Uncharted Seas: Snake~Eyes Saturday

Uncharted Seas
Yesterday was a much needed day of games - our intention was to play Uncharted Seas, AT-43 and Munchkin Quest before the AFL Grand Final at 2pm... as it turned out we only had time for two games of Uncharted Seas, and even then we missed half the football match!


Game One
Marc - Shroud Mage starter fleet
Troy - Iron Dwarf starter fleet

This was the first time we had enough ships to be able to play with a full starter fleet on each side. It was also the first time I could try my new watery playmat; a square of blue marble cloth purchased for a few dollars on eBay.

Iron Dwarf fleet in the foreground sights enemy Shroud Mages on the horizon.
It's only now that I realise there is still a fine layer of yellow dust on my iPhone from the recent dust storms
(Click on image for a large version)

Marc's view of the above scene from his side of the table.
His iPhone does not suffer from a thin coat of yellow dust as mine does, hence the lack of sepia!
(Click on image for a larger version)

Our first match was over very quickly as I rolled snake eyes on a critical against Marc's battleship; the resulting Magazine Explosion destroyed all of his cruisers and half of his frigates. To Marc's credit he took it in good spirits although I was a little dismayed at how quickly the game was over due to a single (lucky) dice roll.

Remnants of Marc's fleet make a run against the Iron Dwarf battleship
(Click on image for a larger version)

Game Two
Brad - Shroud Mage fleet; Battleship, 3x Cruisers
Marc - Shroud Mage fleet; Battleship, 3x Cruisers
Troy - Iron Dwarf fleet; Battleship, 3x Cruisers

As Brad had arrived just in time to see the spectacular demise of Marc's battleship we decided to play again with three fleets.

In this second game I didn't draw any repair cards, and having foolishly maneuvered into the middle of the table I drew fire from both Brad and Marc. My intention was to circle into the rear of Brad's battleship while his cruisers were busy with Marc, but with a lack of expected repair cards I couldn't weather the storm of gun shot from two other players and my ships were slowly worn away.

Shroud Mage battleships exchange fire; the unpainted white resin of Marc's ships seem to make them easier to hit :P
(Click on image for a larger version)

This left a showdown between Brad's Shroud Mage battleship and Marc's unpainted Shroud Mage Battleship. The power of painted miniatures prevailed and Marc's battleship slowly sunk beneath the waves (with a short rendition of Jeff Wayne's "Thunder child").


It was good to have Brad over for games, I don't see enough of him (due to my slackness). As he was so busy at Gencon he didn't get much of a chance to play games so I'm glad he got to roll some dice and push some toys around the table a week later.

Of course it's always good to have Marc over too and we both agree that a third player adds a welcome dynamic to the table.

Arrival of the Shroud Mages!

As I'd hoped the package waiting for me at the Post Office was the Shroud Mages starter fleet for Uncharted Seas that I have been eagerly waiting for.


Sadly the tips of the battleship's smoke stacks have been chipped during the long journey to Australia - however I seem to have been given an extra frigate (although it is missing a turret, so its inclusion in my box is probably a mistake rather than an intended bonus).

...now my Iron Dwarves have a fleet to sail against - no more maneuvers!

Work in progress: Uncharted Seas terrain

A few items from Eureka came in this afternoon. Actually today saw the arrival of many small packages and letters, although only these items are of immediate interest to miniature wargamers :)

This is the 6mm "Stone Tower Windmill" (RU43) made by Irregular Miniatures. Strictly speaking the scale is too large for Uncharted Seas but given that we are playing in a fantasy setting I don't think it will be too obvious. Besides, popular opinion is that 2mm scale buildings don't look right next to Uncharted Seas ships. Dwarf cruiser included for size reference.


I also grabbed a tiny 6mm "Seven Headed Hydra" (CR18) by Irregular Miniatures at the same time. The plan with this little guy is to use him as dressing for an otherwise empty island; he won't be used in the game as a monster that can affect play (let's assume he can't swim and try not to work out how he got on his island!). The island will be larger than the base you see him resting on in this shot. Dwarf cruiser included for size reference.

Now I have to paint them up!

Saturday Gamesday

Yesterday was Games Day at my place with both Uncharted Seas and AT-43 on the menu.

Uncharted Seas #1
We started with a replay of an Uncharted Seas match from a previous meeting; Three Frigates and Two Cruisers per side. As Marc has yet to buy (or scratchbuild) a fleet we shared my Iron Dwarves again. Much fun was had and the rules came back to us quickly despite not having played Uncharted Seas for a while.

The game ended with both fleets being whittled down to only one cruiser each - Marc managed to put just enough damage on mine to take a close (and exciting) victory.

Uncharted Seas Game One: A mess of Iron Dwarves!
Click on image for larger version

---

Uncharted Seas #2
For our second game we decided to see how three cruisers (150 points) would go against one Battleship (120 points). Marc insisted that I take the Battleship as the models belong to me. I wasn't sure how it would go up against the linked fire from the cruisers - as it turned out it did very well (much to Marc's dismay).

The Battleship is painfully slow but has the advantage of armour, firepower and range (!!!) so the opposing dwarf cruisers have to come into it's deadly 13 AD Band 2 (or worse: 16AD Band 1) to have a realistic chance at penetrating it's thick armour and to avoid being pinged to death from a distance.

Victory for my side of the table, although in hindsight an unfair fight (despite being at a 30 point disadvantage).

Uncharted Seas Game Two: Three Cruisers attempt to bring down one Battleship
Click on image for larger version

---

AT-43
Our last game of the day was AT-43. Marc played Karmans and I played Therians (no surprise for anyone that has followed this blog... not that anyone has!). After building 1000 point armies we rolled a Seek and Destroy mission - victory is determined by destroying as many of the enemy as possible before the 6 turn time limit is up.

I managed to get off a Creation routine on turn one to spawn a Succubus Golgoth (this would have gone on for turn after turn but I only own one correct model for spawning and the rules explicitly state no proxies for this routine!). Marc made a blunder early in the game placing his unit activation cards in an undesirable order - then promptly followed this up by forgetting to put an Overwatch drill on one of his units. This put him on the backfoot for the rest of the match (in my defence I asked him a few times if he was sure that he had done everything that he wanted to do before ending his turn - so no takebacks for him!).

Marc spent a turn or two playing defensively (seeking cover and putting everyone on Overwatch) giving him a chance to catch his breath and refocus on the battle. In the meantime I maneuvered my Therians to set up an overwatch firezone and pinged one of his K-Warriors (finishing off the unit two turns later). Having recovered his spirit Marc pushed his trike forward and destroyed an Incubus Golgoth (proxied by my Babylon Zero model).

The remaining AFVs plugged away at each other doing a little damage but scoring no further kills. By turn 6 it wasn't quite enough for the Karmans - being beaten by only one victory point.

Marc: 2 VPs - Kills: Incubus Golgoth (Overseer Alpha)
Troy: 3 VPs - Kills: K-Warriors with Mentor
Result: Therian Victory

AT-43 Afternoon Game: Karmans move into the Therian killzone!
Click on image for larger version

---

Conclusion:
We had a fun day of gaming!

I need to continue to work on my terrain (as the last photo clearly shows). We're remembering the rules for both games now and we're still excited by both games so more matches will be had (and the battles will be resolved faster as our experience with the rules continues to improve).

Uncharted Seas: First Game!

We finally got together for a game of Uncharted Seas tonight (as detailed in previous post). It was heaps of fun and we learned a lot. The game is very fast to play and the rules are simple enough to pick up quickly. Overall - we'll definitely have more games and buy more ships.

In this photo my slightly damaged cruiser steams toward the enemy with a squadron of frigates about to activate and follow. The rocky 'island' is a prepainted aquarium decoration.

Uncharted Seas: Tokens and Templates

I felt obliged to add a new post to the blog - although I don't have much to report.

Yesterday afternoon I went to my local copy centre and had some Uncharted Seas tokens and templates printed on card. They are shiny and very nice! I'm always pleased with having things printed at copy centres - there's something satisfying about holding a physical copy of something that I've otherwise only seen on my computer screen :)

I was hoping for a game today (yes, an actual game!) but my opponent has had other things pop up - now it looks like it might be happening on Monday thanks to a public holiday. As he doesn't have a fleet (yet) we are going to split my Iron Dwarves into two mini-fleets. As a consequence I must leave half the fleet unpainted.

Intro Game (no cards, no ramming; to learn the basics)
Objective: Sink all of opponent's ships
Terrain Setup: One island in the middle of the table
Each Player's Fleet:
* Frigate Squadron: Mortis Class Frigates x3
* Reduced Cruiser Squadron: Hammer Class Cruiser x1

Mini Game (all game features)
Objective: Sink all of opponent's ships
Terrain Setup: As the mood takes us (I'm sure he'll want a mess of islands!)
Each Player's Fleet:
* Frigate Squadron: Mortis Class Frigates x3
* Cruiser Squadron: Anvil Class Heavy Cruiser x1, Hammer Class Cruiser x1

Uncharted Seas: Dwarf Fleet - Test Paint

Today saw a quick-ish initial paint of a few ships in my Iron Dwarf fleet for Uncharted Seas.

The idea is to borrow from the palette of some dazzle schemes used on ships around WW2 but maintain the hard lines of the ship design rather than break them up (as would be usual with a dazzle scheme). Most dwarf ships I've seen have had a light or dark wood colour for the deck however I chose to go with a dark blue/grey washed with black - if challenged I can claim the timber is "Darkwood" :)


There's obviously more work to do but I'm happy with the scheme itself. A touch of gun metal and/or chrome on the guns and some restoration of the beige plates to make them less dirty should get them up to a point that I am happy with.

I'm contemplating air recognition circles on the turrets and decks in a contrasting colour although this will have to wait until later.

Prussians, Dwarves & Samurai

I went on a journey with Emily today in search of an airbrush and an appropriately sized air compressor. Bunnings had an air compressor that was the right price for my budget - although it was still too large for what I want despite being the smallest they had.

We continued our journey and ventured to a nearby hobby shop where I did find the right size of air compressor (a lovely little brass model that is small enough to sit on the bench while I paint) although it cost over twice as much as the beast at Bunnings! If I hadn't already spent my toy money this fortnight I would have grabbed it - but my bank account can't take any more hits of that magnitude without sinking... so I guess it will have to wait until next pay.

Speaking of spending money, I have new toys that deserve a mention.

Koenig Krieg: SYW Prussians
Last weekend I popped into the Brisbane Muster to see what was happening. There were a number of interesting games being played (everything from a modern Iraq encounter in 1/72nd scale to a Blues Brothers car chase game - complete with soundtrack!). I didn't have time to play anything although I did hover near the Koenig Krieg booth long enough to check out what was on offer... once I saw all those bicornes and tricornes ranked up in neat lines I had to open my wallet! Also, the game is written by some Brisbane guys so I felt obliged to support them.

I grabbed an army deal (2 bags of Musketeers, 2 bags of Dragoons, 1 bag of Generals) and haggled gently for a good price on some resin bases - commiting me to yet another project: Seven Years War Prussians.

The plan was to get the airbrush and air compressor up and running today so I could get these guys undercoated. Now it looks like they'll have to go back into the box for a little longer.

Uncharted Seas: Iron Dwarves
I've been hearing good things about Uncharted Seas on the net. It's a fantasy naval game (re: Man o War) that has been around for a year or so and is published by a small company in the UK. The ships have resin hulls and pewter sails which I believe is a great idea (based on my experiences with Flames of War tanks).

After carefully considering the available factions I settled on the Iron Dwarves; mostly because they suit my usual wargaming play style but also because they are not affected by wind direction (yay steampower). So anyway, they arrived the other day in a suitably large postage box.

By my calculations I'm the only Uncharted Seas player in Brisbane (and one of only a handful in Australia) so it might be a while before I get a game! Still, that's a good excuse to buy a second fleet for a friend to borrow ~ assuming I can convince anyone to play... Emily has already made it clear that she will not be joining me on the high seas.

Legend of the Five Rings
I've been meaning to "get into" L5R for years. A few months ago I discovered that now is an excellent time for new players to get into the game as a new set of cards is about to cycle in - and make most of the old cards redundant for tournament play (well, the old cards can still be used in Legacy tournaments, but as a new player I'll be avoiding them anyway).

So off I went across the internet in search of a bargain (this sparked a short but intense flamewar on the forum which I won't go into again; other than to say I got a good bargain from Troll & Toad in the USA). Only a week later (!) I received a box of "Glory of the Empire"; the first expansion that is legal for Celestial Edition tournaments.

I went along to my first game last weekend. Four of us met up at Ace Comics in the city and had a small match. As these were my first games (since dabbling briefly in L5R way back in 1995) I didn't do too bad; two losses and one win. That result sounds worse than it is - three of us ended up with the same win/loss record for the afternoon... the fourth player in this equation actually got through undefeated! So overall not bad for a new player.

I have "Death at Koten" on order from AEG which will add to my Celestial Edition collection and help buff up my newbie deck, hence the lack of spending money for today's air compressor.


Wrapping this post up I'll return to the start; having abandoned the air compressor idea Emily and I decided to head over to Carindale for some non-gamer shopping. It was nice to spend the day together and casually wander about the place looking at things - although the crowds were annoying. Despite my best efforts I actually returned home wothout purchasing anything!