Coastal Giant

 The coastal giant, for Uncharted Seas, can be hired by any group. The can throw rocks or attack ships nearby. Their speed is dependent on if they are on land, wading close to land, or in deep water. If there are no islands in play, they get to place one before placing the giant. Model was painted with various dollarstore and Privateer Press paints. Its tunic is multicolored because it is made out of ship's sails.

Crocidon

Another monster for Uncharted Seas is the crocidon! It attacks ships nearest to it with foul vomit (is there any other kind) and devastating ram. Therefore the fleet that purchases it will have to deploy their forces carefully.

It was painted with dollarstore paints and given a green wash. The water was painted various blues, washed blue, drybrushed light blue, and given a gloss varnish with Army Painter.

Behemoth

 For Uncharted Seas, the behemoth is a water elemental that attacks ships and can be used by any faction. It has a water jet attack in the larger mode (pic on left) and acts as a whirlpool on the flatter mode (right). The catch is that one capital ship must be nominated to have a mage who controls the behemoth and if that ship is lost, the behemoth leaves the table. The behemoth also will only move towards the capital ship if it is outside range band 2 (16 inches) and cannot shoot water nor turn into a whirlpool.

It was painted with various shades of dollar store blue, given a blue wash, drybrushed light blue, and given an Army Painter gloss varnish.

The water jet and moving mode of the behemoth.

The whirlpool mode of the behemoth.

Dystopian Wars - Hunt for the Prometheus Starter Box

 It has arrived! The Dystopian Wars Hunt for the Prometheus starter box. Unfortunately the local games stores' distributors are not carrying it so I ordered it from 401games.ca. I'm splitting the box with a friend. He is taking the Russian Commonwealth and myself the Enlightened of Antarctica. 

Here is the cover of the box.

Its a thick box!

Here is the contents in the box once they are assembled. Several of them can be assembled into different classes of ship.

The new burst, turn, and range rulers.

The sprues of ships for the two factions. 

Here are the larger resin/plastic ships.

Ice and Enlightened construct items as well as counters.

Dice and cards.

Finally the rule book and scenario booklet. Looks like a lot of fun!

Small Sea Monsters

 For Uncharted Seas, the small sea monsters are good additions to any game. They are neutral and go after the closest models adding tension and strategy to a game. The seamonsters are, from left to right, the octopoda, kroken, and the naitaka.

The octopoda does not ram but wraps itself around a model. Every turn it conducts a boarding attack and will drag a model down after a number of turns. The larger class of model the more turns it needs.

The kroken rams an enemy ship, conducts a special maw attack, then does a boarding action against the ship.

The naitaka rams an enemy ship and does a special coil attack where it could destroy a ship outright, then fights a boarding action.

All of these models start submerged increasing its defenses. They also can enter play either on the game board edge or anywhere on the board if a player rolls luckily. The winner of the initiative roll is the one who choses the location. They should be fun!

Uncharted Seas

Uncharted Seas is a 1/600 scale naval fleet combat miniature game set in a high-fantasy setting. Originally made by Spartan Games starting in 2008, new content stopped shortly after its 2012 hardback edition of the rules (seen below). After Warcradle purchased their IPs in 2017, Uncharted Seas was placed last in development of the new rules for Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada. The older Spartan Games rules, with the unusual exception of Uncharted Seas, is available here. The Uncharted Seas rules, however, are only available from the Facebook fan site The Uncharted Seas - Official Community Page in their files section. You'll have to submit a request to join them.

It has the basic game mechanics used in Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars (stat cards, setup, order of play, movement, combat, exploding dice) but with less models and some different or special rules. It does have the addition of the wind mechanic, which doubles movement cost when travelling into the wind. The wind can change direction each turn to change the strategy used. Movement is more like Dystopian Wars with different sizes of turn templates depending on the size of ship, although some ships are more or less maneuverable than its size class.

There are nine factions in Uncharted Seas: Imperial Humans, Iron Dwarves, Thaniras Elves, Orc Raiders, Bone Griffons, Dragon Lords, Ralgard, Shroud Mages, and Sky Pirates. Each have their own special rules for many of their models, giving a unique flavor to the faction. There were two eras of models with the second era having a redesign of the models, giving them a better themed look as the companies model making technology and designers skills improved.

I have enough models for a few factions to have large games as well as neutral models usable by anyone. This should be a fun painting project with the hope of playing it after congregation restrictions are lifted. I already have small islands and larger islands done so just need to get some paint on some resin/metal models.

Venetian Hexagonal Wells

 From TTCombat are these hexagonal wells. They are for the Carnevale game but can be used in any game street cover or terrain is required. For instance they will come in handy for Frostgrave games.

They were painted with dollarstore paints and a wash of Agrax Earthshade.

Tiny Epic Galaxies

 Tiny Epic Galaxies is a cool game for one to five players. I played the solo variant because of the pandemic and because my wife was not interested. 

The game mechanic is similar to Yahtzee where dice are rolled and can be rerolled in order to gain resources and conduct actions. Players compete to gain victory points by taking over planets, and those planets also gain your civilization benefits when they are activated.

It takes less than an hour and the solo variant puts you against an aggressive alien race. I like it as a warmup game or light strategy and fun.

Tiny Epic Western

 Tiny Epic Western is a neat little game for one to four players. I played it solo, because of the pandemic and because my wife was not interested.

You are a wild west character, one of many to choose from each with a special ability, that is attempting to build the town up in a way that benefits you. 

Each player has their own section of town, based on the their character. As the turn progresses, players place their meeples on property to get resources that are used to improve their area of town or other in game benefits. There is a three card poker element that determines who wins at the end of the turn. Players that compete for the same action have a gunfight determined by the same three card poker hand.

Here is the round summary for the game. Its quite simple with some good depth.

The game itself comes in a small box. For a game that takes 30-45 min, its mechanic provides some light strategy and fun.