone interested in alternate history, and plot-wise there is a lot of material to be harvested for naval scenario design.

The current household vote Nautilus is 6 thumbs up: the kids want to rewatch each episode, and my wife is looking forward to each new one too.

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The Shipyard / Re: May fourth

« on: July 27, 2025, 03:18:14 pm »

Some more progress on the project with Y-Wings now modeled, and since they need something to bomb...


...a thermal exhaust port* and turbo-laser towers were the next up on the schedule.  Getting the installations to work in this format took a little more work than I thought, with several revisions, but the final molds came out alright; literally, the first versions had serious releasing issues that necessitated a lot of angle testing to have these come out in one piece.

With a bomber and interceptor for both sides, and two surface targets, the next last step before getting this to the table is actually finding where all of the gray Play-Doh went.


*As much as I have railed against floating scales, I would note that the interior diameter of the exhaust port is actually within womp-rat size of 2-3 meters, which was the subject of discussion in Episode IV, not the exterior housing.  Everything here is still true scale at 1/750.

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General Discussion / Re: Nautilus series on AMC

« on: July 06, 2025, 11:21:29 pm »

We just finished episode 3 of Nautilus, and I think that is enough to have a good idea of what the series as a whole will be...

I have my doubts as to how closely this will be following the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

...which is nothing at all like the source material.  Within the first 10 minutes of the first episode I was rolling my eyes at both the plot and setting, so much so that I was pulling up a synopsis of 20,000 Leagues, but I gave it a chance.  In fact, three chances this week, because after the first two episodes back to back, Nautilus received 4 enthusiastic thumbs-ups from the smaller members of the family and the kids picked both those episodes again when it was their turn to pick a summer movie.

With those repeated views, I gained a lot of perspective and recommend everyone try the show.

This story is more or less insane, but on reflection, no less so than the Verne's novel, it is just a different variety of preposterous events.  In fact, the biggest change so far from the novel is the conflation of other historical events brought back by decades that without giving anything away, changes the entire story structure, in my opinion for the better.  The physics are about as accurate as the submarine scenes in their namesake documentary Finding Nemo, but those thermodynamic laws are broken so the laws of Hollywood character development can be upheld.  And speaking of characters, none of the writing is great, but they have motivations on multiple levels that are clearly expressed, and most of the comic relief is actually funny.

I am now finding it difficult to bring up anything else without spoiling anything, and I think that this show is worthy of not being spoiled, and there is one C-plot that I cannot wait to see how it unfolds next Sunday.  All in all, Nautilus should be watched; it is not great cinema, but it is also 100% not Avatar 2, and how many tangentially naval projects have come out recently?

5

Historical Naval Games / Cruel Seas

« on: June 27, 2025, 04:15:43 pm »

I picked up a copy of the Cruel Seas rules from Warlord Games on a sale, and have a breakdown of the book following…

World War II Naval Battle Game – 108 pages – 9781911281467

Introduction, Credits – 5 pages
The design commentary does a good job of not only bringing to light not only the depth of small boat actions in WWII, but also why they should be brought to the table.

Rules – 41 pages
The rules section of Cruel Seas is broken up into multiple sections between basic and advanced levels of detail, including optional sections for moving beyond small surface actions to intersections with airborne and submerged units.  Only 8 pages make up what is needed to start playing with the base set, and all of the other additional rules to bring out more gameplay are no more than a few pages, including art and examples, and seem to be very explainable.

Scenarios – 13 pages
Eight scenarios are included with varying levels of ships recommended, but none should not be adaptable to use with any two combinations of navies.

Art, Background – 14 pages
Besides the miniature photographs that accompany almost all of the rule sections, there are several full page spreads of both art and regional maps to illustrate the background of small boat actions.

National Backgrounds – 20 pages
Historical briefs on each of the major coastal powers in the book cover multiple pages, with enough details on force compositions by theatre to provide a good starting point for a collection.

Roster – 8 pages
Generic equipment costs are included for building out custom ships, as well as comprehensive statistics for six navies.

Campaign – 2 pages
The campaign section is the lightest that I have ever seen included, basically just a set of rules for hidden information at the start of a scenario.  However, there is a good block of custom upgrades for ships that survive from one scenario to another.

Cruel Seas was built as a passion project, in the very best sense, as the care put into a very niche subject shows on every page.  Warlord Games wanted this project to exist whether it would be a commercial success or not, and that shows through the multiple models from other ranges that are featured in the book as collection images.  In fact, the 1/300 scale was chosen for an approximate range band to down-match existing waterline ship models.  [1/350th is an established naval modeling scale… are perfect for larger ships, from light destroyers upwards… pg 6]

Most of the mechanics are built off of Black Seas, in fact Gabrio Tolentino is one of the credits, and depending on how many options are used, Cruel Seas should be a relatively fast paced game.  If this makes it onto my table, it will most likely be with changing activation to the Armada / Black Seas style but that is just due to personal preference… otherwise I am glad to have bought these.

781010001

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General Discussion / Re: MBS in 2025

« on: June 24, 2025, 11:13:19 pm »

Thanks! And yes, the game went great. Did  you see the video interview Byron Collins did?

https://youtu.be/ym7_ZGmcrGQ?si=1G2M3QRPVUF-u54r

That was a really impressive table, great job!

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General Discussion / Nautilus series on AMC

« on: June 24, 2025, 11:03:14 pm »

Has anyone else seen any advertisements for the Nautilus series coming out on Sunday, or have any interest in it?

https://www.amc.com/shows/nautilus--1072559

I have my doubts as to how closely this will be following the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but from the trailer it looks like there will be enough action scenes to be a hit in our house.  I successfully avoided the Nemo's War boardgame for the better part of a decade, but depending on how this show turns out I may have to break down and pick one up.

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General Discussion / Re: Finally, after all these years....

« on: June 13, 2025, 11:46:40 pm »

After three (possibly more) years of having it on my radar to buy, I finally picked up a hard back copy of Victory at Sea from Warlord.  I now expect a new edition in about 3-6 months. 

Another edition is not the worst case scenario... I have had too many games dropped after I bought in to count, not to mention companies folding.  I backed the Firestorm Galaxy Kickstarter at 11, went to sleep dreaming about new ships, and then got the Spartan closure email the next morning on the way to work. 

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The Pavilus Binary War / Re: Quick Update

« on: June 13, 2025, 11:28:45 pm »

I would definitely be interested in hearing about both the campaign results, and also any lessons learned for going forward.  Will you be retaining the system map, or would that be changing?

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The Shipyard / Re: May fourth

« on: June 07, 2025, 04:51:08 pm »

It took longer than I expected but my reworked molds on bases came out well, and passed the elementary school test this morning…



…each of the fighters is now on a 22mm disc, and not only are the removal problems basically gone, but I can now support reliefs up down to .5 mm thickness as shown on the guns of the X-Wings.  There are still some scaling problems I need to tackle, but 1/750 will continue to be the neighborhood these will be in, with more models to come soon I hope.

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News and Rumors / This race is totally not rigged! Brig Regatta from Warlord Games

« on: June 07, 2025, 04:49:48 pm »

Warlord Games has a new format of game out that is built off their Age of Sail classic Black Seas.  Brig Regatta uses their plastic brig sprues from the base set of Black Seas for a light, quick racing game…



…not the deepest naval game on the market, but I think this is an excellent move by Warlord for two reasons.

First, this is a great use of their existing assets as a publisher, and judging by the publicity images, there was not a large investment put into the production.  This looks like nothing but upside for them as a low cost, low effort way to get more ships onto customers’ and stores’ tables quickly.

Second, the Black Seas activation system is excellent, and while I think no other derived games will ever rise to the level of Armada, having more Black Seas games in the market is a good onramp to get more players into other richer naval systems.

Third, the value in this box is huge, with the brig sprues priced at a level that matches Warlord’s yearly sprue sale, and speaking of sails, this set apparently includes variant sail types beyond their two standard beige and gray sails from the base sets.  I cannot see any reason why a Black Seas player would not pick up a set of Brig Regatta to bulk up their existing fleets.

Overall, this is a definite homerun for Warlord, far beyond their Black Seas releases from last year, and I hope to see more entry point repacks from them… 3rd Rate Race in 2026?

https://us.warlordgames.com/products/black-seas-brig-regatta

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The Shipyard / May fourth

« on: May 04, 2025, 03:53:51 pm »

The same as last year, May fourth snuck up before I knew it, and I had no plans for a Star Wars project.  With even less time than in 2024, see the post under first pass, I decided to not even model a ship, but to model not the ship...



...by making a mold I solved two problems, first being that less time would be required for a subject with softer details, and second, the presses from these molds would be so easily handleable, to the point of disposability, that I would not have to worry about their use by children.  The great paradox of modeling is that the more time I have put into any subject, the more concerned about anyone else handling / breaking it.  These test pieces loosely from episodes 4,5,6 in some ways held up better than I expected, and fell down in other ways, specifically issues with removal.  Version two will have these individuals being placed onto disc pedestals so they should be much easier to take out of the molds.

Here is a pilot and wingman from beige squadron ambushing a wing of TIEs, more to come later...

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General Discussion / Re: 3D STL files for Aeronef

« on: May 02, 2025, 05:08:04 pm »

I thought there were more LTA modelers, but could not find any of the ones I remembered from years ago, and do not know how many survived into the post-Shapeways world...

https://cults3d.com/en/design-collections/javelin98/aeronef-ships

...disclaimer, I have had no experience with this store, but about half of his fleets look like they are in the Brigade aesthetic.

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News and Rumors / May the Fourth Sale

« on: May 02, 2025, 05:00:56 pm »

Good Old Games has many Star Wars games on sale this weekend, including classic starfighter simulations like X-Wing v. Tie Fighter, or for more fleet sized action, Empire at War.

https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2025_may_the_4th#Catalog

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The Shipyard / First impressions on Armada Travel Edition TM

« on: April 01, 2025, 12:38:06 am »

We have been putting the smaller scale version of Armada through its paces for some time now, and I thought that everyone may enjoy what we have discovered so far and hopefully give it a try as well.  The format does have some limitations, as seen in the three examples below, but the size does allow it to be played virtually anywhere.  In fact, it worked surprisingly well when the kids took up the challenge of playing it in the backseat while on a road trip, but I will do my best in this review to resist the temptation of referring to Travel Edition by the colloquial nickname some have given it*.



Wind is not your friend!
I am not talking about the optional wind rules for Armada, that I will never play and have successfully avoided reading to this point, but the actual rapid movement of air.  For all of the benefits of this smaller format, there is a dramatic tradeoff of stability with the relative sizes of Travel Edition ships.  Some people may choose to weight their bases down, but I would be concerned about increased breakage risk with that extra mass and instead just insist on playing with the windows closed to keep any ships from being blown over.



Roll with care, over there!
Along the same lines as the above concern, standard Armada dice are 3 times larger dimensionally, and 9 times larger by volume when compared to Travel Edition ships.  With that difference it is much more likely for an errant roll to knock a ship out of position if not damage it outright.  Damage is the greater issue here as there are much fewer ways to repair a Travel Edition ship... pinning is right out as spars are generally a third of a millimeter or less, and green-stuff patching is going to overwhelm any details on the ship.  In fact, apart from a miniscule amount of glue and a healthy supply of prayer, I do not know really any good way to repair a break on one of these ships that, on average, are all smaller than the average die.



Measure twice to be nice!
Finally, with few exceptions, Armada is built as a precise game that depends upon good measurements and the necessity of careful ruling is even more important in Travel Edition because of the scale.  A divergence of a millimeter or two when measuring range in standard Armada is not ideal, but is a magnitude of order more serious in Travel Edition.  Most often, we have found that accidents in measures arise from inadvertent nudging of bases by the rulers or turn templates, and the only way to really fix this issue is by practice at avoiding bumps, multiple games of Jenga are the best training.



Which fleet is most neat?
We have only tried out a few of the options to date, but I would definitely recommend the Dwarf fleet to anyone starting out, not just because of their ease of painting, but to the inherent stability of their model silhouettes.  All of the traditionally rigged ships are functionally the same as far as painting difficulty goes, so just pick whichever rules fit your playstyle best.  All of the rules for Travel Edition are identical to standard Armada, so compatibility with the Companion is inbuilt, build as many Travel Edition fleets as you want because storage is definitely not an issue with these.



With all that said, looking ahead...
I tried to organize our local experiences on the state of Armada Travel Edition as it stands now, but I would like to climb into the crow's nest and see if I can spy out what lies at the horizon.  Will there be more Travel Edition?  I would say yes, contingent upon new Armada content coming out as Travel Edition can essentially be reduced down to just a reformat of the original game.  Will Travel Edition make a big splash at events?  Define big.  Will we see other Travel Editions?  I am not sure, Armada was built on the foundations of Black Seas, but I do not see any situation where Warlord Games would bring out a Black Seas Travel Edition even though those hypothetical ships would be much easier to rig!



I hope this focusing in on Armada Travel Edition has encouraged you to try out this expansion (?) and that we will see interest in Travel Edition continue to grow.

*Well, I made it virtually to the end without saying Carmada.