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).
Black Seas – Schooners Squadron
We've seen the smallest of the ships from the Black Seas range and a third party company this week as well with Hagen Miniatures, so let's take a look at another small to medium sized vessel, the schooners who are offered by Warlord Games in a squadron of six.
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel, that comes in different variants, for example as a two-masted schooner, and can be gaff or top-sailed. Warlord Games went with a top-sailed variant. The origins of the schooner is unclear, but the name appeared first on the eastcoast of North America in early 1700s, and became in the areas of New England and Atlantic Canada popular for coastal trade, as the ship required a smaller crew compared to other ships of its size and still was fast and versatile.
Black Seas – Gunboat Squadron
I want to cover some of the smaller ships for Black Seas this week, and among the smallest models available are the Gunboats. They come with multiple ships per base and multiple base per pack, and are sold as a Gunboat Squadron for Black Seas.
A gunboat was would usually have a single mast and be armed with between one up to three cannons or mortars. They were designed to be used in the near-shore areas, on rivers and inland waters, therefore their compact build. As such they service as support for troops on land in such areas, along with patrol or guard missions. Napoleon ordered hundreds of these to be build for the planned invasion of England and had them armed with howitzers.
Weekend Update CW 22/2020
Another prolonged weekend ahead. It's whitsun and that means a holiday on monday. Traditionally a weekend with a lots of festivals, like Rock am Ring, will be a lot less crowded.
As I am still re-sorting the bunker, this week was a bit slow on the articles, I covered the first of the re-shoots with the boba-fett style bountyhunter for Inq28, and Dino continues the Journey of the Maulers with an article on the fans.
Weekend Update CW 20/2020 – Roofing, Backlogs and Lego
Had a bit of spare time on friday night and took up the kitbash of the Laketown House. A more detailled coverage on the build will soon follow. Mixed up a bit of Grey Stuff by P3 and took care of the gaps between the shingles and wall pieces. And as usual, you end up with too much modelling clay.
Age of Sail Terrain and Markers
I am currently waiting for an order from Modulor, that will supply me with plastic card and brass rods, to take of some ideas I have for Black Seas / the Age of Sail.
I have a box of 3rd rates spare, I intended to build a merchant vessel, add one ship to my fleet and build a wreck from the third one. Here's a mock-up of what I have in mind.
Weekend Update CW 19/2020 – Of Ships and Cooking
This week I picked up the Lord of the Rings / Middle Earth terrain reviews, with the Lake Town House. I even started on the kitbash, completing the core build, that will need a touch up with green stuff / grey stuff. And the Frostgrave articles continued as well, with the crewmen for Ghost Archipelago.
For the Oldhammer skirmish project, a small package from Worcester arrived, covering some old Ghouls and a Skeleton banner bearer. Yeah I'd change ghoul #5 and #6 for ghoul #11 and #12, but the banner was a great find. As for the core skeletons, I'm looking into either Crooked Dice or trying to recover some of the late 90s original plastic kits.
Cancelled events and getting by in the current situation
Quite the weeks behind us and surely some interesting times ahead. I had to take a time out until last monday, as I was bed-bound for over a week. Work in the meantime was quite different, as many took the option for home office and almost all of the events were cancelled due to health concerns. So a lot less interaction with other people.
And those concerns spread out into our hobby as well. A lot of smaller and midsized events were cancelled, and even large one as the Adepticon. Games Workshop re-scheduled the huge preview they had planned and will provide it in an online variant. So far, Salute stays stubborn but I guess that the government or venue will take care of that (and they are waiting for that to happen due to liability issues). The way they went through with Hammerhead this weekend seemed unwise to me as well.
Any how, I'm sad that these action have to be taken, but I am rather safe than sorry. So I'll take a raincheck and will visit events after this whole thing has sorted out. In the meantime, I am pretty sure most of you have a pile-of-shame and some kind of hobby-related backlog, that is the perfect activity for the upcoming weeks of quarantine, isolation or other precautionary measurements. Either shop at your local gaming store or preferred online shop of your choice, stock up on primer and paints and get it going.
Titans, pirates and the weekend
Busy week - published my review on the Nemesis Warbringer kit yesterday and completed the pictures for the upcoming review on the Manufactorum Imperialis terrain kit for Adeptus Titanicus.
Black Seas – 3rd Rates Squadron
In addition to the Frigates and Brigs from earlier this week, I want to cover the third plastic sprue as well - the 3rd rates. These are currently available as a squadron of 3 in a boxed set.
The name third rate comes from the British rating of ships of the line. A third rate ship of the line would usually have 64 to 80 guns mounted, thus making it less gunned than a second rate ship (90 to 98 guns) and first rates with 100 guns and more (so far only available as resin models by Warlord Games.), both usually have an additional gun deck, sometimes even two in case of the first rates.