Uncharted Seas - Shroud Mages Ripper Class Submarine

A rather short post this weekend.

A good friend of mine gave me the heads up of some Shroud Mages Submarines going cheap on the wargamers friend ebay a few weeks ago, they took a while to arrive and where badly in need of a new paint job, but the good news is they don't take long and if they sink in combat I will simply claim that was the plan. 

What a difference a re-paint makes.

With a few more human ships to tidy up. I am looking forward to getting these on the table.

The blub claims the following.
This large submarine was designed by the Shroud Mage Artisans with one purpose: intimidation! Its massive cutting blades are designed to rip the bottoms out of enemy ships, sinking them in the blink of an eye. And if that’s not enough, short range clockwork torpedoes have been added to this model to cause even more damage.

Bank holiday round up.

I had great plans for this weekend in terms of painting and an attempt to clear some of the items which have been languishing on painting table for a few weeks, but the wargaming gods were against me and I only managed to grab a few hours early in the morning before the clan awoke.

I finished the first tester for the Haitian Colonial Dragoons, the unit were said to be equiped with all-green jackets and green housing and saddles etc.

The Trent horses feel a little on the large side,  but I have been used to Perry's offering in recent years, they should be fine once flocked and the static grass added.

I do dislike painting cavalry and was not that convinced by the green jacket colour and needed to complete one to see what the whole would look like once the wash was applied.

He is growing on me.
Let's see how a unit of dragoons does to help keep the slave army at bay. The clock is ticking as they are needed on the table next Sunday.

In the absence of any serious painting I did manage to complete another batch of warbase movement trays, I have tried several over the years and warbases are still the best.

On the gaming front I had a run through of Vikings 878.
Playing the part of the English I had to defend the kingdoms from the rampaging Vikings.
The Viking come on in waves which can feel rather over whelming, but with the support of the locals and calling up the Fyrds you can stem the invasion until you run out of cards. :-(

We only played with 2 players but I can see how 4 would be fun.
Whilst I lost due to not holding enough cities after the 4th Viking wave and their berserkers ran roit in the Midlands, it did not feel like a loss in fact the turn before I felt I was on the verge of a herioc victory having struck down three Viking leaders with my Housecarls.
A fun game and a great way to spend an evening.

Having tried to keep spending down in recent months, focuing on painting the backlog, a couple of annoncements lead me to raid the paypal account.
Firstly the Warlord Summer Sale - Some great savings, more on that in future posts.

TSS have announced they are putting their system tile system up for sale, in recent years there has been a trend back to cloths, they are blocks are great pieces of kit but storage was always a problem.
In any event their flock is some of the best on the market so I ordered several bags just in case they can't find a buyer.

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/total-system-scenic-for-sale/

I was sent a link from a good friend of mine on ebay for the following Shroud Mages Submarines.
A pretty poor paint job, but it won't take much to match them up to my current fleet.
Besides the way I have played of late everything seems to be on the ocean floor.

I also put a further order into Arcane for more Trent Haitians after seeing the latest releases and completion of the plantation house. The French definately need more reinforcements to defend against the Slave Armies.

Finally it looks like Star Eagles is edging forwards with an update from Andrea that the tokens are almost ready, this are being produced by LITKO and look pretty good.
Good job the Flash Gordon toys only come out of the box every so often, this kickstarter is so far behind now, I would be pretty cross if I had backed it and was still waiting for the resin fighters.

Let's see what the postie brings next week.

Uncharted Seas - Dwarf vs Orc

The curse of newly painted figures strikes again...

Having rushed the new fleet into action and with a shiny new Flagship I was feeling pretty confident for last Sunday's Uncharted Seas encounter. We pointed up the ships in our various fleets and the Orcs had enough to face off against the combined good and bad Dwarves...

I found myself entering the table with Dwarf allies to my right and the Orc fleet to my left.

Dane had certainly been busy since we had last played with plenty of capital ships and some pretty huge destroyers, all armed with front facing cannon.

Paul's Dwarf fleet steaming into action, but would they been fast enough to bail me out?

True to form the Orcs were soon charging into action, heading straight for my Flagship, armed with broadsides and turrets the Shroud Mage Flagship was soon knocking chunks out of the destroyers, who struggled to amass enough hits to cause any major damage.

Throw in some Frigates and the main Battleship who dropped anchor to fire a further broadside and I was feel pretty confident. Some might say a touch cocky....

As the main Dwarf fleet came into action, I formed my Cruisers into a firing line and set off aiming for the mass of Orc ships... It's here the fun stops... 

The lead Cruiser who had yet to fire a shot took a Critical hit blowing up!!!!!

The explosion damaged all the ships around it, causing major damage to two others Cruisers, fixing the rudder on the battleship who now could only head forwards.

Out of shot and in the same turn a badly damaged Orc Destroyer blew up, taking two of my Frigates with it...

Without support the Flagship found itself between numerous green boats and was soon turned to match wood as the hits mounted up...

None of the new ships lasted the night. The curse of newly painted minitures had struck again.

It was however a great game and nice to get the toys back on the table after quite a while.

Uncharted Seas..... Back from the depths...

These have been in the back of the cupboard for so long that they have been completely redesigned by Warcradle Studios when they acquired the rights from Spartan Games. Still it's nice to get this lot finished and be available for gaming even if they only come out once in a while.

First up a couple of Shroud Mages - Tormentor Class Heavy Cruisers.

According to the blurb. The Tormentor Class Heavy Cruiser is an aptly named piece of dark machinery. Its guaranteed extra speed, improved firepower and ramming ability over a standard cruiser make it a terror for any opposing commander to face.

I also finished the Flagship which is quite a beast, plenty of guns on the port and starboard sides and a couple of turrets for when you can't get the angle you need. 

Also off the production line are a couple of extra's from Peter Pig's ACW range, I figured these would come in handy for transports or prizes to be seized, they fitted the general theme of the Shroud Mages, I just need to create some stats for them.

Whilst moving stuff around I also came across these torpedo boats, which will come in handy again they are in need of a couple of house rules, but they took no time at all to paint and wash, once I had sculpted the bases.

They do look rather good when compared to the Flagship. I am really not sure how much staying power they will have on the table.

Given the time lag between painting the the first starter pack and the new batch I am pretty pleased with the colour match. I had to mix up a bronze colour to match the central boiler unit on the ships, the original Dwarf Bronze had long since dried up.... but the new mix came up rather well and a coat of Matt Varnish should tie them in perfectly.

Looking forward to tonight - Now all I need to do is find the rules....

Saturday paint desk - More from the cupboard of shame.

Next time I travel to a wargames show I am going on my own.... :-)

You know what's it like when you get to a certain age you start to talk about gaming systems of the past and fun encounters, you all admit 'I still have some of those' and so it begins.

In our case it was Uncharted Seas.... A fantasy fleet action in the age of Sail and Steam.
So this Sunday at the Wyverns see's us dusting off our fleets...

 
Whilst hunting these down I found a couple of extra's which never made it to the paint table, perfect for a weekend project to clear more from the cupboard of shame.

When I picked these up I have no idea, perhaps 6 years ago. The expanded fleet for the Shroud Mages and some Peter Pig ACW extra's for convoys and transports. 

Perfect as the weekend project to get them on the table for tomorrow night.

Uncharted Seas - Beware Croc's....

It must be two years since the Shroud Mages last took to the seas and it has to be said they performed as badly this time as in any other outing, or is it that the Orc's are their nemesis of the High seas?

Uncharted Seas from Spartan Games is one of those games you can throw on to the table in under 10 minutes, perfect for a club night or where time is limited.

 

The Imperator - Intruder Class Battleship sets sail for the Orc fleet.
I took the trouble to sculpt the base with Green stuff, I am really pleased with the result, it probably took longer to complete than the actual ship, but it also adds a little to the playing piece which stops it shifting on the table top.

We played the 1st Scenario from the rule book, which allowed each of use to use the full starter packs, of 6 Frigates, 3 Cruisers and a Battleship.

The Orc's rush straight in, all their fire power massed at the front, I had to turn to port to bring my more numerous guns to bear, by which time I was already taking hits.

Early exchanges saw both sides lose a Cruiser, but the Orc frigates were closing fast and the linked fire from the squadron was starting to really hurt, my own Frigates I had deployed too far out and were struggling to get into the action quickly enough.

Another Two Cruisers slip below the surface, this would be a battleship face off.

Finally my Frigates arrive on the seen only to see the battleship be sunk, the nasty little Orc row boats had succeeded in getting behind my Battleship and had inflicted a critical hit, jamming my steering and reducing my speed to next to nothing, with no guns in the aft and significant Hull points reducing my fire power the game was lost.

Aside from the loss - which must be now six games to nil, it was good to dust off the Dwarven fleet, somewhere in a box in the garage are 4 or 5 more ships, they may even make the project plan for next year although I may steer clear of flaming Orc's......