(feel free to pin this into other stuff if you want)
Like many of you I was underwhelmed by the blurb about it, and thought following up manowar and traflagar was just a cynical cash in for some gaudy must haves..
I played it this week.
First off the mat,
The table mat is a lush scarf-like thing in really dazzling blues..V pretty.(note the bloke hadn't finished glueing stuff let alone anything else so excuse the grey)
The models are beautiful, but being looked after by a careful gamer one ship had already broken a mast, and when I held one ship up to the light I could see through its sail (shoddy thinness on some bits). 1 Boat (the big flagship) is too big to fit into the box vertically once its assembled too fragile and big = awkward.
(Glad I don't have to care for it, 20 minutes into opening the box the owner was already fretting and holding the models with delicacy reserved for holding an already broken champagne flute thats worth more than your yearly income)
The game..
Has some awesome chunks.. with elements I instantly recognised as being bits of aeronautica (turning circles/ speed at which you can go to turn V similar to ability to go slow..and up for people like LH to master to batter opponents) and bits I recognised from kings of war (simplified compartment moves and tiered special rules).I was so familiar with the ideas we were playing within 5 minutes with only navigation skill being an issue.
The equipment is lush.. when you take damage you stack the cards that inflicted the damage under their relevant stat line on your card.
That whole stupid "you must have a protractor" point about fantasy LH raises is fixed by you holding a little skull medallion to your vessel when you turn. Its very similar to the homemade cards people put together for imperialis but just one (simples)
Thrown into this you have really fluffy fates and really randomised damages that make it really quite fun..
Unfortunately in our game the fates conspired against my opponent and his card was against his ships, my card was against his ships so he had one boat on fire (permanently rolling for damage) AND (taking on water (permanently rolling for damage)..before I got near him.... but there were cards like the sirens lure you onto the rocks, and "OMG ITs raining SKULLS!!" "poseidon is pissed he chucks a spear at your boat".
When you get things like go through the damage pile until you find the next hull damage card you might find the next one is the lone "double hull damage" card (as my opponent did)
And the randomiser of going into or away from the wind.(which my opponent had to head into)
So game wise our game ended up being a rather weird whitewash.. but that was down to a fairly (I should hope) unique set of circumstances of the only thing not being in my favour is one drunk captain went to fast and hit the rocks (not a big problem gamewise).
Multiplayer- because the ships are fairly balanced, and the games runs on a;
Player who won iniative roll- do 1 ship
Other guy does 1 ship
then P1 does second ship
(like
IA) its dead easy to just switch "my 2nd ship" into "my ally takes a turn".. and after our game we figured a 4 player game would be a doddle/piece of pie whatever your easy criteria is. (8 all with one ship might stretch the game out to being a very long slow game for the players we reckoned)
Some ships can launch mini ships..and 8 people and 12 boats could make the game last an age if people start overthinking it...my face when the eldar laucnhed a dragon at me
I wouldn't buy it cos I'm a cheap ass and can't handle stuff with care..but if you rank it like aeronautica etc.. in a box its cheap and fun to play certainly worthy of throwing into a clubs resources.