Black Seas – Terrors of the Deep

Mantic Games just announced the Black Seas based Fantasy Spin-Off Armada, but Warlord Games already went for a bit of fantasy content for the Age of Sail game - with a set of legendary sea monsters, Terrors of the Deep.

This is a boxed set, that covers six different sea monsters casted from resin with the occasional metal bit to go along. The set includes a scenario booklet and stat cards for the six models. The booklet has the Bermuda Triangle scenario, along with the rules for the six models and a ghost ship (just repaint one of your regular vessels).

Casting is pretty well done, some of the models like the Leviathan are massive! The undersides are smooth, you have small amounts of flash around the edges. The masters seem to be a combination of digitaly modelled and later added smaller waves and splashs of water by hand.

But let's take a closer look on the sea monsters, beginning with the Kraken. It is a creature from classic mythology, it is the most iconic sea monster from my point of view especially for the Age of Sail, and was featured in movies like Pirates of the Caribbean as well as Clash of Titans.

The model is a two part, with a large resin main body and a part of the tentacles casted in pewter. The fit is okay, but I strongly suggest pinning it for a stronger bond. The Kraken has a special grapple attack, where it grabs the attacked ship with its tentacles.

The biggest model from the set is the Leviathan. It even has the size class XL. As mentioned above, it is really massive, but I think that the scales are a bit too smooth from the digital modelling. The model would benefit from a bit rougher texture, but I think I can get around that with the fitting paint job.

It's attack is that it emerges from the deep and its mouth sweeps the ship, grabbing some of the crew members or actually taking a big chunk out from the vessel (but the damage scales depending on the ship size).

One of the smaller beasts from the sea (compared to the others at least), is the Giant Narwhal. The main body of the narwhal is resin, with the tusk being cast in pewter. The connection is well done, you just add a drop of glue and turn in into the socket - fits.

I didn't have narwhals on my list as sea monsters, just from the very "present" and penetrating earworm by Mr Weebl. Its special attack is a piercing ram with its tusk to the hull of the ship.

The Sea Serpent is a large creature, where only a few parts of the body are above sea level. It is a two piece resin model, and you might have to clean some flash from the left bow, as well as a injection casting aid from the neck, to fit it in the socket. But the fit is well as is the overall cast. A bit of flash here and there along the scales, but that's it.

With the design of the aquatic dragon, it can be painted in different ways, the nautical colours, like a giant Naga or sea snake. I guess this one will work great with Armada as well.

Megalodon and White Whale (actually a Sperm Whale, as the White Whale is a Beluga and much smaller, so this is an homage Moby Dick) up next. These two are - beside the narwhal - the ones closest to reality and non-fictional in terms of a historical scenario. Both single resin casts and pretty amazingly sculpted. I really like the texture on the skin on both. The giant shark looks amazing, and much better than using a toy shark and cutting him up to match the purpose.

The whales purpose is clear, it's Moby Dick, whale hunting, that whole story. But the shark - just great, as you have Jaws or Sharknado in "more recent" pop culture. Due to its size you could even use that one with Cruel Seas in the pacific. As for their special actions, the whale has a ram attack as well as a water spray, and the Megalodon a huge shark bite.

Here's the whole set of sea monsters.

Conclusion
It is a great combination of myths and legends of the high sea and it adds a proper amount of new playable content to the game. At first I expected a new supplement to cover that, and I still expect one to be released some where down the road.

The mixture covers everything that I would expect, we got the white whale, a giant shark and a kraken. Yes, it could have included a ghost ship, but honestly, the main difference is the paint job and some damaged sails. If you fancy something more extravagant, you could take a look on eBay for the ghost ship from Dreadfleet, that fits in scale. Other than that, for the paint job of these, as a final coat on the waves, I suggest dabbing a bit of Vallejo Water Effect on the high spots. That will upgrade the finish a bit and will create a less dusty highlight compared to simple drybrushing.

As a box itself, the 40 GBP price is quite a statement at first, I get that. But you have to compare it to the remaining range, the 1st rate ships are 24 GBP or the three gun boats are 15 GBP, combine that you're pretty close to this set. You could argue why they didn't release these as blisters, but naval wargaming is niche and among the historical age of sail setting, those who would want to spin that into fictional is even more niche. By that point of view it makes sense to combine these instead of producing blisters.

Black Seas is a brand of Warlord Games.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.