The Black Shroud

After the Dwarven victory against Sea Lord Kelven and the Mountain Fury Fleet of the Thaniras Elves in the Helgath Sea, Admiral Redhammer consolidated his ships and ordered repairs and shore leave for sailors.  The Shroud Mages, presuming the Iron Dwarves to be flush with victory and in a weakened state, sent a force led by the indomitable Black Shroud to test the Dwarven defense of these waters.

600 points per side, all of the ships medium or small classes, the Dwarven airship the only exception, so everything had fast movement without any heavy battleships slogging along.  The SM heavy cruiser wearing the modified gun turret is a fan-created ship class which I'm using in this game.

New Rule Modifications

I'm angling for more risk management in my games of Uncharted Seas, so I'm trying some tweaks to the basic system.

First, in addition to making small ships more difficult for capital class ships to hit, any pair of 3 results on any attack dice roll will score an additional hit against a large class ship.

Second, replace the effect of a stern rake position.  Rather than adding a +1 DRM for a stern rake, consider any Damage Rating to score a Critical Hit instead, and enough hits to score a Critical Rating will roll twice for Critical Hits.

Finally, when a friendly ship partially blocks the LOS from a firing ship to an enemy target, then the full complement of attack dice are rolled.  All misses, however, will be rolled against the friendly ship, possibly scoring damage as friendly fire.

DW/US demo game

Hosted a demo game yesterday in a study room at the local library for 3 players interested in Dystopian Wars or Uncharted Seas.  I set up a 4-player game to accomodate a 4th player with his own fleet, and we used slightly modified DW rules which included the US fleets (basically did not use Concussion Charges or Ack Ack, no Tiny Flyers, but all the rest was DW rules).  We also used the STAR cards which I used as a teaching aid before the game started, and then a set of objective cards so players had secret objectives.  But I was so involved in teaching the system that I forgot to pull out the camera and take some pictures.

Drouble Harbour

"Dwarven airships spotted on horizon, bearing east by northeast," Elven guards on the watchtower at the mouth of the Drouble Harbour called down to the garrison, sounding the alarm.  The Dwarven fleet attacked at dawn, an offshore breeze hindering the Elven ships relying on sails to form up to defend the harbour.

Elven fleet had 1000 points at dockside, only 2 squadrons ready to move on the first turn, the rest raising sail to move starting on the second turn, 200 points off board as reinforcements.  The Dwarven fleet had 1200 points, the airships leading the attack.

Sea Lord Kelven Defeated

After making repairs from a recent battle in the Helgath Sea, Lord Kelven led a smaller force against the Dwarves in the sea.  The previous battle had ended in a draw at the end of the day, but when a Dwarven airship is spotted in the distance the Sea Lord abandons the damaged ships in his fleet, setting out with a reduced force to destroy what insignificant Dwarven force he expects to find just over the horizon.
500 points on each side, playing on a 3x3 foot playing area, the starting deployment zones marked with glass beads (how classy).  The objective for each player is to sink or capture the enemy flagship.

A strong wind was at their backs, providing the Elven fleet the weather guage and confidence in victory.  Start of turn 1.  Dwarven fleet had initiative, the airship scouting ahead.

Clash in Helgath Sea

Our first clash between two large fleets, the Dwarven Admiral Redhammer in His Admiral's Ship with seven squadrons met the Elven Sea Lord Kelven at a small group of islands in the Helgath Sea.  Each fleet's strength was just shy of 1000 points, but having four hours late on a Sunday night to play, both players looked forward to resolving their largest sea battle to date.  We placed the 3x5 board on the kitchen counter so we could stand or sit on stools rather than crouch over the coffee table in the living room where we usually play.  The terrain was placed using the MATS method which was new to us and created some random placement of large and small islands.  The smallest island in the center, where only a pair of palm trees grow from an exposed sand bar, is home to a hermit long ago shipwrecked; he was, at first, excited to see ships on the horizon and the prospect of rescue, but joy soon turned to dismay at the sound of the boom of Dwarven cannon shot and the crack of Elven lightning bolt.

A Strange Fleet in Cold Waters

A few months ago when I couldn't visit the game store often enough to keep my painting desk lined up with new ship models, I tried my hand at modelling some Bone Griffons.

I've since retrieved them from a top shelf with the intention of trying again to see if I can improve this fleet with better sculpts.