Cheap and cheerful damage markers for naval games

Having ventured upon the high seas in Dystopian Wars and the Uncharted Seas the need for suitable damage counters has become apparent. A club mate has some nice acrylic ones but after a quick hunt around the net I decided to make my own.
Dead cheap these and hopefully suitably cinematic. First up 75 of your finest English pence in the form of 15 5p pieces. Spray a suitable blue.

A spot of PVA glue, squidge on some suitable white fluff (mine was from a fake snow display picked up over Xmas), twist and pull to make the spray/smoke.

And here is situ with a Prussian Emperor battleship. Hopefully this will not actually happen in any games 🙂

Death on the Broad Blue

Played a second game of Uncharted seas this evening. Across the table were the Iron Dwarves again, but this time new vehicles of war were mobilised. Both sides boasted two cruisers fitted with rams and while the Dwarves had fielded a submarine, the Ralgard had brought a war balloon to the battle.

The Ralgard were unlucky with the wind blowing against them and their problems were compounded when the Balloon tugs almost collided with the Ram ships causing some sharp changes of tack just as the battle was joined.

The two fleets exchanged fire and the battle was close. However, the Dwarves managed to line up a double ram on Betty, the Ralgard battleship, which was a concern. I was fairly confident that Betty would sink the two ramming cruisers but one of them survived. Betty had taken some heavy damage from the rams and the Ralgard were taken by surprise when the surviving Ram ship turned out to be carrying Dwarf Marines! The Ralgard fought savagely in return and the end result saw both crews being slaughtered to the man!

This left both ships derelict and in the final throws of the game a cheeky Dwarven frigate boarded Betty and captured her. Damn them but well played by my opponent!
The Balloon and Submarine added some colour to the game but it was the Ramship that was the star of the show. Ramming is very risky but as this game shows if it goes your way it can be decisive. Good stuff, looking forward to some more.

Glug, glug, glug. To the bottom of the deep blue….

Played a first game of Uncharted Seas this evening. Ralgard starter vs. Iron Dwarf starter. It was a good game and considering neither of us had properly read the rules beforehand it played remarkably well.
The play was surprisingly fast and brutal. Having played Battlefleet Gothic a lot in the past I was expecting a similar style of game. Instead movement was simple (with the aid of the templates) and the action was simple and decisive. It was a bit of shock to see my ships sinking so quickly and I sense this game is actually going work best with sizeable fleets as loses are going to be thick and fast.
In this case the Iron Dwarves got off to a great start and very quickly most of my fleet had been seen off. The Battleship hung on a bit longer and its best action came when 3 Dwarf cruisers rammed it and all three were sunk as a result! However, the Iron Dwarf battleship pounded broadsides in until eventually the Ralgard ship was sunk as well.
I have to say the game didn’t play at all as I had expected for a naval combat game. It was much more like a game of say 40K with lots of dice and quick uncomplicated gameplay. I’ll certainly be back for more and want to try some different units and a boarding action next time.
Cheers for the game Dreads 🙂

Ralgard ready for war!

Finally finished Betty today. That completes my Ralgard starter. Very pleased with the results and looking forward to getting a game in now.

The good ship Betty

Progress is good on the Ralgard battleship. Just the sails and metal work to finish.
I shall name her Betty 🙂

Ralgard Frigates done

Finished the six frigates this evening. I’m pleased with the results and how the fleet is shaping up. The battleship has been started. It’s a bit of a monster and I’m looking forward to getting it done.

Ready for launch – 3 Ralgard Cruisers

Finished the 3 Cruisers this evening. I also worked out that the red is highlighted with Vallejo Scarlet and finally more of the same with a tiny but of Sunburst Yellow.
I also managed to make a good start on the 6 frigates that come in the starter set. These are very quick and simple to turn around. That will just leave the battleship which is a bit of a monster!

Work continues in the Ralgard shipyard

I fancied painting some thing a bit different this evening so got back to my Ralgard starter set. I had some trouble remembering the colours but I’ve worked most of them out. For reference : Mecrite Red, gloss black base, P3 Bootstrap leather, P3 Brown ink, Lyanden Yellow and Alclad Pale Gold. I can’t remember how I highlighted the red but I’ll work that out next time.
I’m hungry to play this game so going to push on and try and finish the starter now I’ve started it again.

First Ralgard ship done

I’ve slyly painted up my first Ralgard vessel. What a great little model. Loads of well defined detail and character. I really enjoyed painting this and looking forward to doing the rest of the starter now. Hope you like the improvised blue shirt sea as well 😉

Arrrr! Time to take to the Uncharted Seas….

There has been some interest in taking advantage of Spartan games Uncharted Seas promotion at my local club. The game looks fun and shouldn’t require a huge investment in time or money so I’ve decided to give it a go,
I discovered a couple of fleets I purchased on eBay some time ago in the loft but i really like the look of the Ralgard fleet. A quick scout around eBay and I found a cheap starter so I’ve decided to go with these guys.
The models look fab. Loads of detail and a nice oriental vibe to the fleet. The pic below is the untouched models out the box and I’m hoping it won’t take long to get these together and painted.