Author Topic: Leviathans for a new generation  (Read 68 times)

Kelly

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Leviathans for a new generation
« on: October 12, 2025, 08:01:25 AM »
…and so it was, that two years and two weeks to the day after Leviathans said it would arrive, it found itself finally upon the doorstep.  Not to shouts of acclamation, or derision either, but to the casual indifference of a world that had continued spinning on without it.



That was going to be the end of the review after Leviathans arrived yesterday, and while Catalyst’s miscommunication, mismanagement, and general mis-sing the boat throughout their relaunch campaign has not killed my interest in naval games, or miniatures in general, it certainly was not for lack of trying.  I brought the box inside, but did not open it until today, and for anyone that does not know me that is a searing indictment, as most of the time I cannot resist opening anything on the way back from the store, much less a shipped order.

But that was before I realized that the delay was an opportunity in disguise.  I still have little to no interest in the game; however, it took so long for the Catalyst to deliver that both children have learned not only to read and write in the meantime, but also to play games requiring basic math, and I thought that their observations might prove interesting.  Everything that follows will be from their perspective* as complete novices to miniature games…

Off the shelf
The presentation of Leviathans did not initially impress either of the kids as they are by now used to game boxes, and the art of the starter box is a confusing, dark close up of a larger art piece.


The fleet boxes were a different story though… “Are those from Nautilus?  When are we opening them?”  All of the larger fleet boxes have clear fronts with the ships set within a formed insert that keeps them from shifting around.  All of the Leviathans ships are prebuilt and prepainted, with most having 5-7 colors as their palette.


Onto the table
After removing the ships, it was relatively easy for them to put together the stands, which are different for each size class, and they then spent the next 30 minutes practicing moving and pivoting ships around on the hex map.  The entire time was filled with enthusiastic ship sounds as I was trying to read through the quick start rules, so it definitely passed the Christmas morning test.  Both kids asked when we would switch maps and can play for real, so I think the first test game will happening shortly.  After I have a turn order summary rewritten with prompts, I plan on serving as a GM for putting together the dice pools and tracking modifiers, while both kids are in charge of their attacks and movement.  More to follow…



*I am going to try to keep out of the discussion as much as possible, but I just found that my starter box does not include a D6, which is required for every attack roll.  There is a custom D12 in the dice set numbered 1-6, but that die is also going to be required for a good third of attack rolls… I am at a loss for words.
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Kelly

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Re: Leviathans for a new generation
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2025, 11:36:02 PM »
Two hours and ten minutes later, our first game of Leviathans is done, straight from the starter box… well, almost from the starter box as I had to refer back to the separate full rulebook several times as the quick start rules were lacking, but I need to take myself back out of this discussion* and leave it to the players.

Turns 1-5
First off, I should have had them start on a slightly reduced board size as there was no feasible way for the starter French or German ships to engage on turn one, but the range had closed enough for attacks to start being made on the second turn, so both kids stayed engaged.  The speeds are very variable with French ships having about a 50% advantage over German ones until damage takes effect, but there was no risk of anyone being stuck and unable to maneuver.



Play moved along at a reasonable clip for a first time, with the longest turn taking about 15 minutes, but most were under 10, for movement, attacks, and cleanup.  Both enjoyed rolling the pools of dice for each attack, but it was a struggle for me to keep all of the modifiers correct as the difficulty to hit a target changes not only with range, but also the target’s relative position to the attacker.  Most relevant quote of the first half, “This is like 40% math!”

The first Break the Keel roll occurred on turn five; if damage is repeatedly done to the same location of a ship, it triggers a test on whether the ship is destroyed, which would be about when I expected from the readthrough.  The French Bretagne survived, but with a permanent negative to be applied to future tests.

Turns 6 – 11
That survival was a harbinger of things to come as another 4 Break the Keel rolls came up on both cruisers in following turns, I decided that we would wrap the introductory game after a ship, any ship was destroyed.  The issue is that Breaking the Keel has to occur from multiple hits to the same location, which can be turned away and protected without much maneuvering at all.

I suggested that both kids could skip movement if they were happy with their firing positions, as the game allows it on any turn, with the only downside being that a ship with Full Stop suffers negative modifiers during attacks, and both agreed almost immediately.  They had a good time rolling the larger pools of stationary target dice, and I think that next time it will be struggle to get them to move out aggressively.



Finally, the German Brandenburg detonated on turn 11, but as you can see from its record card, a huge amount of damage was soaked up over the course of the game, and even so, it was a close roll when it finally did crash.

Both had a good time and asked when they could play again, so watch this space after I have tightened up the recordkeeping side of the game.



*Multiple times throughout the phases of a turn you may need to roll 2 Red custom dice… only 1 was included.  I am glad I already picked up extra dice sets as a campaign addon.
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Ruckdog

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Re: Leviathans for a new generation
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2025, 09:31:42 PM »
Great coverage! I just finally got my shipping notification today, so hopefully I will have my box of stuff by the end of the week.